AI in Business: From Tool to Personal Assistant for Entrepreneurs with Michelle Hamilton
From glassblowing studios to AI boardrooms, Michelle Hamilton shares how she turned decades of commercial real estate experience into actionable AI strategies for businesses of all sizes. This episode explores how entrepreneurs can use AI in business as a personal assistant to improve productivity, protect intellectual property, and support business growth.
Michelle, founder and CEO of Spark AI Strategy and AI Class Lab, dives into the intersection of art, creativity, and artificial intelligence. She explains how entrepreneurs, especially women entrepreneurs, can use AI tools to scale their businesses, protect their intellectual property, and amplify their ideas and expertise without losing the human creativity that makes their work unique.
You’ll hear practical examples of how AI can become a true business partner for productivity, strategy, and business growth, from building personalized knowledge libraries with tools like NotebookLM and Gemini to using AI assistants for research, project planning, and everyday decision-making.
Michelle also shares why taking a human-centered approach to AI matters now more than ever. Instead of replacing people, she shows how the right AI strategy can free you from repetitive work so you can focus on relationships, creativity, and the decisions that actually move your business forward.
If you’ve been curious about AI but aren’t sure where to start, or you’re ready to use it more strategically in your business, this episode will give you practical ideas you can start using right away to work smarter, protect your expertise, and move closer to that million-dollar milestone.
Chapters:
🚀 02:23 How AI Can Support Women Entrepreneurs on the Path to $1M
🎨 03:43 Why Creative Thinking Makes You Better at Using AI
🤖 08:37 Turn AI Into Your Personal Assistant (Even Without a Team)
🧠 10:21 Run Multiple AI Assistants to Improve Your Results
📚 11:47 Build an AI Knowledge Library That Captures Your Expertise
🔐 14:34 The Truth About AI Privacy and Protecting Your Ideas
👥 20:37 Why the Best AI Strategies Start With People, Not Technology
🌍 28:01 AI Is the Great Equalizer: What That Means for Entrepreneurs
💡 34:40 Use AI to Unlock the Hidden Value in Your Content
🛠 41:53 Simple Ways to Start Using AI in Your Business Today
Links:
Website: www.sparkaistrategy.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/michellehamiltonai
Connect with Michelle Hamilton to explore AI strategy, access educational resources through AI Class Lab, and learn how to leverage AI for business growth while keeping creativity and people at the center of innovation.
Thank you to our podcast sponsor
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Reach out to Adrienne: hello@sheleadsmedia.com
Visit our website: www.sheleadsmedia.com to learn about upcoming events or to work with me directly and get the clarity you’re seeking.
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— Adrienne
- (02:23) - 🚀 How AI Can Support Women Entrepreneurs on the Path to $1M
- (03:43) - 🎨 Why Creative Thinking Makes You Better at Using AI
- (08:37) - 🤖 Turn AI Into Your Personal Assistant (Even Without a Team)
- (10:21) - 🧠 Run Multiple AI Assistants to Improve Your Results
- (11:47) - 📚 Build an AI Knowledge Library That Captures Your Expertise
- (14:34) - 🔐 The Truth About AI Privacy and Protecting Your Ideas
- (20:37) - 👥 Why the Best AI Strategies Start With People, Not Technology
- (28:01) - 🌍 AI Is the Great Equalizer: What That Means for Entrepreneurs
- (34:40) - 💡 Use AI to Unlock the Hidden Value in Your Content
- (41:53) - 🛠 Simple Ways to Start Using AI in Your Business Today
Want to meet more amazing women like the guests featured on The She Leads Podcast? Then come to She Leads LIVE 2024 - October 17 - 19th in NYC 🍎 !
Early Bird Tickets are ON SALE NOW for She Leads LIVE 2024 so register TODAY!
02:23 - 🚀 How AI Can Support Women Entrepreneurs on the Path to $1M
03:43 - 🎨 Why Creative Thinking Makes You Better at Using AI
08:37 - 🤖 Turn AI Into Your Personal Assistant (Even Without a Team)
10:21 - 🧠 Run Multiple AI Assistants to Improve Your Results
11:47 - 📚 Build an AI Knowledge Library That Captures Your Expertise
14:34 - 🔐 The Truth About AI Privacy and Protecting Your Ideas
20:37 - 👥 Why the Best AI Strategies Start With People, Not Technology
28:01 - 🌍 AI Is the Great Equalizer: What That Means for Entrepreneurs
34:40 - 💡 Use AI to Unlock the Hidden Value in Your Content
41:53 - 🛠 Simple Ways to Start Using AI in Your Business Today
Leadership isn't just changing. It's evolving in ways we're only just beginning to imagine. And women, we're not playing this game anymore. We're the ones reshaping the entire field, building models, movements, and businesses that serve more than just a few. On the She Leads podcast, you'll hear real conversations with women who've broken through all kinds of barriers, revenue, identity, orders, and expectations.
