Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How to Leverage AI to Grow Your Business with Aprelle Duany

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How to Leverage AI to Grow Your Business with Aprelle Duany · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

• 0:00
  3, 2, 1, 0, ignition.
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  Lift off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the small biz chat podcast with the number 1 small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small Biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the Small Bushed podcast?
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  Well, it's time.
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  Every Wednesday, we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start and grow a successful
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  small business.
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  And just 20 minutes or so a week you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel your
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  business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the small beachhead podcast today.
• 1:00
  Welcome
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  back to the small fish chat podcast.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson's small biz lady, your host, and we are gonna be talking about all
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  things AI.
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  But before we get into that, I just wanna thank so many of you for listening to our podcast for
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  watching it on our Facebook, my small bus lady Facebook page, or my YouTube channel.
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  You know, we have been in business for 25 years, and I'm so proud to have the opportunity
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  to share with you tools and tips to help you live your dream life as an entrepreneur.
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  As always, if you hear a piece of advice, that is just amazing to you.
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  Please leave us a comment, or if there's a topic that you want us to address on a future
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  show, please By all means, leave a comment and let us know.
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  This is a peer to peer mentoring show, and I wanted to work for you as well as it works for
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  everyone else.
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  So with that, it's time for me to introduce my next guest.
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  Today's guest is April Duane.
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  And she is a technology expert who brings a unique blend of creativity, leadership, and
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  technological expertise to produce excellent results.
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  Her robust skill set and unique experiences allow her to navigate complex business and
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  technical landscapes, transform business operations, and champion impactful initiatives.
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  She's an innovator and problem solver with a mostly fasted career from a senior associate at
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  PricewaterhouseCoopers to CEO of a luxury fashion brand.
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  Her mission these days is to leverage ethical technology to enhance productivity and
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  efficiency, while fostering societal advancements She's focused on the moral
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  development of AI and on promoting diversity amongst technology stakeholders to reduce
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  digital, wage, and gender disparities.
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  For more information, you can go to April, I always wanna struggle with your last name.
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  It's it's Amy.
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  Duane.
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  Yes.
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  Yeah.
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  Dotcom.
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  Alright.
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  Correct.
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  It'll be in the show notes, guys.
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  Right.
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  Anyway,
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  bro, thank you so much for being here.
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  Awesome.
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  Thank you for having me.
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  I'm so excited to be here.
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  I actually had such an incredibly diverse career.
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  Like, how did you become this AI guru?
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  Yeah.
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  So it's been when I listened to my own bio, I'm like, how old am I?
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  You know, I've done quite a few things over the past of 4, almost 4 and a half decades, but
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  I've always been in technology.
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  Like, even from the age of, like, 3 or 4, I was a kid.
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  I would, like, take the toaster apart, take the VCR apart.
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  I just had a hunger to understand how things worked because I always wanted to see if I
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  could improve it and make it better.
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  And so that has always been my foundation of technology.
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  But I started, as an engineer in in college, and I was first introduced to that one and
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  lonely, experience that a lot of women have in technology.
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  And so this is a big university.
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  I was the only woman, and I was the only black person in my entire freshman class.
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  And so that was now, you know, the introduction, like, wow, this is the thing I
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  love, but I didn't feel very welcomed And so that was a seed that was planted in me very
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  early.
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  I didn't want other women who, you know, naturally have a tendency to technology to feel
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  like they're not welcomed in that space.
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  And so Terry got along.
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  First job, out of out of college was in the corporate American world, worked at PwC for
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  about 4 or 5 years, and I was basically a hacker before hacking was a a cool term.
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  I was a a security analyst.
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  And so it was a it was a really awesome experience still had that same, 1 and lonely
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  kind of I think there were, like, 2 black women in our group, and they would, like, mess our
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  names up.
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  And I'm like, they're they're like, many of you guys, we we know your names, you know, what
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  you're doing, but then you're calling us the wrong name.
