[00:00:00.140] - Candice Coppola (Host)

All everyone is talking about right now is chat, GPT, and AI. In fact, everywhere you look from TikTok to Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, everybody's talking about how AI is changing business. In today's episode, we're going to have a conversation with my friend Dawn Richardson from the tech savvy creative all about the future of weddings and how AI is revolutionizing our industry.

[00:00:30.510] - Candice Coppola (Host)

You're here to grow a business, but not just any business. You want to grow a profitable business with purpose, a business where you wake up every single day driven to serve your customers and make a difference in your own life. I'm Candice Coppola, published author, business coach, and your guide to building a profitable business with purpose. Join me here every single week as we explore how to build and grow your business or business with purpose. Get ready to dig in and have meaningful conversations about the strategies and techniques that will help you build your dream business. This is the power and purpose.

[00:01:16.300] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Hey, Dawn. Welcome to the 100th episode of the power in purpose podcast.

[00:01:21.240] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Oh, my gosh. I'm so excited to be here. I'm excited to be here anyway. But to be number 100, I'm like, girl, let's celebrate. Congratulations. That is so exciting. Thanks for having me.

[00:01:32.250] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Yes, it's been such a labor of love, this podcast. I knew I had to do something special and big for the 100th episode, and I'm going to be honest, I was like, I don't know what the fuck to do for the 100th episode. What are we going to do? It's so much pressure. It needs to be fabulous. Then instantly I was like, You know what? I'm just going to invite Dawn to come on the podcast. She's my new business BFF. She's so smart. She has great energy and I'm going to celebrate this milestone with somebody I care about. T hanks for being a guest today.

[00:02:01.830] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Thank you for having me. I'm so excited.

[00:02:05.080] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Before we get into this crazy topic of AI and all of the interesting details around AI and how it might be able to help our business, also some of the implications when it comes to AI, I feel like we have so much to talk about. I want to celebrate this moment properly. Dawn and I are going to celebrate 100 episodes. We invite you to join us in some capacity, whether you can run to your liquor cabinet and go pour yourself a shot, which is what we're going to do. We're doing shots of Tequila. I have somebody somewhere. It's five o'clock somewhere. If you're watching the video of this, you can see how fancy Dawn's shot is. She has a beautiful shot glass. She has salt and rim. She ran to the grocery store this morning to get limes for this moment.

[00:02:54.440] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Did you know that there is a Margarita glass in my logo?

[00:02:58.010] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Oh, there is?

[00:02:59.190] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

There is. This is very on brand for me. So when you're like, Hey, can we share a shot? I was like, Yes, absolutely we can. I don't care that it's 11 AM here in San Antonio. I will absolutely.

[00:03:11.140] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Go to the grocery store. I have kids to deal with for the rest of the day. Fuck it, let's do it.

[00:03:16.140] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

It's fine.

[00:03:18.440] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Well, if you can see how boogie Dawn's shot is, mine, not so much. I'm using a shot glass that we got from someone's wedding. Marta and nick, happy wedding.

[00:03:28.770] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Anniversary to you all.

[00:03:29.690] - Candice Coppola (Host)

What a great gift. But I am drinking Casamiego's tequila, which is my favorite.

[00:03:33.100] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

That's my favorite, too. That's exactly what I have. Oh, my God. Twins. Casamiego's always, always.

[00:03:39.880] - Candice Coppola (Host)

I love it. All right, well, we're going to do this shot to celebrate 100 episodes. We invite you to take your own proverbial shot along with us to celebrate. Cheers.

[00:03:49.150] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

To 100 episodes, my friend. To 100. Nothing like a tequila chaser for your coffee.

[00:04:01.820] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Oh, my God. We were just talking about that. Listen, you get to a certain point where you can't layer alcohol with other foods or beverages. Coffee being one of those things where it's like, I love a cup of coffee. I find it relaxing. So I would love to have a cup of coffee right now, but I can't do it. It's going.