Adrienne Garland:There's no sugarcoating here, just the truth told by those who are living it. I'm Adrienne Garland, entrepreneur, strategist, educator, and creator of live experiences, gathering women leaders together for over a decade. And this is the She Leads podcast. Hello, everyone. I would like to kick off today's episode with just a couple of asks.
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Adrienne Garland:So if you're a brand or product that sells in the retail or ecommerce space, you'll want to be there. You can pitch your business and learn from the media and get your brand the coverage that you deserve. Tickets are available on Eventbrite, and we'll put the link in the show notes. Okay, everyone. We are back with another episode of the She Leads podcast.
Adrienne Garland:And today, we're going to dive into how AI can be your true personal assistant on the journey to growing your business to the $1,000,000 mark in revenue and beyond. My next guest, Michelle Hamilton, is the founder and CEO of Spark AI Strategy and AI Class Lab, two firms dedicated to solving the AI adoption gap for companies and regular people alike. Michelle spent 30 years in the commercial real estate and architecture, engineering, and construction sectors. And now her mission is to bridge the divide between high level corporate AI roadmaps and how humans and companies actually can benefit from AI. Michelle leverages her deep industry expertise to help small and mid sized businesses to leverage AI for competitive advantage.
Adrienne Garland:So Michelle, welcome to the She Leads podcast.
Michelle Hamilton:Thanks, Adrienne. I'm so happy to be here. This is really fun.
Adrienne Garland:Oh, I'm so happy to speak with you today. I mean, AI is the topic of conversation everywhere that you go. I wanted to actually kick off today's conversation with you giving a little bit of a background about who you are and how you went from your journey in the commercial real estate world into AI.
Michelle Hamilton:Okay, well I will actually I'm gonna step back even a little further than that because I do have to tell you I came from an incredibly unexpected beginning and that I happen to have a double master's degree one in glassblowing the other in ceramics started my career a professor and have maintained a very active art business for the last forty years. That actually though really led me to understanding how to explain to people really complex topics and help them to understand how to see how something works. Commercial real estate, believe it or not, was a phenomenal fit for that, especially when it comes to the built environment and the importance of the space that we all live in, work in, and celebrate in. And so I enjoyed 30 years of success, like you said, working in that space for architects, construction management, engineers. It brought me incredible joy.
Michelle Hamilton:I spent most of that time focused on business development and marketing and leadership. Ironically, before anybody had heard of ChatGPT, my son happened to be in college, and he sent me an early version of it. He got a beta version. Nobody had heard of it yet and said, mom, let's play with this together. He was in college still.
Michelle Hamilton:And he said, let's play with this together. I think we could really do something exciting. So fast forward 4.5 years, he now works for Boeing in the procurement and AI space, and I started a couple of AI companies so you can learn something from your kids even when they're unexpected.
Adrienne Garland:Oh my goodness. So this is definitely an unexpected fact about you being an an artist. And I am probably your soul sister at this point because I don't know if you know a lot about me. I I talk about it on the podcast, but I'm professor right now. And I actually teach entrepreneurship at 2 different colleges.
Adrienne Garland:So it's it's all about conceptualizing new ideas, solving problems for people. And my dad was an art teacher in his career and I feel so connected to, you know, just art, but specifically ceramics. It's like where my heart is. So when you said that, I just lit up. I so this conversation was gonna be fun from an AI perspective, and now there's a whole other layer to it that I I'm I'm so happy.
Adrienne Garland:It's like it's alignment. Right? It's this is meant to be.
Michelle Hamilton:It is. And it's that creative piece that I think people find rather unexpected. But as an artist, and I I suspect that, you know, with you having a father in that space, if you can envision something, if you can create in your head first how to come out with something at the end, AI is so similar to that. It really starts as a cerebral project, and then you are able to envision it and then roll it forward. And so for me, those both tap into, first of all, the most joyous parts of my brain, but also the parts that really do love to unpack and understand complex topics and make approachable.
Adrienne Garland:So good. Yeah. And and being in the commercial real estate space and understanding how these businesses need to, you know, move and and operate so that they can be as efficient as possible. And also, I hope as human as possible is it's just so incredible how you bring all of those things together. And I, you know, it's it's funny because I do think that as, you know, technology develops more and more, it's these tools.
