August 13, 2025 • 28 mins
Join Sahar the "AI Whisperer" as she welcomes executive coach Lizette Espinoza for an insightful exploration of AI integration in executive coaching, using AI coaching tools for executives, Rather than treating powerful tools like ChatGPT as glorified search engines.
In this episode, they delve into the evolution from basic AI usage towards mastering human-centered AI tools.
Lizette shares her journey from an attorney to an AI power user, offering strategies that can enhance business operations while ensuring data security.
What truly distinguishes this conversation is the focus on mastery versus basic usage. As the gap widens between novice and skilled AI practitioners, Lizette emphasizes that true AI mastery goes beyond mere usage; it’s about enriching your leadership with AI, this is pure AI for Executives.
This episode highlights how viewing AI as augmented intelligence can foster collaboration rather than replacement. With practical insights and engaging analogies, like the powerful metaphor of a dragon in Game of Thrones, listeners will discover the key to leveraging AI for competitive advantage.
Whether you're an executive or a coach, this discussion offers vital strategies for adopting AI confidently. Tune in to learn neuroscience-backed approaches to integrating AI in your professional journey and transform your leadership effectiveness.
Both experts reframe the paradigm entirely, suggesting we view these tools as "augmented intelligence" rather than "artificial intelligence." This subtle shift highlights AI as a collaborative partner that amplifies existing strengths. The warning is clear: it's not AI taking jobs, but people with AI skills replacing those without them. For executives, coaches, and anyone looking to remain competitive, the message is unmistakable: master your AI dragon or risk being left behind.
Discover neuroscience-based AI strategies for executives and coaches. Sahar MB.BCh explores human-centered AI integration for leadership success.
Subscribe and share to join our community of forward-thinking professionals embracing AI as a tool for growth rather than a threat to authenticity.
Ready to transform your AI implementation? Start with your team's nervous system, not your technology stack.
My book "The Coach's Brain Meets AI" was released on Friday 8/8 it is already #1 in New releases on Amazon - get your kindle or paperback copy now https://a.co/d/7te8En7
If you have any questions Email me at sahar@saharconsulting.com
To get in touch with Lizette:
https://www.systemandsoulai.com
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizetteespinosainfanttech/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Good morning.
Good morning, Do I have a treatfor you today?
This is Sahar, your AIwhisperer, and this is the next
episode in season two of AI CafeConversations.
So we're doing things a littlebit different today.
So I have, first of all, agreat executive coach here, but
also a very, very dear friend.
(00:40):
We go back a long time and it'sjust like I admire what she has
been doing.
I mean, she is a fabulousentrepreneur, she is the brain
master behind a system and soulAI and she is just fabulous.
I'm going to let her talk aboutherself in a second.
(01:00):
Her name is Lizette Espinozaand I'm just delighted that she
had time for us today to be inthis interview.
Like I said, we go back a longtime and we go back and forth.
We are each other like what doyou do, how should I do this,
how I'm going through this, whatshould I do?
And we kind of talked AI for along time together and today,
(01:22):
you know, I asked her to comehere to share her experience
with all of you.
So, Lizzie like I call you.
Thank you so much for beinghere today.
I would like you to pleaseintroduce yourself, and then I
have a couple of questions foryou.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Well, sahara.
First of all, thank you so muchfor having me, always an honor.
Yes, we go back a long time.
You're one of my dear, closefriends when it comes to just
sharing life and I reallyappreciate you for that, even
especially with AI.
So I know we'll talk about thatlater, but I definitely credit
(01:57):
everything you've done andeverything you've talked about
to open my own eyes in what thisis capable of, everything
you've talked about to open myown eyes in what this is capable
of.
And for a little background ofmyself actually, prior to
joining on the entrepreneur side, I was a former litigating
attorney, so still an attorney,but I love using it in
combination of business and law.
(02:18):
I'm in the baby tech space,infant tech and now my
experience in the entrepreneurspace.
I really love supportingentrepreneurs and so that's
where I'm a coach and anexecutive coach to other
entrepreneurs and now movinginto allowing them and showing
them the capabilities of what AIcan do for them, because this
(02:40):
really is revolutionary.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
You know that's so interesting that you're saying
this, because I have been sayingthis a lot lately that people
are barely using AI like aGoogle search.
They're scratching, and I thinkthe biggest risk that people
are going through is thatthey're scratching the surface.
They're entering whatever,getting a response, and they
call themselves AI experts, andthat scares me because, honestly
(03:04):
, we both know garbage in,garbage out, right.
So thank you for being here.
I'm going to ask you a coupleof questions.
When did you start AI as a tool, as something that you wanted
to try?
What made you go to it and whatwas your biggest fear?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I know a couple of questions in there.
Well, honestly, you know, mylegal mind is actually what kept
me away.
So it's interesting.
Even though I'm in tech, I feellike I'm a late adopter of AI,
in particular, I think, the waywe talk about it.
I think ChatGPT opened it up itwas at 22 when it launched but
even though those that are in AIknow that it's been around for
(03:53):
years, right, but this is justwhere it really became publicly
known to the mainstream, eventhough we're surrounded by it,
because those series and theAlexas were AI.
It's just in a different leveland you weren't aware of that,
right?
Uh, so the legal part of medidn't want to use it because of
security reasons.
I was like I don't want to justput my information out there.
(04:13):
Um, just even the word open ai,that's like everything's just
going to be out there.
So I actually credit you forreally opening my eyes to the
fact that once I realized that Ican have some security
protocols toggle things off, andeven from there, I've added
different ways to addprotections or being really
(04:36):
clear that I'm intendingsomething to be private.
That's actually where, all of asudden, I took off to the point
that my husband, who had beenusing it for two years prior to
me, was like oh my God, what areyou doing?
It's like you're a monster.
It's like I haven't even comeclose to the way you're using it
, because it intuitively came tome and I feel like what you
(04:59):
just said.
I do deep dives with it and,you know, I even started
creating my own bots that likespecialized assistants, uh.
