August 21, 2024 • 43 mins
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom interviews Amy Auble, who shares her experiences running two businesses—Jelt, a company producing belts from recycled plastic, and Alpine Start Media, a marketing firm for sustainable brands. They discuss practical applications of AI, such as using ChatGPT for consumer research, content creation, and identifying U.S.-based manufacturers, as well as the potential of new AI video tools. Additionally, they reflect on the environmental impact of AI and the importance of using AI to support sustainable initiatives.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Amy's Podcast: The Sustainable Business Spotlight
AI Being Used to Prevent Deforestation
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brian AI (00:05):
Are you not sure how to feel about the way AI is suddenly everywhere?
AI for Helpers and Changemakers isa show for people who want to do
good work and help other people.
Whether you're already using AItools and loving it, or you are
pretty sure that ChatGPT is thefirst sign of our downfall, we want
you to listen in and learn with us.
(00:26):
Your host on this journeyis Sharon Tewksbury Bloom.
For 20 years, she's workedwith helpers and changemakers.
She believes that we're about to seethe biggest changes in our work lives
since the Internet went mainstream.
We're in this together.
Join us as Sharon interviews peoplein different helping professions,
navigate what these new technologiesare doing to and for their work.
(00:48):
Welcome back to AI forhelpers and Changemakers.
I'm your host, SharonTewksbury-Bloom today.
I'm speaking to Amy Auble.
she is a passionate entrepreneur.
I met Amy through a local businessgroup and women's networking group.
Not only will we talk about smallbusiness but we'll also talk
about the effects that AI and newtechnology can have on the environment
(01:12):
And the types of concerns thatpeople who are passionate about
sustainability have in that regard.
I hope you enjoy my conversation with Amy.
Amy Auble (01:21):
I'm really passionate about sustainability.
and eco friendly products andlifestyle habits and that kind of
comes out in two different ways.
the first is that I own a belt companycalled Jelt with my brother and their
belts made from recycled plastic.
And the whole thought there isto, protect the environment.
(01:41):
the amount of plastic that isbeing put into landfills and
turn it into something useful.
they're also great outdoor adventure beltsand I love being outside for climbing
and skiing and boating and they'rereally low profile belts, so they work
really well with adventure and movement.
I've owned that businessfor just under a year.
We purchased that from, a woman in Bozemannamed Jen and she's really wonderful.
(02:03):
And then the other business is calledAlpine Start Media and we do marketing
for sustainable brands, specificallysocial media, management and also content
creation of videos and all fun things tobring you more followers on social media.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (02:19):
so often when I meet small business owners, we're the
kind of people who wear multiple hatsand maybe have multiple businesses.
I also own two businesses, so Ithought that made me special and
unique, but it turns out it's more thenorm than not from what I can tell.
Amy Auble (02:34):
yeah, I feel like it really helps.
helps you think like for me,I had the marketing business
first and then bought Jelt.
And there's such a benefit to owninga product based business when doing
marketing for lots of product basedbusinesses, because I understand
how a business owner thinks aboutmoney and how they plan their
year and what They need help withbecause I have that on my plate too.
(02:56):
And so similarly, I'm like, wow, thisis so cool And then it's pretty common,
but I love it I think business ownerslike thinking through Lots of different
problems and it's a good way to do that
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (03:07):
/And did you always want to go
into business for yourself?
Was that like part of yourpath from the beginning
Amy Auble (03:13):
It's funny.
I was reading something that was writtenin my yearbook from high school the other
day when I was at back home in Ohio andit said I wanted to move out west because
I grew up in the midwest and start a nonprofit and I thought I had changed so
much and it's funny I feel like that seedhas been in my brain for a long time, but
I come from a family, my dad left a jobthat was like a routine corporate job.
(03:36):
when I was pretty young in order toprovide like a better life for us, and
I saw him take that really big riskin a lot of ways it was really scary,
but after a few years we had like morecapabilities as a family and he had more
flexibility and I think seeing him takethat risk like removed the ambiguity
that comes from Starting your ownbusiness, like seeing someone do that.
(03:57):
And so I feel really luckyand fortunate in that way.
He's like my business coach.
Sometimes I call him andask him good questions.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah, that's awesome. (04:04):
undefined
I also call my dad to talk businessstrategy, but he doesn't have a
business background, he has a managementbackground, he was in the world of
designing, sonar systems for submarines.
So he learned a lot aboutproject management and about,
manufacturing and, engineering.
And so we talk a lot about howwork gets done and how to do so
(04:26):
efficiently and how to, you know,Organized people and processes.
And it's funny, you mentioned, you know,kind of paying attention when I was like
11, I think it was, my dad went throughsome leadership training and back in
the day they did that with audio tapes.
And so he brought home audio tapesto listen to that were part of
(04:47):
the leadership training course.
And I asked if I could listen to them.
so yeah, I've definitely had aseed planted early on of like
this being part of my path.
Amy Auble (04:56):
You never know where those pivotal moments are gonna be until
you're like looking back at your story.
There's been a seed in your mindfor a long time about organizing
and managing and that's really cool.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (05:06):
okay, cool.
So what about on thesustainable business side?
You mentioned that you bought Jelt andthat you had already been marketing for
sustainable product-based businesses.
Was it through your marketing workthat you found out about Jelt?
Like how did that story start of actuallybuying this product based company?
Amy Auble (05:23):
Yeah, so Jelt is based in Bozeman, which is where my brother is.
And he had a good friendwho sold outdoor brands.
brands who are ready to besold would come to his company.
He would help them get sold.
long story short, my brother foundout about it through this friend.
my brother Andy is also prettyentrepreneurial, and so he saw this
(05:46):
as a really good opportunity, to learnwhat it was like to acquire a company,
and then, I wanted to learn what it waslike to be in the operational role of
that company, not just the marketingside of things, and so it was a really
good fit, and for purchasing, our firstbusiness, it was a pretty low risk,
option, and so that really helped as well.
(06:06):
so we purchased it in June and it wasboth like an inventory sale as well
as the sale of the actual, brand.
And so, we have a warehouse fullof belts in Montana and a really
good learning experience in, whattransitioning a business looks like.
And Jen, the owner, past ownerof the company, was really
helpful about transitioningthose knowledge base items to us,
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (06:26):
Do you always have one on pretty much?
Amy Auble (06:28):
yeah, I feel like it's important to be an enthusiast for
your own brand and you never knowwhen you're gonna meet someone and
If you're not wearing the belt, whatdoes that say about your company?
So I try to have one on at all times
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (06:40):
All right.
Where do you sell them?
Amy Auble (06:41):
we sell them at gel belt calm.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (06:44):
Okay.
Amy Auble (06:44):
They're also on Amazon yeah, you can buy them from either place.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (06:49):
That's cool.
So yeah, this is kind of a goodtransition because it's interesting
how, even though your brand is.
high touch in the sense thatit is an actual physical
product You are selling online.
It seems like direct to consumer.
Is that pretty much your sales model?
Amy Auble (07:05):
Yeah, we are found in a couple stores mostly in montana, but the majority
of our sales come through our websiteIt's such a different way of shopping.
The awareness of the product comesfrom our social media, our email, and
publications People really love thatit's a belt made from recycled plastic,
that it's assembled in Montana, andlove those sustainable aspects about
(07:27):
it, so, yeah, it's mostly purchasedon our website, which is crazy.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (07:30):
Yeah, and we've heard a lot, from other guests and I've
recommended some other shows that arespecifically about, small businesses using
like ChatGBT and some of the new toolsto do content marketing, help them write,
help them create copy, maybe help themcreate their things on their website.
I'm curious if there's any.
(07:51):
ways beyond, just writingcopy, for example, that you use
AI already in your business?
Amy Auble (07:59):
Yes, I use ChatGPT specifically as a search engine to ask questions to.
And one question that has been reallyhard for us to solve is, how do we
produce these belts in the US completely?
there's a lot of ambiguity about usingrecycled plastic, and turning that into,
(08:21):
material that we can use in our belts.
And where does the plastic comefrom and how did it get recycled?
we have found a manufacturerthat is in the U.
S.
that does all of the recycling in the U.
S.
and so that's really great.
But I actually used, to dosome, further research on where
does that plastic come from?
Is it actually sustainable?
Because I think doing marketingfor sustainable businesses, I
(08:42):
realize, like, there are a lot ofgood stories out there, but when
it comes to the bones of a company,is it actually good for the earth?
And so I've used it, to research, Howdo we produce this product in the U.
S.
Because that's really important to me.
It really reduces the footprint of aproduct if you can produce it in the U.
S.
there are a few platforms that Ifound that provide alternative options
for sustainable materials in the U.
(09:04):
S.
And, one that we're I have someexciting things coming up about is a
manufacturer that's actually based inMontana as well And they're gonna help
us with some new soft goods, whichI'm really excited about so actually
use chat GPT to Learn more about thesustainability behind the product.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (09:21):
Well, it sounds like you've gotten to the phase where
you've gone beyond just, seeing thaton the page, but you're now actually
talking to those potential manufacturers.
So that was kind of hints at what wasgoing to be my next question, which
would be, obviously we've heard that AIis particularly large language models
can Sometimes just make stuff up, youknow, they like to call it hallucinate.
(09:44):
so what's been your process in terms of,okay, you start there with some research,
but then where do you go from there tofigure out, is this information real?
How can I validate it?
How can I do my due diligenceas a business owner?
