Latest / Coffee Playdate Podcast with Dr. Olga Deengar / First Kinsey Soderberg Said “Ew” to AI Ep 46: Then She Built a Successful Business on It.
Transcript
- Dr. Olga Deengar: Welcome to the Coffee Playdate Podcast. I'm Dr. Olga Deengar and I have a very special guest with me today, Kinsey Soderberg. Welcome. Kinsey: Hello. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here and I'm so glad guys. I don't know if you know this, but we just went through some tech difficulties and we have made it. So I'm so stoked. Dr. Olga Deengar: Yes, for sure. Now, Kinsey, I have to ask, do you drink coffee? Kinsey: Yes, I do. Dr. Olga Deengar: And how do you like your coffee? Kinsey: so funny, we actually have an espresso machine that we've had for like almost 10 years now, and it has not gone kaput yet, so that's great. So every morning I usually make an Americano. And usually I just put a little bit of cream in it, yeah. Dr. Olga Deengar: Americano is delicious. That's actually my husband's favorite. I prefer cappuccino. I have to have that little foam milk. it's so good. Kinsey: For sure. Dr. Olga Deengar: So before we dive in, I do want to start off with our first game. It's a rapid fire questions game. That means I'm gonna present you with two answers and you'll get to choose between one or the other. Just go with your gut instinct, whatever flows. You don't have to explain yourself. Ready? Kinsey: Okay. Okay. Dr. Olga Deengar: First question is brainstorming session with AI or a long walk with voice notes? Kinsey: I love how you've made these like so AI oriented. This is perfect. I man, that's a good that's a good question. Okay, probably a brainstorm session with AI, let's be honest. And I know I'm supposed to just say one word with the gut, so I'll try to do that, even though I'm a talker. Dr. Olga Deengar: Perfect. Next question is one signature platform or showing up everywhere? Kinsey: one signature platform. Dr. Olga Deengar: The next one is a content calendar or creating in the moment. Kinsey: Mm. Creating in the moment for me, I'd say. Dr. Olga Deengar: Nice. And the last question here, AI that saves you 10 hours a week or AI that helps you double your conversions? Kinsey: Bop, bop, bop, bop. I kind of think they're they're one and the same often, but probably the conversion ones if we're if we're talking priorities here, Dr. Olga Deengar: Beautiful. All right. So the next game is called Take a Sip. And for this game, it's the same concept. I'm gonna present you with two different answers. And this time we both play. So if our answers match, we take a sip from our coffee cups. The first question, are you an appetizer person Kinsey: Okay. Dr. Olga Deengar: or a dessert person? Dessert Next one is do you prefer mocktail or sparkling water? Kinsey: Ooh Honestly, probably sparkling water. Dr. Olga Deengar: I have to say mocktail. That's okay. I'm sure we have something in common. The Kinsey: You know, right? Dr. Olga Deengar: next one is running outside or running on a treadmill? Outside me too. Yay. Kinsey: Okay, yay, cheers honey. Dr. Olga Deengar: And the last question is coming home with a tan or coming home with a new business idea? Kinsey: honestly probably a business idea. Cause I don't tan. really? Yeah. Okay. Dr. Olga Deengar: Me too. Yeah. Cheers again. good. All right. So let's dive in. I'm gonna ask you to tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and the amazing work that you're doing. Kinsey: Yes, thank you so much for having me. I I love like this podcast already. It's like just so fun to start with a game, right? But thank you so much for listening, guys. My name is Kinsey Soderbergh. I'm the founder of Authentic AI and the co-founder of Her AI Era. I also host a membership called Her AI Club that is under that umbrella. And really my brands are just about Helping women entrepreneurs use AI tools in ways that work for you without sacrificing your authenticity, your quality of work, your thought leadership. And I teach kind of how to use AI tools in your business from kind of the baby beginner basics of my gosh, I'm just opening ChatGPT for the first time. How do I make this work for my business? all the way up through how can I take AI tools to the next level in my business, start to automate things, start to do more or get it to actually do things for me instead of just brainstorm things for me, that sort of stuff. so yeah, it's been really fun. I have a background in branding and content marketing. And then when AI hit the scene four ish years ago now I kind of honestly I kind of was like, ew. I don't need a robot to write my emails for me. I was kind of against AI at first. So if you're feeling like skeptical or weird or you were kind of hesitant to use AI tools in the first place, yeah, I feel you, and I felt that too. but then I kind of had one of those realization moments where I was like, what? AI is here. and it's not about like AI. AI isn't bad. It's like how humans use it that might not feel aligned or might make things feel a little bit fake. So that's when I kind of started figuring out, okay, like let's figure out how we can use AI in a way that feels authentic to us. And then that's when my AI brand was born and stuff. Dr. Olga Deengar: That is so fascinating. Now, what inspired you to build your own business around AI? Kinsey: Yeah. Well, I I kind of had again that kind of like realization moment, right? My personal brand and just like my business has always been around authenticity. That's one of those kind of big lessons that I learned early on as a baby entrepreneur. And