After running the Year of the Bot Bundle with 57 experts who are integrating AI in unique ways, I realized something huge.

We're all sitting here asking the same questions: Do I need to sell AI now? How does this fit into my business? Am I behind if I'm not teaching it?

And honestly? It's giving me 2020 digital course energy all over again.

So I created this episode to give you some actual clarity. I'm breaking down the 5 levels of AI adoption—from using it internally to building it as your core product—so you can figure out where YOU belong on the spectrum (and stop feeling like you have to do all the things).

Spoiler: There's no right or wrong way. There's just your way.

In this episode, I walk you through:

1. Level 1: AI as an internal tool (think: ChatGPT for emails, research, admin stuff)
2. Level 2: AI-enhanced services (using AI to free up YOUR capacity and add more value)
3. Level 3: AI-enabled programs or products (custom GPTs, bots, tools that support your clients)
4. Level 4: AI tools as a standalone product (like my BrandCalibrator™ or a bot you sell)
5. Level 5: Teaching AI strategy (you're now the AI expert in your niche)

I also share real examples from collaborators like Holly Haynes, Kinsey Soderberg, Carly Clark Zimmer, and Monica Froese—so you can see what's actually working right now.

If you've been overwhelmed by all the AI noise or wondering if you have to pivot your whole business to stay relevant, this episode will help you breathe, get clear, and move forward with intention.

🤖Train AI to sound like you (in under 2 hours) with BrandCalibrator™

🔹Let’s talk Bots for your business! Book a coffee chat

🔹 Connect on Instagram

1. If you enjoyed this episode, please help us share it by:
2. ⭐ Following the show—this helps you stay updated and supports us!
3. ⭐ Leaving a positive review—this boosts our ranking and helps more entrepreneurs find the podcast.

--------------------------

Entrepreneur School is proud to be featured on the Feedspot list of 30 Best Canada CEO Podcasts!

If you're like most people, you've probably got dozens (maybe hundreds) of chats with generic titles like "marketing ideas" or "content strategy." And when you need to pick up where you left off? Good luck scrolling through that mess.

Here's the thing: ChatGPT is incredibly powerful. But, if you're not organizing your conversations intentionally, you're making it way harder on yourself than it needs to be.

That's why I basically live inside ChatGPT Projects. In this episode, I'm walking you through exactly what Projects are, how they're different from custom GPTs, and how you can set them up to get way better results from AI.

We're also covering some recent changes OpenAI made to memory settings (which I just discovered by accident last week). So grab your notebook for this one!

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. What ChatGPT Projects actually are (and why they're different from custom GPTs)
2. The #1 problem most people have with AI—and how projects solve it
3. How to set up project-specific memory so your contexts stay clean and separated
4. My exact workaround for retroactively fixing memory settings in existing projects
5. When to use a project vs. a custom GPT (with real examples from my business)
6. How I use projects for business strategy, speaking prep, and even personal stuff (like my husband's 40th birthday Jeopardy game)
7. Pro tips for managing, naming, and auditing your projects over time
8. Why pulling bots into projects is a secret weapon for chaining tasks together

Real-world examples I share:

🔹 My Business Strategist Project—where I upload accelerator frameworks and literally tell ChatGPT to push back on my thinking

🔹 My Speaking Prep Project—for refining talk titles, writing pitches, and constantly refreshing my speaker bio

🔹 My Personal-Private Project—so vacation planning doesn't bleed into my business memory

🔹 How I used one project to run two entire bundles—and saved hours by having AI convert all my templates in seconds

Key Takeaway:

If you're using ChatGPT and you're not using projects, you're making AI way harder than it needs to be. Projects solve this. They're like having different team members with different strategic backgrounds. Clean. Contained. Relevant.

🤖Train AI to sound like you (in under 2 hours) with BrandCalibrator™

🔹Let’s talk Bots for your business! Book a coffee chat

🔹 Connect on Instagram

1. If you enjoyed this episode, please help us share it by:
2. ⭐ Following the show—this helps you stay updated and supports us!
3. ⭐ Leaving a positive review—this boosts our ranking and helps more entrepreneurs find the...

I can't remember what work was like before AI. And honestly? I don't want to go back.

