Podcast Episode: Sustainable Meets Technology: AI Applications in Retail and Marketing

[00:00:00] Amy Auble: One of my favorite things to send in chatGPT is like, what more do you need to know so that blank, and you could definitely ask what, what more do you need to know?

[00:00:09] So that this isn’t biased. And I think sometimes we forget that we can also ask ChatGPT what other context it needs so that we can get the data from the world that we want to. 

[00:00:22] Brian AI: Are you not sure how to feel about the way AI is suddenly everywhere? AI for Helpers and Changemakers is a show for people who want to do good work and help other people, whether you already using AI tools and loving it, or you are pretty sure that chat GPT is the first sign of our downfall. We want you to listen in and learn with us.

[00:00:44] Your host on this journey is Sharon Tewksbury Bloom. For 20 years, she’s worked with helpers and changemakers. She believes that we’re about to see the biggest changes in our work lives since the internet went mainstream. We’re in this together. Join us as Sharon interviews people in different helping professions, navigate what these new technologies are doing to and for their work.

[00:01:05] Amy Auble: Hi, my name is Amy and Sharon, you and I met through a women’s group in Flagstaff, I was really looking to be connected with other business owners, specifically women and people who were driven in their careers and met at a Flagstaff Women in Leadership event.

[00:01:25] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: and what type of business do you have? 

[00:01:28] Amy Auble: Yeah, I’m really passionate about sustainability. and eco-friendly products and lifestyle habits and that kind of comes out in two different ways. The first is that I own a belt company called Jelt with my brother and their belts are made from recycled plastic. And the whole thought there is to protect the environment. the amount of plastic that is being put into landfills and turning it into something useful. they’re also great outdoor adventure belts and I love being outside for climbing, skiing and boating. they’re really low profile belts, so they work really well with adventure and movement.

[00:02:03] I’ve owned that business for just under a year. We purchased that from a woman in Bozeman named Jen and she’s really wonderful. And then the other business is called Alpine Start Media and we do marketing for sustainable brands, specifically social media, management and also content creation of videos and all fun things to bring you more followers on social media.

[00:02:26] so often when I meet small business owners, we’re the kind of people who wear multiple hats and maybe have multiple businesses.

[00:02:34] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: I also own two businesses, so I thought that made me special and unique, but it turns out it’s more the norm than not from what I can tell. 

[00:02:42] Amy Auble: yeah, I feel like it really helps. helps you think like for me, I had the marketing business first and then bought Jelt. And there’s such a benefit to owning a product based business when doing marketing for lots of product based businesses, because I understand how a business owner thinks about money and how they plan their year and what They need help with because I have that on my plate too.

[00:03:03] And so similarly, I’m like, wow, this is so cool And then it’s pretty common, but I love it I think business owners like thinking through Lots of different problems and it’s a good way to do that 

[00:03:14] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: /And did you always want to go into business for yourself? Was that like part of your path from the beginning 

[00:03:20] Amy Auble: It’s funny. I was reading something that was written in my yearbook from high school the other day when I was at back home in Ohio and it said I wanted to move out west because I grew up in the midwest and start a non profit and I thought I had changed so much and it’s funny I feel like that seed has been in my brain for a long time, but I come from a family, my dad left a job that was like a routine corporate job.

[00:03:43] when I was pretty young in order to provide like a better life for us, and I saw him take that really big risk in a lot of ways it was really scary, but after a few years we had like more capabilities as a family and he had more flexibility and I think seeing him take that risk like removed the ambiguity that comes from Starting your own business, like seeing someone do that.

[00:04:05] And so I feel really lucky and fortunate in that way. He’s like my business coach. Sometimes I call him and ask him good questions. So I think a lot of it stems from what I saw growing up. 

[00:04:15] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah, that’s awesome. I also call my dad to talk business strategy, but he doesn’t have a business background, he has a management background, he was in the world of designing sonar systems for submarines.

[00:04:26] So he learned a lot about project management and about manufacturing and engineering. And so we talk a lot about how work gets done and how to do so efficiently and how to, you know, organize people and processes. And it’s funny, you mentioned, you know, kind of paying attention when I was like 11, I think it was, my dad went through some leadership training and back in the day they did that with audio tapes.

[00:04:56] And so he brought down these, like brought home audio tapes to listen to that were part of the leadership training course. And I asked if I could listen to them. So yeah, I’ve definitely had a seed planted early on of like this being part of my path. 

[00:05:09] Amy Auble: You never know where those pivotal moments are gonna be until you’re looking back at your story.

[00:05:14] There’s been a seed in your mind for a long time about organizing and managing and that’s really cool. 