Adrienne Garland:Right? And you we can't lose that human creativity element because no matter how sophisticated technology gets, there's, you know, all of these inputs that human beings are receiving simultaneously that I think, you know, lend themselves to what our creativity is and AI is not there yet. I'm not saying it will never get there because it probably will. But it doesn't right now have that element of creative thought that we do. So I just I love that.
Adrienne Garland:And I wanted to kind of go down a path of understanding for AI. I'm like trying to think of like, I I want us to take a look at AI and really think about it as a tool. And specifically, the women that are listening into this show, they're growing their businesses. They're scaling their businesses. And, you know, often women in general, entrepreneurs are under resourced, right, from a financial perspective, from a help perspective.
Adrienne Garland:And then on top of it, I just read something in Forbes in in December that women avoid asking for help. And there was a research study that was done by Harris Poll and Duckbill, which I believe is a a blog that said that 47 percent of women avoid asking for help to prevent burdening others. And I think we can, you know, I think we can all relate to that. And so AI seems to be able to offer so much promise in that realm, and I I wanna talk about that. And the other thing that I wanna talk about is I know for myself, I spend a lot of time with AI prompting and iterating and correcting it and and doing all of these things so that I can get what I want out of it.
Adrienne Garland:And then I say to myself, did I really save any time? Oh my gosh. So, you know It is easy
Michelle Hamilton:to go down that rabbit hole.
Adrienne Garland:Yeah. How do we how do we sort of balance that? How do we truly, truly leverage AI so that we can help ourselves to grow and expand our businesses so that we can get back to that million dollars faster and better.
Michelle Hamilton:What I love is that you're spending the time really focused on the women in the entrepreneurial space. And to be honest with you, those are some of the most super users because they innately already hold some of the secrets to getting AI to perform best for you. We are all used to wearing so many hats, thinking through workflows, excuse me, communicating, talking out, really describing what we want, and don't have the teams to support us. Right? And so what I love about the idea of AI is that you can create these, let's call them personal assistant type relationships.
Michelle Hamilton:In general, I have four to five bots running simultaneously on different projects, different conversations, or on the same conversation because I get them to compete with each other. I'm doing less of the human and the loop checking, and I am forcing them to cite each other on the incorrections, the hallucinations. But it is those entrepreneurs who have already scoped their vision. They have already spoken to the universe about who am I and what do I want for myself. Now they can take that same skill set, that same brilliance, and apply it to an AI strategy.
Michelle Hamilton:But you're right. It does require understanding how are you going to be prompting, how are you also going to be capturing your own intellectual property so that you can repeat that? And I'll give you one clue that will help you when you're talking about going down that type of rabbit hole. I have my clients set up for them intellectual property libraries where they have captured not only prompts and workflows that have worked, but also capturing their voices, capturing their ideal approach to either communication, data analysis, research, whatever that might be. Those documents themselves then can easily be uploaded to a conversation so that when you are working through a new task, you can in fact turn to your bot and say, I have uploaded an example of me.
Michelle Hamilton:This is how I communicate. This is what I expect you to not only respect from a brand standard, but also apply to this workflow. It ends up saving you a lot of time, and then you can take that same information and continue to build your intellectual property so that it is documenting exactly what your journey looks like. And you'll be amazed at how quickly that library begins to fill up, and then you can use that library in unbelievable ways like a NotebookLM. And if you're not using that yet, Adrian, you absolutely should.
Michelle Hamilton:It is gold when it comes to your intellectual property. It becomes your bible for everything you do moving forward as an entrepreneur because you are continuously training it only on you. It does not train all of your information, by the way, in a product like Notebook stays exactly where you put it. It does not train the model. It does not escape the the tenant of your conversation.
Michelle Hamilton:It is only trained on what you've trained it on. So you can then begin to really lean into and build out your team of bots that become your chief of staff, your executive assistant, your marketing manager. I think it's important to have people in your life to help you with those things, but building out that type of relationship is an amazing first start.
Adrienne Garland:Oh my gosh. This is this is gold. And I I think I'm probably gonna ask you 50 questions just on what you just said. I I think the whole entire podcast can be about everything that you just said. Because I I do think that and I'm I think I'm channeling a lot of conversations that I've had with women over the years about AI in different scenarios.
Adrienne Garland:So some of the statements that I'm going to make come out of of those conversations. I do know that many women are sort of, maybe afraid that their intellectual property will be, you know, taken or that somehow their privacy will be violated. And in things like when I first started using Fathom on Zoom, there were several people that said, do not record because they don't want this like, I don't know where this information is going. How do you know where this information is going? Why do you trust it?
Adrienne Garland:You know, all of that kind of stuff. And, I mean, while I I also agree with that point of view, it also prevents the exploration of this type of technology. And I don't want to be the type of woman that says, Well, I don't understand this technology, so I'm not going to use it. Right.