then as I kind of grew my business, authenticity just became a big core value of mine and how I teach things and what I encourage other people to do and show up as in their business and stuff, right? And from there, I built a business for four or five years before even like Chat GPT hit the scene. And after it hit the scene, I said we're gonna see how this can work for us. and I just decided to start what I call a sister brand, right? So that's when I had I started authentic AI. I decided to start like a whole new kind of brand and business, like sister brand and business, because I realized like the SEO is there, right? Like honestly, I was like, all right, well if I'm gonna explore AI, if I'm like considering pivoting into this, let's just like set it up for success. Let's get that trademark. Let's get the Instagram. Let's kind of start So then for probably about a year, I kind of was growing both these businesses side by side, like as sister brands. And I kind of brought my audience from my original business along on the ride with me in that way, and then about a year into it, I realized, wow, I love this. this is like so fun. it's kind of incorporating all the things that I love where I felt like I was splatting spaghetti on the wall before. Now, like the through line is AI. and I'm kind of that nerdy, techie, but also like creative person. And just AI was like, it really lights me up. I also found like a passion for helping more women use AI tools. this was something that came that became apparent to me early through lots of conversations with women, through talking with other AI experts, is that women often like have kind of mindset stuff associated with using AI tools actually, right? And like we are slower to adopt AI. We feel a little bit more guilty or weird or judged using AI, right? And and so yeah, when I started growing my sister brand Authentic AI, I like kind of quickly realized, wow, like this is it. Like the pieces are clicking into place, right? And that's when I fully decided to embrace authentic AI. I let go of my original baby brand, which I loved, but yeah, and then I I kind of have never looked back. It's just it's been a very, very exciting niche, I would say, but I still feel like aligned and grounded in who I am, how I can help people in the through line of business with AI and all that stuff. Dr. Olga Deengar: Your passion really and I love that because this is where work stops becoming work, but it actually becomes equivalent to play. Which is great. Kinsey: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Dr. Olga Deengar: And on your journey, how did you meet your partner, your business partner, and how did that relationship kind of flourish? Kinsey: girl, the origin story. So my business partner for her AI era and our membership, her AI Club, her name's Joyce Hamilton. she had an OG AI related brand as well, named Only Boldly. We're honestly at this point we're both slowly transitioning into letting go of our other brands and just fully merging our businesses, which we're kind of excited about and love, right? but Joyce and I actually met through an online community called The Mixer Mind, which is this great space with 150 women who are all like looking to grow their visibility and collaborate, right? And so the Mixer Mind is such a fun community. Joyce and I were in the first like small group pod within that community two years ago in January, right after we first joined in, like that's when we kind of met. We're both kind of like, hey girl, hey girl, you know, like two AI ladies, but we But the cool thing I think women entrepreneurs who have pivoted into AI, I think that like a lot of us have gone through that kind of like mindset stuff of comparison over collaboration or competition over collaboration sort of stuff. You know what I mean? Like we feel a little bit more like we've already gone through that stuff with like what our first evolution of our brands was. So now we can like really embrace like collaboration, you know, and lifting each other up and stuff. so it was super fun to meet Joyce. She actually hired me to do her branding for Only Boldly, which I love like side note, I love graphic design and branding and I kind of do it behind the scenes sometimes. And so w I just like had so much fun creating like an empowered woman robot brand for her, you know. And I did Only Boldly's branding. Then Last October, we she came to me and she was like, Girl, I'm thinking about hosting an online summit. Like, what are your thoughts? Like, what do you want to do? And I'm like, Girl, I've been wanting to host one too. Should we join forces and host one together? And that's when we hosted her AI era summit, which was our first online summit last October. It was actually honestly really successful for like the first year. We were kind of like, Wow, this is great. we had like 3,500 attendees. we brought in quite a bit of revenue, way more than we were expecting. And it was just like such great vibes, right? It was like so such an empowering summit. Everyone was just kind of like feeling the vibes of let's embrace AI as women, which was like kind of the whole point, right? But then also learn together, nerd out together, all that different stuff. through hosting the summit, Joyce and I found out that we actually worked really well together we're super super aligned when it comes to like values and like the way we think about business and all that stuff but we're also very different in like kind of our personalities and the way and like our strengths I would say when it comes to