[00:05:19] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah. I didn’t know what job title that necessarily meant for me, but it was always an interest. Yeah. , you created it. Absolutely. Okay, cool. So what about on the sustainable business side?

[00:05:31] You mentioned that you bought Jelt and that you had already been marketing for sustainable product-based businesses. Was it through your marketing work that you found out about Jelt? Like how did that story start of actually buying this product based company? 

[00:05:45] Amy Auble: Yeah, it is, so Jelt is based in Bozeman, which is where my brother is.

[00:05:50] And he had a good friend who sold outdoor brands. brands who are ready to be sold would come to his company. He would help them get sold. Long story short, my brother found out about it through this friend. my brother Andy is also pretty entrepreneurial, and so he saw this as a really good opportunity, to learn what it was like to acquire a company, and then, I wanted to learn what it was like to be in the operational role of that company, not just the marketing side of things, and so it was a really good fit, and for purchasing, our first business, it was a pretty low risk, option, and so that really helped as well.

[00:06:28] so we purchased it in June and it was both like an inventory sale as well as the sale of the actual brand. And so, we have a warehouse full of belts in Montana and a really good learning experience in, what transitioning a business looks like. And Jen, the owner, past owner of the company, was really helpful about transitioning those knowledge base items to us, 

[00:06:48] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Do you always have one on pretty much? 

[00:06:50] Amy Auble: yeah, I feel like it’s important to be an enthusiast for your own brand and you never know when you’re gonna meet someone and If you’re not wearing the belt, what does that say about your company?

[00:07:00] So I try to have one on at all times 

[00:07:02] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: All right. Where do you sell them? 

[00:07:03] Amy Auble: we sell them at gel belt calm. 

[00:07:06] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Okay. 

[00:07:06] Amy Auble: They’re also on Amazon And yeah, you can buy them from either place. There are a few different models. one’s a magnetic clasp called the gel X. That’s my personal favorite. It’s adjustable.

[00:07:17] It comes in a few colors. It’s really great if you like an elastic low profile belt. 

[00:07:23] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: That’s cool. So yeah, this is kind of a good transition because it’s interesting how, even though your brand is. high touch in the sense that it is an actual physical product You are selling online. It seems direct to consumer.

[00:07:37] Is that pretty much your sales model? 

[00:07:39] Amy Auble: Yeah, we are found in a couple stores mostly in Montana, but the majority of our sales come through our website. It’s such a different way of shopping. The awareness of the product comes from our social media, our email, and publications. People really love that it’s a belt made from recycled plastic, that it’s assembled in Montana, and love those sustainable aspects about it, so, yeah, it’s mostly purchased on our website, which is crazy.

[00:08:04] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah, and we’ve heard a lot, from other guests and I’ve recommended some other shows that are specifically about, small businesses using like ChatGBT and some of the new tools to do content marketing, help them write, help them create copy, maybe help them create their things on their website.

[00:08:22] I’m curious if there’s any. ways beyond, just writing copy, for example, that you use AI already in your business? 

[00:08:33] Amy Auble: Yes, I use ChatGPT specifically as a search engine to ask questions to. And one question that has been really hard for us to solve is, how do we produce these belts in the US completely?

[00:08:49] there’s a lot of ambiguity about using recycled plastic, and turning that into material that we can use in our belts. And where does the plastic come from and how did it get recycled? We have found a manufacturer that is in the U. S. that does all of the recycling in the U. S. and so that’s really great.

[00:09:07] But I actually used to do some further research on where that plastic come from? Is it actually sustainable? Because I think doing marketing for sustainable businesses, I realize, like, there are a lot of good stories out there, but when it comes to the bones of a company, is it actually good for the earth?

[00:09:22] And so I’ve used it to research, “How do we produce this product in the U. S.?” Because that’s really important to me. It really reduces the footprint of a product if you can produce it in the U. S. There are a few platforms that I found that provide alternative options for sustainable materials in the U.

[00:09:37] S. And, one that we’re I have some exciting things coming up about is a manufacturer that’s actually based in Montana as well And they’re gonna help us with some new soft goods, which I’m really excited about so actually use chat GPT to Learn more about the sustainability behind the product. 

[00:09:55] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Well, it sounds like you’ve gotten to the phase where you’ve gone beyond just, seeing that on the page, but you’re now actually talking to those potential manufacturers. So that was kind of hints at what was going to be my next question, which would be, obviously we’ve heard that AI is particularly large language models can Sometimes just make stuff up, you know, they like to call it hallucinate.

[00:10:18] So what’s been your process in terms of, okay, you start there with some research, but then where do you go from there to figure out, is this information real? How can I validate it? How can I do my due diligence as a business owner? 