But I hear your voice in theback of my mind often, which is
garbage in, garbage out.
So when I see people just doingthese simple sentences or
they're not giving enoughinformation in the background, I
(05:21):
know that they're not gettingthe best results that they can.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
And they're shooting themselves in the foot,
basically, and it hurts themrather than helping them.
Actually, there was just a studyreleased and they said that,
finding out that most of theplatforms, like either Cloud,
anthropic or even Meta orChatGPT or Perplexity all of
them are leveling up.
(05:45):
Maybe one is over memory, one isover maybe paradigms, and but
they're all almost at the samelevel.
What the gap has been going isin the users, between the novice
users and the people thatreally know how to do it.
The gap is actually like reallywidening, and I love the fact
that you're saying that and Iknow that you're doing not only
that, and I know that you'redoing not only prompt
(06:07):
engineering, right, where you'redoing a lot of prompt chaining,
where you take, you know, likeyou said, you dig deep and dive
and most people don't do that,and for me, this is sad.
What was your mindset as abrain?
I know that your legal part ofyour brain kind of put you in a
stand up like hey, let me analarm position where your
(06:30):
amygdala all of a sudden giveyou your survival vibes Stop,
don't go any further, you are indanger.
But what was your mindset aboutAI when you started working
with it when we started talkingabout it you started working
with it when we started talkingabout it.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Once I started using it and I'm seeing the
capabilities of how quickly theresults are coming, um, and that
, at the end of the day, I amthe one that's mastering it,
right?
So, going to, you know, when itcomes to even teaching other
people, my thing is like I, Ireally want you to think with it
.
So I think that's's where myintuitive side you know, I
happen you know, if we dopersonality styles, I happen to
(07:09):
be an analyzer.
So the analyzer in me it's,it's easy for me to go deep with
it, right?
So I give it a lot ofinformation and background and I
really look at it as like, hey,if I had this person in front
of me, what information does itneed to know in order for it to
(07:29):
do its job?
Well, so that's probably theeasiest way to think about it.
You know, if I had, if I justhired somebody and I gave them
one sentence hey, go write thismemo for me, and they come back
and it's about something thatyou didn't want.
Well, look, I didn't give anyclear instructions on that,
right?
So this is where I reallystarted.
(07:50):
When I'm showing people, it'slike, hey, I want you really
think with this right, um, and Ilike this is my partner, emmy
and I.
We say this for it's not Idon't want to say artificial
intelligence, it's augmentedintelligence, right, because
artificial means fake, butaugmenting is how can you
augment and improve yourself andhow do you work with it
(08:12):
together to make you a betterversion of yourself?
So when I started using it andI was seeing the power of it, I
was just seeing how you as anindividual can just like
exponentially grow yourselfbecause of the questions that
come through, because you'rereally having a conversation
with the AI.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
So you know it's interesting that you said that
because I call it even in.
As you know, I'm releasing abook called Coaches Brain Meets
AI and in the book book I saythat we collaborate, we don't
compete with AI, right, and Isay that if you are a good coach
and you have good skills, aiyou say augment, I say amplify
(08:55):
will amplify those skills andI'm sorry, but if you're not a
good coach, it will amplify howmediocre the skills are.
You know, I I mean there is notwo way about it.
You know it's about, again, howto use it.
So thank you for sharing that.
What was the first aha momentin your coaching practice when
(09:17):
you're helping executive use AI?
What was your first aha momentthat made you, yes, I'm on the
right track?
Speaker 1 (09:26):
uh.
I think one in particular wassomeone who's had already had
experience with ai tools,particularly a lot of the
marketing sides but then andalso had experience on the chat,
gpt side.
But when I showed them what wasmore available to them, they
were like, oh my goodness, it'slike I saw their aha moment and
(09:47):
their little glimmer of how muchit really could improve for
them.
Um, that this person actuallyvery quickly took it on uh and
improved and even started makingmoney, uh at a bigger, at a
faster rate, just because ofthese slight improvements.
And so what was fascinatinghere is because she was already
using it, but it shifted her ina different point of view of
(10:12):
like, hey, let's think a littlebit more, a little bit deeper
with it.
And again, I think, even at theend of the day, let's think
with it right, because when youwere talking about somebody
using it and like, and they,they don't cross-reference, they
don't check, or they're like,oh, this looks good.
Um, that's the ai masteringthem.
(10:34):
And again I go back to from theexecutive coaching perspective,
you need to be able to maneuverthis, you need to be able to
move with it.
But that, that was my numberone, a hot moment there Of, hey,
this really is going to impactsomebody, and so I actually get
so much joy in it too.
That's probably the other bigspark Of like you guys.
(10:56):
This is life changing.
So I realized, too, how much Ilove talking about it, because
it makes a difference topeople's lives and giving them
some time back and reducingstress levels.
That to me, that's invaluable,right, like that's actually
really what matters in life,like let's find a way to have a
(11:18):
better life, absolutelyabsolutely.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
What is the biggest?
When you're coaching, likeleaders and executives, what is
the biggest pushback that youget?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Hmm, I think well, when it was.
Surprisingly enough, I actuallyget more people being open to
using the AI.
The beginning was the fear, soI really relate to the part of
the security issue, so at leastI can show them.
Hey look, these are differentways that you can secure your
(11:50):
data, and it's interesting whereI wear the legal hat on that.
I don't know if you do this,but when I do my custom bots, I
even add disclaimers to thebottom.
I've added different notes toshow again.
I am intending this to beprivate.
So that was one of the biggestpushbacks.
Secondly, it is when someone isclosed-minded.
(12:12):
They think that AI is not goingto help them with their job and
they're not willing to openthemselves up to possibilities.
So if you're closed, thenthat's one of those things where
it's like no one's going to beable to teach you that.
It's like I can lead the horseto water, but if you don't want
(12:33):
to drink, then it's like there'snothing we can do about them
being closed to what might openup for them.
So that that would probably bethe second biggest pushback.