like what we were having to do for the summit. So then after the summit we we went our separate ways. And and well, like you our separate ways, but we're still friends, of course. But Joyce and I were kind of like, I miss talking to you like every day and every week and all this stuff. and so we kind of just kinda, you know, kept in touch and whatnot. And we both actually started separate memberships after the summit, right? Then in January, I was like, Girl, running a membership is kind of like hard like there's like a lot of mindset stuff happening there's a lot of like going on and keeping up with everything I felt like I was on a I was on the pedestal which like I don't love to be on the pedestal I think I'd rather be like with like it feel like the group you know and I was just missing that that feeling of working with Joyce and the feeling of the her AI era summit community right so I went to Joyce I was like I've been thinking about this for a while I don't know like Would you be interested in potentially merging our memberships? And she was immediately like, hell yes, we're doing this. Let's go. Like, and it like happened super quickly. And yeah, and honestly, we merged our memberships within like a month. we both had had fairly successful launches of our memberships solo separately, but then when we launched our her AI Club membership, it was like doubling the success that we saw like alone. And it has just continued to grow and we've just been working so well together still and we're just like kind of slowly just like merging everything together. And it has, it's been one of those funny, funny journeys of like, wow, like it's kind of scary, you know, to like to have a business partner, to to be kind of married Joyce always jokes that we're married in business, you know, with someone. But it just feels good and we Dr. Olga Deengar: So Kinsey: feel we respect each other, we communicate well. we've just been kind of going with the rolling with it and it's all working out well. And it's one of those things where you know, I think that when logically, like people are like, like be wary, protect yourself, which like is understandable and like a good good advice. And at the same time, I think it's about knowing like internally, like, yeah, but this is working, you know? And you'll love this girl. I actually was talking with someone yesterday about she was like, she was telling me how men are more likely to have business partners than women. And I think a lot of that still has to do with kind of somewhat like the way women have been raised and also how Dr. Olga Deengar: Called that. Kinsey: we have had to show up in business spaces. Like up until probably the 2020s, let's be honest, there's only really been one spot for a woman in a room. Right. In like a big like C suite room. And and so it makes sense that like might women might feel a little bit differently. She was also saying too that women have always had to like bootstrap it more. We've had to figure it out. We could just like go do the work, right? And so sometimes it's harder for women to like accept help or like find that partnership where you're k like balancing carrying the load. and I just thought that that was so interesting too, but Yeah, it's been really fun to like cut to have a business partner all of a sudden, you know. Dr. Olga Deengar: That is really cool. On that note, I'm just wondering, is it maybe because women feel a little more intimidated by other women? That's why they are hesitant to join forces. And there's kind of like that thought in the back of your mind, like, but what if this doesn't work out? What if the business fails and now we're both going down together and my career is ruined? Kinsey: Yeah. Maybe I feel like we come I mean I that's why I said that's why I love that you talk about kind of the mindset stuff as well, right? Because especially with women, there's a lot a lot of like internal belief system stuff that we have we haven't learned by someone like necessarily just telling it to our face, but we've learned through observing, through feeling it, through experiencing things that we then like take into other other rooms and other spaces and stuff. And I think I think it's like a mix of all of that, right? That might might maybe h maybe not make women as open to that sort of thing. I don't know. It's interesting. Dr. Olga Deengar: Well, I hope we would have a lot more female collaboration in the future because when great people like you and Joyce come together, I mean, the amazing things Kinsey: Yeah. Dr. Olga Deengar: that you do. how I met you is is through the the AI systems showcase, which was mind blowing by the way. I just I couldn't think of how many different things you can make with AI and I mean it's all about getting creative and trying to figure it out and and connecting with a community to see how you can really make this work. So I was really impressed with what what you guys put together. Kinsey: I'm so glad that you loved it. And again, yeah, that was like so fun. And especially too, yeah, I I know what you mean about that just like collaborative kind of vibe. And it's kind of like showing, guys, look at what I did. And you're like, my gosh, this is awesome. Do you think I could do it too? And they're like, Yeah, probably here. Like, let's talk about how, you know, like that's the vibe that I think we need to bring into it works perfectly for the AI space, to be honest, because AI is not cookie cutter, like and it's like evolving every week and like it can change depending on the tool or the business