[00:10:32] Amy Auble: Yeah. Doing your own due diligence is really important. I use it specifically in the manufacturing realm, asking questions to Jack chat GPT about what manufacturers exist in the U S that include these certain qualities that I’m looking for.

[00:10:48] And then it provides those manufacturers and then from there you can go and do your own research and contact those manufacturers. So more of using it like a filter for Google almost. cause you can put in specific requirements and that’s been really helpful. 

[00:11:01] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah. It’s sort of, it’s funny because I often think of chat GPT or some of the other chat related AI powered tools as like an assistant who you’ve asked to Google things for you, you know, it’s like there used to be this website might still exist that literally is called, let me Google that for you.

[00:11:20] And then it just brings up Google and it types something into Google for you. And it was sort of meant to mock, you know, how easy it was when Google first came out and people were still not sure, like, but how do I search the internet? This site kind of came up as a mocking site to be like, well, let me Google that for you.

[00:11:39] And although that’s true, it is more complicated than that. And if you’re really trying to dig through a lot of data or there aren’t aggregator sites already that help synthesize that data for you. Something like a virtual assistant, an automated robotic virtual assistant who can do that digging for you and create a more customized one, it’s almost like a curation tool.

[00:12:06] Like it’s curating what’s already out there for you. 

[00:12:10] Amy Auble: Yeah. It’s a really helpful tool when you’re looking for something specific in Google. Like you might have to click through like 15 sites to find the one that chatGPT would just pull up for you. and that way I’ve used it as a big time saver.

[00:12:21] specifically, not just in the marketing realm. 

[00:12:25] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah. And I feel like in your case that you just mentioned, that’s such a good example because you’re going to end up contacting those manufacturers. So if it turns out they’re not real, you’re going to know pretty soon that they’re not real, and you’re not going to be, you know, sharing misinformation or going out there and putting out false things or things that have been copyrighted.

[00:12:45] Yeah. Process I was going to do anyways, but this makes it a lot faster, 

[00:12:48] which is great. Do you have another example of another way that you’ve used AI so far? 

[00:12:54] Amy Auble: Yeah. There’s one that I haven’t used, but I’m really excited to use, and this is a product that came out really recently by Sam Altman and OpenAI, and it’s a video tool that essentially you can provide a prompt like you would for chat GPT, but instead of information, it provides you with a one minute video.

[00:13:18] And this is, I’ve just been looking into it and I’m really impressed with the video production quality that has happened even in the last year. And there are still some things that are a little bit off with these videos, like the reflections or like I saw a video of someone walking backwards on a treadmill.

[00:13:38] Like AI doesn’t always understand the physics behind things yet, but this is a really important thing because especially in the marketing realm. My clients spend the most amount of money in marketing on content creation, especially in a product based business. If you’re releasing new products or showing your product being used, it might cost 5, 000 to take a crew up to the mountain to take videos of you skiing with a belt on.

[00:14:05] and the thought of it still kind of scares me, but there is a potential there for what AI can create those videos, and would someone be able to tell that it was AI? in another year, I don’t think so. I’m still on the fence if that’s something I want to use, but it is a really interesting tool, as someone who lives in the marketing realm of video creation that is AI that’s really real, and that you could maybe put your product into.

[00:14:31] Both scary and exciting. 

[00:14:33] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah. Let’s dig into that a little bit further. Cause I think that’s such a great example as well. You know, one thing that comes to mind is if you’re a small business, especially the amount of money it takes to do a really good photo shoot. A really good video shoot.

[00:14:47] That’s like your whole marketing budget. And then maybe something changes. Maybe you make a small change to the product. Maybe you have a new color that’s come out or something where you’re like, I don’t want to have to reshoot all of this, but there’s a small change and people are going to see it and be like, well, that’s not the right color, you know?

[00:15:04] so if you hire the videographer or the photographer to do the initial shoot, you’ve got some good core content, but then you could use AI to create those variations on that. Maybe you can show it in different seasons, or you can show it from different angles. You realize that you are going to do like a special edition with a little mark on it.

[00:15:25] And now you can just add that mark in post, instead of needing to, reshoot the whole thing and pay from the beginning. I could see a great blending of how to maximize and really hone, what you use the human professional for versus what are the ways to then leverage that by using the capabilities of these new tools.

[00:15:47] Amy Auble: Yeah, I really like what you said about maybe giving that platform a basis to provide the next video off of. It just reminds me of often how long these video editing processes take from the time that I write a shot list for a videographer to the time we record it and then I get the content back, that can be a month or more easily.