Amy Auble (09:58):
Yeah.
Doing your own due diligenceis really important.
I use specifically in the manufacturingrealm, asking questions to Jack chat
GPT about what manufacturers existin the U S that include these certain
qualities that I'm looking for.
And then it provides thosemanufacturers and then from there
you can go and do your own researchand contact those manufacturers.
(10:19):
So more of using it like afilter for Google almost.
cause you can put in specific requirementsand that's been really helpful.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (10:27):
Yeah.
It's sort of, it's funny because Ioften think of chat GPT or some of the
other chat related AI powered tools aslike an assistant who you've asked to
Google things for you, you know, it'slike there used to be this website
might still exist that literally iscalled, let me Google that for you.
And then it just brings up Google andit types something into Google for you.
(10:52):
And it was sort of meant to mock, youknow, how easy when for When Google first
came out and people were still not sure,like, but how do I search the internet?
This site kind of came up as a,as a mocking site to be like,
well, let me Google that for you.
And although that's true, itis more complicated than that.
And if you're really trying todig through a lot of data or there
(11:14):
aren't aggregator sites already thathelp synthesize that data for you.
Something like a virtual assistant,a automated robotic virtual assistant
who can do that digging for youand create a more customized,
it's almost like a curation tool.
Like it's curating what'salready out there for you.
Amy Auble (11:36):
Yeah.
It's, a really helpful tool when you're,looking for something specific in Google.
Like you might have to click throughlike 15 sites to find the one that
chat GPT would just pull up for you.
and that way I've usedit as a big time saver.
specifically, not justin the marketing realm.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (11:51):
Yeah.
And I feel like in yours, case thatyou just mentioned, that's such a good
example because you're going to endup contacting those manufacturers.
So if it turns out they're not real,you're going to know pretty soon
that they're not real, and you'renot going to be, you know, sharing
misinformation or going out thereand putting out, false things or
things that have been copyrighted.
Amy Auble (12:11):
Yeah.
Process I was going to do anyways,but this makes it a lot faster,
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (12:14):
which is great.
do you have another example of anotherway that you've used AI so far?
Amy Auble (12:20):
There's one that I haven't used, but I'm really excited to use, and
this is a product that came out reallyrecently by Sam Altman and OpenAI, and
it's a video tool that essentially youcan provide a prompt like you would for
chat GPT, but instead of information,it provides you with a one minute video.
(12:43):
And this is, I've just been lookinginto it and I'm really impressed with
the video production quality thathas happened even in the last year.
And there are still some things that area little bit off with these videos, like
the reflections or like I saw a video ofsomeone walking backwards on a treadmill.
Like AI doesn't always understand thephysics behind things yet, but this
(13:08):
is a really important thing becauseespecially in the marketing realm.
my clients spend the most amount ofmoney in marketing on content creation,
especially in a product based business.
If you're releasing new productsor showing your product being used,
it might cost 5, 000 to take a crewup to the mountain to take videos
of you skiing with a belt on.
(13:30):
and the thought of it still kind of scaresme, but there is a potential there for
what AI can create those videos, and wouldsomeone be able to tell that it was AI?
in another year, I don't think so.
I'm still on the fence if that's somethingI want to use, but it is a really
interesting tool, as someone who livesin the marketing realm of video creation
(13:50):
that is AI that's really real, and thatyou could maybe put your product into.
Both scary and exciting.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (13:58):
Yeah.
Let's dig into that a little bit further.
Cause I think that's sucha great example as well.
You know, one thing that comes tomind is if you're a small business,
especially the amount of money it takesto do like really good photo shoot.
A really good video shoot.
That's like your whole marketing budget.
And then maybe something changes.
Maybe you make a smallchange to the product.
(14:18):
Maybe you have a new color that's comeout or, something where you're like, I
don't want to have to reshoot all of this,but there's a small change and people
are going to see it and be like, well,that's not the right color, you know?
so if you hire the videographer orthe photographer to do the initial
shoot, you've got some good corecontent, but then you could use AI
to create those variations on that.
(14:41):
Maybe you can show it in differentseasons, or you can show it from
different angles, You realize thatyou are going to do like a special
edition with a little mark on it.
And now you can just add that mark inpost, instead of needing to, reshoot the
whole thing and pay from the beginning.
I could see a great blending of how tomaximize and really hone, what you use
(15:04):
the human professional for versus whatare the ways to then leverage that by
using the capabilities of these new tools.
Amy Auble (15:12):
Yeah, I really like what you said about maybe giving that platform a
basis to provide the next video off of.
it just reminds me of often how longthese video editing processes take.
for the time that I write a shot listfor a videographer to the time we record
it and then I get the content back,that can be a month or more easily.
(15:34):
And The idea that that couldhappen in less than a day is wild.
I've really seen video in the lastfew years explode in the social media
space and really help clients get theword out there about their businesses.
And I just like, can't imagine if thatvideo was being able to be churned
out in a high quality in a reallyfast way, what But now if everyone's
(15:57):
doing it, does that change it?
I don't know, but the time aspect is huge.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (16:02):
Yeah, and I could see it going either way.
Either you, you know, get that originalcontent and then decide to create
spinoffs with the use of AI or, you know,you're working with a videographer or a
photographer who has agreed to be ableto do more with the same budget because
they're able to leverage these AI toolsto say, okay, what I used to be able to
(16:24):
give you was just this amount of video.
Now I can triple that becauseI'm, You know, you're giving
me permission to use AI.
We're very transparent about it.
Everyone's on the board and that'swhat we decide we want to do.
Amy Auble (16:37):
Yeah, it'd be a great tool for videographers to
learn how to use and leverage.
I think there's a world in which thevideographer is still the expert, but
they're using the tool for their business.
Cause I do really think AI doesn'tnecessarily have to replace.
Jobs and businesses.
It's probably just anadaptation of what is there
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (16:59):
Yeah, and one thing you hear a lot about is this
move particularly in retail space,in the personal consumer goods space
around people wanting more and morepersonalization, you know, and wanting,
you know, if they're going to buy abelt, they want to know like, well,
can I use it for this exact activity?
Or can I use, you know, doesit fit my exact body type?
(17:21):
So have you seen anything kindof in that realm of like helping
that customer experience feelmore personalized for them?
Or do you see opportunitieswhere AI could help with that?
Amy Auble (17:31):
One way in which we've used it to understand customers better is when we
want to purchase a new order of belts, youhave to purchase them in a large quantity.
You don't necessarily need 30,000 belts of cheetah print.
You might only need a thousand andso Part of what I've used chat GPT
for is doing consumer research onpatterns and quantities and sizes.
(17:57):
Previously, jeltbelts were sold indifferent sizes and we're slowly phasing
out that type of belt to make sure thatthey're all adjustable, but it's really
important to get that sizing right.
Like how many of each size do I orderand using chat GPT to figure out what is.
What can I expect to order?
What patterns might betrending in the next year?
(18:19):
All those kinds of things that reallyhelp a business understand how to spend
their money in terms of what to order.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (18:25):
That's awesome.
I want to dive into.
divergent paths from that thought.
so I'm going to introduce themto you and you can let me know
which one you want to go first.
the first one is going to bebias because that comes up a lot
in our conversations around AI.
So I'm thinking when you're talkingabout like cheetah print, it's like,
Oh, well, what if most manufacturersproduce things primarily for what
(18:47):
the maybe white male audience wants?
but if we had, good enough data, we wouldknow, Hey, there's a large enough market
for, let's say rainbow belts, for example.
and then my other thought is, Iwant to go further down this rabbit
hole of the sustainability of that.
I imagine if you create waste, ifyou order something that then turns
out to not be what people want.
(19:08):
How does having this data, beingable to assess these things
ahead of time, help reduce waste?
which direction do you want to go?
Amy Auble (19:17):
I think that reducing waste is a really good point, just because it's
something I've thought about a lot, iswhat is the life cycle of this product?
You know, someone wears the belt,maybe they have it for max 10 years,
and then it's still plastic again.
how do we better understand whatthe product life cycle is after
the belts are done being belts.
(19:38):
And so, the bias partis really interesting.
It's not something I've actuallythought about of, you know,
where is that data coming from?
One of the reasons that we'releaning more towards making the
belts only adjustable is so thatwe don't have to choose the size.
So that removes some of the waste thatcould be produced, but also makes it
available for a wider audience of people.
(20:02):
Yeah, how do you dig to the bottomof a bias that is given to you by AI?
I don't know.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (20:07):
Yeah, I think it is a really fascinating question.
I was just listening to the AIfor Creatives podcast and they
were talking about how AI isstarting to be used in Hollywood.
And they said that AI is now being usedto review scripts to decide like, which
ones should maybe be made into film or TV.
(20:27):
And of course, there's bias inthe industry existing where people
tend to pattern match of like,well, this show was really popular.
Let's just find other showsthat are just like that.
So it might lead to, less creativity,less novelty, less, divergent options.
However, I do like thinkingabout the fact that AI is a tool.
(20:49):
It's, programmable, there's an algorithmthat can be tweaked or you can talk
to it if it's a large language model.
So, just on a small scale, like with mymarketing, I've been able to say, this is
the audience that I would like to targetthis marketing copy to, so maybe I know
(21:11):
that, Typically, it's going to speak moreto a highly educated, white audience.
And I know that for this particular postthat I'm making, you know, I'm going to
construction workers in Buffalo, New York,and they're mostly black and mostly male.
