How to maintain the human touch when using AI to grow your business

Can AI really help you grow your business? And can it ever really be used with integrity so that the output sounds like you and feels authentic? These are some of the big questions I ask my latest podcast guest Michelle Thames. She’s a marketing expert and knows all there is to know about AI. In this brand new episode she shares her top tips for saving time and money with AI whilst maintaining a human touch.   KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST   If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.   LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE Connect with Michelle on Instagram, Facebook Connect with Teresa on Website, The Club, Sign up to Teresa's email list,  Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter   Transcript Teresa: [00:00:00] If you're a business owner, you literally can't go. a couple of posts without someone talking about AI and what it can do for our business. But is it really true? Can using AI save us loads of time, loads of money, and most importantly, without it looking like it's AI? Because that's the thing, isn't it? We don't want AI written stuff and images that look like they've been made with AI. Can it really do that stuff? So today I am talking to the lovely Michelle Thames, who is a marketing expert, who is a passionate fan of AI and what it can do for our businesses. So we get into the weeds of using AI for marketing, what kind of things you can get it to do and how most importantly, you can get it to sound like you and not a robot. Hello, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. I am Terese Heath- Wareing, your host. And I am so glad you've decided to spend your time listening to me today. I'm guessing you're doing something else while listening. I always do. So in the morning, when I get ready, I always have my phone propped up in my bathroom and I am listening or watching. I'm really into watching YouTube at the moment. I'm learning things to do with the business, to do with [00:02:00] myself. I actually, just as a side note, by the way, I have my human design done. wondering if anyone else has had theirs done, come and DM me if you have. And if you love it, I love all this kind of stuff. Now someone is probably sat there going, what's human design? And I'm going to start to explain it. And you're probably going to go, what really? But you know, I'm into like, you know, I like a bit of woo. I don't mind this stuff. So human design is based on the time, the place and the date in which you were born. That's as much as I can tell you because I'm not an expert, but I'm a projector. Okay. So if you are an expert in human design or you have done your own, just so you know, I'm a projector, come and tell me what you are. So I've been watching a lot of them on YouTube at the moment, explaining to me what it means. Anyway. So I'm guessing as you're listening to this, you are doing something else. So again, why not come and DM me and tell me or comment on one of my posts and tell me where you listen to the podcast. Cause I like to know, cause I'm very naturally nosy, which is good. Because I interview people and that's quite a [00:03:00] helpful skill. Okay. Today we have an interview, which is awesome. Now, a couple of weeks back, we had Holly on talking about AI and it was general AI just talking about, you know, what it does and what it is and, and big AI and fancy AI and all that sort of thing. And today I have the lovely Michelle Thames on. Now, Michelle is a marketing trailblazer, an acclaimed podcast and a trusted monetization strategist with a passion for empowering women entrepreneurs. She has established herself as a dominant voice in the digital marketing space. Michelle also spoke at my summit, so I had her to come and speak at the summit, and she talked about AI at the summit, and that's where I wanted her back on, but she's going to talk about AI in a very different way, she is going to talk about marketing and AI, so we are going to dive much deeper into how is it saving us time, how can it save us money, I have to say, if you've listened for a while, you know, I've been in this space for a very long time. I [00:04:00] did my degree in marketing 20 years ago and have worked in marketing my entire life. And the stuff that AI can do now would have cost thousands years ago, not even that many years ago, like literally two, three years ago, it would have cost so much money. As business owners I think we often kind of go, it's hard and things are hard and it is hard. Boy is some of this stuff easier than it ever was. So I for one, I'm very grateful, but Michelle has basically built her marketing agency and her marketing business on using AI and she uses it for so many things. So in this episode today, we are going to dive into What AI can do for our business, how we can use it for marketing and how we make sure it doesn't always sound like AI. Cause that is one of the downfalls to it, is that sometimes we can spot AI very quickly. So I really think you're going to enjoy this episode. She has some really useful tips. [00:05:00] If you find it useful, I would love to hear it. Please go and check out Michelle as well. We will make sure we hook up to all of the links in the show notes, which you can find them at teresaheathwareing.com/363. Here is the lovely Michelle. Michelle, welcome to the podcast. Michelle: I'm so excited to be here. So excited to chat today. Teresa: Me too. Me too. So I always thought the podcast the same way and I keep saying I'm going to change it and I will change it, but I haven't got, got round to that. So let's start as I normally do, by you explaining who you are and how you got to do the thing that you do today. Michelle: Yes. I am Michelle Thames. I'm from Chicago. It is the windy city, but it's beautiful in the summer. I am a marketing strategist and business coach and how I got started is really crazy. I actually have a background in healthcare administration. You know, I went to school, got a job like they say, do, you know, go to school, get a job and worked in healthcare, but it wasn't for me, unfortunately, unfortunately, I was fired from my job in [00:06:00] healthcare and it really pushed me into my passions. And so I was already blogging on the side, doing beauty blogging and really figuring out this digital world. Back in 2008, 2009, we're like, this was all so new to people. And I got the opportunity and was found online because of my blog and everything to work for a beauty brand that was up and coming. And I got to help them build their social media foundation, their digital foundation, everything from email, social, digital, influencer marketing. I got to learn so many different things. And I was like, oh my goodness, I could totally like do this for myself too and do this for more people. And so I started a marketing agency with my husband and that's where I am today. And I also help women build businesses online, whether that's you're a solopreneur, whether you're an author, you are a dentist and you want to create a brand like building a personal brand in today's age, it's like something really amazing that we can do and we can make money being ourselves. So I like to equip people with those skills and say, Hey, you can monetize off your skills and expertise, but you have to be able to market [00:07:00] yourself too. So I do a little bit of everything on a podcast just like you, but that's, that's who I am. Teresa: So there's a couple of things I want to pick up on that first off. You and your husband working together. Was that scary? Well, there's a couple of questions I've got like, first off, both of you going into a business and therefore I'm assuming no other income coming into the house. Was that terrifying? And secondly, how do you manage working with your husband? Michelle: Yeah, no, I really love working with my husband. He loves social media, just like me. It's really crazy. We're like marketing nerds and it was scary. I'm not even going to lie, but I had asked my husband, could I quit my job? And he told me that I totally could. I was like, you know what? I got a plan. We're going to be fine. I just like, believe that, you know, we're going to have faith. And like, what we're going to put into is going to work. He used to work in education. So he was a teacher and it was just really stressful. And one day he came home. He was like, I don't, I don't think I can do this anymore. And I was like, Quit. We'll figure it out. And we've been figuring it out for the last, he has been home three years, and I've been doing this for...