[00:16:09] And The idea that that could happen in less than a day is wild. I’ve really seen video in the last few years explode in the social media space and really help clients get the word out there about their businesses. And I just like, can’t imagine if that video was able to be churned out in a high quality in a really fast way, what But now if everyone’s doing it, does that change it?

[00:16:34] I don’t know, but the time aspect is huge. 

[00:16:37] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah, and I could see it going either way. Either you, you know, get that original content and then decide to create spinoffs with the use of AI or, you know, you’re working with a videographer or a photographer who has agreed to be able to do more with the same budget because they’re able to leverage these AI tools to say, okay, what I used to be able to give you was just this amount of video.

[00:17:02] Now I can triple that because I’m, You know, you’re giving me permission to use AI. We’re very transparent about it. Everyone’s on the board and that’s what we decide we want to do. 

[00:17:13] Amy Auble: Yeah, it’d be a great tool for videographers to learn how to use and leverage. I think there’s a world in which the videographer is still the expert, but they’re using the tool for their business.

[00:17:24] Cause I do really think AI doesn’t necessarily have to replace jobs and businesses. It’s probably just an adaptation of what is there 

[00:17:34] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah, and one thing you hear a lot about is this move particularly in retail space, in the personal consumer goods space around people wanting more and more personalization, you know, and wanting, you know, if they’re going to buy a belt, they want to know like, well, can I use it for this exact activity?

[00:17:53] Or can I use, you know, does it fit my exact body type? So have you seen anything kind of in that realm of like helping that customer experience feel more personalized for them? Or do you see opportunities where AI could help with that? 

[00:18:06] Amy Auble: One way in which we’ve used it to understand customers better is when we want to purchase a new order of belts, you have to purchase them in a large quantity.

[00:18:18] You don’t necessarily need 30, 000 belts of cheetah print. You might only need a thousand and so Part of what I’ve used chat GPT for is doing consumer research on patterns and quantities and sizes. Previously, Jelt belts were sold in different sizes and we’re slowly phasing out that type of belt to make sure that they’re all adjustable, but it’s really important to get that sizing right.

[00:18:43] Like how many of each size do I order and using chat GPT to figure out what is. What can I expect to order? What patterns might be trending in the next year? All those kinds of things that really help a business understand how to spend their money in terms of what to order.

[00:19:00] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: That’s awesome. I want to dive into divergent paths from that thought. so I’m going to introduce them to you and you can let me know which one you want to go first. The first one is going to be bias because that comes up a lot in our conversations around AI. So I’m thinking when you’re talking about like cheetah print, it’s like, Oh, well, what if most manufacturers produce things primarily for what the maybe white male audience wants?

[00:19:24] but if we had good enough data, we would know, Hey, there’s a large enough market for, let’s say rainbow belts, for example. and then my other thought is, I want to go further down this rabbit hole of the sustainability of that. I imagine if you create waste, if you order something that then turns out to not be what people want.

[00:19:43] How does having this data, being able to assess these things ahead of time, help reduce waste? Which direction do you want to go? 

[00:19:52] Amy Auble: I think that reducing waste is a really good point, just because it’s something I’ve thought about a lot, is “What is the life cycle of this product?” You know, someone wears the belt, maybe they have it for max 10 years, and then it’s still plastic again.

[00:20:07] How do we better understand what the product life cycle is after the belts are done being belts? And so, the bias part is really interesting. It’s not something I’ve actually thought about. Of, you know, where is that data coming from?

[00:20:21] One of the reasons that we’re leaning more towards making the belts only adjustable is so that we don’t have to choose the size. So that removes some of the waste that could be produced, but also makes it available for a wider audience of people. Yeah, how do you dig to the bottom of a bias that is given to you by AI?

[00:20:41] I don’t know. 

[00:20:42] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah, I think it is a really fascinating question. I was just listening to the AI for Creatives podcast and they were talking about how AI is starting to be used in Hollywood. And they said that AI is now being used to review scripts to decide which ones should maybe be made into film or TV.

[00:21:02] And of course, there’s bias in the industry, where people tend to pattern match of like, well, this show was really popular. Let’s just find other shows that are just like that. So it might lead to, less creativity, less novelty, less, divergent options. However, I do like thinking about the fact that AI is a tool.

[00:21:25] It’s programmable, there’s an algorithm that can be tweaked or you can talk to it if it’s a large language model. So, just on a small scale, like with my marketing, I’ve been able to say, this is the audience that I would like to target this marketing copy to, so maybe I know that, Typically, it’s going to speak more to a highly educated, white audience.

[00:21:52] And I know that for this particular post that I’m making, you know, I’m going to construction workers in Buffalo, New York, and they’re mostly black and mostly male. And it’s like, I can give that information and we can do more personalization like we were just talking about. So I’m interested in If AI and the tools being built on top of AI, with AI, are basically just ways of making use of data, if you as the business owner can think, what kind of questions do I have for her?

