[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Basic Business AI, a podcast dedicated to simple AI strategies for businesses who don't want to get an advanced tech degree or hire some marketing bro. I'm your host Ana Gonzalez and you can find me on social media at annabotprime. We bring on regular business owners like you and me to discuss practical strategies, ideas and perspectives about AI without getting too far into the weeds of the tech bb. AI is sponsored by anabots. Did you know companies that respond to customer inquiries in less than 1 minute have a 400% higher chance of closing the deal? Our AI powered assistants have an average response time of just 5 to 7 seconds, meaning you can close more deals without generating more leads. No tech skills are needed and you can get started in less than five minutes. Go to annabutz AI to learn more. Once more, that's annabots AI.
Today's guest is Dominis Clifton. Dominis is a serial entrepreneur, coach and business branding strategist who empowers aspiring women entrepreneurs to create an exit strategy to ditch their nine to five jobs and live more fulfilling lives. She also supports organizations by offering stress reduction in mindfulness services to increase well being. Damon is welcome to the show.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Hi Anna, thank you so much for having me on the show. I'm happy to be here today.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: So happy to have you here. So tell me from your perspective, how is AI reshaping the future of your industry?
[00:01:35] Speaker B: So as a business coach I would say that AI has been a game changer for me as a business coach and a mama because I'm wearing a lot of hats, AI has been a game changer for me. I use it in three main ways that I can talk about quickly. The first one is that I really see AI as my writing editor and so instead of having to hire someone, I use it for all of my not generating my emails but once I type up my newsletter I use it to clean it up and really check the tone there, get all the errors out and I'm someone who overwrites and so it helps me to be concise. I also use it for social media captions and generating ideas and then for any sort of program copy, program copy that's going out in my business. So if I'm sending out a one pager or overview things of that nature. Another thing I like about it as a business coach is that I can use it to help guide my clients as they are going through their business launch process. And so one of the most important things as you're starting a business is thinking about like a client profile and so getting really clear on who you're serving and what their pain points are, I found that AI just helps to shorten that process. And so whereas market research might have taken hours or days before, you can just go into AI and put specific questions in and get some really solid answers. And so it helps you with that brand messaging and identity piece. And then the last thing I'll share really quickly is that I have a background in grant writing and fundraising. And I wish when I was working my 9 to 5 that I knew about AI and it was a resource for me. I now use it in my business for funding for grant writing and helping to put together really compelling pitches. So far, I've raised over $100,000 in my business and AI has been a huge part of, like, putting together solid grant responses and pitches. So those are just some of the ways that I found it to be helpful as an entrepreneur, somebody. That's awesome. Thank you.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: And you know, I found that, yes, AI is amazing for brainstorming, like something that it would that used to take hours or even days to come up with, like a bright idea.
Brainstorming with the AI is very helpful for you to like, oh, all right, I'm the creative here, but tell me what other perspectives there are. Yeah, and I'm very curious, curious to know because to get a great pitch, you need to put a great input in there. So what are some of the.
What's some advice that you can give to people for. For them to prompt so that they can get a great output?
[00:03:57] Speaker B: So I too agree with you that you need to start with the, like an idea of what you're looking for. It's. AI is not going to ever be the answer for everything. It's really kind of helping you to make sense of what's in your head. And so starting out with thinking about, like, you know, who, let's just say you. Typically when I think about a grant or a pitch, I'm thinking funder specific. So, like, you know who the funder is, having a clear idea of what their goals are, the things that they actually invest in. That's going to be helpful as you begin to write your pitch. I always start with just some general information. So I will give AI a little bit of information to go on. So, for example, here's a little blurb about my business. Like, this is what I need to use the funding for. This is some information about the funder. Can you take their mission, their areas of focus is, and come up with a compelling executive summary that's going to summarize, like, why I'm applying for this funding. So what I like to do is prompt it with a few, like, specific things related to who I am, related to the type of funding that I'm seeking out so that the output can really align and not just be like, very general. Like when your, when your grant, when your pitch is more specific, it's going to be more compelling as opposed to just something that you've copied and used over and over. And so I really like to give AI some information to work on to spit something out that seems more personable.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: That's awesome. I would also add to prompt the AI to not tell you certain words, like revolutionize Dell ready to deep diaper. No, to.
To dive deeper.
Oh, my gosh. My English is not on point today.
[00:05:32] Speaker B: It's.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: It's usually like an 80%, but like, right now it's like, I need AI to help me with that, like some, some, some words that give away that it's AI. So I like to do it. I don't know if you have some, some ideas about that.
[00:05:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I actually think that that's a great point. Like, one of the things that was a struggle for me when I first started using chat GPT specifically was that, like, it sounds very robotic. And I was just like, oh, get this away from me. Because I'm a very, like, relaxed person. I'm very conversational in my writing style. But I've learned that, like, prompting it so it spits something out. And I'm like, okay, so take this. Make it sound more relaxed, make it sound more conversational. That's been really helpful in my newsletters, for example. Whereas it spits something out that sounds very like, you know, just corporate. And I'm like, let's try that again. And I'll just keep like, going back and tweaking it like a few rounds of. Okay, take what you just created and make it sound more relaxed. Or if I want something to sound more corporate, I'll put in a specific prompt, take this and make it sound more compelling. You know, there are certain words that you can use that it will spit out something different. And so I've just found by just playing around with like, giving it certain, giving it certain commands, whether you want it to be more relaxed or more. Want it to be more professional. That is really helpful when trying to make it sound more like your authentic voice.
[00:06:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome advice. Thank you so much. So, Dominique, tell us about who you serve and how people can reach out to you?
[00:06:56] Speaker B: Yes. So I work with current and aspiring women entrepreneurs. If you are a aspiring woman or aspiring a woman entrepreneur and let's just say right now you're working a 9 to 5 job but you're not feeling very fulfilled in that role and you know that there's a deeper calling on your life, you're not really sure where to get started. This would be the perfect place to start my 12 week coaching program, Transformation University. And then for women that are more early stage entrepreneurs that are maybe, you know, one to three or one to five years in, maybe they've been in business but don't feel very aligned to their work, I really work with those women to get to know themselves better so that they can create a business that really aligns and reflects with who they are authentically. For anyone who wants to learn more, the best place to go would be my website which is Dom D O M R Clifton.com that's going to give an overview and more information about who I am about my coaching program. And also I have a ton of free resources there that folks can take advantage of. And then the last thing I'll share really quickly because we did talk about grant funding today, which is a huge part of being a small business owner or funding in general. I have a free resource course called Fund your dream biz and it gives you like literally guides and walks you through prompts and things for you to put together a compelling pitch for a compelling grant response. And so if you're interested in securing business funding, you can go to Fun your dream biz B I z dot com and snag that free resource.
[00:08:18] Speaker A: Amazing. So we're going to wrap from here. Thanks to our guest Dominic Clifton for joining us for a practical conversation about AI and its potential for business. You can learn more what she does. You can learn more about what she does by visiting dumb r clifton.com or grab your fun your dream biz. Com. If you run a business of any size and you have some ideas or strategies around the topic of AI, we'd love to have you on for a future episode as well. We interview business owners of all levels of experience and exposure to AI so we can represent all voices, especially the 90% of us who are curious about AI but not trying to be tech geniuses. Apply for a future episode by going to basicbusinessai.com and one more time, if you want to install a 24.7ai sales and support team for less than 10% of the cost of a single employee, get yourself an anabot. Learn
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