This episode is a little different—I'm pulling back the curtain and showing you exactly how AI showed up in my business this week. Not in theory. Not aspirationally. But in real time, messy and strategic and ridiculously helpful.

Because here's the thing: AI isn't showing up in just one way for me anymore. Sometimes it's a thinking partner, helping me clarify what I actually need before I talk to a human. Sometimes it's a task doer, handling the stuff that used to drain my brain. And sometimes? It's just making my personal life easier—like planning a Vegas trip to see the Backstreet Boys without spending three hours Googling speakeasies.

I'm sharing five real examples from my week—some played out over multiple days like a diary I kept coming back to, and others were quick, one-and-done moments that saved me hours.

If you've ever wondered how to integrate AI into your business in a way that feels aligned and not robotic, this is for you.

In this episode, I walk you through:

1. How I used AI to draft a legal briefing note for my lawyers (without it actually writing the agreement—because that's not the point)
2. The way I filled out a collaboration form by voice-to-texting my way through it with AI translating my thoughts into polished written responses
3. My behind-the-scenes travel planning process with AI as my personal concierge
4. How my "Pod Squad" of bots (yes, I named them) helps me script, produce, and promote podcast episodes—including Sophie, the Script Sorcerer
5. The email hack I use to convert generic swipe copy into my brand voice using my Brand Calibrator
6. Here's what I want you to walk away with:

AI doesn't have to be an afterthought. It doesn't have to be the thing you use to "polish" what you've already created. It can be part of your entire creation process—from thinking to doing to delivering.

🔹 Grab the FREE Year of the Bot Bundle with 50+ AI tools for your business (available until Feb. 15/26)

🤖Train AI to sound like you (in under 2 hours) with BrandCalibrator™

🔹Let’s talk Bots for your business! Book a coffee chat

🔹 Connect on Instagram

1. If you enjoyed this episode, please help us share it by:
2. ⭐ Following the show—this helps you stay updated and supports us!
3. ⭐ Leaving a positive review—this boosts our ranking and helps more entrepreneurs find the podcast.

--------------------------

Entrepreneur School is proud to be featured on the Feedspot list of 30 Best Canada CEO Podcasts!

I just got off a panel talking about AI for experts who don’t want to sound like robots, and the conversation was so good I had to bring it straight to you.

Let’s be real: there’s a lot of pressure to go all-in on AI. But there's also this voice in the back of our heads asking, "Am I about to automate myself out of a job?" After spending years honing our craft, the idea that a robot could do it in seconds feels… well, a little offensive.

I’m a firm believer in keeping a human in the loop. But that doesn't mean we should ignore AI. It means we have to be intentional and draw our own lines in the sand. This episode is your guide to figuring out exactly where those lines are for YOU.

Forget the hype and the “shoulds.” We’re talking about how to use AI to free up your time for the deep, human work that only you can do—the stuff that makes you truly valuable.

In this episode, we’ll unpack:

1. The critical difference between a task that needs your unique lens and one that’s just a supporting function (and how to tell them apart).
2. My “redeployment of capacity” concept—a mindset shift to see AI as a tool that enhances your human touch, not erases it.
3. The 4 questions you MUST ask yourself before outsourcing any task to AI.
4. Why emotional intelligence is still your greatest asset (and something a robot can’t replicate… yet).
5. The mic-drop line my own AI came up with that perfectly summarizes where your true value lies.
6. This isn’t about becoming a tech wizard. It’s about creating your own rulebook for the AI era so you can stay in control, protect your expertise, and get a strategic edge.

🔹 Grab the FREE Year of the Bot Bundle with 50+ AI tools for your business (available until Feb. 15/26)

🤖Train AI to sound like you (in under 2 hours) with BrandCalibrator™

🔹Let’s talk Bots for your business! Book a coffee chat

🔹 Connect on Instagram

1. If you enjoyed this episode, please help us share it by:
2. ⭐ Following the show—this helps you stay updated and supports us!
3. ⭐ Leaving a positive review—this boosts our ranking and helps more entrepreneurs find the podcast.

The Year of the Bot Bundle is available for FREE until Feb.15!

____________________________________________________________________________

BIG NEWS: Entrepreneur School is officially stepping into the AI era!