[00:22:33] The data in the world. What do I want to know? Then how could you craft the right kind of question to be able to get that out of the tool? 

[00:22:44] Amy Auble: Yeah. When one of my favorite things to ask or to send in chat GPT is like, what more do you need to know? So that blank and you could definitely ask what, what more do you need to know?

[00:22:57] So that this isn’t biased. And I think sometimes we forget that we can also ask ChatGPT what else, what other context it needs so that we can get the data from the world that we want to. 

[00:23:09] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah, and that becomes being, you know, still working on your own personal development as a leader, as someone who’s thoughtful and understands your own values and understands What your own biases may be or what biases might exist out there.

[00:23:23] So I do think that there’s a level of continuing to further our own development that is always going to be important in this, our own development and our own critical thinking skills. Because that’s how we can be the best business owners, but also how we can get the most out of these new tools too.

[00:23:40] One example I had was like, even in developing this podcast, I asked Chad GPT, I said. Because one of the biases that was baked into the algorithm of chat GPT is that it always wants to be helpful and it always wants to be supportive and positive. So you’ve probably noticed this, you know, it’s always like a great idea, Amy.

[00:24:01] It was very complimentary, which is nice. I really appreciate that. But it does kind of create its own bias with that is that it pretty much always tells you, you have great ideas, even if they’re not. And so you have to kind of keep that in mind and sometimes use that knowledge, To protect against that bias.

[00:24:23] So the example is when I started this podcast, I said, okay, this is what I’m thinking about doing. It of course was like, great idea, Sharon, this podcast is going to be fantastic. I said this to the chat, she be T I was like, you and I know that this is a great idea and it’s going to be a great podcast, but I have heard that some people.

[00:24:44] have negative feelings about AI or they might be suspicious of it or they might have concerns about it. So could you please give me 12 examples of the kind of fears and concerns or pushback that I could expect if I start talking about AI in this space? And like, what kind of reaction might people have?

[00:25:05] And it was funny because, you know, it went from telling me all the reasons why this was. And it was fantastic to suddenly being like, well, let me tell you. So it was pretty funny. I was like, Oh, okay. Wow. That’s a different list than what we were just talking about.

[00:25:20] Amy Auble: Was that helpful for you to prepare for the content that you’d be producing? And what? pushback you might get, if any? 

[00:25:27] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: It really was. I tend to be a real optimist. And so I appreciate the people in my life, including my husband and some of my good friends who tend to be more of a realist or even a pessimist, you know, who I’ll come to them with my great idea and they’ll be like, yeah, that’s not going to work.

[00:25:45] Yeah, it really is grounding to be able to see different perspectives. 

[00:25:50] Amy Auble: Yeah, it’s interesting that ChatGBT has both information but only gives you the information that you maybe wanted to hear. 

[00:25:59] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah, and that’s what I’ve been hearing about Google Gemini is that because Google Gemini was set up more like Google where you’re supposed to, googling an answer and You don’t say Google all the answers.

[00:26:14] You’re usually expecting that it’s going to rank them or there’s a top answer. Like if you ask Alexa or you ask one of these other services, they come back with one answer typically. And so that’s been the issue is, they’re really getting into some thorny waters. 

[00:26:31] Amy Auble: Yeah, rocky water.

[00:26:35] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah, I’m bad at my metaphors. Anyway, so I think the nice thing about using chat GPT as an assistant with your business, with your ideas and everything is that you can give it enough context to say, you know, In this situation, can you give me advice for this or can you pull this information or draft something on this?

[00:26:57] It’s not like you’re asking it for the one true answer. You’re just asking it to create a starting point. 

[00:27:03] Amy Auble: Yeah, so you can dive in deeper or see both sides of something. 

[00:27:08] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah, it’s always willing for that follow up. 

[00:27:10] Amy Auble: It’s really interesting what you can teach chat GPT to remember.

[00:27:15] I know you can put in prompts like I want all these answers to be Non biased or how keep these concerns in mind and then throughout your chat I love that it’ll bring that back up so that It’s almost like a training tool if you are trying to think about something in an unbiased way You can put in that prompt and it’ll keep that conversation in that light 

[00:27:36] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah, it could be helpful.

[00:27:38] I know I tend to come from the world of government and grant writing. And I know that’s been a problem for me as a writer before, is that when I try to write marketing copy, I tend to write, In a way that’s not very conversational. Every time, like one of those services on my website that gives me a readability score, I always start with a red, low readability score.