Michelle Hamilton:Yeah. Agree with you about that. You know, I will also tell you, I'm just not that interesting. There isn't much for it to steal from me. I know the you know, I you don't put bank account information up there.
Michelle Hamilton:You don't put Social Security. You don't put HIPAA related information up there. But I can promise your listeners, your computer your AI and the rest of the world knows way more about you if you ever touch a social media tool or if you have ever sent an email those are going to be your first places where your data and privacy is just flying out the door. It knows where you live, it knows how you're going to vote, it knows what you're going to buy at the store. That day has long since passed.
Michelle Hamilton:We have given permission to the world to record us And AI, if used correctly by toggling very specific tools and tool sets by investing in paid models, will protect you actually far better than your use of social media or even the dangers of email.
Adrienne Garland:Yeah. And even even apps that you're downloading onto your phone, you you can't even download an app without agreeing to all the privacy and what they wanna do with it. So you're right, that ship has sailed, honey.
Michelle Hamilton:Yes, it has. And really truly, there just isn't much to steal for me. I mean, there really isn't. So I'm fine with it. I have all of my privacy set up appropriately and have invested in paid tools, but I'm also a big believer that you shouldn't invest in all the tools.
Michelle Hamilton:You shouldn't throw all the money at it. Need to be really smart about what are your goals, what are you trying to achieve, and then determine what is a measured step by step methodology to using AI. And really truly, Adrienne, it is the first thing I turn on in the morning and the last thing I turn off at the end of the day because I spend probably 70% of my day speaking out loud to AI, the other 30% typing. For me, it was mostly because my mouth and my brain move way faster than my hands could ever possibly type. But when I'm in the car, I am talking to it saying, I just met with this person.
Michelle Hamilton:I just had this meeting. I need you to go and do this research for me. I need you to start building out my thank you notes. I need you to, you know, begin to compare and contrast my competitor or compare and contrast my target. Help me to align myself right now so that when I get to the office, I am ready to go.
Michelle Hamilton:It's like keeping my personal assistant in the car with me when I'm stuck in traffic. I get more work done during that time sometimes because I'm just a captured audience sitting and either talking back and forth with it in voice mode or just hitting the dictate button and just saying, I need you to start writing all of this down. And my husband who says I use too many words sometimes, my AI doesn't care how many words I use.
Adrienne Garland:No. Yes. Well, you know, that is a criticism of women, which is unfortunate because it's it's cap it's like couched as a negative. And it's it's actually a positive because we're seeking clarity. We use more words because we wanna make sure that whoever it is that we're communicating with understands us.
Adrienne Garland:So it's actually a strength even though the patriarchy would have us think that it is, you know, it's slowing things down. No. It's actually helping us to get clarity so that we can go farther faster. And the the promise for of AI for me is is is this. So women do not get to that million dollar mark in their business anywhere near the the same percentage that met you know, male owned businesses do.
Adrienne Garland:And there there was this book that was written and I actually know the author. She's an amazing journalist, Elaine Pofelt. And she wrote a book called the $1,000,000 one person business. And so she profiled a whole bunch of different businesses that were able to have million dollar businesses with, you know, just sort of the owner. And it was, you know, hiring ten ninety nine people, strategic partnerships, and the like.
Adrienne Garland:And the the thought about AI being able to create even more one person, $1,000,000 businesses is something that I'm really, really interested in exploring, but I want the percentages of those businesses to be women owned businesses. So in addition to almost being like a a personal assistant, are there any other scenarios for all of the people, the companies that you've been in and training and and just people in general that you've seen that have been able to really leverage AI to either start businesses or grow them substantially over the last, you know, year or so.
Michelle Hamilton:Right. So I am fortunate enough that, as you said in in your opener, I I work with SMBs. I also have some phenomenal enterprise clients and mid market. And I will tell you, the firms that have absolutely been the most successful in their AI use and their AI use practices are the firms where the ownership leadership says, this is a people change management issue.
Adrienne Garland:This
Michelle Hamilton:is a people first problem. I need Spark to work with my IT, my CIO so that we are aligning on tools and safety, but then let's begin to unpack what are the specific KPIs for individual departments, department heads, and contributors? What do their jobs look like? What takes more than fifteen minutes on a regular basis to perform, and how can you begin to apply an AI lens to that? And, really, that is why I ended up starting Spark because of all of the years of being in leadership and seeing teams struggle with communicating with each other, spending eight, nine, ten hours a day focused on this little tiny screen, and they've stopped communicating with other people.