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  So, again, it was that, it can periods of, you know, feeling like an other in in a space that
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  you you worked so hard to be at.
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  Fast forward from there, I moved to Africa.
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  My husband is from Africa.
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  So, lived in East Africa for about 15 years.
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  And so I was introduced to a whole new environment and a whole new understanding of,
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  problem solving, which is the way that I look at technology and design So that's where I got
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  a lot of my social enterprise experience.
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  And, the biggest challenge that I saw while I was there was that young girls were not having
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  the opportunity to be educated.
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  If you're in a a large family and you're 1 or 2 girls out of I don't know how however many
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  voice, you would not be educated.
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  You would not have the opportunity to go to school just because you were a girl.
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  And so, you know, that was just such a disconnect for me, and my part is just very
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  passionate about empowerment, especially when it comes to girls, and women.
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  So, started a few non profits, started a school while I was there, and then also started a
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  luxury brand, as you mentioned earlier.
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  And so that was to help women, gain the skills that they need to become entrepreneurs and then
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  use those funds to, you know, just be financially independent.
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  So even though I've gone through quite a few different careers, technology has been at the
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  base and I just look at it as a way to solve problems efficiently.
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  That's why I love AI.
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  Yeah.
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  So that's kinda a nutshell of it.
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  So can you share, you know, just some examples about, like, ways that we could use in every
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  day in our businesses to, like, just make of them run better and save us time?
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  Definitely.
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  Definitely.
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  I think, one of the challenges that people think it's like, oh, I need to have a degree in
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  technology or need to be a programmer to be able to use AI, but there's so many simple ways
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  And I'll give you 2 examples.
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  I have a client who has a product based business, and so she uses her POS system, can't
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  remember which brand it is, but she basically used her PLS system every day.
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  She's transacting every single day.
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  And so, when she came to me, she said, you know, I'm working so many hours.
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  I'm not making as much money as I want to and, you know, all these different things.
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  And I said, okay.
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  Let's, you know, take a look at your data.
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  And so I did it down one of her data, analyzed it with AI, and we were able to identify her
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  top Emerson then we were able to turn that into a new product that she could not ship.
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  So she was able to change her entire business model she stopped wasting so much time and
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  energy and resources on things that weren't working for her and just really doubled down on
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  what was already making her so much money.
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  So that that's one simple way.
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  Another example that comes to mind, and I see this a lot in, women and also men who have
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  worked in a career for maybe 20 or 30 years, they're burnt out.
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  You know, they're tired of the journey and the struggle, and they're looking, how can I take
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  30 years of experience?
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  And stop working the same amount of hours and the same amount of, operations.
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  And so one of my current clients, I helped her to transition her 30 years of experience into
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  digital products.
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  And so instead of her having clients from I think she worked actually from Monday to
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  Saturday, like, 80 hours a week.
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  I'm like, that's not sustainable.
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  You know?
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  It's just not sustainable.
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  So we transformed that into, digital asset she's also now teaching her method of her
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  skill.
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  And so those are very simple ways.
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  You can take what you've been doing for 30 years, utilize different AI tools, and create
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  general assets from them.
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  And then that's now your new product.
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  So those are supporters that you don't need a degree.
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  Or
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  I I have to push back on you, though.
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  So what AI tool are you using to create courseware for people?
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  So my go to favorite AI tool is chatgbt because it does everything.
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  Okay.
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  I have the advanced version of it.
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  I'm also very good at prompting.
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  And so that is what allows me to get results very quickly.
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  There are other tools.
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  Jasper is one that helps with, copywriting and that sort of thing.
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  And then I'm also starting to use Claude, which is has also been really amazing as I'm also
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  studying my PhD, and I've been using that tool quite quite a bit.
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  So, pretty much chatgbt is kind of a does everything for me.
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  It's a magical tool.
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  So even if you took your, let's say, you took this video, you can now pump it into chattyBT
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  and say help me create a curriculum based on the conversation that I had.