[00:28:02] They’re always like, your sentences are too long. You’re using the passive voice. Like, your writing is terrible, basically. so I have actually been using ChatGPT in that way, where I’ll take my first draft and then I’ll give it to ChatGPT and I’ll say, all right, I know that this has too much passive voice and the sentences are too long.

[00:28:21] Can you please rewrite it in a way that’s more concise and more conversational? And it’ll rewrite my copy for me. And then I can make the third draft. 

[00:28:31] Amy Auble: I love that. I also use that a lot. blogs that we write, where I want it to still sound like our voice, but maybe I want it to be a little more casual or a little bit funny or a little more concise.

[00:28:42] And I feel like those kinds of directions can be really helpful, especially when you’re writing like longer form content. 

[00:28:47] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: all right. So I’m going to jump to a related but different topic, which is you mentioned some of the ways you’re using AI in your own business, but I know in the marketing side of what you do, you work with other sustainable brands.

[00:29:00] How are you seeing that? A lot of people are talking about this or asking about this, or do you feel like it’s still not, really hitting those small business owners that you’re working with or the sustainable brands you’re working with? 

[00:29:13] Amy Auble: I think AI is definitely a part of the lives of most business owners that I work with.

[00:29:19] I think even if they are small businesses in some cases, I think because they’re entrepreneurs, they’re pretty interested in tech savvy and willing to take risks. And I think sometimes the people that are first to jump on AI might be a little tech savvy and risky. so it is part of a conversation of a lot of people that I talk with.

[00:29:38] We use it a lot for copy creation, for brainstorming. I create what’s called content buckets with all of my clients, specifically for social media, but also for email, about what are the pillars of your business that you want to continue to talk about so that someone becomes a customer or a follower.

[00:29:58] And Chat GPT can help shape those. It can scan your website and tell you the things that it thinks are most important. We’ve also used them. It does provide helpful shortcuts. A lot of times I do have clients that provide me with longer form content and there are some helpful specifically video AI tools that take longer form content and then Reduce it into 15 to 30 second snippets and then rate it on the viral ability.

[00:30:28] and then you’re able to standardize those videos with text over it. It provides captions, hashtags, all those things are really helpful. I think the small business owners that I’m working with usually are, their plates are really full, so they’re still happy to have the help, but it is definitely a part of the conversation and I think they’re using it to shortcut things in their lives as well.

[00:30:48] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: What’s your favorite video based AI tool right now? 

[00:30:52] Amy Auble: It’s called video. ai, but it’s with a Y instead of an I. and that one’s really helpful specifically for things like podcasts where you’ve recorded something vertically and you want to transition it to horizontally and then you’ll be able to snip it.

[00:31:06] So some of my small business owners who maybe don’t love taking videos of themselves, but they’re on podcasts or have speaking opportunities that are virtual, I use it a lot with them to snip it into pieces that they can post on their social. It’s a lower effort way to repurpose content. 

[00:31:22] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Is there anything that I haven’t asked you about? I know you thought about this ahead of time. So is there anything that you were reflecting on that you wanted to share? 

[00:31:33] Amy Auble: As someone who’s passionate about sustainability, I often feel the pressure to live sustainably myself, for better or for worse. And so chat GPT has been a really helpful tool to find other sustainable businesses or to help me sort through what might be a better option for the planet.

[00:31:51] And through doing that, I found an app called good on you, which is a helpful app. If you’re looking to shop sustainably, it ranks businesses on their, their business practices and if they’re a sustainable business to work with and so I guess I’ve just also used chat GBT for my personal life and my personal goals too, and that’s really great and and how do I operate more sustainably as a human without becoming overwhelmed about Changing all of the things in my life because that’s not realistic either So it’s a really good tool for business, but has also helped me Rediscover other sustainable brands, which I love.

[00:32:28] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Very cool. yeah, we’re going to highlight some other brands in the sustainability and climate space. So we’ll see a lot of other examples of. other ways that this is being used to try to help the planet. I actually just listened to a podcast episode with me, myself in AI, that was about the world wildlife Federation and how they’re using sort of what we might call old school AI.

[00:32:55] So not generative AI, but, AI nonetheless, to look at areas that are at greatest risk of being deforested. So basically they use satellite imagery and they use computational models to be able to analyze where are trees being removed, all around the planet and be able to predict where those next trees will be removed so that they can move in faster and take action faster to try to prevent deforestation.

[00:33:25] So really cool, innovative uses of technology. 

[00:33:29] Amy Auble: I love that. That’s a great way to use AI in a way that makes sense. That’s really amazing. 

[00:33:35] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah, another one that they mentioned was, you know, they’re trying to protect certain endangered species.