Michelle Hamilton:They've stopped connecting the dots, communicating with their, you know, their network where AI is really going to be remarkable and the companies that I see being the most successful, and this is across the board, are the ones that take that human first approach that say, we want you to use this for some of your knowledge work, and then we want you out of your chair communicating with your colleagues, communicating with your clients, and helping us to build the business. We're not bringing AI in to replace you. We want you to be an even more profound human being and the work that you do with other human beings. And so building on that, that allows you to both be the human in the loop and oversee and be an integral part of what the AI is doing, but it also allows you to expand your knowledge and expand your relationships. And that's where I am seeing some of the greatest success is people that understand you need to figure out what is the ROI.
Michelle Hamilton:Where was I first? How can I apply AI to this? And now what does it look like after? And documenting that. I mean, it it does become a data analysis project, but it's also really fascinating because when you begin to figure out what are those processes that I'm doing again and again and again that takes so much time, I don't wanna take those out of your hand, but I do want to expedite those and allow you to really be the brilliant human that can focus in on the parts and the pieces of that that really make the biggest difference for either the company or frankly your personal life.
Adrienne Garland:Hey, everyone. So for years, I've been working with Dr. Kent and sending people in my network his way. He does so much impact work. What do I mean by that? Well, he helps people create books and podcasts and things like that.
Adrienne Garland:He even helps with this podcast behind the scenes. Dr. Kent is my thought partner. Anyone listening knows that we all need to do what we can to get our thoughts, opinions, and voices out into the world and how important it is for women to invest in other women and for women to hire other women. I am all about that and you all know that. But in this case, I think Dr. Kent is an exception.
Adrienne Garland:He's doing something really different via this new program that he's launched called the Genius Discovery Program. So he wants to work with people like me and like you who are impact driven. Dr. Kent has an intensive program that goes for a month. He also has a three month program where he figures out where you're headed with your brand, your business, your speaking, and your signature story as a thought leader.
Adrienne Garland:I've known Dr. Kent for a long time. So believe me when I say that he has a ton of experience working with people that are looking to make an impact but might not know exactly how to approach them. So if you're interested in talking to him, you can go directly to talktokent.com, or you can send me a DM on Instagram at She Leads Media, or just shoot me an email over at hello@SheLeadsMedia.com. That's so fascinating, and I'm enraptured by what you're saying because I feel like it offers a lot of promise as as long as the promise is is true.
Adrienne Garland:But to, you know, to use this tool that is not human, to be more human is such a beautiful thing. And we have gotten so far away from our humanity because we've been drawn in by, you know, social media, which is really not social. It's it's isolating. And and a lot of the repetitive tasks that we that we do and things we have to type and admin work, it it, you know, like, in the simplest form, reminds me of, you know, women's unpaid labor in the home where women are are doing whatever, the laundry, the dishes, all of that. And, you know, if you just sort of hire someone out to help with those things, then the the woman who's working can go off and, you know, maybe start a business or, you know, grow her business or expand relationships because that's the stuff that prevents her from doing so.
Adrienne Garland:So the way that you're describing the use of AI in this way, it removes some of those things that sort of keep you chained to your desk so that you can go out and build relationships so that when you're starting businesses, you can get out of the office and actually go talk to your customers and see what they actually want or, or, you know, where, where are the problems that they're having? You can't get those type of insights unless you're speaking to somebody. And, you know, unfortunately, since COVID happened and everybody separated from one another, we got into this place where we got comfortable not going out. And I I do find that it's it's more difficult for people to sort of get out and they don't necessarily know how to have relationships with one another like we used to. Like, they just everything now I feel like has to be productive.
Adrienne Garland:We're so hyper focused on productivity. Where is the humanity in that?
Michelle Hamilton:Well, and I love that you used the example of the woman that chooses to either stay home and raise her family, stay home and work from home. One of the things I love too about AI is that it truly is the great equalizer. So if you think about underrepresented communities, you think about women who are in those typically underappreciated roles, AI doesn't care what you look like. It doesn't care what neighborhood you grow up grew up in. It doesn't care how much money you made or even your education.
Michelle Hamilton:What it cares about is what's your idea and how can we work together to get you there. It is not hyper Google, and it has unbelievable power. And it has the power to do really beautiful things and support our world. It also has the power to destroy. And so part of my mission is to absolutely help people to become the best AI users that they can be for who they are in life and where they want to go.
Michelle Hamilton:We all have a different path and a different journey, but I really love that AI doesn't care who you are. It is the great equalizer, and I think it really brings about this beautiful serendipity of communities being able to work together, and you don't even know who they are. It is the brilliance of the human behind it and working with the AI.