And it's like, I can give that informationand we can do more personalization
(21:34):
like we were just talking about.
so I'm interested in If AI and the toolsbeing built on top of AI, with AI, are
basically just ways of making use of data,if you as the business owner can think,
(21:54):
what kind of questions do I have for her?
The data in the world.
What do I want to know?
Then how could you craft theright kind of question to be
able to get that out of the tool?
Amy Auble (22:09):
Yeah.
When one of my favorite things toask or to send in chat GPT is like,
what more do you need to know?
So that blank and you could definitelyask what, what more do you need to know?
So that this isn't biased.
And I think sometimes we forget that wecan also ask ChatGPT what else, what other
context it needs so that we can like getthe data from the world that we want to.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (22:33):
Yeah, and that becomes being, you know, still working
on your own personal development asa leader, as someone who's thoughtful
and understands your own values andunderstands What your own biases may be
or what biases might exist out there.
So I do think that there's a levelof continuing to further our own
development that is always going to beimportant in this, our own development
(22:57):
and our own critical thinking skills.
Cause that's how we can be the bestbusiness owners, but also how we can
get the most out of these new tools too.
One example I had was like,even in developing this podcast,
I asked Chad GPT, I said.
Because one of the biases that was bakedinto the algorithm of chat GPT is that it
always wants to be helpful and it alwayswants to be supportive and positive.
(23:21):
So you've probably noticed this, youknow, it's always like great idea, Amy.
It was very complimentary, which is nice.
I really appreciate that.
But it does kind of create its ownbias with that is that it pretty
much always tells you, you havegreat ideas, even if they're not.
And so you have to kind of keepthat in mind and sometimes use that
(23:44):
knowledge, To protect against that bias.
So the example is when I startedthis podcast, I said, okay, this
is what I'm thinking about doing.
It of course was like, great idea, Sharon,this podcast is going to be fantastic.
I said this to the chat, she be T I waslike, you and I know that this is a great
idea and it's going to be a great podcast,but I have heard that some people.
(24:09):
have negative feelings about AI orthey might be suspicious of it or
they might have concerns about it.
So could you please give me, 12 examplesof the kind of fears and concerns
or pushback that I could expect if Istart talking about AI in this space?
And like, what kind ofreaction might people have?
(24:30):
And it was funny because, youknow, it went from telling me
all the reasons why this was.
And it was fantastic to suddenlybeing like, well, let me tell you.
So it was pretty funny.
I was like, Oh, okay.
Wow.
That's a different list thanwhat we were just talking about.
Amy Auble (24:44):
Was that helpful for you to prepare for the
content that you'd be producing?
And what?
pushback you might get, if any?
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (24:52):
It really was.
I tend to be a real optimist.
And so I appreciate the people in mylife, including my husband and some
of my good friends who tend to bemore of a realist or even a pessimist,
you know, who I'll come to them withmy great idea and they'll be like,
yeah, that's not going to work.
Yeah, it really is grounding to beable to see different perspectives.
Amy Auble (25:15):
Yeah, it's interesting that ChatGBT has both information
but only gives you the informationthat you maybe wanted to hear.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (25:23):
Yeah, and that's what I've been hearing about Google
Gemini is that because Google Geminiwas set up more like Google where you're
supposed to, googling an answer andYou don't say Google all the answers.
You're usually expecting that it's goingto rank them or there's a top answer.
Like if you ask Alexa or you askone of these other services, they
(25:47):
come back with one answer typically.
And so that's been the issue is, they'rereally getting into some thorny waters.
Amy Auble (25:56):
yeah, rocky water.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (25:59):
Yeah, I'm bad at my metaphors.
anyway, so I think the nice thingabout using chat GPT as an assistant
with your business, with your ideasand everything is that you can give
it enough context to say, you know,In this situation, can you give me
advice for this or can you pull thisinformation or draft something on this?
(26:21):
It's not like you're askingit for the one true answer.
You're just asking it tocreate a starting point.
Amy Auble (26:28):
Yeah, so you can dive in deeper or see both sides of something.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (26:32):
Yeah, it's always willing for that follow up.
Amy Auble (26:35):
It's really interesting what You can teach chat GPT to remember.
I know you can put in prompts like I wantall these answers to be Non biased or
how keep these concerns in mind and thenthroughout your chat I love that it'll
bring that back up so that It's almostlike a training tool if you are trying
to think about something in an unbiasedway You can put in that prompt and it'll
(26:57):
keep that conversation in that light
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah, it could be helpful. (27:01):
undefined
I know I tend to come from the worldof government and grant writing.
And I know that's been a problem for meas a writer before, is that when I try
to write marketing copy, I tend to write,In a way that's not very conversational.
every time like one of those serviceson my website that gives me a
(27:22):
readability score, I always start withlike a red, low readability score.
They're always like, yoursentences are too long.
You're using the passive voice.
Like, your writing is terrible, basically.
so I have actually been using ChatGPTin that way, where I'll take my
first draft and then I'll give it toChatGPT and I'll say, all right, I
know that this has too much passivevoice and the sentences are too long.
(27:46):
Can you please rewrite it in a way that'smore concise and more conversational?
And it'll rewrite my copy for me.
And then I can make the third draft.
Amy Auble (27:56):
I love that.
I also use that a lot.
blogs that we write, where I want it tostill sound like our voice, but maybe I
want it to be a little more casual or alittle bit funny or a little more concise.
And I feel like those kinds of directionscan be really helpful, especially when
you're writing like longer form content.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (28:12):
all right.
So I'm going to jump to a related butdifferent topic, which is you mentioned
some of the ways you're using AI inyour own business, but I know in the
marketing side of what you do, youwork with other sustainable brands.
How are you seeing that?
A lot of people are talking aboutthis or asking about this, or do
you feel like it's still not, reallyhitting those small business owners
(28:34):
that you're working with or thesustainable brands you're working with?
Amy Auble (28:38):
I think AI is definitely a part of the lives of most
business owners that I work with.
I think even if they are small businessesin some cases, I think because they're
entrepreneurs, they're pretty interestedin tech savvy and willing to take risks.
And I think sometimes the peoplethat are first to jump on AI might
be a little tech savvy and risky.
(28:59):
so it is part of a conversation ofa lot of people that I talk with.
We use it a lot for copycreation, for brainstorming.
I create what's called content bucketswith all of my clients, specifically for
social media, but also for email, aboutwhat are the pillars of your business that
you want to continue to talk about so thatsomeone becomes a customer or a follower.
(29:23):
And Chat GPT can help shape those.
It can scan your website and tell you thethings that it thinks are most important.
we've also used them.
It does provide like helpful shortcuts.
A lot of times I do have clientsthat provide me with longer form
content and there are some helpfulspecifically video AI tools that take
(29:44):
longer form content and then Reduceit into 15 to 30 second snippets and
then rate it on the viral ability.
and then you're able to like standardizethose videos with text over it.
It provides captions, hashtags, allthose things are really helpful.
I think the small business owners thatI'm working with usually are, their
plates are really full, so they'restill happy to have the help, but it is
(30:07):
definitely a part of the conversationand I think they're using it to
shortcut things in their lives as well.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (30:13):
What's your favorite video based AI tool right now?
Amy Auble (30:16):
It's called video.
ai, but it's with a Y instead of an I.
and that one's really helpful specificallyfor things like podcasts where you've
recorded something vertically and youwant to transition it to horizontally
and then you'll be able to snip it.
So some of my small business ownerswho maybe don't love taking videos of
themselves, but they're on podcastsor have speaking opportunities
(30:38):
that are virtual, I use it a lotwith them to snip it into, pieces
that they can post on their social.
It's a lower effort wayto repurpose content.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (30:47):
Is there anything that I haven't asked you about?
I know you thought aboutthis ahead of time.
So is there anything that you werereflecting on that you wanted to share?
Amy Auble (30:58):
As someone who's passionate about sustainability, I often feel
the pressure to live sustainablymyself, for better or for worse.
And so chat GPT has been a really helpfultool to find other sustainable businesses
or to help me sort through what mightbe a better option for the planet.
And like through doing that,I found an app called good on
(31:19):
you, which is a helpful app.
If you're looking to shop sustainably,it ranks businesses on their, their
business practices and if they're asustainable business to work with and
so I guess I've just also used chat GBTfor my personal life and my personal
goals too, and that's really great andand how do I operate more sustainably
(31:40):
as a human without becoming overwhelmedabout Changing all of the things in my
life because that's not realistic eitherSo it's a really good tool for business,
but has also helped me Rediscoverother sustainable brands, which I love.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (31:53):
Very cool.
yeah, we're going to highlightsome other brands in the
sustainability and climate space.
So we'll see a lot of other examples of.
other ways that this is beingused to try to help the planet.
I actually just listened to a podcastepisode with me, myself in AI,
that was about the world wildlifeFederation and how they're using sort
(32:17):
of what we might call old school AI.
So not generative AI, but, AInonetheless, to look at areas that are
at greatest risk of being deforested.
So basically they use satellite imageryand they use computational models to
be able to analyze like where are treesbeing removed, all around the planet
(32:40):
and be able to predict where thosenext trees will be removed so that
they can move in faster and take actionfaster to try to prevent deforestation.
So really cool, innovativeuses of technology.
Amy Auble (32:54):
I love that.
That's a great way to use AIin a way that makes sense.
That's really amazing.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (32:59):
Yeah, another one that they mentioned was, you
know, they're trying to protectcertain species, endangered species.