[00:33:40] And so a big movement of a lot of different conservation groups is to have wildlife cameras where they can track like I know here in Arizona. In Southern Arizona, they’re trying to keep track of the jaguar population. And so there’s wildlife cameras in the areas where jaguars have been spotted to try to see, do they still exist?

[00:33:57] Do we still have jaguars? and so if you’ve ever looked at one of those wildlife cameras, it is Hours and hours and hours of tape of just like leaves rustling. And I used to actually know people who volunteered to look at hours and hours of tape of leaves rustling, just to hopefully spot that one Jaguar.

[00:34:18] and in fact, there was a story recently about the most recent Jaguar sighting and how it was this person who had spent not just hours, but decades looking through wildlife footage to try to find that one jaguar photo. 

[00:34:31] Amy Auble: That’s crazy. And 

[00:34:32] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: they found one finally, but soon they’ll be replaced by a robot because AI can look through hours and hours of footage and it can be taught how to spot a jaguar in those that footage and be able to call to attention to a human like, Hey, re look at this tape because there might be a Jaguar.

[00:34:51] That’s amazing. So I think that it’s, you know, it’s things like that, that we often don’t think about where this could make a huge difference. 

[00:34:58] Amy Auble: Yeah. That’s such a time saver. I think about someone who’s spending time. looking through video and now it can be replaced. It’s pretty crazy. 

[00:35:07] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah, I myself volunteer at the local history museum and I know there were volunteers there that were doing hours and hours of transcribing historical letters from the early founders of Flagstaff, the town that we live in.

[00:35:20] They have archives that are just filled with all of this handwritten correspondence and it’s painstaking work to go and decipher that correspondence and be able to transcribe it all. And I was showing a friend of mine, who is the manager at the museum, how I write in cursive in my notebook, and then I take a picture of it with my phone using the ChatGPT app, and I say, ChatGPT, can you please transcribe my handwritten notes?

[00:35:48] And in 30 seconds, it’ll transcribe my handwritten notes. Can you draft a blog post or whatever it is that I want it to do? 

[00:35:56] Amy Auble: Talk about a game changer for that museum specifically. 

[00:35:59] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah. She was like, don’t tell them that. Don’t tell the volunteers, but also we might start using that.

[00:36:07] Amy Auble: Yeah, even as an aid, like take the photo, submit it, and then go through yourself and edit it. 

[00:36:13] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah, it gives you that starting point where you can look, you can review the transcript and say, Oh, let me go double check this part. 

[00:36:20] Amy Auble: I have one other quick thought on AI. There’s a client that I started working with, and they’re called photopax.

[00:36:25] ai. And it’s a tool in which you can upload 10 photos of yourself in your face, and it will give you 100 headshots. and it’s a really interesting tool. I did it the other week and the photos are really realistic. Like I was looking at it, I’m like, this is me, but I have never been to this place or worn that outfit.

[00:36:47] And, it’s just a really interesting thought, especially for professionals who, again, maybe don’t have the time to have a photo shoot, but you could definitely use photopacks. ai and get a. pretty realistic photo and no one would know the difference. 

[00:37:00] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: I am actually going to immediately use that because, I mean, not only do I need to redo my headshots and it would be interesting to even just get ideas to show to a headshot photographer of like, oh, I like this angle or I like, you know, this way of doing it.

[00:37:13] but I work with a lot of AmeriCorps members and that’s one thing that we often advise them is to try to get a headshot for LinkedIn or for those things and They’re making less than minimum wage and they don’t have the ability to get a headshot done professionally So if they could get their first headshot done Through technology, then that would be a game changer.

[00:37:35] Amy Auble: Really cool. 

[00:37:36] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: I’m going to have to ban myself from saying Game Changer because I feel like I’m going to say it all the time. It’s going to get old fast. All right. One last thing is that because you’re in the sustainability space, I know there’s been a lot of talk about how AI runs on what people would refer to as like compute.

[00:37:55] You know, everything requires the number crunching power of computers. And that does require energy, you know, and there are, there’s greenhouse gasses used in the production of these digital things that we think of as not taking any resources, but they really do. So, is that something that people talk about in your space regularly?

[00:38:20] is that something that hasn’t really risen up as part of it? 

[00:38:23] Amy Auble: It’s not something I’ve heard quite as much, but it is really true.

[00:38:32] And I’ve thought a lot about it, I think a lot of times when we know that we’re using greenhouse gas emissions in one way or another. Our thought, or at least my thought can sometimes be, What do I do to offset this? And there are some really cool offsetting tools. One that I use that I like is called Greenspark, and it’s a company that you can integrate into your business so that when something happens in your business, it can be offset.