Adrienne Garland:Again, another incredible way to leverage technology that I feel like has been kept out of the hands of the people that can really, really benefit from it. I would love to know of, you know, a case study, a scenario where AI was able to help people to escape poverty, or to, you know, bring greater health and outcomes to a certain community. That's definitely something that I'm gonna be on the lookout for. I do recall some news story that I heard about a very remote area where a lot of people had, I believe, tuberculosis and it spreads very, very quickly. And it's difficult to get to any type of a clinic in this particular area to assess.
Adrienne Garland:And then when one person in the family has tuberculosis, then oftentimes the whole family gets it and terrible outcomes and everything. And there was, you know, there was some type of innovation that it was a portable way to test for tuberculosis that you just sort of fed whatever into this model that was able to tell whether you had tuberculosis within, you know, two hours instead of a week. And so it dramatically changed the outcome in this story that I read specifically for a family where the mom had it and all of her children had it and they would have died had they not been this AI technology had not been utilized. So that's definitely one, but there needs to be more and more leveraging of AI and for people to not be intimidated to use it or to think that it's only for writing essays. You know, so many people are are just using it to improve their writing, you know, maybe send emails.
Adrienne Garland:Yeah. How do we get out of that? How do we get into using AI so that it is helping us to solve some of the challenges that we're having in our lives? What what do you suggest for maybe anybody that's listening or that is involved in any type of, community that's on the fringes or that needs help. How do you suggest that the people that need to leverage AI to improve their well-being, how do you suggest that they start to use it?
Michelle Hamilton:My favorite way is sit down with either another person. Hopefully, you've got somebody else that you can really brainstorm that with, whether it's a colleague, a trusted friend, a family member, somebody that you just feel comfortable talking to. If you don't have that person, then take your dog for a walk. Put your headphones on. But I want you to transcribe that conversation.
Michelle Hamilton:I want you to transcribe that dream and begin capturing all of the thoughts, the fears, the concerns. What do I wanna do with this? How can we begin to solve this, then you're going to actually take that transcription and feed that to your AI and say, I'd like to make this a project. We are going to start talking about how to break this apart step by step and solving this with the resources that I currently have, but you are also going to go and look for others that are trying to solve a similar problem. Help me to figure out how to connect with them.
Michelle Hamilton:Help me to figure out how to document this and then begin to build a solution. Sometimes it is that transcription approach. It allows people to forget that they are talking to AI and allows them to really sit and talk and and communicate. And like I said, you could just be walking your dog, and I do that a lot. I I do a lot of business strategy conversations with my AI walking my dog.
Adrienne Garland:And
Michelle Hamilton:conversation with your business partner, your your life partner, whoever that is, it just allows you to relax enough to dream and to talk about it. And then you can now invite AI into that conversation. From there, you're gonna be asking it to do some deep research. You're going to be asking it to cite resources, find you connections with others who are also working toward that solution, and then begin to build out a repository. A couple of the tools that I use, I'm a big Claude user.
Michelle Hamilton:Like everybody else, I use the Kleenex of AI, ChatGPT. Projects are a really important piece of both of those tools. A project is something that you can build out and continuously build toward, add information to converse with, and it builds on itself. And so when you are working through a really complex problem, that's a great place to start.
Adrienne Garland:I am fascinated. My mind is going in so many different directions. You know, I'm thinking I have so many other questions that I have, you know, kind of teed up to ask you. And I feel I feel like I'm gonna leave them aside because when I think about some of the things that women have done over the years, I feel like there's so much intelligence, insight, lessons, value in this stuff, and I feel like it's locked away. So I'm talking about even what we're doing right now.
Adrienne Garland:We are on a podcast where we're learning about one another. We're learning about a certain topic, we're hearing about someone's journey, someone's challenges, you know, someone's dreams and desires. And for me, you know, this is almost 200 episodes of conversations and also my own thoughts. So that is a body of work that is out there on the internet, but all of the different insights are are locked away in in all of those episodes unless I was smart enough at every stage along the way to be extracting those learnings and and creating something out of that, but I didn't do that. Right?
Adrienne Garland:So and then all of the women that have podcasts, all of the women that have written, you know, blogs since the very beginning, there's so much great insight and information that is specific, I think, to women that's sort of locked away. Can AI help to extract all of that? There's there's gold there, I think.
Michelle Hamilton:There is. There isn't. I'm trying so hard to sit on my hands so I don't dive in and interrupt you. I love your example of your 200 episodes of podcasts, and I will tell you, you and I will we'll talk about this offline another time, and I'll teach you how to do this. This is where a product like, let's say, a NotebookLM and a Gemini are going to come together so brilliantly.