Is someone's just closed aboutit.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
You know it's yesterday I was reading a post
on LinkedIn and I know you love,you are on LinkedIn a lot and
someone was saying that she wastasked with coaching an
executive in an organization andshe found out that that
executive was not open tocoaching.
So she's basically berating theHR and the CEO of the company
(13:10):
that they pushed that person forcoaching when they were not
ready.
And I had to stop for a secondand I'm like that's not being a
good coach, right, it's aboutlike especially with ai now
knowing, understanding that,remember, when people are scared
of ai, ai as a coach, cannotread the micro expressions of
(13:36):
someone's face that you'recoaching.
Your mirror neurons aredifferent, your empathy is
different, but they can look atpatterns and behaviors and they
can give you lights on thingslike that that can help you
mostly develop even your ownskills.
And I had to go and respond tothat because I don't believe in
that someone is.
(13:56):
There is a very small percentagewhere people are uncoachable,
but it depends on the coach andyou know that is that I mean I'm
sure you met in your life.
Not everybody is open from theget-go for coaching.
But as a good coach, youpresented in a way where you
talk to their survival, calmdown their fear and take them to
the next level.
And now, with AI, is justabsolutely a lot easier.
(14:19):
The next question that, sincewe're talking about business,
what business results have youseen from your AI integration in
your business?
Speaker 1 (14:29):
and in other people's business.
Well, it's definitely it'smaking a difference in saving
money from some of and becauseof the time right, because it
there's some of the results thatI get that are just so much
faster, and from like, forexample, I have a CEO bot.
So I basically recreated myselfand this is primarily on chat
(14:50):
GPT.
I recreated my experience, andso what I did with this
particular GPT is I said you'vealready built the business to
like where I wanted to go right,like what is a hundred million
dollar company to the billiondollar company look like.
And so whenever I run throughit, I use different analysis for
(15:10):
this one.
Sometimes it'll be like hey,these are some of the
experiences we're going throughright now.
Let's strategize through it.
So we strategize um, I can evenput in some pnl like, even, uh,
like performance, uh thingswith the company and ask it like
, where are the gaps?
Um, I will use it for, let'ssay, I went on all of a sudden I
(15:35):
had a bunch of networkingevents, like three or four in a
week.
It organized all of myfollow-ups for me.
So it's like almost having anassistant um from a systems
perspective.
Uh, from our marketing side, Ihad our team.
We did create a specialmarketing um assistant on chat,
(15:56):
gt, so that they have the links.
So, when it comes to creatingour calendars, our marketing
calendars and events, it's likenow it's done so fast.
You know what used to takemaybe two weeks.
Now it takes within a fewminutes.
But it's like now you edit itso there's room to do more
things.
(16:16):
So I'm using it with the teamand I'm inspiring and allowing
the team to use it.
I definitely am the one, theproponent of it, with all of the
different components, differentdepartments.
How can AI support you to doyour job better and also for
training purposes?
Right, right, that I know.
I want the people that workwith us to also have knowledge
(16:40):
in these tools that they can usenot only when they're working
with us, but in their own livesactually my next question was
going to be how has your teamresponded to your AI leadership?
I think they're excited.
I think, like, particularly inthe marketing team, I think they
were already using itbeforehand.
(17:00):
But when it was a very specificdirective coming from me, it's
like hey guys, how are we usingit?
Let's make this faster.
They totally embraced it.
And again, when we talk aboutthe fear of when people are
saying that it's going to takeaway jobs, it's also going to
create jobs.
(17:21):
So it's not one of those ofit'll fully take it away.
Just, there are some industrieswhere you are going to have to
learn to use it and I feelmarketing is one of them.
Um, because otherwise you can'tkeep up with the speed of what
comes out.
Um, because everybody elseusing AI with it, and so I think
(17:41):
they appreciated it there thatit's like hey, um, and I feel
we're also take coming away fromthe um the narrative when it
first came out of like there wasa lot of pushback of like you
cannot use it, or I feel somenegative connotation, people
thinking that it's not yours orit's not real.
(18:02):
So when people say that, to meit's obvious they're not using
AI because they're not realizingthat you, as a human, have to
still work with it.
It's a tool just like my Worddocument, right?
I still typed that up.
I still have to do work with it.
It's a tool, just like my Worddocument, right?
I still typed that up.
I still have to do that.
Well, when you're using withthese prompts, it's like I still
had a lot to do with that itwould.
(18:23):
Whatever was created would notexist if, as a human, I didn't
have some inputs to it.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
It's like using GPS to go somewhere doesn't make you
less of a driver.
Yes, you know.
If you have to go through asurgery, right, and the surgeon
uses the highest tech with AIpossible to get you the best
result, would you rather go withthat, or someone that stayed 50
years behind?
Very good point.
That doesn't make them less ofa surgeon, right.
(18:51):
Yes, thank you for bringingthat up.
It doesn't make them less of asurgeon, right.
Yes, thank you for bringingthat up.
So now for our listeners, whoare in your shoes when you
started, like, what is the bestadvice you give executives who
are where you started?
And one of the questions that Ialways get I'm not a techie, so
what would you say to that?
Speaker 1 (19:13):
You know what I'm going to tell them?
If they can use MicrosoftOffice and if they can use email
, they can use AI.
So I love how I also read thisthe other day when AI was first
being developed, yes, you neededthe coders and you needed these
software engineers, but it hasgotten to the level where it is
easy to use.
(19:33):
So I think maybe that'sactually part of the fear too.
Right, there is someintimidation factor when
somebody says AI of like I justdon't know what that is, but
when they jump in, they're goingto realize, oh, it's not as
complicated as I thought it was.
And if you jump in, like youknow, it's like literally 15
minutes a day, 20 minutes a day,you're going to start using it
(19:57):
pretty well.
Day, you're going to startusing it pretty well.
But at the next level, theadvice would be let's show you
how to use it at a deeper level.
Right, based on ourconversation that we talked
about at the beginning, if nineout of 10 people are just using
it as a glorified Google search,that's, you're not going to
maximize it.