And so a big movement of a lot ofdifferent conservation groups is to
have wildlife cameras where they cantrack like I know here in Arizona.
In Southern Arizona, they're trying tokeep track of the jaguar population.
And so there's wildlife cameras in theareas where jaguars have been spotted
(33:20):
to try to see, do they still exist?
Do we still have jaguars?
and so if you've ever looked atone of those wildlife cameras, it
is Hours and hours and hours oftape of just like leaves rustling.
And I used to actually know peoplewho volunteered to look at hours and
hours of tape of leaves rustling, justto hopefully spot that one Jaguar.
(33:43):
and in fact, there was a story recentlyabout the most recent Jaguar sighting
and how it was this person who hadspent not just hours, but decades
looking through wildlife footage totry to find that one jaguar photo.
Amy Auble (33:56):
That's crazy.
And
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (33:57):
they found one finally, but soon they'll be replaced
by a robot because AI can look throughhours and hours of footage and it can be
taught how to spot a jaguar in those thatfootage and be able to call to attention
to a human like, Hey, re look at thistape because there might be a Jaguar.
That's amazing.
So I think that it's, you know,it's things like that, that we
(34:19):
often don't think about wherethis could make a huge difference.
Amy Auble (34:23):
Yeah.
That's such a time saver.
I think about someone who's spending time.
looking through video andnow it can be replaced.
It's pretty crazy.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (34:31):
Yeah, I myself volunteer at the local history museum and
I know there were volunteers there thatwere doing hours and hours of transcribing
historical letters from the early foundersof Flagstaff, the town that we live in.
They have archives that are justfilled with all of this handwritten
correspondence and it's painstaking workto go and decipher that correspondence
(34:53):
and be able to, transcribe it all.
And I was showing a friend of mine, whois the manager at the museum, how I write
in cursive in my notebook, and then I takea picture of it with my phone using the
ChatGPT app, and I say, ChatGPT, can youplease transcribe my handwritten notes?
And in 30 seconds, it'lltranscribe my handwritten notes.
(35:17):
Can you draft a blog post orwhatever it is that I want it to do?
Amy Auble (35:21):
Talk about a game changer for that museum specifically.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (35:24):
Yeah.
She was like, don't tell them that.
Don't tell the volunteers, butalso we might start using that.
Amy Auble (35:32):
Yeah, even as an aid, like take the photo, submit it, and
then go through yourself and edit it.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (35:38):
Yeah, it gives you that starting point where you can
look, you can review the transcript andsay, Oh, let me go double check this part.
Amy Auble (35:45):
I have one other quick thought on AI.
There's a client that I started workingwith, and they're called photopax.
ai.
And it's a tool in which you can upload10 photos of yourself in your face,
and it will give you 100 headshots.
and it's a really interesting tool.
I did it the other week and thephotos are really realistic.
(36:07):
Like I was looking at it, I'm like,this is me, but I have never been
to this place or worn that outfit.
And, it's just a really interestingthought, especially for professionals
who, again, maybe don't have thetime to have a photo shoot, but you
could definitely use photopacks.
ai and get a.
pretty realistic photo and noone would know the difference.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (36:25):
I am actually going to immediately use that
because, I mean, not only do I needto redo my headshots and it would be
interesting to even just get ideasto show to a headshot photographer
of like, oh, I like this angle or Ilike, you know, this way of doing it.
but I work with a lot of AmeriCorpsmembers and that's one thing that we
often advise them is to try to get aheadshot for LinkedIn or for those things
(36:47):
and They're making less than minimumwage and they don't have the ability
to get a headshot done professionallySo if they could get their first
headshot done Through technology,then that would be a game changer.
Amy Auble (37:00):
Really cool.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (37:00):
I'm going to have to ban myself from saying
Game Changer because I feel likeI'm going to say it all the time.
It's going to get old fast.
All right.
one last thing is that becauseyou're in the sustainability space,
I know there's been a lot of talkabout how AI runs on what people
would refer to as like compute.
You know, everything requires thenumber crunching power of computers.
(37:27):
And that does require energy, you know,and there are, there's greenhouse gases
used in the production of these digitalthings that we think of as not taking
any, resources, but they really do.
So, is that something that peopletalk about in your space regularly?
is that something that hasn'treally risen up as part of it?
Amy Auble (37:48):
It's not something I've heard quite as much, but it is really true.
And I've thought a lot about, Ithink a lot of times when we know
that we're using greenhouse gasemissions in one way or another.
Our thought, or at least my thought cansometimes be, What do I do to offset this?
(38:10):
And there are some reallycool offsetting tools.
One that I use that I like is calledGreenspark, and it's a company that
you can integrate into your businessso that when something happens in
your business, it can be offset.
Maybe that's when someone books a meetingwith you, when someone buys a product.
For us, it's when we send anemail because we send a lot of
emails as a marketing company.
(38:31):
You can donate a certain amount ofmoney that either goes to reducing
deforestation or pulling plastic outof the ocean or carbon recapture.
And so that's one thing that I doin a slight effort to reduce, my
impact on the earth for The energyconsumption that we use, but I don't
(38:53):
think it's something that's reallytalked about a lot is that, you know,
our technology does require energyand if that energy isn't coming from a
green source, it's also causing harm.
So it's something I coulddefinitely think more about as well.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (39:07):
Yeah.
Great.
Excellent.
So JELT is a B Corp, correct?
Yes.
And that's the other thing I'm,for people, well, can you explain
what that is for those listenerswho might not be familiar with it?
Amy Auble (39:20):
A B Corp certification is a, it's almost like a stamp of
approval that you're doing good things.
And that comes from a analysis ofthe way that you treat the people
that work with you and for you,the way you treat the planet, and
then what you do with your profits.
And it's kind of like aranking of all of those things.
(39:41):
JELT was a certified B Corp.
We got certified in the springof last year, and a certification
lasts for three years.
So it has a big sustainabilityaspect, but it also relates to
other parts of your business.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (39:53):
And I was curious because are you
still in that B Corp community?
Do you get, you know, informationfrom like, I get the sense that part
of being a B Corp is also sort ofhaving that sense of community of
other sustainably minded businesses.
So in that community, are peopletalking about new technology
and AI, or is it not really?
Amy Auble (40:14):
I have connected with other B Corp owners because Jell is a B Corp.
I've mostly used that community toconnect with on a podcast that I have that
interviews sustainable business owners.
It'd be a great thing to ask peopleabout routinely on my podcast is how
are you using it because there's somuch to learn from that, but It hasn't
been a huge part of the conversation.
(40:35):
It should be.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (40:37):
Because I'm surprised, like, that's part of why I want
to start this podcast is that althoughI am in the entrepreneurial space and so
I see a lot about AI on that side of mylife, When I talk to people who are in
nonprofits or in education or in otherareas, they're just sort of like, they've
heard of it, but it's really not on theirmind week to week, much less day to day.
(41:00):
And so that's been abig divide that I see.
And I know we talk about thedigital divide in the country
in terms of how more and more isbeing done online and with tech.
And so like people are being leftbehind who don't have access to high
speed internet or who Don't have accessto a computer or things like that.
And I feel like there's this dividehappening now in the work world
(41:22):
of, the companies and the sectorsthat are embracing new technology
who are getting on board with it orlearning what it means and what it is.
And then the rest of the world whoare just still doing great work, but
don't realize how much is changingand how much is available to them.
Amy Auble (41:40):
Yeah, and I think, selfishly, I want the non profits and the B
Corps to really excel and do well.
And if there's a way in which AIcan, boost productivity or help
them reduce costs, I feel likethey really need access to that.
So I love the idea of the podcastspecifically for that genre.
Of people that if we can increaseeducation, like, for causes that we care
(42:02):
about, I think there's a lot to that.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (42:05):
Yeah, absolutely.
It shouldn't just beused to send spam emails.
It should be used to like preventdeforestation and save endangered species.
And do good.
Yeah, do good.
Okay, great.
so if people want to learn moreabout JELT, I know you mentioned
where they can buy it, but let'sthrow that out there again.
How can they find out about JELT?
Amy Auble (42:22):
You can go to JELTbelt.
com.
It's just J E L T dot belt.
com.
we're also on all of thesocial media, just at JELTbelt.
Yeah, that's where you can find us.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (42:33):
And then you also have Alpine Start Media.
Are you taking newclients for that as well?
Amy Auble (42:39):
I take about one new client a quarter.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (42:41):
Are they all product based businesses?
Amy Auble (42:43):
They're not all product based businesses, If you're a company
who helps reduce single use items, orhelp people think about sustainability,
or, I have a client that just donatesback to trail advocacy in a large way.
I'd love to talk with you about whatit is that you do and I can either
connect you to someone who knowshow to help with your marketing or,
help with it from our team as well.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (43:05):
Awesome.
And you did mention a podcast.
Amy Auble (43:07):
I have a podcast called the Sustainable Business Spotlight.
it's all for business owners who wantto learn how to be sustainable and
improve their sustainable business.
it's also great if you're justa consumer and you want to learn
about cool sustainable businesses.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (43:20):
Cool.
Awesome.
And it's all the placespodcasts are listened to.
It is.
Okay.
Fantastic.
Well, thank you so much for comingon and, I learned something and
hopefully the listeners did as well.
And I'll let you know if anyonehas questions or follow up.
Brian AI (43:35):
Thank you for joining us on this episode of AI for
Helpers and Changemakers.