[00:04:21.800] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

To have to work. Yeah. No, I don't think it's good for any of us. If anybody else wants to try that for us, let us know. Yeah.

[00:04:28.710] - Candice Coppola (Host)

We're leaving it in your capable hands. Well, Dawn, I'm so excited for today's episode. Ai has been literally all anybody is really talking about. Whether you are reading blogs, you're on YouTube, everything is about chat, GBT, and all different AI tech tools, which if your head is spinning already, and it's not because of tequila, but because it's you don't know what the hell we're talking about. We're going to break it down for you from the simplest level and then get into some advanced AI topics. But everywhere I look, I feel like people are talking about this.

[00:04:56.870] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Oh, absolutely. And it's just evolving so quickly. When you and I met in January at the Creative Educator Conference, the tools that we talked about then are already different than the tools that we're talking about today. And it's only been a few weeks. It is wild how fast this world is moving.

[00:05:14.960] - Candice Coppola (Host)

It's crazy. And everybody's talking about it. Even people's dads I follow and I'm friends with on Facebook, the most random people are talking about AI and how it's being used. So if you haven't really heard a lot about this, I think maybe you might be not online very often or maybe you're circles. You're just not following the right people. But I encourage you to actually dig into some of this. We're going to talk about it today, but I encourage you to look into it and do your own research a little bit further on how AI can help your wedding business and how you plan to use it because I think this is here to stay, whether we like it or not. So first, can you explain what AI is?

[00:05:55.130] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Absolutely. So the definition of AI, so AI stands for artificial intelligence is a simulation of human intelligence and decision making by a machine. So this is different than automations. Ai is a type of automation, but not all automations are AI. I see that out there a lot. People are using the word AI to describe an automation, and that's not the case. Now, the difference between the two. Automations perform tasks based on a set rules and information that it's given. While AI does also perform tasks, it learns from its mistakes. It makes decisions based off of the environment that it's in and the situation that it's in. It is evolving over time. Now, something really interesting about AI, we're talking about it's so visible right now and everybody's talking about it. It's actually been around for years. Ai is what is powering what Netflix decides to tell you what you might be interested in. It's really powerful in ad marketing, and we've talked about the algorithm for years, and that's actually a type of artificial intelligence called machine learning. Ai is not really new to us. It's just new to us in terms of a way that we can utilize it in our businesses.

[00:07:13.210] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

So when chat GPT came around in the last few months, that was the first time there was a public interface on this technology, and people got to use it and experience it for the first time. Since chat GPT has come to the forefront, we have a whole new wave of tools and technology that is at our disposal because of how chat GPT introduced it to us, and now we can utilize it.

[00:07:39.250] - Candice Coppola (Host)

It's really exciting. Oh, my God. I know it's spread like wildfire chat GPT. You had mentioned it at the conference, and then I left Dallas and it was everywhere. I was wondering if is it one of those things where you buy a car and then you see it everywhere and you're like, What the fuck? Why is everybody now buying my car? Or if it really did just suddenly was everywhere after that conference, but it literally blew up. Just a little side question that I'm curious of your opinion on. Once chat GPT really started to take over and chat GPT is just this AI tool where you can ask it to do things like, hey, write me a blog post. Hey, write this email for me. Write my resume. There's so many things it can do. Because once that was released, so many other AI tools came to the forefront from Google to Notion to all these other things that we might use in our every day. Do you think that chat GPT pushed some people to release their technology earlier?

[00:08:38.890] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Well, a lot of these tools are actually using GPT behind the scenes. Some of them, yes, very much so. It gave them the boost that they need to offer this to people. Now, I also think that technology is a race and nobody wants to be left behind. I think it was expected to see all of these big companies follow very quickly because they don't want to be left behind. Google does not want to be left behind. Microsoft doesn't want to be left behind. Notion, Canva, all of these tools are now offering these AI tools that might have a chat GPT backbone, but also they might have their own algorithms and things that are evolving to the way that they want to use it. Again, technology is moving. They have the tools, they have the resources now, so now they're taking it and making it their own. It's just the start. It's going to get even crazier.