or whatever, right? So like that collaborative vibe is like perfect for AI stuff. But also I feel like that could be brought into more online entrepreneurship spaces with women, specifically. And the reason I keep bringing up women too is because I mean I'm all about Growing that women's wealth, you know what I mean? Mm helping women change the world, because I think that that's what's gonna that's what's gonna save our future for sure. Dr. Olga Deengar: Yes, I couldn't agree more. Now you've mentioned some mindset tools that you kind of had to adapt as an entrepreneur. Can you give me maybe an example of of something that you had to change your mindset about? Kinsey: Yeah, yeah. so many, right? I mean, one of the first, let's see, one of the first mindset-ish lessons I think that I had to learn was the thing that made authenticity such a huge core value of mine, right? And that was when I was a little itty baby entrepreneur, trying to be like a a social media manager, online entrepreneur, like trying to figure it out and stuff. I like looking to all of the big name entrepreneurs that I would see online, right? The Jenna Kutcher, Amy Porterfield, you know, all the people and being like, okay, that's what I need to do to be successful, you know what I mean? And so I started trying to show up like them, somewhat in my business, you know, like and it wasn't it it's not like that was bad, but it just didn't feel like me as much, you know what I mean? Like trying to be a little bit more professional, a little bit more like laced up, you know, or whatever. and and I was like, but this is what I gotta do to be successful. But it just did not feel aligned with me or just like it felt like I was trying every day to be someone, you know? And I kind of got to that realization where I was like, man, I this is not sustainable for me. Like I'm I feel exhausted trying to be someone else all the time. So I kind of made that executive decision. I'm just going to lean into who I am and show up as me. And that kind of made everything click for me where it felt fun to show up. It felt easy to show up. It felt like obvious as far as what I was gonna talk about because I believed in it. I was just talking about what I believed, you know, like that sort of stuff. And that kind of shift definitely then translated into that's something that I always need to carry with me in my business. And also it's what I encourage other people to do as well. Because I think it's easy to like see someone who you admire and be like, okay, that's it. Let me try to do that. But I think that when you can show up as yourself. I mean your business is easier, but then you're also attracting those people who you really can help and who actually like align with you. And I think that that's where the magic is for sure. Dr. Olga Deengar: Yes, just be yourself, you know, and it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks, as long as you know that you're showing up as yourself, authentic, true to who you are, and then that way you can really bring that energy to your community and and help them in enormous ways. Amazing. Kinsey: Yeah, yep, exactly. Dr. Olga Deengar: So the next question, and I love asking this one, is can you tell me about a time when you've gone above and beyond for your team, your loved ones, anyone in your life where you've really created extraordinary meaningful experience? Kinsey: I know you warned me about this question. I was like, hmm, like what has this looked like, you know? And I don't know, I don't know if I do big grand gestures for people as much or if I have. I mean, well, let's be honest. Okay. So I did actually I wasn't gonna share this one, but I did actually surprise my husband with a trip to Iceland for his 40th birthday this year. So that was fun. But I cannot keep a secret to save my life. So It it felt so hard to do that. He loves surprises and I cannot. I can't keep them. So I'm like, I was telling everyone about their trip to Iceland and just like having to zip my mouth shut w when I was like around him. And I was just like, this feels so hard. I want to tell you something. But yeah, I I surprised him with a trip to Iceland. That was so fun. We drove around in a camper van. for seven or eight days and we got to see like the Blue Lagoon and the or the glacier lagoon and like the the glaciers, the all like so many waterfalls, all the things. It was a nice like relaxing time just the two of us. But the one I was gonna say is like a smaller thing, like literally this morning. So Joyce She her birthday is next week. I can say this because this will probably come out after her birthday, of course. But she has been obsessing over BTS, the band, lately. she's actually an she's actually in sync obsessed, like from way back in the day. But lately her friend invited her to a BTS concert. So she's been getting like ChatGPT to create like a study guide for her so that she can become obsessed with BTS by the time she goes to the concert, you know. And she's been talking about it non stop. She's like, Kinsey, I cannot do that task you asked because I'm studying for BTS. Like that. So I bought her I got her a BTS shirt for her birthday. I'm sending it to her. So that was kind of a fun littler thing, I think. Dr. Olga Deengar: That's so sweet. I love that. And it is in the small gestures too. You know, it doesn't always have to be a big thing. But that's what people really remember is the small ways Kinsey: Okay. Dr. Olga Deengar: that you've showed up for them. I love that. Aw. So Kinsey, I know you've Kinsey: Mm-hmm. Dr. Olga