For the show notes and moreinformation about working with
Sharon, visit bloomfacilitation.
com.
If you have a suggestion for whowe should interview, email us
at hello at bloomfacilitation.
com.
And finally, please share thisepisode with someone you think
would find it interesting.
(43:56):
Word of mouth is our best marketing.
Are you not sure how to feel about the way AI is suddenly everywhere?
AI for Helpers and Changemakers isa show for people who want to do
good work and help other people.
Whether you're already using AItools and loving it, or you are
pretty sure that ChatGPT is thefirst sign of our downfall, we want
you to listen in and learn with us.
(00:26):
Your host on this journeyis Sharon Tewksbury Bloom.
For 20 years, she's workedwith helpers and changemakers.
She believes that we're about to seethe biggest changes in our work lives
since the Internet went mainstream.
We're in this together.
Join us as Sharon interviews peoplein different helping professions,
navigate what these new technologiesare doing to and for their work.
(00:48):
Welcome back to AI forhelpers and Changemakers.
I'm your host, SharonTewksbury-Bloom today.
I'm speaking to Amy Auble.
she is a passionate entrepreneur.
I met Amy through a local businessgroup and women's networking group.
Not only will we talk about smallbusiness but we'll also talk
about the effects that AI and newtechnology can have on the environment
(01:12):
And the types of concerns thatpeople who are passionate about
sustainability have in that regard.
I hope you enjoy my conversation with Amy.
Amy Auble (01:21):
I'm really passionate about sustainability.
and eco friendly products andlifestyle habits and that kind of
comes out in two different ways.
the first is that I own a belt companycalled Jelt with my brother and their
belts made from recycled plastic.
And the whole thought there isto, protect the environment.
(01:41):
the amount of plastic that isbeing put into landfills and
turn it into something useful.
they're also great outdoor adventure beltsand I love being outside for climbing
and skiing and boating and they'rereally low profile belts, so they work
really well with adventure and movement.
I've owned that businessfor just under a year.
We purchased that from, a woman in Bozemannamed Jen and she's really wonderful.
(02:03):
And then the other business is calledAlpine Start Media and we do marketing
for sustainable brands, specificallysocial media, management and also content
creation of videos and all fun things tobring you more followers on social media.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (02:19):
so often when I meet small business owners, we're the
kind of people who wear multiple hatsand maybe have multiple businesses.
I also own two businesses, so Ithought that made me special and
unique, but it turns out it's more thenorm than not from what I can tell.
Amy Auble (02:34):
yeah, I feel like it really helps.
helps you think like for me,I had the marketing business
first and then bought Jelt.
And there's such a benefit to owninga product based business when doing
marketing for lots of product basedbusinesses, because I understand
how a business owner thinks aboutmoney and how they plan their
year and what They need help withbecause I have that on my plate too.
(02:56):
And so similarly, I'm like, wow, thisis so cool And then it's pretty common,
but I love it I think business ownerslike thinking through Lots of different
problems and it's a good way to do that
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (03:07):
/And did you always want to go
into business for yourself?
Was that like part of yourpath from the beginning
Amy Auble (03:13):
It's funny.
I was reading something that was writtenin my yearbook from high school the other
day when I was at back home in Ohio andit said I wanted to move out west because
I grew up in the midwest and start a nonprofit and I thought I had changed so
much and it's funny I feel like that seedhas been in my brain for a long time, but
I come from a family, my dad left a jobthat was like a routine corporate job.
(03:36):
when I was pretty young in order toprovide like a better life for us, and
I saw him take that really big riskin a lot of ways it was really scary,
but after a few years we had like morecapabilities as a family and he had more
flexibility and I think seeing him takethat risk like removed the ambiguity
that comes from Starting your ownbusiness, like seeing someone do that.
(03:57):
And so I feel really luckyand fortunate in that way.
He's like my business coach.
Sometimes I call him andask him good questions.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah, that's awesome. (04:04):
undefined
I also call my dad to talk businessstrategy, but he doesn't have a
business background, he has a managementbackground, he was in the world of
designing, sonar systems for submarines.
So he learned a lot aboutproject management and about,
manufacturing and, engineering.
And so we talk a lot about howwork gets done and how to do so
(04:26):
efficiently and how to, you know,Organized people and processes.
And it's funny, you mentioned, you know,kind of paying attention when I was like
11, I think it was, my dad went throughsome leadership training and back in
the day they did that with audio tapes.
And so he brought home audio tapesto listen to that were part of
(04:47):
the leadership training course.
And I asked if I could listen to them.
so yeah, I've definitely had aseed planted early on of like
this being part of my path.
Amy Auble (04:56):
You never know where those pivotal moments are gonna be until
you're like looking back at your story.
There's been a seed in your mindfor a long time about organizing
and managing and that's really cool.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (05:06):
okay, cool.
So what about on thesustainable business side?
You mentioned that you bought Jelt andthat you had already been marketing for
sustainable product-based businesses.
Was it through your marketing workthat you found out about Jelt?
Like how did that story start of actuallybuying this product based company?
Amy Auble (05:23):
Yeah, so Jelt is based in Bozeman, which is where my brother is.
And he had a good friendwho sold outdoor brands.
brands who are ready to besold would come to his company.
He would help them get sold.
long story short, my brother foundout about it through this friend.
my brother Andy is also prettyentrepreneurial, and so he saw this
(05:46):
as a really good opportunity, to learnwhat it was like to acquire a company,
and then, I wanted to learn what it waslike to be in the operational role of
that company, not just the marketingside of things, and so it was a really
good fit, and for purchasing, our firstbusiness, it was a pretty low risk,
option, and so that really helped as well.
(06:06):
so we purchased it in June and it wasboth like an inventory sale as well
as the sale of the actual, brand.
And so, we have a warehouse fullof belts in Montana and a really
good learning experience in, whattransitioning a business looks like.
And Jen, the owner, past ownerof the company, was really
helpful about transitioningthose knowledge base items to us,
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (06:26):
Do you always have one on pretty much?
Amy Auble (06:28):
yeah, I feel like it's important to be an enthusiast for
your own brand and you never knowwhen you're gonna meet someone and
If you're not wearing the belt, whatdoes that say about your company?
So I try to have one on at all times
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (06:40):
All right.
Where do you sell them?
Amy Auble (06:41):
we sell them at gel belt calm.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (06:44):
Okay.
Amy Auble (06:44):
They're also on Amazon yeah, you can buy them from either place.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (06:49):
That's cool.
So yeah, this is kind of a goodtransition because it's interesting
how, even though your brand is.
high touch in the sense thatit is an actual physical
product You are selling online.
It seems like direct to consumer.
Is that pretty much your sales model?
Amy Auble (07:05):
Yeah, we are found in a couple stores mostly in montana, but the majority
of our sales come through our websiteIt's such a different way of shopping.
The awareness of the product comesfrom our social media, our email, and
publications People really love thatit's a belt made from recycled plastic,
that it's assembled in Montana, andlove those sustainable aspects about
(07:27):
it, so, yeah, it's mostly purchasedon our website, which is crazy.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (07:30):
Yeah, and we've heard a lot, from other guests and I've
recommended some other shows that arespecifically about, small businesses using
like ChatGBT and some of the new toolsto do content marketing, help them write,
help them create copy, maybe help themcreate their things on their website.
I'm curious if there's any.
(07:51):
ways beyond, just writingcopy, for example, that you use
AI already in your business?
Amy Auble (07:59):
Yes, I use ChatGPT specifically as a search engine to ask questions to.
And one question that has been reallyhard for us to solve is, how do we
produce these belts in the US completely?
there's a lot of ambiguity about usingrecycled plastic, and turning that into,
(08:21):
material that we can use in our belts.
And where does the plastic comefrom and how did it get recycled?
we have found a manufacturerthat is in the U.
S.
that does all of the recycling in the U.
S.
and so that's really great.
But I actually used, to dosome, further research on where
does that plastic come from?
Is it actually sustainable?
Because I think doing marketingfor sustainable businesses, I
(08:42):
realize, like, there are a lot ofgood stories out there, but when
it comes to the bones of a company,is it actually good for the earth?
And so I've used it, to research, Howdo we produce this product in the U.
S.
Because that's really important to me.
It really reduces the footprint of aproduct if you can produce it in the U.
S.
there are a few platforms that Ifound that provide alternative options
for sustainable materials in the U.
(09:04):
S.
And, one that we're I have someexciting things coming up about is a
manufacturer that's actually based inMontana as well And they're gonna help
us with some new soft goods, whichI'm really excited about so actually
use chat GPT to Learn more about thesustainability behind the product.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (09:21):
Well, it sounds like you've gotten to the phase where
you've gone beyond just, seeing thaton the page, but you're now actually
talking to those potential manufacturers.
So that was kind of hints at what wasgoing to be my next question, which
would be, obviously we've heard that AIis particularly large language models
can Sometimes just make stuff up, youknow, they like to call it hallucinate.
(09:44):
so what's been your process in terms of,okay, you start there with some research,
but then where do you go from there tofigure out, is this information real?
How can I validate it?
How can I do my due diligenceas a business owner?
Amy Auble (09:58):
Yeah.
Doing your own due diligenceis really important.
I use specifically in the manufacturingrealm, asking questions to Jack chat
GPT about what manufacturers existin the U S that include these certain
qualities that I'm looking for.
And then it provides thosemanufacturers and then from there
you can go and do your own researchand contact those manufacturers.