[00:09:33.500] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Well, hopefully, we'll talk about your predictions, maybe, for what this is going to look like. As you mentioned that it's existed already, that got me thinking that AI is built even into Gmail when you're writing emails and there's this predictive text that is predicting what you should or what you want to write next, that has got to be a form of the AI we're also talking about here.

[00:09:55.930] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Yeah? Absolutely. Because it's predicting, not necessarily just the word, but it's giving you a word in the context of what you're doing. Another great example of AI that we might be a little bit more familiar with are things like self driving cars. So your Tesla's autopilot, that technology is making decisions based off of the environment around it. It's not just an automation, it's not automatically going from point A to point B without considering the things in front of it. We have been experiencing this in many different ways. It's just all of a sudden now it's available to our businesses and that's where for us as business owners, we're like, oh, wait, hold on. This is changing the game here. That self driving car might not change the game of my wedding business, but this is.

[00:10:40.520] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Oh, for sure. I've really started using it and I'll share later in a couple of fun different ways that I've discovered to use it. But it is definitely going to change how we do things as wedding industry pros, both marketing our business and just in the everyday operations of running a business in this industry. So that leads me to my next question. I feel like we understand what AI is. Let's talk about some specific ways that you can use it to improve the planning process working with your clients.

[00:11:08.850] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Absolutely. Okay. Everybody got your coffee or your tequila? Let's sit back and let's talk about this because there's so many different ways. So many different ways. Grab that drink, friends. I love to think of AI as a way to tackle the mundane tasks in your business so you can focus your time and your energy on your zone of genius, your true talent. Our clients didn't hire us to be the task rabbit. We're not there just to answer these little emails. We're not there to create these tiny little blog posts. We're here to create an amazing experience for our clients. This is going to give us more time and more freedom to do that because those mundane but necessary tasks are being taken care of. When it comes to the wedding industry, and I am a former wedding photographer myself, I shot my last wedding in October, so I'm right there in the thick of it with you guys. Thanks. I've been in the thick of it. I've been through the world of COVID with the wedding industry, so I am fully understanding of what you guys are dealing with as wedding planners. But in the wedding industry, AI really has four primary areas that I like to focus on, one being content, one being admin and communication.

[00:12:20.480] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Admin, communication, so admin, communication and media. There's actually three. I put admin and communication together. Now, before I dive into these, though, I do want to give a disclaimer. Whenever you're looking at a new tool and especially an AI tool, please do your own research and please make sure you look at their privacy policies to make sure that your data is safe and all of these things, so use this to your own discretion. Me talking about it is not the end all be all. This is the best tool in the world. Go use it right now. So please take your own time and your own discretion to decide whether or not you're going to use these tools. But first, let's talk about content creation because that's the popular one. That's the one that people are talking about. We've already talked about chat GBT a little bit. But content creation AI can help a wedding planner with things like generating blog posts, email series, writing that email that might be a little difficult to write. Maybe you're trying to decline a client, or maybe you don't agree to change that they've made to your contract. Web site copy, social media caption, scripts for podcast episodes, all of these different things.

[00:13:24.920] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Lots of opportunity for content creation. But when it comes to this content creation, I absolutely recommend using these tools. But if you plan to take these tools and just copy and paste what they generate and then post it to the internet, that could be where things start to get a little gray and you're going to start to see some of the disadvantages to AI. Lean into these tools to create outlines to help it improve your own writing and really just helping that mundane. Maybe you stare at that blog post and it's just that blank cursor. I don't know about you, but for me, that's the hardest part is getting that first paragraph out there. So use the tool to help you generate that and then use your talent and your experience to create that personalized experience in your content. Some examples of some good tools for content creation, chat GPT. Of course, side note here, I love using chat GPT for my meal planning every week. That's one of my favorite things to do, totally not related to work, but it is because that's less time and less brain power that you're spending on a Sunday meal planning for the week.