Yes, it'll help you to acertain extent, but it's yes,
it'll help you to a certainextent, but you're like the tip,
(20:18):
tip, tip of the iceberg of whatit can do.
So I would recommend to anyexecutives.
It's like hey look, there's somany resources out there.
There are executive coacheslike myself, like you, that are
teaching entrepreneurs how touse it.
And start first with yourselfand then how do you introduce it
to your teams?
(20:39):
And start first with yourselfand then how do you introduce it
to your teams.
That's actually why we startedsystem and soul ai, because
we're noticing again, a lot ofpeople are talking about ai but
their the adoption rate is notas high as you think.
It is right.
Um, you know it's interestingbecause you and I are circles,
like we're talking about it, soyou think everybody's talking
about it.
But I have this analogy it'slike climbing a mountain and the
(21:02):
people at that level of themountain they've all used it,
but when I turn around, there'sall these other people that
haven't even touched it.
Um, so it's one of those of um,you use it first and then see
how you can introduce it to yourteam and see how it can really
streamline your systems.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Yes, especially for business and I say this I say
that people are using ai like acalculator, when it's actually a
super duper, very smartcomputer you know, and that's,
that's um, that that's what, andand actually, and actually my
last article was talking aboutthat we don't have an AI
(21:43):
leadership crisis, like, I guess, leaders.
They are just shoving AI ontheir teams without preparing
them for the real changemanagement.
That is more psychological thananything else.
You know, they are just pushingit down their throat and that's
why some people have adversityto it.
If you would suggest one AItool that every executive should
(22:08):
start try first, I rememberwhen I introduced my husband to
sushi, I made him eat Californiaroll first because it was like
the easiest entry to sushi.
So if that analogy, analogy wewould do it a tool for ai, what
would you suggest an executiveum tool he can have?
Speaker 1 (22:28):
well, I, I'm definitely biased with the chat
gpt and I keep telling peoplelike it's the baby of ai.
Uh, I know people.
Some people say what do youmean baby?
It's like because it's it's theeasiest to use.
The good news, too it's thebasis for a lot of them.
Right, it's like it because itwas the one that was developed
the fastest at the beginning.
(22:49):
A lot of the other platformsemulated it, so if you can learn
how to use chat gpt, then youcan use a lot of the other
platforms.
And again, for securitypurposes.
That's why I like ChatGPTbecause it was easy to do that
toggling off on your data.
And again, I feel it has gonefurther along because of the
(23:15):
fact that it's been around.
So that is my recommendation.
I think it's fun, and that'sanother thing.
So just like, have fun with it,exactly.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
You know best memory by far on all of them.
I mean I tried all of them.
It's the best memory ever andit's the highest emotionally
intelligent platform so far.
I mean, Claude is secondanthropic, but Chad Gipity is
still the most.
It's like your bff.
(23:44):
Sometimes you know it's a.
So, before we wrap up, whatwould you tell other coaches
like you that maybe are not deepin ai or um, they want to
explain what ai to uh to theirclients without feeling that
they're not authentic, withoutfeeling that they are cheating.
Because, believe it or not, allthese thoughts were in my brain
(24:04):
Like am I cheating?
Am I not being authentic?
Am I not good enough?
That's why I have to have likea cane to walk on.
You know what I mean.
What would be pearls of wisdomfrom you going through what you
went through the whole last yearabout AI?
Before we wrap, what would yousay?
Speaker 1 (24:23):
uh, interesting, because it's.
You know, the other day, when Idid have a session in person,
someone had this point of view,before that you were.
It was plagiarism, right, thatthey're creating something that
wasn't theirs.
And that's when I explained.
It's like, well, if, if I canshow you how to use it first,
you'll realize that.
That's when I explained.
It's like, well, if I can showyou how to use it first, you'll
realize that that's not the case, because of how much human
(24:45):
input, how much of your inputhas to come into it.
So I think once they see that,then they'll just get a
re-clarification.
And again, I think everything'sabout mind shifting.
How do we support individualsto shift their point of view
from something that at thebeginning they actually don't
know much about but they've justheard?
So it's giving them a hands-onexperience and like, let me show
(25:11):
you.
And then, secondly, it reallyis about again, like, see, well,
it's a tool tool, right, it'slike any other tool that we've
got.
Uh, you use tools, like youjust said, it's like to get
somewhere from a to b.
I'm going to use my car, right.
And and we use analogies of inthe past where, again, I'm going
(25:33):
to go back as we had horsesright or we started from walking
, we had horses.
We have cars right.
Next thing you know, now we'vegot the self-driving cars.
Yeah, so everything's inevolution.
And I always love I actually useGame of Thrones analogy, uh,
for my classes as like having anAI I'm gonna call it a
companion is like having adragon in Game of Thrones, and I
(25:58):
use the dragon analogy becauseto so someone can see how
massive it is right.
So think of just that series,the ones who have the dragons,
have the power right.
You can fly with it, you needto, but you need to master your
dragon.
And so, in this context as well, it's like would you rather
have one or not?
(26:19):
Because and it's one, andhere's the next piece it's
available to anybody.
It literally is such a thingabout leveling a playing field
and, unfortunately, if you don'tknow how to use it, you
actually will be left behind.
So that's almost like the prosand cons of if there is is fear,
you should be more afraid ofnot using it absolutely.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
And, like I said earlier, people say that it's
going to take jobs.
It's gonna people with aiskills are going to replace that
, those jobs.
It's not ai, it's going toreplace the job.
So, um lizzie, this was so muchfun.
How can people reach you?
Speaker 1 (26:57):
you can reach me on linkedin.
You can look up liz espinoza.
You can reach me on my website,uh www, soul and system aicom,
and you can find me also oninstagram, liz espinoza, um, but
I think the easiest one rightnow would be linkedin website
and we're here to support.
(27:18):
There's so much for this spaceright now and I think we really
do need to.