(10:19):
So more of using it like afilter for Google almost.
cause you can put in specific requirementsand that's been really helpful.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (10:27):
Yeah.
It's sort of, it's funny because Ioften think of chat GPT or some of the
other chat related AI powered tools aslike an assistant who you've asked to
Google things for you, you know, it'slike there used to be this website
might still exist that literally iscalled, let me Google that for you.
And then it just brings up Google andit types something into Google for you.
(10:52):
And it was sort of meant to mock, youknow, how easy when for When Google first
came out and people were still not sure,like, but how do I search the internet?
This site kind of came up as a,as a mocking site to be like,
well, let me Google that for you.
And although that's true, itis more complicated than that.
And if you're really trying todig through a lot of data or there
(11:14):
aren't aggregator sites already thathelp synthesize that data for you.
Something like a virtual assistant,a automated robotic virtual assistant
who can do that digging for youand create a more customized,
it's almost like a curation tool.
Like it's curating what'salready out there for you.
Amy Auble (11:36):
Yeah.
It's, a really helpful tool when you're,looking for something specific in Google.
Like you might have to click throughlike 15 sites to find the one that
chat GPT would just pull up for you.
and that way I've usedit as a big time saver.
specifically, not justin the marketing realm.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (11:51):
Yeah.
And I feel like in yours, case thatyou just mentioned, that's such a good
example because you're going to endup contacting those manufacturers.
So if it turns out they're not real,you're going to know pretty soon
that they're not real, and you'renot going to be, you know, sharing
misinformation or going out thereand putting out, false things or
things that have been copyrighted.
Amy Auble (12:11):
Yeah.
Process I was going to do anyways,but this makes it a lot faster,
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (12:14):
which is great.
do you have another example of anotherway that you've used AI so far?
Amy Auble (12:20):
There's one that I haven't used, but I'm really excited to use, and
this is a product that came out reallyrecently by Sam Altman and OpenAI, and
it's a video tool that essentially youcan provide a prompt like you would for
chat GPT, but instead of information,it provides you with a one minute video.
(12:43):
And this is, I've just been lookinginto it and I'm really impressed with
the video production quality thathas happened even in the last year.
And there are still some things that area little bit off with these videos, like
the reflections or like I saw a video ofsomeone walking backwards on a treadmill.
Like AI doesn't always understand thephysics behind things yet, but this
(13:08):
is a really important thing becauseespecially in the marketing realm.
my clients spend the most amount ofmoney in marketing on content creation,
especially in a product based business.
If you're releasing new productsor showing your product being used,
it might cost 5, 000 to take a crewup to the mountain to take videos
of you skiing with a belt on.
(13:30):
and the thought of it still kind of scaresme, but there is a potential there for
what AI can create those videos, and wouldsomeone be able to tell that it was AI?
in another year, I don't think so.
I'm still on the fence if that's somethingI want to use, but it is a really
interesting tool, as someone who livesin the marketing realm of video creation
(13:50):
that is AI that's really real, and thatyou could maybe put your product into.
Both scary and exciting.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (13:58):
Yeah.
Let's dig into that a little bit further.
Cause I think that's sucha great example as well.
You know, one thing that comes tomind is if you're a small business,
especially the amount of money it takesto do like really good photo shoot.
A really good video shoot.
That's like your whole marketing budget.
And then maybe something changes.
Maybe you make a smallchange to the product.
(14:18):
Maybe you have a new color that's comeout or, something where you're like, I
don't want to have to reshoot all of this,but there's a small change and people
are going to see it and be like, well,that's not the right color, you know?
so if you hire the videographer orthe photographer to do the initial
shoot, you've got some good corecontent, but then you could use AI
to create those variations on that.
(14:41):
Maybe you can show it in differentseasons, or you can show it from
different angles, You realize thatyou are going to do like a special
edition with a little mark on it.
And now you can just add that mark inpost, instead of needing to, reshoot the
whole thing and pay from the beginning.
I could see a great blending of how tomaximize and really hone, what you use
(15:04):
the human professional for versus whatare the ways to then leverage that by
using the capabilities of these new tools.
Amy Auble (15:12):
Yeah, I really like what you said about maybe giving that platform a
basis to provide the next video off of.
it just reminds me of often how longthese video editing processes take.
for the time that I write a shot listfor a videographer to the time we record
it and then I get the content back,that can be a month or more easily.
(15:34):
And The idea that that couldhappen in less than a day is wild.
I've really seen video in the lastfew years explode in the social media
space and really help clients get theword out there about their businesses.
And I just like, can't imagine if thatvideo was being able to be churned
out in a high quality in a reallyfast way, what But now if everyone's
(15:57):
doing it, does that change it?
I don't know, but the time aspect is huge.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (16:02):
Yeah, and I could see it going either way.
Either you, you know, get that originalcontent and then decide to create
spinoffs with the use of AI or, you know,you're working with a videographer or a
photographer who has agreed to be ableto do more with the same budget because
they're able to leverage these AI toolsto say, okay, what I used to be able to
(16:24):
give you was just this amount of video.
Now I can triple that becauseI'm, You know, you're giving
me permission to use AI.
We're very transparent about it.
Everyone's on the board and that'swhat we decide we want to do.
Amy Auble (16:37):
Yeah, it'd be a great tool for videographers to
learn how to use and leverage.
I think there's a world in which thevideographer is still the expert, but
they're using the tool for their business.
Cause I do really think AI doesn'tnecessarily have to replace.
Jobs and businesses.
It's probably just anadaptation of what is there
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (16:59):
Yeah, and one thing you hear a lot about is this
move particularly in retail space,in the personal consumer goods space
around people wanting more and morepersonalization, you know, and wanting,
you know, if they're going to buy abelt, they want to know like, well,
can I use it for this exact activity?
Or can I use, you know, doesit fit my exact body type?
(17:21):
So have you seen anything kindof in that realm of like helping
that customer experience feelmore personalized for them?
Or do you see opportunitieswhere AI could help with that?
Amy Auble (17:31):
One way in which we've used it to understand customers better is when we
want to purchase a new order of belts, youhave to purchase them in a large quantity.
You don't necessarily need 30,000 belts of cheetah print.
You might only need a thousand andso Part of what I've used chat GPT
for is doing consumer research onpatterns and quantities and sizes.
(17:57):
Previously, jeltbelts were sold indifferent sizes and we're slowly phasing
out that type of belt to make sure thatthey're all adjustable, but it's really
important to get that sizing right.
Like how many of each size do I orderand using chat GPT to figure out what is.
What can I expect to order?
What patterns might betrending in the next year?
(18:19):
All those kinds of things that reallyhelp a business understand how to spend
their money in terms of what to order.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (18:25):
That's awesome.
I want to dive into.
divergent paths from that thought.
so I'm going to introduce themto you and you can let me know
which one you want to go first.
the first one is going to bebias because that comes up a lot
in our conversations around AI.
So I'm thinking when you're talkingabout like cheetah print, it's like,
Oh, well, what if most manufacturersproduce things primarily for what
(18:47):
the maybe white male audience wants?
but if we had, good enough data, we wouldknow, Hey, there's a large enough market
for, let's say rainbow belts, for example.
and then my other thought is, Iwant to go further down this rabbit
hole of the sustainability of that.
I imagine if you create waste, ifyou order something that then turns
out to not be what people want.
(19:08):
How does having this data, beingable to assess these things
ahead of time, help reduce waste?
which direction do you want to go?
Amy Auble (19:17):
I think that reducing waste is a really good point, just because it's
something I've thought about a lot, iswhat is the life cycle of this product?
You know, someone wears the belt,maybe they have it for max 10 years,
and then it's still plastic again.
how do we better understand whatthe product life cycle is after
the belts are done being belts.
(19:38):
And so, the bias partis really interesting.
It's not something I've actuallythought about of, you know,
where is that data coming from?
One of the reasons that we'releaning more towards making the
belts only adjustable is so thatwe don't have to choose the size.
So that removes some of the waste thatcould be produced, but also makes it
available for a wider audience of people.
(20:02):
Yeah, how do you dig to the bottomof a bias that is given to you by AI?
I don't know.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (20:07):
Yeah, I think it is a really fascinating question.
I was just listening to the AIfor Creatives podcast and they
were talking about how AI isstarting to be used in Hollywood.
And they said that AI is now being usedto review scripts to decide like, which
ones should maybe be made into film or TV.
(20:27):
And of course, there's bias inthe industry existing where people
tend to pattern match of like,well, this show was really popular.
Let's just find other showsthat are just like that.
So it might lead to, less creativity,less novelty, less, divergent options.
However, I do like thinkingabout the fact that AI is a tool.
(20:49):
It's, programmable, there's an algorithmthat can be tweaked or you can talk
to it if it's a large language model.
So, just on a small scale, like with mymarketing, I've been able to say, this is
the audience that I would like to targetthis marketing copy to, so maybe I know
(21:11):
that, Typically, it's going to speak moreto a highly educated, white audience.
And I know that for this particular postthat I'm making, you know, I'm going to
construction workers in Buffalo, New York,and they're mostly black and mostly male.
And it's like, I can give that informationand we can do more personalization
(21:34):
like we were just talking about.
so I'm interested in If AI and the toolsbeing built on top of AI, with AI, are
basically just ways of making use of data,if you as the business owner can think,
(21:54):
what kind of questions do I have for her?
The data in the world.
What do I want to know?