[00:14:34.960] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

I ask it for a seven day meal plan that's kid friendly and doesn't have fish in it because my kids don't like fish. It gives me that meal plan. Once I say that sounds great, I'll say, okay, create me a shopping list from this meal plan, and it will generate me a category shopping list. Wow. Lots of different ways to use it. Another great tool that a lot of people use is Jasper. We can talk about Jasper here in a little bit more. If you use Canva, it's already built into Canva with Canva Magic Write. It's in the document section. Then Notion AI is another really great tool that I love to use for content creation.

[00:15:09.860] - Candice Coppola (Host)

I love that you are... First of all, I think this is great because it can help us to just get started in areas where we feel stuck with our marketing. I've gotten to use AI to generate ten blog post ideas for me. I've gotten AI to generate outlines of maybe what a blog post could look like, a few Instagram Reel ideas. I think most of us, we just need a little nudge. We just need a little momentum, and then we can take the ball and run down the field with it and come up with our own ideas. We just need a little something. T hat can be the hardest part is just getting started.

[00:15:46.910] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Think of it like your cup of coffee in the morning. W e're not a bad entrepreneur because we drink coffee in the morning, but it does help us get started and be our best selves. T hink of AI that same way. Another way I love to use it, let's say you already have the blog posts. If I'm in Notion, so I use Notion AI a lot, I can say, Create me three Instagram captions from this blog post and actually drop the link to my blog post in there. It will use that link, it'll crawl that link and it will actually write me three Instagram captions. A gain, am I going to leave it like that and copy and paste it and call it a day and use the hashtags it's using? Probably not. But it's a great start for me to get past that writer's block and to get past that overwhelm and that decision fatigue that we experience every day.

[00:16:33.460] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Oh, yeah. What do I say? What do I say now? I've been saying the same shit for 10 years. What could I possibly say today that anybody would care about?

[00:16:42.260] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Yeah, totally. Well, so we're already talking about social media here. Another great place where AI is really popular right now is in admin and communication. So we're seeing this more and more often. Right now, if you are scrolling on Instagram, you will probably see at least one post that says, comment planner playbook on this post, and then you'll for the link, right? C lick X, Y, Z for the link. That is an AI chat bot. So chat bots like Many Chat and Mobile monkey are actually approved by Meta, so you're not going to get banned for using them. But if you want to quickly get a resource to your users, you can set up these chat bots and it will either send somebody a DM when they comment with a certain thing or when they go to send a message to you, it'll give you a few prompts that they can choose from, and it's all automated from there. There's a lot of different ways that these can be used.

[00:17:40.490] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Many.

[00:17:41.130] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Chat, Mobile Monkey, and Intercom are great tools for that. But there's also admin and communication tools that can be used in your team. T hese tools will attach to your meeting. T hey'll attach to a meeting like this or your Zoom meeting or your Google Meet account. They'll transcribe the meetings and say, Dawn said this, and Candice said this. T hen not only that, but it will summarize and give you action items from the meeting for you. There's another really... I know, right? Think how... If you didn't have to go create email followups for your wedding clients. Let's say you have a consultation call. You can record that call, have this all transcribed. So not only do you have you had that one on one experience with your clients, but now you have that entire conversation and writing to reference back to. That's really helpful. You can also send that follow up email to your clients being like, this is what we talked about. Here's the things that I'm going to do. Here's the things that are on your plate. There's another really great tool out there called Fathom. And this tool connects to Zoom and it allows you to create highlights of the meeting.

[00:18:50.220] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

It'll be like, Oh, this is like a juicy, I want to take this out to be a sound bite. It'll let you click, it'll have a button where it starts the highlight. It'll start the highlight from when that person started talking, and then it will record it until they're done, and it saves them as separate little sound bites for you. That's so cool. As a podcaster.