I know, I know. I’m a PR and branding person, not a tech bro. Stepping into this role has been a journey full of imposter syndrome and "what the hell am I doing?" moments. But after diving deep into AI, co-founding an AI platform, and seeing its power to give us back our time and humanity… I knew I couldn't ignore it. And neither can you.

This episode is your official orientation to the new Entrepreneur School. I’m pulling back the curtain on why this change is happening now, what it means for you, and how we’re going to navigate this new world together—without the hype, hustle, or losing ourselves in the process.

If you’re ready to build a business that feels like you in a world that’s changing faster than we can keep up, you’re in the right place.

In this episode, we’re unpacking:

1. The new mission: How we’re using AI to build more human-centered businesses, not less.
2. What you can expect from the show moving forward (think real-time strategy, AI-forward guests, and behind-the-scenes looks at my own founder journey).
3. My personal story of going from a communicator to co-founding a tech company (it’s a wild ride).
4. Why this isn't a pivot away from the show's core values, but a deeper commitment to them in a new context.
5. The one belief that’s guiding this entire next chapter: avoiding AI doesn't protect you, but being intentional about it does.

🔹 Grab the FREE Year of the Bot Bundle with 50+ AI tools for your business (available until Feb. 15/26)

🤖Train AI to sound like you (in under 2 hours) with BrandCalibrator™

🔹Let’s talk Bots for your business! Book a coffee chat

🔹 Connect on Instagram

1. If you enjoyed this episode, please help us share it by:
2. ⭐ Following the show—this helps you stay updated and supports us!
3. ⭐ Leaving a positive review—this boosts our ranking and helps more entrepreneurs find the podcast.

--------------------------

Entrepreneur School is proud to be featured on the Feedspot list of 30 Best Canada CEO Podcasts!

What if the key to your next level of success wasn't hustling harder, but quitting the one thing you think your business can't survive without?

This conversation with Ash McDonald is one for the books. She’s a therapist and business mentor who came on the show and dropped so many truth bombs I’m still cleaning up the mess. We start with her "soapbox" moment—why she permanently quit social media—and the immediate, visceral impact it had on her energy and well-being. (Spoiler: After just two days back for a quarterly check-in, she felt like crap. Relatable.)

But this isn't just a chat about logging off. Ash takes us on her incredible journey of selling everything she owned to travel the world with her three young kids. We get into how this radical leap redefined her as a mother, an entrepreneur, and a woman. She gets brutally honest about the trauma that surfaced after her most successful year in business—a half-a-million-dollar year on less than 10 hours a week—and how it led to total burnout.

This episode is a masterclass in untangling your worth from your work, chasing the feeling instead of the metric, and building a life that is deeply, personally, and unapologetically yours.

In This Episode, We Unpack:

1. The Real Cost of Social Media: How the apps are designed to drain your energy, hijack your emotions, and train your brain for distraction.
2. Permission to Quit: The data-backed audit that proved Ash didn't actually need social media for her business.
3. Alignment vs. Time Management: Why managing your energy—not your schedule—is the key to sustainable success.
4. From Burnout to Barefoot: Ash’s raw story of selling everything to travel the world and redefine her life.
5. The Surprising Trauma of Success: Why a half-million-dollar year can trigger a perfectionism spiral and burnout.
6. How to Avoid the Crash: The secret to building a life you love by chasing the feeling, not the metric.

>>CONNECT WITH ASH<<

https://ashmcdonaldmentoring.com/

Grab Ashley’s FREE 15 minute training on preventing burnout.

Shamelessly Ambitious Podcast: https://ashmcdonaldmentoring.com/podcastpage

🤖Train AI to sound like you (in under 2 hours) with BrandCalibrator™

🔹Let’s talk Bots for your business! Book a coffee chat

🔹 Connect on Instagram

1. If you enjoyed this episode, please help us share it by:
2. ⭐ Following the show—this helps you stay updated and supports us!
3. ⭐...

Have you ever left a meeting with your accountant feeling… kind of dumb? Like you should know more, do more, or just be better with your money? Yeah, me too. It’s this weird, quiet shame that so many of us carry, and we rarely talk about it.

My guest today, Serena Shoup, a CPA and bookkeeping CEO, gets on her soapbox about this within the first five minutes—and I was HERE for it. She calls out the condescending, shaming B.S. that can happen in the financial industry and gives us all permission to expect better. (And yes, that includes firing people who make you feel like crap about your business. Mic drop.)