I love what you're doing rightwhen it comes to getting this
message out, because this reallyis changing so quickly as well
that we need to.
If I can help as manyentrepreneurs get on board as
quickly as possible, then youknow.
(27:39):
Again, I feel like I didsomething to support someone
else's growth.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Beautiful.
Thank you so much, lizzie.
It was so much fun having youtoday on my podcast, ai Cafe
Conversations, and I'm going toput all your information in the
description of the episode ofthe episode.
Uh, it's going to be episodesix on season two that will be
(28:05):
released on um july, to be julythe 9th.
So, uh, I can't wait, you know,for people to uh really enjoy
this episode.
I had a lot of fun.
I hope you did too, and thankyou so much for being here with
me today.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Absolutely.
It was an honor and I love itthat you call me Lizzy.
Yeah, I always call you Lizzy.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Okay, my audience, I love you.
Those that love AI CafeConversations, as you know,
please subscribe, share it witha friend.
Show me love like it, share it.
This is Sahar, your AIwhisperer, and I'll see you in
the next episode.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Awesome, this is Sahar, your AI whisperer, and
I'll see you in the next episode.
Good morning.
Good morning, Do I have a treatfor you today?
This is Sahar, your AIwhisperer, and this is the next
episode in season two of AI CafeConversations.
So we're doing things a littlebit different today.
So I have, first of all, agreat executive coach here, but
also a very, very dear friend.
(00:40):
We go back a long time and it'sjust like I admire what she has
been doing.
I mean, she is a fabulousentrepreneur, she is the brain
master behind a system and soulAI and she is just fabulous.
I'm going to let her talk aboutherself in a second.
(01:00):
Her name is Lizette Espinozaand I'm just delighted that she
had time for us today to be inthis interview.
Like I said, we go back a longtime and we go back and forth.
We are each other like what doyou do, how should I do this,
how I'm going through this, whatshould I do?
And we kind of talked AI for along time together and today,
(01:22):
you know, I asked her to comehere to share her experience
with all of you.
So, Lizzie like I call you.
Thank you so much for beinghere today.
I would like you to pleaseintroduce yourself, and then I
have a couple of questions foryou.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Well, sahara.
First of all, thank you so muchfor having me, always an honor.
Yes, we go back a long time.
You're one of my dear, closefriends when it comes to just
sharing life and I reallyappreciate you for that, even
especially with AI.
So I know we'll talk about thatlater, but I definitely credit
(01:57):
everything you've done andeverything you've talked about
to open my own eyes in what thisis capable of, everything
you've talked about to open myown eyes in what this is capable
of.
And for a little background ofmyself actually, prior to
joining on the entrepreneur side, I was a former litigating
attorney, so still an attorney,but I love using it in
combination of business and law.
(02:18):
I'm in the baby tech space,infant tech and now my
experience in the entrepreneurspace.
I really love supportingentrepreneurs and so that's
where I'm a coach and anexecutive coach to other
entrepreneurs and now movinginto allowing them and showing
them the capabilities of what AIcan do for them, because this
(02:40):
really is revolutionary.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
You know that's so interesting that you're saying
this, because I have been sayingthis a lot lately that people
are barely using AI like aGoogle search.
They're scratching, and I thinkthe biggest risk that people
are going through is thatthey're scratching the surface.
They're entering whatever,getting a response, and they
call themselves AI experts, andthat scares me because, honestly
(03:04):
, we both know garbage in,garbage out, right.
So thank you for being here.
I'm going to ask you a coupleof questions.
When did you start AI as a tool, as something that you wanted
to try?
What made you go to it and whatwas your biggest fear?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I know a couple of questions in there.
Well, honestly, you know, mylegal mind is actually what kept
me away.
So it's interesting.
Even though I'm in tech, I feellike I'm a late adopter of AI,
in particular, I think, the waywe talk about it.
I think ChatGPT opened it up itwas at 22 when it launched but
even though those that are in AIknow that it's been around for
(03:53):
years, right, but this is justwhere it really became publicly
known to the mainstream, eventhough we're surrounded by it,
because those series and theAlexas were AI.
It's just in a different leveland you weren't aware of that,
right?
Uh, so the legal part of medidn't want to use it because of
security reasons.
I was like I don't want to justput my information out there.
(04:13):
Um, just even the word open ai,that's like everything's just
going to be out there.
So I actually credit you forreally opening my eyes to the
fact that once I realized that Ican have some security
protocols toggle things off, andeven from there, I've added
different ways to addprotections or being really
(04:36):
clear that I'm intendingsomething to be private.
That's actually where, all of asudden, I took off to the point
that my husband, who had beenusing it for two years prior to
me, was like oh my God, what areyou doing?
It's like you're a monster.
It's like I haven't even comeclose to the way you're using it
, because it intuitively came tome and I feel like what you
(04:59):
just said.
I do deep dives with it and,you know, I even started
creating my own bots that likespecialized assistants, uh.
But I hear your voice in theback of my mind often, which is
garbage in, garbage out.
So when I see people just doingthese simple sentences or
they're not giving enoughinformation in the background, I
(05:21):
know that they're not gettingthe best results that they can.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
And they're shooting themselves in the foot,
basically, and it hurts themrather than helping them.
Actually, there was just a studyreleased and they said that,
finding out that most of theplatforms, like either Cloud,
anthropic or even Meta orChatGPT or Perplexity all of
them are leveling up.
(05:45):
Maybe one is over memory, one isover maybe paradigms, and but
they're all almost at the samelevel.
What the gap has been going isin the users, between the novice
users and the people thatreally know how to do it.
The gap is actually like reallywidening, and I love the fact
that you're saying that and Iknow that you're doing not only
that, and I know that you'redoing not only prompt
(06:07):
engineering, right, where you'redoing a lot of prompt chaining,
where you take, you know, likeyou said, you dig deep and dive
and most people don't do that,and for me, this is sad.
What was your mindset as abrain?