Deengar: already given a lot of great tips, but I wanted to know, do you have a piece of advice for someone who may be just starting out in a similar space as you? Kinsey: Yeah. man. You know, I think that when you're just starting out in business, but also in an a in AI, right? If you're thinking about potentially pivoting into AI stuff and whatnot, I do think that you need to understand that like you're not you can't teach AI. It's like a giant ass concept because it's it's huge. And there's so many different facets of it and all that different stuff, right? And like, I think a lot of times in business in general, people get like caught up in like feeling like they need to be the expert, right? And like that same thing translates to AI like tenfold, right? They're like, man, like I have to be the expert and know all the things about AI and I need to keep up to date with all the different things about AI, right? And like, that doesn't have to be the case. Because I cannot keep up with every update or new tool or piece of news about AI, And it's impossible for one person to do, and that's okay, I think that you can show up and teach. It there's this thing that they say in business, you only have to be 10% ahead of like your customers, you know, like 10% ahead of the game or like more knowledgeable than your customers. And I think that the same thing goes with AI. But for me, when it comes to AI, I think it's about deciding what you want your kind of lane to be, you know? And like kind of maybe just like going with that. And or even for me, we teach AI through that lens of business strategies and automations and how can we get the tools to work best for you in your business and like according to the values that especially women entrepreneurs are are caring about I would say and so that helps me to understand okay like let's go explore this thing or Or it's not just let's go explore automations, but let's just go explore automations that can help us in our business. Or let's go figure out how to use an agent in our business, like in for one little small task or something like that. Right. And like giving yourself so giving yourself those guardrails, so you're not having to just learn AI and is really helpful. And then also giving yourself permission to not have to know everything about AI is like really helpful too. Dr. Olga Deengar: Yeah, I mean you're right that we can't know everything, but as long as we know something that can help bring value to our customers, our clients, our community, I mean anything that you can share with someone goes a very long way. Absolutely. And I asked, Kinsey: Mm-hmm. Dr. Olga Deengar: Do you have a book recommendation for our listeners today? Kinsey: Yeah. You know, my favorite book recommendation for new business owners is Donald Miller's Building a Story Brand. And it's an old one, but it's a good one. And they he I think he's come up with like several iterations and several updates since like twenty eighteen when I read it and stuff. But and it's a great audio book too. If you're more of an audiobook person. But story brand is like a super, super cool concept of treating of treating your customer like the hero in their journey and you being the guide. And it kind of goes back to the hero's journey, which is a an old ass concept that Donald Miller did not come up with, right? But he teaches how to apply that to your business and how to help with your messaging, your positioning. And then even I'm pretty sure in the book there's like a full like website audit, like how to audit your website for this sort of thing. And I think that that's really cool for helping you nail down exactly how your messaging, your positioning, your ideal customer all kind of come together in the way that your business shows up in the world and talks about the stuff that you offer. And yeah, that's one that I like could come back to again and again and just like make sure it's feeling aligned, make sure it's feeling good. It's a super quick, easy read, slash listen as well. So yeah. Dr. Olga Deengar: Yeah, I've actually listened to it on audiobook and it gives Kinsey: Yeah. Dr. Olga Deengar: a different perspective of how to kind of create or adjust maybe your branding so that you really do speak to your ideal client. It's it's a really good one. Thanks for recommending. Kinsey: Yeah, and you know what's so cool too is it's like it's based in like literature and based in storytelling, right? So I think that that's what's so cool about it too. It's like applying stories and narrative to your business, which just makes it even more compelling. So if you love a novel, if you love a movie, honestly, like a s like ninety percent probably are like somewhat like founded in that hero's journey concept, which then you apply to your business and it's kind of like creates this narrative for your business that makes it so much more compelling than I'm just selling something, you know. Dr. Olga Deengar: Amazing. So how can our listeners find you? How can they learn more about what you're growing? Kinsey: Yes, thank you so much for having me. you can find me. I hang out mostly on Instagram. I'm @AIKinsey on Instagram. and then also our website is heraiclub.co. If you want to check that out, check out our membership. And then actually we are hosting our online summit again this October. So that's gonna be herAIerasummit.com Dr. Olga Deengar: Amazing. Well thank you so much, Kinsey. It was such a pleasure having you here on the Coffee Playdate podcast. And I hope you have a good rest of your day. Kinsey: Yes, thank you.