This conversation is about so much more than just numbers. We get into Serena’s incredible story of building her firm as a “side hustle to motherhood,” how she accidentally created a second business teaching other bookkeepers, and the market shifts she’s seeing firsthand in her clients’ financials. If you started your business around the 2020 online gold rush, you NEED to hear her insights on what’s actually working now.

This episode is a masterclass in stripping away the fear around your finances and learning to see your numbers not as a report card on your worth, but as a powerful tool to help you build a business—and a life—that you actually love.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• The #1 reason you feel shame around your numbers (and why it might not be your fault).
• Why mixing business and personal funds is killing your clarity.
• How a $27 PDF pre-sold to 50 people launched a whole new business.
• What's really working in the post-2020 course market (from a CPA who sees the data).
• Using your P&L as a tool, not a report card, to build a business you actually love.

>>CONNECT WITH SERENA<<

FREE DIY Bookkeeping Guide!

Website: https://www.ambitiousbookkeeper.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ofcoursefinancial

Podcast: The Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast

>>YOUR NEXT STEPS<<

🤖Train AI to sound like you (in under 2 hours) with BrandCalibrator™

🔹Let’s talk Bots for your business! Book a coffee chat

🔹 Connect on Instagram

• If you enjoyed this episode, please help us share it by:
• ⭐ Following the show—this helps you stay updated and supports us!
• ⭐ Leaving a positive review—this boosts our ranking and helps more entrepreneurs find the podcast.

--------------------------

Entrepreneur School is proud to be featured on the Feedspot list of 30 Best Canada CEO Podcasts!

I started 2025 with one rule: “Only if it's a hell yes.” I ended it as the co-founder of an AI company. I didn’t see it coming!

This episode is a little nerve-wracking to share, but it’s the real, unfiltered story of my wild ride through 2025. I ditched the 12-month goals, the rigid launch calendars, and all the “shoulds” I’d been forcing for years. As an Enneagram 8 who loves control, this was… uncomfortable.

Instead, I followed alignment, curiosity and relationships. The result? A year that was messy, non-linear and more transformative than any I could have meticulously planned. I went from feeling fed up and stuck to building something entirely new that feels more aligned than anything I’ve ever done.

In this episode, I’m breaking down the five biggest themes that shaped my year—from micro-experiments that actually worked to the scary-as-hell identity shift I'm still navigating. This isn't a highlight reel; it's a roadmap for your own reflection.

What's in this episode for you:

• The "Hell Yes" Compass: How I ditched control and used alignment to guide every decision, even when it led to some big, scary “no’s.”
• Micro-Experiments > Master Plans: The power of small, curious tests—including the $1 workshop that sold 135 spots and taking the entire summer off social media.
• Relationship-Led Visibility: Why deepening connections and collaborating in shared rooms will always beat chasing followers or sending cold pitches.
• When the Universe Screams, Listen: How I recognized the repeating patterns that pointed toward partnership and finally stopped trying to do everything alone.
• Becoming Before You Declare: The vulnerable truth about the lag between your growth and your identity, and why it’s so damn hard to publicly claim the next version of yourself (I’m right there with you!).

Ready for your own reflection?

If your year felt non-linear, you’re not behind. Ask yourself this: **What did this year teach me about how I want to move forward?**

To help you get started, here are the 5 journaling prompts from the episode. Grab your journal (or your favorite AI tool) and give yourself the space to explore what your year taught you.

1. Where did I choose alignment over expectation this year?

2. What did I try this year that gave me clarity (even if it wasn't a huge win)?

3. Which relationships quietly opened doors for me this year?

4. What keeps showing up in my business that I might be meant to approach differently (and not abandon)?

5. What version of myself am I already living, but not fully claiming yet?

Here's to a 2026 that's led by you, not your to-do list. Happy New Year

🤖Train AI to sound like you (in under 2 hours) with BrandCalibrator™

🔹 Done for you visibility plan by Valerie the Visibility Auditor

🔹 Let’s work together: https://ksco.ca/

🔹 Get visible without social media

🔹 Connect on Instagram

If you enjoyed this episode, please help us share it by:

⭐ Following the show—this helps you stay updated and supports us!

⭐...