I know that your legal part ofyour brain kind of put you in a
stand up like hey, let me analarm position where your
(06:30):
amygdala all of a sudden giveyou your survival vibes Stop,
don't go any further, you are indanger.
But what was your mindset aboutAI when you started working
with it when we started talkingabout it you started working
with it when we started talkingabout it.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Once I started using it and I'm seeing the
capabilities of how quickly theresults are coming, um, and that
, at the end of the day, I amthe one that's mastering it,
right?
So, going to, you know, when itcomes to even teaching other
people, my thing is like I, Ireally want you to think with it
.
So I think that's's where myintuitive side you know, I
happen you know, if we dopersonality styles, I happen to
(07:09):
be an analyzer.
So the analyzer in me it's,it's easy for me to go deep with
it, right?
So I give it a lot ofinformation and background and I
really look at it as like, hey,if I had this person in front
of me, what information does itneed to know in order for it to
(07:29):
do its job?
Well, so that's probably theeasiest way to think about it.
You know, if I had, if I justhired somebody and I gave them
one sentence hey, go write thismemo for me, and they come back
and it's about something thatyou didn't want.
Well, look, I didn't give anyclear instructions on that,
right?
So this is where I reallystarted.
(07:50):
When I'm showing people, it'slike, hey, I want you really
think with this right, um, and Ilike this is my partner, emmy
and I.
We say this for it's not Idon't want to say artificial
intelligence, it's augmentedintelligence, right, because
artificial means fake, butaugmenting is how can you
augment and improve yourself andhow do you work with it
(08:12):
together to make you a betterversion of yourself?
So when I started using it andI was seeing the power of it, I
was just seeing how you as anindividual can just like
exponentially grow yourselfbecause of the questions that
come through, because you'rereally having a conversation
with the AI.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
So you know it's interesting that you said that
because I call it even in.
As you know, I'm releasing abook called Coaches Brain Meets
AI and in the book book I saythat we collaborate, we don't
compete with AI, right, and Isay that if you are a good coach
and you have good skills, aiyou say augment, I say amplify
(08:55):
will amplify those skills andI'm sorry, but if you're not a
good coach, it will amplify howmediocre the skills are.
You know, I I mean there is notwo way about it.
You know it's about, again, howto use it.
So thank you for sharing that.
What was the first aha momentin your coaching practice when
(09:17):
you're helping executive use AI?
What was your first aha momentthat made you, yes, I'm on the
right track?
Speaker 1 (09:26):
uh.
I think one in particular wassomeone who's had already had
experience with ai tools,particularly a lot of the
marketing sides but then andalso had experience on the chat,
gpt side.
But when I showed them what wasmore available to them, they
were like, oh my goodness, it'slike I saw their aha moment and
(09:47):
their little glimmer of how muchit really could improve for
them.
Um, that this person actuallyvery quickly took it on uh and
improved and even started makingmoney, uh at a bigger, at a
faster rate, just because ofthese slight improvements.
And so what was fascinatinghere is because she was already
using it, but it shifted her ina different point of view of
(10:12):
like, hey, let's think a littlebit more, a little bit deeper
with it.
And again, I think, even at theend of the day, let's think
with it right, because when youwere talking about somebody
using it and like, and they,they don't cross-reference, they
don't check, or they're like,oh, this looks good.
Um, that's the ai masteringthem.
(10:34):
And again I go back to from theexecutive coaching perspective,
you need to be able to maneuverthis, you need to be able to
move with it.
But that, that was my numberone, a hot moment there Of, hey,
this really is going to impactsomebody, and so I actually get
so much joy in it too.
That's probably the other bigspark Of like you guys.
(10:56):
This is life changing.
So I realized, too, how much Ilove talking about it, because
it makes a difference topeople's lives and giving them
some time back and reducingstress levels.
That to me, that's invaluable,right, like that's actually
really what matters in life,like let's find a way to have a
(11:18):
better life, absolutelyabsolutely.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
What is the biggest?
When you're coaching, likeleaders and executives, what is
the biggest pushback that youget?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Hmm, I think well, when it was.
Surprisingly enough, I actuallyget more people being open to
using the AI.
The beginning was the fear, soI really relate to the part of
the security issue, so at leastI can show them.
Hey look, these are differentways that you can secure your
(11:50):
data, and it's interesting whereI wear the legal hat on that.
I don't know if you do this,but when I do my custom bots, I
even add disclaimers to thebottom.
I've added different notes toshow again.
I am intending this to beprivate.
So that was one of the biggestpushbacks.
Secondly, it is when someone isclosed-minded.
(12:12):
They think that AI is not goingto help them with their job and
they're not willing to openthemselves up to possibilities.
So if you're closed, thenthat's one of those things where
it's like no one's going to beable to teach you that.
It's like I can lead the horseto water, but if you don't want
(12:33):
to drink, then it's like there'snothing we can do about them
being closed to what might openup for them.
So that that would probably bethe second biggest pushback.
Is someone's just closed aboutit.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
You know it's yesterday I was reading a post
on LinkedIn and I know you love,you are on LinkedIn a lot and
someone was saying that she wastasked with coaching an
executive in an organization andshe found out that that
executive was not open tocoaching.
So she's basically berating theHR and the CEO of the company
(13:10):
that they pushed that person forcoaching when they were not
ready.
And I had to stop for a secondand I'm like that's not being a
good coach, right, it's aboutlike especially with ai now
knowing, understanding that,remember, when people are scared
of ai, ai as a coach, cannotread the micro expressions of
(13:36):
someone's face that you'recoaching.
Your mirror neurons aredifferent, your empathy is
different, but they can look atpatterns and behaviors and they
can give you lights on thingslike that that can help you
mostly develop even your ownskills.
And I had to go and respond tothat because I don't believe in
that someone is.
(13:56):
There is a very small percentagewhere people are uncoachable,
but it depends on the coach andyou know that is that I mean I'm
sure you met in your life.
Not everybody is open from theget-go for coaching.
But as a good coach, youpresented in a way where you
talk to their survival, calmdown their fear and take them to
the next level.