Then how could you craft theright kind of question to be
able to get that out of the tool?
Amy Auble (22:09):
Yeah.
When one of my favorite things toask or to send in chat GPT is like,
what more do you need to know?
So that blank and you could definitelyask what, what more do you need to know?
So that this isn't biased.
And I think sometimes we forget that wecan also ask ChatGPT what else, what other
context it needs so that we can like getthe data from the world that we want to.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (22:33):
Yeah, and that becomes being, you know, still working
on your own personal development asa leader, as someone who's thoughtful
and understands your own values andunderstands What your own biases may be
or what biases might exist out there.
So I do think that there's a levelof continuing to further our own
development that is always going to beimportant in this, our own development
(22:57):
and our own critical thinking skills.
Cause that's how we can be the bestbusiness owners, but also how we can
get the most out of these new tools too.
One example I had was like,even in developing this podcast,
I asked Chad GPT, I said.
Because one of the biases that was bakedinto the algorithm of chat GPT is that it
always wants to be helpful and it alwayswants to be supportive and positive.
(23:21):
So you've probably noticed this, youknow, it's always like great idea, Amy.
It was very complimentary, which is nice.
I really appreciate that.
But it does kind of create its ownbias with that is that it pretty
much always tells you, you havegreat ideas, even if they're not.
And so you have to kind of keepthat in mind and sometimes use that
(23:44):
knowledge, To protect against that bias.
So the example is when I startedthis podcast, I said, okay, this
is what I'm thinking about doing.
It of course was like, great idea, Sharon,this podcast is going to be fantastic.
I said this to the chat, she be T I waslike, you and I know that this is a great
idea and it's going to be a great podcast,but I have heard that some people.
(24:09):
have negative feelings about AI orthey might be suspicious of it or
they might have concerns about it.
So could you please give me, 12 examplesof the kind of fears and concerns
or pushback that I could expect if Istart talking about AI in this space?
And like, what kind ofreaction might people have?
(24:30):
And it was funny because, youknow, it went from telling me
all the reasons why this was.
And it was fantastic to suddenlybeing like, well, let me tell you.
So it was pretty funny.
I was like, Oh, okay.
Wow.
That's a different list thanwhat we were just talking about.
Amy Auble (24:44):
Was that helpful for you to prepare for the
content that you'd be producing?
And what?
pushback you might get, if any?
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (24:52):
It really was.
I tend to be a real optimist.
And so I appreciate the people in mylife, including my husband and some
of my good friends who tend to bemore of a realist or even a pessimist,
you know, who I'll come to them withmy great idea and they'll be like,
yeah, that's not going to work.
Yeah, it really is grounding to beable to see different perspectives.
Amy Auble (25:15):
Yeah, it's interesting that ChatGBT has both information
but only gives you the informationthat you maybe wanted to hear.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (25:23):
Yeah, and that's what I've been hearing about Google
Gemini is that because Google Geminiwas set up more like Google where you're
supposed to, googling an answer andYou don't say Google all the answers.
You're usually expecting that it's goingto rank them or there's a top answer.
Like if you ask Alexa or you askone of these other services, they
(25:47):
come back with one answer typically.
And so that's been the issue is, they'rereally getting into some thorny waters.
Amy Auble (25:56):
yeah, rocky water.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (25:59):
Yeah, I'm bad at my metaphors.
anyway, so I think the nice thingabout using chat GPT as an assistant
with your business, with your ideasand everything is that you can give
it enough context to say, you know,In this situation, can you give me
advice for this or can you pull thisinformation or draft something on this?
(26:21):
It's not like you're askingit for the one true answer.
You're just asking it tocreate a starting point.
Amy Auble (26:28):
Yeah, so you can dive in deeper or see both sides of something.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (26:32):
Yeah, it's always willing for that follow up.
Amy Auble (26:35):
It's really interesting what You can teach chat GPT to remember.
I know you can put in prompts like I wantall these answers to be Non biased or
how keep these concerns in mind and thenthroughout your chat I love that it'll
bring that back up so that It's almostlike a training tool if you are trying
to think about something in an unbiasedway You can put in that prompt and it'll
(26:57):
keep that conversation in that light
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah, it could be helpful. (27:01):
undefined
I know I tend to come from the worldof government and grant writing.
And I know that's been a problem for meas a writer before, is that when I try
to write marketing copy, I tend to write,In a way that's not very conversational.
every time like one of those serviceson my website that gives me a
(27:22):
readability score, I always start withlike a red, low readability score.
They're always like, yoursentences are too long.
You're using the passive voice.
Like, your writing is terrible, basically.
so I have actually been using ChatGPTin that way, where I'll take my
first draft and then I'll give it toChatGPT and I'll say, all right, I
know that this has too much passivevoice and the sentences are too long.
(27:46):
Can you please rewrite it in a way that'smore concise and more conversational?
And it'll rewrite my copy for me.
And then I can make the third draft.
Amy Auble (27:56):
I love that.
I also use that a lot.
blogs that we write, where I want it tostill sound like our voice, but maybe I
want it to be a little more casual or alittle bit funny or a little more concise.
And I feel like those kinds of directionscan be really helpful, especially when
you're writing like longer form content.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (28:12):
all right.
So I'm going to jump to a related butdifferent topic, which is you mentioned
some of the ways you're using AI inyour own business, but I know in the
marketing side of what you do, youwork with other sustainable brands.
How are you seeing that?
A lot of people are talking aboutthis or asking about this, or do
you feel like it's still not, reallyhitting those small business owners
(28:34):
that you're working with or thesustainable brands you're working with?
Amy Auble (28:38):
I think AI is definitely a part of the lives of most
business owners that I work with.
I think even if they are small businessesin some cases, I think because they're
entrepreneurs, they're pretty interestedin tech savvy and willing to take risks.
And I think sometimes the peoplethat are first to jump on AI might
be a little tech savvy and risky.
(28:59):
so it is part of a conversation ofa lot of people that I talk with.
We use it a lot for copycreation, for brainstorming.
I create what's called content bucketswith all of my clients, specifically for
social media, but also for email, aboutwhat are the pillars of your business that
you want to continue to talk about so thatsomeone becomes a customer or a follower.
(29:23):
And Chat GPT can help shape those.
It can scan your website and tell you thethings that it thinks are most important.
we've also used them.
It does provide like helpful shortcuts.
A lot of times I do have clientsthat provide me with longer form
content and there are some helpfulspecifically video AI tools that take
(29:44):
longer form content and then Reduceit into 15 to 30 second snippets and
then rate it on the viral ability.
and then you're able to like standardizethose videos with text over it.
It provides captions, hashtags, allthose things are really helpful.
I think the small business owners thatI'm working with usually are, their
plates are really full, so they'restill happy to have the help, but it is
(30:07):
definitely a part of the conversationand I think they're using it to
shortcut things in their lives as well.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (30:13):
What's your favorite video based AI tool right now?
Amy Auble (30:16):
It's called video.
ai, but it's with a Y instead of an I.
and that one's really helpful specificallyfor things like podcasts where you've
recorded something vertically and youwant to transition it to horizontally
and then you'll be able to snip it.
So some of my small business ownerswho maybe don't love taking videos of
themselves, but they're on podcastsor have speaking opportunities
(30:38):
that are virtual, I use it a lotwith them to snip it into, pieces
that they can post on their social.
It's a lower effort wayto repurpose content.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (30:47):
Is there anything that I haven't asked you about?
I know you thought aboutthis ahead of time.
So is there anything that you werereflecting on that you wanted to share?
Amy Auble (30:58):
As someone who's passionate about sustainability, I often feel
the pressure to live sustainablymyself, for better or for worse.
And so chat GPT has been a really helpfultool to find other sustainable businesses
or to help me sort through what mightbe a better option for the planet.
And like through doing that,I found an app called good on
(31:19):
you, which is a helpful app.
If you're looking to shop sustainably,it ranks businesses on their, their
business practices and if they're asustainable business to work with and
so I guess I've just also used chat GBTfor my personal life and my personal
goals too, and that's really great andand how do I operate more sustainably
(31:40):
as a human without becoming overwhelmedabout Changing all of the things in my
life because that's not realistic eitherSo it's a really good tool for business,
but has also helped me Rediscoverother sustainable brands, which I love.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (31:53):
Very cool.
yeah, we're going to highlightsome other brands in the
sustainability and climate space.
So we'll see a lot of other examples of.
other ways that this is beingused to try to help the planet.
I actually just listened to a podcastepisode with me, myself in AI,
that was about the world wildlifeFederation and how they're using sort
(32:17):
of what we might call old school AI.
So not generative AI, but, AInonetheless, to look at areas that are
at greatest risk of being deforested.
So basically they use satellite imageryand they use computational models to
be able to analyze like where are treesbeing removed, all around the planet
(32:40):
and be able to predict where thosenext trees will be removed so that
they can move in faster and take actionfaster to try to prevent deforestation.
So really cool, innovativeuses of technology.
Amy Auble (32:54):
I love that.
That's a great way to use AIin a way that makes sense.
That's really amazing.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (32:59):
Yeah, another one that they mentioned was, you
know, they're trying to protectcertain species, endangered species.
And so a big movement of a lot ofdifferent conservation groups is to
have wildlife cameras where they cantrack like I know here in Arizona.
In Southern Arizona, they're trying tokeep track of the jaguar population.
And so there's wildlife cameras in theareas where jaguars have been spotted
(33:20):
to try to see, do they still exist?