[00:19:09.160] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Yeah. That's just so many different use cases with that. That's really neat. So many. It's funny that you bring this up because I was just in a meeting today with one of the women in my Mastermind, wedding pro insiders, Regina from Wedding by Regina Marie. And this chat, this bot joined our Zoom meeting and I'm like, Regina, what is going on here? She was like, Oh, yeah, it takes notes. She said, You don't have to let it in. I let it in. I just thought it was so fascinating that now here we have this opportunity for AI to help, like you said, support the mundane tasks that are important for us to do either in business or client experience. But I think a lot of times we make excuses for not getting them done, especially meeting notes, which is so important for planners or really any wedding industry pro, photographer, Florist. You meet with a client digitally, virtually, and then to sit down and type up all those notes, that is such a pain. It takes time. There's so many more important tasks on your plate. You're not a secretary. You don't want to do data entries.

[00:20:14.330] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Having some of these tools to do it for you is awesome and it's going to make you look good.

[00:20:18.930] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Right, exactly. Because six months down the line when you need to remember what you said, that's going to be so helpful to have. That's why we want to take those notes and send those follow up emails so we remember these conversations. Because as wedding professionals, we're not juggling one client at a time. We have many clients on the books, but we want to provide an experience to our clients that make them think that they're our only client. And these tools are really giving you ways to do that. T hen also to make yourself a better experience because you can go back and actually do the things that you said you were going to do because you remember them.

[00:20:55.610] - Candice Coppola (Host)

It's all really important.

[00:20:57.860] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Yeah, I know, right?

[00:20:59.030] - Candice Coppola (Host)

About that part.

[00:21:01.060] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

What things are falling through the cracks right now? Are we not blogging? Are we not sharing? Are we not sharing our expertise in the industry? Because it's so overwhelming? Again, these tools are there to really give you that jolt of caffeine and really help you create that experience, whether that be in the education side or to your one on one clients or even your coaching clients. So much opportunity there. The other area I want to talk about when it comes to AI and wedding planners is in media. So we're talking about photo, video, and audio. Now, this is going to be a little different because you're not always generating photo, video, and audio stuff for your clients. But there's tools out there that are being used to read audiobooks. So instead of somebody sitting in a studio and recording an audiobook, these tools are generating audiobooks for them. What would that look like if you could create a private podcast for your clients that book with you? It's basically just blog posts that you've already written, but it comes in this really nice five episode series, but you didn't have to do anything other than give it the blog post.

[00:22:16.590] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

There's opportunity there. There's also AI tools that will help your audio sound more clear and crisp, and that will just make that experience even better if you are in these meetings real time and you have a screaming child in the background, which, I mean, we're all there. It happens. I'm one of them.

[00:22:35.410] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Now.

[00:22:35.950] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

The other one that I think is really interesting for the world of wedding planners, and I want to tiptoe around this lightly because if there's any photographers out there listening, I know I could ruffle some feathers, but I am a photographer myself. But if it's used correctly and legally, I think it can be a really impactful tool for wedding planners. There's a tool that I am personally a huge fan of. I use it myself. I send my personal photos to it. That's how much I love this tool. It's called Imagine AI, and it is a AI photo editing software.

[00:23:13.880] - Candice Coppola (Host)

How.

[00:23:14.720] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

This tool works is I create an AI profile with it. I had to send it thousands of my edited photos for it to create my AI profile. I went through that whole process and generated this profile for me. Now, this is different than a light room preset because it's actually taking lighting, skin tone, the situation that they're in to create these accurate edits for these photos. Now, where it becomes really interesting for wedding planners is that there are professional talent profiles available for anyone to use in the tool.

[00:23:48.080] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Wow.

[00:23:48.510] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

If you had taken your own photos of your own event, let's say your own design, or maybe you wanted some different pictures of the seating chart that you created, or maybe this tablescape, like what's the difference between a tall centerpiece and a short centerpiece, all of these different things, you take these photos, you could theoretically send them over to Imagine AI, choose a talent profile that fits your vibe, and you would have professionally edited photos at your disposal.