And now, with AI, is justabsolutely a lot easier.
(14:19):
The next question that, sincewe're talking about business,
what business results have youseen from your AI integration in
your business?
Speaker 1 (14:29):
and in other people's business.
Well, it's definitely it'smaking a difference in saving
money from some of and becauseof the time right, because it
there's some of the results thatI get that are just so much
faster, and from like, forexample, I have a CEO bot.
So I basically recreated myselfand this is primarily on chat
(14:50):
GPT.
I recreated my experience, andso what I did with this
particular GPT is I said you'vealready built the business to
like where I wanted to go right,like what is a hundred million
dollar company to the billiondollar company look like.
And so whenever I run throughit, I use different analysis for
(15:10):
this one.
Sometimes it'll be like hey,these are some of the
experiences we're going throughright now.
Let's strategize through it.
So we strategize um, I can evenput in some pnl like, even, uh,
like performance, uh thingswith the company and ask it like
, where are the gaps?
Um, I will use it for, let'ssay, I went on all of a sudden I
(15:35):
had a bunch of networkingevents, like three or four in a
week.
It organized all of myfollow-ups for me.
So it's like almost having anassistant um from a systems
perspective.
Uh, from our marketing side, Ihad our team.
We did create a specialmarketing um assistant on chat,
(15:56):
gt, so that they have the links.
So, when it comes to creatingour calendars, our marketing
calendars and events, it's likenow it's done so fast.
You know what used to takemaybe two weeks.
Now it takes within a fewminutes.
But it's like now you edit itso there's room to do more
things.
(16:16):
So I'm using it with the teamand I'm inspiring and allowing
the team to use it.
I definitely am the one, theproponent of it, with all of the
different components, differentdepartments.
How can AI support you to doyour job better and also for
training purposes?
Right, right, that I know.
I want the people that workwith us to also have knowledge
(16:40):
in these tools that they can usenot only when they're working
with us, but in their own livesactually my next question was
going to be how has your teamresponded to your AI leadership?
I think they're excited.
I think, like, particularly inthe marketing team, I think they
were already using itbeforehand.
(17:00):
But when it was a very specificdirective coming from me, it's
like hey guys, how are we usingit?
Let's make this faster.
They totally embraced it.
And again, when we talk aboutthe fear of when people are
saying that it's going to takeaway jobs, it's also going to
create jobs.
(17:21):
So it's not one of those ofit'll fully take it away.
Just, there are some industrieswhere you are going to have to
learn to use it and I feelmarketing is one of them.
Um, because otherwise you can'tkeep up with the speed of what
comes out.
Um, because everybody elseusing AI with it, and so I think
(17:41):
they appreciated it there thatit's like hey, um, and I feel
we're also take coming away fromthe um the narrative when it
first came out of like there wasa lot of pushback of like you
cannot use it, or I feel somenegative connotation, people
thinking that it's not yours orit's not real.
(18:02):
So when people say that, to meit's obvious they're not using
AI because they're not realizingthat you, as a human, have to
still work with it.
It's a tool just like my Worddocument, right?
I still typed that up.
I still have to do work with it.
It's a tool, just like my Worddocument, right?
I still typed that up.
I still have to do that.
Well, when you're using withthese prompts, it's like I still
had a lot to do with that itwould.
(18:23):
Whatever was created would notexist if, as a human, I didn't
have some inputs to it.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
It's like using GPS to go somewhere doesn't make you
less of a driver.
Yes, you know.
If you have to go through asurgery, right, and the surgeon
uses the highest tech with AIpossible to get you the best
result, would you rather go withthat, or someone that stayed 50
years behind?
Very good point.
That doesn't make them less ofa surgeon, right.
(18:51):
Yes, thank you for bringingthat up.
It doesn't make them less of asurgeon, right.
Yes, thank you for bringingthat up.
So now for our listeners, whoare in your shoes when you
started, like, what is the bestadvice you give executives who
are where you started?
And one of the questions that Ialways get I'm not a techie, so
what would you say to that?
Speaker 1 (19:13):
You know what I'm going to tell them?
If they can use MicrosoftOffice and if they can use email
, they can use AI.
So I love how I also read thisthe other day when AI was first
being developed, yes, you neededthe coders and you needed these
software engineers, but it hasgotten to the level where it is
easy to use.
(19:33):
So I think maybe that'sactually part of the fear too.
Right, there is someintimidation factor when
somebody says AI of like I justdon't know what that is, but
when they jump in, they're goingto realize, oh, it's not as
complicated as I thought it was.
And if you jump in, like youknow, it's like literally 15
minutes a day, 20 minutes a day,you're going to start using it
(19:57):
pretty well.
Day, you're going to startusing it pretty well.
But at the next level, theadvice would be let's show you
how to use it at a deeper level.
Right, based on ourconversation that we talked
about at the beginning, if nineout of 10 people are just using
it as a glorified Google search,that's, you're not going to
maximize it.
Yes, it'll help you to acertain extent, but it's yes,
it'll help you to a certainextent, but you're like the tip,
(20:18):
tip, tip of the iceberg of whatit can do.
So I would recommend to anyexecutives.
It's like hey look, there's somany resources out there.
There are executive coacheslike myself, like you, that are
teaching entrepreneurs how touse it.
And start first with yourselfand then how do you introduce it
to your teams?
(20:39):
And start first with yourselfand then how do you introduce it
to your teams.
That's actually why we startedsystem and soul ai, because
we're noticing again, a lot ofpeople are talking about ai but
their the adoption rate is notas high as you think.
It is right.
Um, you know it's interestingbecause you and I are circles,
like we're talking about it, soyou think everybody's talking
about it.
But I have this analogy it'slike climbing a mountain and the
(21:02):
people at that level of themountain they've all used it,
but when I turn around, there'sall these other people that
haven't even touched it.