Michelle Hamilton:You are going to literally be able to take all of the data from all of those podcasts and begin to utilize that data to understand not only for you what were the best performing podcasts, but what was the conversation that was woven together that really seemed to impact your listeners, the ones that really resonated with people that lit them up, that, gosh, gave them goosebumps, and they wanted to know more. You're gonna be able to extract all of that from the knowledge you already have access to today. You have access to all of that, and AI can absolutely and a very really quickly pull from that and begin to build you out a library that you can grow from that will also help you to predict what is the next best step for me. What should I go back and revisit? What were some of the most impactful topics that I can come back to?
Michelle Hamilton:Because you own that data. It is whether you have written it as a blog, you have spoken the word like you have over 200 episodes, you get to be the architect of your destiny because you saw the vision to start with and you knew enough to capture it in a podcast or a blog. It could be a journal. A handwritten journal. I mean, I show some of my clients how to just take handwritten notes.
Michelle Hamilton:Take a picture of it. Have the AI transcribe your notes and begin to turn those years of transcribed notes into a book, into a journey. Capture it into something that is so reflective of what makes you just the unbelievable unique human being that you are.
Adrienne Garland:Let's let's like really let that sink in because that is where so many women have, I think, put a lot of their value is in creating all of this helpful content for people that has probably benefited them along the way, but probably not at the level that it could. And when you were talking before, you know, all I could think of is is is revolution, you know, and and not to be radical or anything like that. But if you think of the way that change has been made in the world over, you know, centuries, it's always that power has sort of shifted to the, you know, the away from the powers that be to more the people. Right? That's that's sort of, you know, the revolution that happens.
Adrienne Garland:And if AI truly is the great equalizer, it's just sort of putting that tool into the hands of the people and just, you know, making sure that it's responsibly held as opposed to doing anything to harm anybody. We don't wanna we we want this revolution, or at least I want this next revolution to not be about harming others in order to, you know, ascend to the top over someone. I would like this next revolution to be more about humanity and equalizing and for everybody to have a voice because, I mean, not to be I mean, I'm going off on a complete tangent, but in, in order for, you know, this world to truly be human, we need so many of the people that are voiceless to, to share their voice. And there's so much beauty there. There's, there's so much, you know, diversity.
Adrienne Garland:There's so much culture that we just don't have access to it because it's it's not covered in the media. It's not built into the existing models. There's there's so much there that we just don't even know because we're not exposed to it. So I'm hoping that this next, like, evolution or revolution is is truly going to be about evolving and not just trying to to take down the powers that be. Although, I I do think that some of the powers that be do need to be taken down.
Adrienne Garland:Oh my goodness. So just a couple of other things to to touch on because I I think I could really truly go off on a tangent and ask you how to do it, and I think you could tell me. I definitely think you could. So as far also as maybe even, you know, sometimes women feel like they don't know. I hear a lot of, like, I'm just not good at math or finances scare me.
Adrienne Garland:Can you talk a little bit about how how AI can help somebody that is feeling maybe a little unsure of their knowledge base, how they can leverage AI to sort of, you know, get up to speed on something.
Michelle Hamilton:I have such a fun example for you. I am lucky enough that my parents are both still alive. They're in their middle eighties And no surprise, they are both big AI users. But when I first began to introduce them to using AI, I approached it from something that they were already doing. And for them it made it so much fun that now they apply an AI lens to their health, their wellness, their doctor's visits, kind of just everything.
Michelle Hamilton:But for my mother, I taught her how to use voice mode, upload a recipe, and then tell the voice. And by the way, I train all of my clients to name their AI bot. Mine happens to be named George, and she named hers Marjorie, by the way, after her mother's name. She actually would upload recipes from her mother, and she would say to Marjorie, Marjorie, I wanna cook something. I don't wanna touch my phone with my dirty fingers, but I would love to make this recipe so close to my heart.
Michelle Hamilton:I want you to read it to me step by step, and I'll tell you when I complete each step. And let's just have fun with this. And the bot says, oh my gosh, Linda. This is so much fun. Let's do this.
Michelle Hamilton:Okay. Let's make, let's say, a zucchini bread. Linda, go ahead and get a mixing bowl and one cup of flour. Let me know when you're done with that step. And she will make an entire recipe talking back and forth to this delightful English voice that she has chosen for herself.
Michelle Hamilton:And it is so much fun for her. They are both big role players. And so my dad recently planned a trip for three weeks, and I taught him how to use transcription with his best friend. They went with another couple to talk about the hopes and the dreams of all four people that would be on this three week unbelievable journey. What was important to every single person?
Michelle Hamilton:What did they want to get out of it? And the two of them learned how to transcribe those conversations and then use those transcriptions to now go to AI with a little more coaching from me to begin to build their dream trip. Everything, planes, trains, automobiles, restaurants, drivers, hotels, and all of the things that took into account all four people on that trip. What were their unique travel styles and what was important to them? My gosh.