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  And then within 5 minutes.
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  You have a curriculum.
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  So it's assessable, and it's it's definitely possible.
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  Oh my gosh.
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  You're blowing my mind.
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  Alright.
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  So but what are some of the common challenges, though, of adopting AI?
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  Right?
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  Yeah.
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  I think the biggest challenges that I seeing.
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  And for me, luckily enough, I have a tech background.
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  So I started, you know, programming, and I know those languages I think the common barrier is
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  that people feel like they have to have that level of engineering skills or coding skills or
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  information technology skills.
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  So they see AI as this new beast that, you know, okay, I need a course.
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  I need this.
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  I need that in order to use it.
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  But it's actually it's very approachable.
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  It's very accessible.
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  My mom is now using AI, so I think anyone can you know, use these tools.
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  But I think just that fear factor of, you know, I don't know enough.
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  I don't have the right background.
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  It's overwhelming.
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  We kind of live in a fear based society.
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  So whenever you attach fear to something, people, you know, shy away.
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  So I would say that's the most common thing that I see, just fear of, you know, not having
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  the capability to to utilize the tools properly.
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  Well, what about a small business?
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  Right?
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  How can small business owners identify areas within their operations where AI could be
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  leveraged?
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  I think if you do a daily journal, I I'm a person that loves a journal.
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  I write a lot.
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  If you took from your when you wake up until when you go to sleep, just your work day and
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  just journal, what are the tasks that you're doing repetitively, or what are the tasks that
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  you know you have to, let's say, for instance, create Right?
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  And I see you're amazing at creating content.
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  But if you're someone that's like, oh, man, now I have to think of what am I gonna post on
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  YouTube?
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  What am I gonna you know, so for whatever those friction moments are, those are opportunities
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  to start using AI.
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  So even if you just start with a simple free version of chat, GPT, and you identify what are
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  the tasks that I'm having to do over and over and over again.
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  That's something that I can start leveraging AI with.
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  What are the tasks that I really don't enjoy doing?
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  And then I can't I can't afford to hire an assistant to plan out my LinkedIn calendar or
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  something like that.
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  So whatever those tasks are about a repetitive or things that cause a little bit of tension,
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  those are things I would say are easy to start with.
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  To not be too overwhelmed in the beginning.
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  Alright.
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  So let's talk about paid versus free.
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  Right?
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  So
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  Yes.
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  Yes.
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  Need the paid version of chat, GPT, or will the free version get the job done?
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  Honestly, the free version will get the job done, especially if you're trying to figure out
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  what is your footing because we're in an age where there are new apps and new tools that are
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  coming out every single day.
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  It can become very overwhelming, but we're also in a very lucky stage of where we are with AI
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  because as a business, Open AI once as many people as possible to use chat TBT.
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  The same with all of the other businesses.
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  They want they wanna incentivize you to use the tool.
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  So it's gonna be free.
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  It may not always be free.
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  You know?
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  So take advantage of this time while the tools that are being, the tools that are becoming
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  available are free, use them, maximize them because they may not always be free, but you
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  can definitely do a lot with the free version of all of the tools right now.
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  Mhmm.
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  So you don't have to you don't have to pay for it.
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  Alright.
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  Well, I appreciate that because I'm always about, you know, I tell people the time you
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  don't have to pay for the free version of LinkedIn either unless you're using you know,
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  what is it?
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  Sales navigating.
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  You don't need the free, you know, the free version works just fine.
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  Now talk to me about specifically about some AI tools that can help you improve customer
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  experience and, like, satisfaction for for all small business owners.
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  Yeah.
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  I mean, I would I would definitely go back to chat activity.
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  I've actually created my own chatbot on my website, and I use chattyBT to to you to do
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  that.
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  There are a variety.
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  There's another one called voice flow where you can put in a few prompts, and then it'll also
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  create a chat a chat bot for you that you can link to your website.