Um, so it's one of those of um,you use it first and then see
how you can introduce it to yourteam and see how it can really
streamline your systems.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Yes, especially for business and I say this I say
that people are using ai like acalculator, when it's actually a
super duper, very smartcomputer you know, and that's,
that's um, that that's what, andand actually, and actually my
last article was talking aboutthat we don't have an AI
(21:43):
leadership crisis, like, I guess, leaders.
They are just shoving AI ontheir teams without preparing
them for the real changemanagement.
That is more psychological thananything else.
You know, they are just pushingit down their throat and that's
why some people have adversityto it.
If you would suggest one AItool that every executive should
(22:08):
start try first, I rememberwhen I introduced my husband to
sushi, I made him eat Californiaroll first because it was like
the easiest entry to sushi.
So if that analogy, analogy wewould do it a tool for ai, what
would you suggest an executiveum tool he can have?
Speaker 1 (22:28):
well, I, I'm definitely biased with the chat
gpt and I keep telling peoplelike it's the baby of ai.
Uh, I know people.
Some people say what do youmean baby?
It's like because it's it's theeasiest to use.
The good news, too it's thebasis for a lot of them.
Right, it's like it because itwas the one that was developed
the fastest at the beginning.
(22:49):
A lot of the other platformsemulated it, so if you can learn
how to use chat gpt, then youcan use a lot of the other
platforms.
And again, for securitypurposes.
That's why I like ChatGPTbecause it was easy to do that
toggling off on your data.
And again, I feel it has gonefurther along because of the
(23:15):
fact that it's been around.
So that is my recommendation.
I think it's fun, and that'sanother thing.
So just like, have fun with it,exactly.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
You know best memory by far on all of them.
I mean I tried all of them.
It's the best memory ever andit's the highest emotionally
intelligent platform so far.
I mean, Claude is secondanthropic, but Chad Gipity is
still the most.
It's like your bff.
(23:44):
Sometimes you know it's a.
So, before we wrap up, whatwould you tell other coaches
like you that maybe are not deepin ai or um, they want to
explain what ai to uh to theirclients without feeling that
they're not authentic, withoutfeeling that they are cheating.
Because, believe it or not, allthese thoughts were in my brain
(24:04):
Like am I cheating?
Am I not being authentic?
Am I not good enough?
That's why I have to have likea cane to walk on.
You know what I mean.
What would be pearls of wisdomfrom you going through what you
went through the whole last yearabout AI?
Before we wrap, what would yousay?
Speaker 1 (24:23):
uh, interesting, because it's.
You know, the other day, when Idid have a session in person,
someone had this point of view,before that you were.
It was plagiarism, right, thatthey're creating something that
wasn't theirs.
And that's when I explained.
It's like, well, if, if I canshow you how to use it first,
you'll realize that.
That's when I explained.
It's like, well, if I can showyou how to use it first, you'll
realize that that's not the case, because of how much human
(24:45):
input, how much of your inputhas to come into it.
So I think once they see that,then they'll just get a
re-clarification.
And again, I think everything'sabout mind shifting.
How do we support individualsto shift their point of view
from something that at thebeginning they actually don't
know much about but they've justheard?
So it's giving them a hands-onexperience and like, let me show
(25:11):
you.
And then, secondly, it reallyis about again, like, see, well,
it's a tool tool, right, it'slike any other tool that we've
got.
Uh, you use tools, like youjust said, it's like to get
somewhere from a to b.
I'm going to use my car, right.
And and we use analogies of inthe past where, again, I'm going
(25:33):
to go back as we had horsesright or we started from walking
, we had horses.
We have cars right.
Next thing you know, now we'vegot the self-driving cars.
Yeah, so everything's inevolution.
And I always love I actually useGame of Thrones analogy, uh,
for my classes as like having anAI I'm gonna call it a
companion is like having adragon in Game of Thrones, and I
(25:58):
use the dragon analogy becauseto so someone can see how
massive it is right.
So think of just that series,the ones who have the dragons,
have the power right.
You can fly with it, you needto, but you need to master your
dragon.
And so, in this context as well, it's like would you rather
have one or not?
(26:19):
Because and it's one, andhere's the next piece it's
available to anybody.
It literally is such a thingabout leveling a playing field
and, unfortunately, if you don'tknow how to use it, you
actually will be left behind.
So that's almost like the prosand cons of if there is is fear,
you should be more afraid ofnot using it absolutely.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
And, like I said earlier, people say that it's
going to take jobs.
It's gonna people with aiskills are going to replace that
, those jobs.
It's not ai, it's going toreplace the job.
So, um lizzie, this was so muchfun.
How can people reach you?
Speaker 1 (26:57):
you can reach me on linkedin.
You can look up liz espinoza.
You can reach me on my website,uh www, soul and system aicom,
and you can find me also oninstagram, liz espinoza, um, but
I think the easiest one rightnow would be linkedin website
and we're here to support.
(27:18):
There's so much for this spaceright now and I think we really
do need to.
I love what you're doing rightwhen it comes to getting this
message out, because this reallyis changing so quickly as well
that we need to.
If I can help as manyentrepreneurs get on board as
quickly as possible, then youknow.
(27:39):
Again, I feel like I didsomething to support someone
else's growth.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Beautiful.
Thank you so much, lizzie.
It was so much fun having youtoday on my podcast, ai Cafe
Conversations, and I'm going toput all your information in the
description of the episode ofthe episode.
Uh, it's going to be episodesix on season two that will be
(28:05):
released on um july, to be julythe 9th.
So, uh, I can't wait, you know,for people to uh really enjoy
this episode.
I had a lot of fun.
I hope you did too, and thankyou so much for being here with
me today.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Absolutely.
It was an honor and I love itthat you call me Lizzy.
Yeah, I always call you Lizzy.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Okay, my audience, I love you.
Those that love AI CafeConversations, as you know,
please subscribe, share it witha friend.
Show me love like it, share it.
This is Sahar, your AIwhisperer, and I'll see you in
the next episode.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Awesome, this is Sahar, your AI whisperer, and
I'll see you in the next episode.
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