Michelle Hamilton:To do that when you're planning a vacation, but now you can. Those are two just everyday use cases, but I often use those as examples because in both of those instances, I teach my clients how to translate that voice mode to preparing for an interview, preparing for a pitch, uploading a predictive disc, and getting your bot to sit and spar with you over pricing.
Adrienne Garland:Wow.
Michelle Hamilton:Planning an entire project, using transcription of working with a team, working with your client, and really capturing the details and then beginning to build out the spreadsheets, the dashboards, the full planning, and all of the communication that needs to go in between. Both of those are everyday use cases, but have such broad appeal from a business perspective.
Adrienne Garland:Oh my goodness. Michelle, this is blowing my mind, and I I feel like we could talk and talk and talk forever. How can people sort of get involved with your company, whether they're individuals, whether they have their own businesses? How can they do that? Because you seem like you are, you know, teaching and going into companies.
Adrienne Garland:And I just hear people that I know, like, how can I get Michelle on my team to help me to even to build a business from the very beginning, something that is going to be of value? So how can people just get in touch with you?
Michelle Hamilton:Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you. Couple of different ways. Spark AI strategy is definitely for those mid market enterprise clients.
Michelle Hamilton:Those that are really looking for someone to help them not only create their roadmap, their governance, and then train their entire team. So if you are that person and you are looking for someone that takes that human first approach with a deep respect for the technology, the safety, the data, that's where Spark is. You can go to our website. We've got so much information available on there about the way that we approach those work. And then AI Class Lab is actually for those individual contributors.
Michelle Hamilton:Right now, those are actually taught in person locally in St. Louis where I am, but my team is busy in the background currently building out a repository of library of anything that is going to be perfect, especially for the entrepreneurs and small business owners. These are gonna be easy to digest lessons, some of them free, some of them paid, but so that you can get direct support and education on what is the latest tools. I make it my mission to attend a couple of different classes a week or every morning so that I understand everything that has happened in the last twenty four hours. My job is to make sure everybody I work with is only aware of the most current information and can get rid of all of the noise because there's so much AI noise out there.
Michelle Hamilton:And now being able to lean into both of those companies, you'll be able to see some opportunities for growth and coaching for your business, whether you're big or small. I just love the idea of of supporting any businesses. With our AI class lab, we always hold free seats for nonprofits. I have a big belief that nonprofits have lost so much of their support.
Adrienne Garland:It
Michelle Hamilton:is actually the least that I can do. I I sit on boards. I try to contribute as best I can, but if I can also help nonprofits by providing some coaching, we are gonna have some special nonprofit logins so that they will have access to our tools at low cost, no cost so that they can achieve their missions as well.
Adrienne Garland:Amazing. That is such beautiful work that you're doing because I agree. I think that nonprofits really are struggling so much and they're the ones that are trying to help you know, people and communities to to be more healthy and and, you know, it's just really unfortunate that that they're struggling so much. Michelle, I cannot thank you enough for this conversation today. I feel like I have a million more questions for you.
Adrienne Garland:So I would like to invite you. Yeah. Well, I would like to invite you to come back on the the podcast because like you said, every single day, things are new and changing. And I'm especially interested in how AI can help women entrepreneurs to break through a lot of those barriers that we face right now. We have to break through them.
Adrienne Garland:I am sick of talking about what the barriers are, like, let's eradicate them. So thank you so much for the the work that you're doing, and I I can't wait to dive into everything that you're doing even more for myself personally. So we'll put all of the links for everything and for how people can get in touch with you in the show notes. And I just really, really appreciate your time and your brilliance with with us here today on the She Leads podcast.
Michelle Hamilton:Oh, Adrienne, thank you so much. This has just been such such an invigorating conversation. I've had so much fun.
Adrienne Garland:Love it. It it to be continued.
Michelle Hamilton:Yes. Perfect.
Adrienne Garland:If this conversation moved you, inspired you, or made you think differently, please take a moment to leave a five star rating and review. It's not just about boosting the show. It's about amplifying the voices of women entrepreneurs who are leading with vision, building with purpose, and shaping what's next. We need more of these conversations in the world right now, don't you think? And if someone came to mind while you were listening, someone who matters to you, send this episode to them.
Adrienne Garland:If there's something on your mind about leadership, legacy, or what's next, I want to hear it. Head to sheleadsmedia.com/voice and leave a voice memo or note. Your insight might just help shape a future episode. Make sure to follow the show and come back next week for more conversations you won't hear anywhere else. Thank you so much for listening.



