Do we still have jaguars?
and so if you've ever looked atone of those wildlife cameras, it
is Hours and hours and hours oftape of just like leaves rustling.
And I used to actually know peoplewho volunteered to look at hours and
hours of tape of leaves rustling, justto hopefully spot that one Jaguar.
(33:43):
and in fact, there was a story recentlyabout the most recent Jaguar sighting
and how it was this person who hadspent not just hours, but decades
looking through wildlife footage totry to find that one jaguar photo.
Amy Auble (33:56):
That's crazy.
And
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (33:57):
they found one finally, but soon they'll be replaced
by a robot because AI can look throughhours and hours of footage and it can be
taught how to spot a jaguar in those thatfootage and be able to call to attention
to a human like, Hey, re look at thistape because there might be a Jaguar.
That's amazing.
So I think that it's, you know,it's things like that, that we
(34:19):
often don't think about wherethis could make a huge difference.
Amy Auble (34:23):
Yeah.
That's such a time saver.
I think about someone who's spending time.
looking through video andnow it can be replaced.
It's pretty crazy.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (34:31):
Yeah, I myself volunteer at the local history museum and
I know there were volunteers there thatwere doing hours and hours of transcribing
historical letters from the early foundersof Flagstaff, the town that we live in.
They have archives that are justfilled with all of this handwritten
correspondence and it's painstaking workto go and decipher that correspondence
(34:53):
and be able to, transcribe it all.
And I was showing a friend of mine, whois the manager at the museum, how I write
in cursive in my notebook, and then I takea picture of it with my phone using the
ChatGPT app, and I say, ChatGPT, can youplease transcribe my handwritten notes?
And in 30 seconds, it'lltranscribe my handwritten notes.
(35:17):
Can you draft a blog post orwhatever it is that I want it to do?
Amy Auble (35:21):
Talk about a game changer for that museum specifically.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (35:24):
Yeah.
She was like, don't tell them that.
Don't tell the volunteers, butalso we might start using that.
Amy Auble (35:32):
Yeah, even as an aid, like take the photo, submit it, and
then go through yourself and edit it.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (35:38):
Yeah, it gives you that starting point where you can
look, you can review the transcript andsay, Oh, let me go double check this part.
Amy Auble (35:45):
I have one other quick thought on AI.
There's a client that I started workingwith, and they're called photopax.
ai.
And it's a tool in which you can upload10 photos of yourself in your face,
and it will give you 100 headshots.
and it's a really interesting tool.
I did it the other week and thephotos are really realistic.
(36:07):
Like I was looking at it, I'm like,this is me, but I have never been
to this place or worn that outfit.
And, it's just a really interestingthought, especially for professionals
who, again, maybe don't have thetime to have a photo shoot, but you
could definitely use photopacks.
ai and get a.
pretty realistic photo and noone would know the difference.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (36:25):
I am actually going to immediately use that
because, I mean, not only do I needto redo my headshots and it would be
interesting to even just get ideasto show to a headshot photographer
of like, oh, I like this angle or Ilike, you know, this way of doing it.
but I work with a lot of AmeriCorpsmembers and that's one thing that we
often advise them is to try to get aheadshot for LinkedIn or for those things
(36:47):
and They're making less than minimumwage and they don't have the ability
to get a headshot done professionallySo if they could get their first
headshot done Through technology,then that would be a game changer.
Amy Auble (37:00):
Really cool.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (37:00):
I'm going to have to ban myself from saying
Game Changer because I feel likeI'm going to say it all the time.
It's going to get old fast.
All right.
one last thing is that becauseyou're in the sustainability space,
I know there's been a lot of talkabout how AI runs on what people
would refer to as like compute.
You know, everything requires thenumber crunching power of computers.
(37:27):
And that does require energy, you know,and there are, there's greenhouse gases
used in the production of these digitalthings that we think of as not taking
any, resources, but they really do.
So, is that something that peopletalk about in your space regularly?
is that something that hasn'treally risen up as part of it?
Amy Auble (37:48):
It's not something I've heard quite as much, but it is really true.
And I've thought a lot about, Ithink a lot of times when we know
that we're using greenhouse gasemissions in one way or another.
Our thought, or at least my thought cansometimes be, What do I do to offset this?
(38:10):
And there are some reallycool offsetting tools.
One that I use that I like is calledGreenspark, and it's a company that
you can integrate into your businessso that when something happens in
your business, it can be offset.
Maybe that's when someone books a meetingwith you, when someone buys a product.
For us, it's when we send anemail because we send a lot of
emails as a marketing company.
(38:31):
You can donate a certain amount ofmoney that either goes to reducing
deforestation or pulling plastic outof the ocean or carbon recapture.
And so that's one thing that I doin a slight effort to reduce, my
impact on the earth for The energyconsumption that we use, but I don't
(38:53):
think it's something that's reallytalked about a lot is that, you know,
our technology does require energyand if that energy isn't coming from a
green source, it's also causing harm.
So it's something I coulddefinitely think more about as well.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (39:07):
Yeah.
Great.
Excellent.
So JELT is a B Corp, correct?
Yes.
And that's the other thing I'm,for people, well, can you explain
what that is for those listenerswho might not be familiar with it?
Amy Auble (39:20):
A B Corp certification is a, it's almost like a stamp of
approval that you're doing good things.
And that comes from a analysis ofthe way that you treat the people
that work with you and for you,the way you treat the planet, and
then what you do with your profits.
And it's kind of like aranking of all of those things.
(39:41):
JELT was a certified B Corp.
We got certified in the springof last year, and a certification
lasts for three years.
So it has a big sustainabilityaspect, but it also relates to
other parts of your business.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (39:53):
And I was curious because are you
still in that B Corp community?
Do you get, you know, informationfrom like, I get the sense that part
of being a B Corp is also sort ofhaving that sense of community of
other sustainably minded businesses.
So in that community, are peopletalking about new technology
and AI, or is it not really?
Amy Auble (40:14):
I have connected with other B Corp owners because Jell is a B Corp.
I've mostly used that community toconnect with on a podcast that I have that
interviews sustainable business owners.
It'd be a great thing to ask peopleabout routinely on my podcast is how
are you using it because there's somuch to learn from that, but It hasn't
been a huge part of the conversation.
(40:35):
It should be.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (40:37):
Because I'm surprised, like, that's part of why I want
to start this podcast is that althoughI am in the entrepreneurial space and so
I see a lot about AI on that side of mylife, When I talk to people who are in
nonprofits or in education or in otherareas, they're just sort of like, they've
heard of it, but it's really not on theirmind week to week, much less day to day.
(41:00):
And so that's been abig divide that I see.
And I know we talk about thedigital divide in the country
in terms of how more and more isbeing done online and with tech.
And so like people are being leftbehind who don't have access to high
speed internet or who Don't have accessto a computer or things like that.
And I feel like there's this dividehappening now in the work world
(41:22):
of, the companies and the sectorsthat are embracing new technology
who are getting on board with it orlearning what it means and what it is.
And then the rest of the world whoare just still doing great work, but
don't realize how much is changingand how much is available to them.
Amy Auble (41:40):
Yeah, and I think, selfishly, I want the non profits and the B
Corps to really excel and do well.
And if there's a way in which AIcan, boost productivity or help
them reduce costs, I feel likethey really need access to that.
So I love the idea of the podcastspecifically for that genre.
Of people that if we can increaseeducation, like, for causes that we care
(42:02):
about, I think there's a lot to that.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (42:05):
Yeah, absolutely.
It shouldn't just beused to send spam emails.
It should be used to like preventdeforestation and save endangered species.
And do good.
Yeah, do good.
Okay, great.
so if people want to learn moreabout JELT, I know you mentioned
where they can buy it, but let'sthrow that out there again.
How can they find out about JELT?
Amy Auble (42:22):
You can go to JELTbelt.
com.
It's just J E L T dot belt.
com.
we're also on all of thesocial media, just at JELTbelt.
Yeah, that's where you can find us.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (42:33):
And then you also have Alpine Start Media.
Are you taking newclients for that as well?
Amy Auble (42:39):
I take about one new client a quarter.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (42:41):
Are they all product based businesses?
Amy Auble (42:43):
They're not all product based businesses, If you're a company
who helps reduce single use items, orhelp people think about sustainability,
or, I have a client that just donatesback to trail advocacy in a large way.
I'd love to talk with you about whatit is that you do and I can either
connect you to someone who knowshow to help with your marketing or,
help with it from our team as well.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (43:05):
Awesome.
And you did mention a podcast.
Amy Auble (43:07):
I have a podcast called the Sustainable Business Spotlight.
it's all for business owners who wantto learn how to be sustainable and
improve their sustainable business.
it's also great if you're justa consumer and you want to learn
about cool sustainable businesses.
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom (43:20):
Cool.
Awesome.
And it's all the placespodcasts are listened to.
It is.
Okay.
Fantastic.
Well, thank you so much for comingon and, I learned something and
hopefully the listeners did as well.
And I'll let you know if anyonehas questions or follow up.
Brian AI (43:35):
Thank you for joining us on this episode of AI for
Helpers and Changemakers.
For the show notes and moreinformation about working with
Sharon, visit bloomfacilitation.
com.
If you have a suggestion for whowe should interview, email us
at hello at bloomfacilitation.
com.
And finally, please share thisepisode with someone you think
would find it interesting.
(43:56):
Word of mouth is our best marketing.
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