[00:38:57] Maybe that’s when someone books a meeting with you, when someone buys a product. For us, it’s when we send an email because we send a lot of emails as a marketing company. You can donate a certain amount of money that either goes to reducing deforestation or pulling plastic out of the ocean or carbon recapture.

[00:39:16] And so that’s one thing that I do in a slight effort to reduce, my impact on the earth for The energy consumption that we use, but I don’t think it’s something that’s really talked about a lot is that, you know, our technology does require energy and if that energy isn’t coming from a green source, it’s also causing harm.

[00:39:39] So it’s something I could definitely think more about as well. 

[00:39:43] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah. Great. Excellent. So JELT is a B Corp, correct? Yes. And that’s the other thing I’m, for people, well, can you explain what that is for those listeners who might not be familiar with it?

[00:39:56] Amy Auble: A B Corp certification is a, it’s almost like a stamp of approval that you’re doing good things. And that comes from an analysis of the way that you treat the people that work with you and for you, the way you treat the planet, and then what you do with your profits. And it’s kind of like a ranking of all of those things.

[00:40:17] JELT was a certified B Corp. We got certified in the spring of last year, and a certification lasts for three years. So it has a big sustainability aspect, but it also relates to other parts of your business. 

[00:40:28] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: And I was curious because are you still in that B Corp community? Do you get, you know, information from like, I get the sense that part of being a B Corp is also sort of having that sense of community of other sustainably minded businesses.

[00:40:42] So in that community, are people talking about new technology and AI, or is it not really? 

[00:40:49] Amy Auble: I have connected with other B Corp owners because Jell is a B Corp. I’ve mostly used that community to connect with on a podcast that I have that interviews sustainable business owners. 

[00:41:01] It’d be a great thing to ask people about routinely on my podcast is how are you using it because there’s so much to learn from that, but It hasn’t been a huge part of the conversation. It should be. 

[00:41:12] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Because I’m surprised, like, that’s part of why I want to start this podcast is that although I am in the entrepreneurial space and so I see a lot about AI on that side of my life, When I talk to people who are in nonprofits or in education or in other areas, they’re just sort of like, they’ve heard of it, but it’s really not on their mind week to week, much less day to day.

[00:41:35] And so that’s been a big divide that I see. And I know we talk about the digital divide in the country in terms of how more and more is being done online and with tech. And so like people are being left behind who don’t have access to high speed internet or who Don’t have access to a computer or things like that.

[00:41:53] And I feel like there’s this divide happening now in the work world of the companies and the sectors that are embracing new technology who are getting on board with it or learning what it means and what it is. And then the rest of the world who are just still doing great work, but don’t realize how much is changing and how much is available to them.

[00:42:15] Amy Auble: Yeah, and I think, selfishly, I want the non profits and the B Corps to really excel and do well. And if there’s a way in which AI can boost productivity or help them reduce costs, I feel like they really need access to that. So I love the idea of the podcast specifically for that genre. Of people that if we can increase education, like, for causes that we care about, I think there’s a lot to that.

[00:42:40] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Yeah, absolutely. It shouldn’t just be used to send spam emails. It should be used to like prevent deforestation and save endangered species. And do good. Yeah, do good. Okay, great. So if people want to learn more about JELT, I know you mentioned where they can buy it, but let’s throw that out there again.

[00:42:56] How can they find out about JELT? 

[00:42:57] Amy Auble: You can go to JELTbelt. com. It’s just J E L T dot belt. com. we’re also on all of the social media, just at JELTbelt. Yeah, that’s where you can find us. 

[00:43:08] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: And then you also have Alpine Start Media. Are you taking new clients for that as well? 

[00:43:14] Amy Auble: I take about one new client a quarter.

[00:43:16] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Are they all product based businesses? 

[00:43:18] Amy Auble: They’re not all product based businesses, If you’re a company who helps reduce single use items, or help people think about sustainability, or, I have a client that just donates back to trail advocacy in a large way.

[00:43:30] I’d love to talk with you about what it is that you do and I can either connect you to someone who knows how to help with your marketing or, help with it from our team as well. 

[00:43:40] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Awesome. And you did mention a podcast. 

[00:43:42] Amy Auble: I have a podcast called the Sustainable Business Spotlight.

[00:43:45] it’s all for business owners who want to learn how to be sustainable and improve their sustainable business. It’s also great if you’re just a consumer and you want to learn about cool sustainable businesses.

[00:43:55] Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom: Cool. Awesome. And it’s all the places podcasts are listened to. It is. Okay. Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for coming on, and I learned something and hopefully the listeners did as well. And I’ll let you know if anyone has questions or follow up. 

[00:44:10] Amy Auble: Such a joy to be here.