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  And basically, what a chatbot does, it's your customer service agent.
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  And so if you have a lot of content on your website, if you have your own knowledge base
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  your own framework that you use, it can now be, the baseline of your customer service agent who
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  is working for you 247 while you're sleeping.
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  It can also take a conversation from someone who's interested, in one of your products, and
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  it can also recommend something for that potential client.
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  So, there's a lot of opportunity.
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  I think it can start very basic, and then you can also add more depth to it as you get more
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  familiar with the tools.
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  Great.
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  And then can you talk to us a little bit about the future trends?
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  Like, where do you see AI going?
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  I mean, it doesn't seem like it's slowing down anytime soon, but where is it going in terms of
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  more practical application for real like, regular people that are do not have a degree in
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  computer science.
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  Right.
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  I mean, I see 2 different, things that are that are moving in in a positive way.
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  So one is diversity.
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  I'm not sure if you saw, something that happened recently with Google's Gemini.
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  And so someone would prompt, can you give me a picture of the founding fathers of America?
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  And they would put, black men Right?
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  And so, oh, there was there was some backlash, like, okay.
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  This this is it.
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  Right.
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  And so what happened was that, the pre prompts that now indicate what the deliverables are
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  from the prompt were too hard coded.
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  And so what I like to say is that you can't quote diversity.
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  You actually need to add more people to the table.
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  And so when you see a big company like Google making mistakes, like, that you know that more
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  diverse, conversations are, you know, in or in your future.
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  So that benefits all of us.
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  I do feel that minorities and underserved communities do need to actively publish more
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  on, these tools so that we can have an authentic voice.
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  And then I also see more accessibility.
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  When you have voice, you can prompt through texting, you can prompt through videos, So it's
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  making everyone, be able to use the tools more efficiently and more effectively.
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  So, obviously, an increase in diversity as well as making the tools more assessable, for, you
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  know, everyday people.
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  And I think everyone can be using it now even if you're not a small business owner.
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  So I'm a small business owner.
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  I'm also a mom.
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  I use chattyBT for everything from recipes to, you know, holidays to, you know, how do I help
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  my daughter become a better tennis fight?
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  Like, all of the the things.
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  Not necessarily just focused on business.
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  So it's helpful all around.
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  Great stuff.
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  Alright.
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  Last question.
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  What is the best business book that you have ever read.
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  Okay.
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  So I did say I'm a nerd.
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  So
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  Actually, wait a minute.
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  I just asked you the wrong question.
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  Forgive me.
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  What is the best advice you've ever received?
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  Not the best business book.
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  I'm sorry.
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  The best business advice I've ever received, is as a business owner, it's your job to find your
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  customer.
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  It's not your customer's job to find you.
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  And that set a very strong tone for me because you think I'll I'll build it.
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  They'll find me, they'll find my website, and it's it's not the case.
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  Build it and then find them, and then you'll have a business.
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  I love it.
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  Thank you so much, April.
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  I I really appreciate you.
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  And you've given us so much information.
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  If someone wants to work with you, how can they get in contact with you?
• 18:12
  Yeah.
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  So my website is, the best way to get in touch with me.
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  So it's, a p r e l l e.
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  Duany.comapraldewany.com.
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  I do offer premium services, but I have a heart to help So I also do, live training sessions on
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  Wednesdays on LinkedIn.
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  And so every Wednesday for 30 minutes, I do a free training business focused training on
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  using AI to leverage growth in your business.
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  So I'm also on LinkedIn at April 20.
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  So those are the best two ways to find me.
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  Good stuff.
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  Good stuff.
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  Thank you so much.
• 18:53
  Thanks for listening to the Small Biz chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  Subscribe to this podcast, wherever you listen to podcast, and join us next Wednesday for more
• 19:03
  fantastic information and interviews.
• 19:06
  You can find more sources small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
• 19:11
  website succeed as your own boss.com.
• 19:14
  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.