[00:24:19.180] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Wow.

[00:24:19.380] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Really great opportunity. It's not the same as just sticking a light room preset on it. It's actually going to be a really nice curated photo. Now, where you can get in trouble, and this is what you don't want to do is don't take your photographer's photos and throw it in there. Those are not your photos to edit. That is not legal unless you have explicit written permission. Please do not edit any of your professional's photos. This is also not an opportunity to follow around the photographer. Take your own pictures of the bride and groom, edit them, and send them to the couple. You as a planner don't like it when other people try to do your job, so don't do the photographer's job.

[00:24:55.520] - Candice Coppola (Host)

A hundred %. But I can see.

[00:24:58.020] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Use it with discretion. But sometimes you don't get the photos back of the centerpiece that you had spent all this time on the design or maybe some part of the day. And this is a really great opportunity to get that professional type of photography and professional type of editing with an automated tool.

[00:25:17.800] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Yeah, I think it's cool. I see some great use cases. We live in a now world where if you're not posting what you're doing right now, then you're already too late and the world's moved on from whatever it is you're doing. It feels increasingly important to, in real time, share the events that you're producing or the art that you're creating or the things that you're a part of. Because if you're a Floridaist or a planner or insert the blank, you have to wait a few weeks, sometimes months, to get the professional photos back from your photography friends. So if you can take images and show your work in real time or right after it's completed, all the better, which you need to be doing. But also we're not professional photographers, and so we don't necessarily always know what we're doing. And then we have this tendency to get hung up on how it looks and how's it going to look in my feed. And I don't need this. Everybody here listening knows exactly what I'm talking about. So this totally takes that analysis paralysis out of it and gives you an opportunity if you want to maintain a certain image quality and standard in your marketing, well, here's something that can do it for you.

[00:26:23.940] - Candice Coppola (Host)

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[00:27:21.580] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

As a photographer myself, I was somebody that did same day slide shows. Before the wedding was over, the planner had 30 plus images of the day in their hands that were my photos. Now, in the past, that took maybe 30 to 45 minutes. I would do it over dinner. Now, with this AI tool, I could possibly do it in five. There's a lot of opportunities for me. Could photographers use this? Yeah. Absolutely, yes. It is built for photographers. I will preface this with it requires a lightroom catalog, so it's not something that you're just going to upload on your phone and call it a day. It's going to have a little bit of a learning curve. It will need a computer to do this. But again, if you had your own camera that day and you took some photos, again, make sure you read your contracts and that you're not violating anybody's terms of agreement. But if you have those photos, whether you took them on your phone or on your own camera, you could have a professional edited profile to edit those photos in a way that would probably be better than just you popping in there and trying to figure it out yourself.

[00:28:25.720] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Amazing.

[00:28:26.380] - Candice Coppola (Host)

And professional photographers listening can also use this to edit their images in general. But then also even if they offer real time slide shows, this could cut down on the amount of time it takes to put those together. Totally.

[00:28:40.060] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

So you would still have to upload them the same way. I actually have what I'm calling my encore wedding in May. I have my encore wedding in May. It's a good friend of ours. I am shooting that wedding and I will be doing their same day slideshow using Imagine AI so I can really time the difference. For me as a photographer, I five star my favorite images and camera as I shoot them. I would just simply take those images, I would send it over to Imagine. It is really quick. We're talking like, I can get probably 1,000 photos back in 15 minutes.

[00:29:16.760] - Candice Coppola (Host)

What?

[00:29:17.640] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Yeah. They're accurate, right? They're really good. Am I going to take this and send it to a client directly? Probably not. I'm probably going to go through and make sure that I'm doing my retouching and making sure that it tells the story of the day and all that good stuff. But we're talking about that first initial brunt of editing. It goes from days to minutes. It's wild.

[00:29:40.310] - Candice Coppola (Host)

That's amazing. Definitely, I'm sure every photographer listening to this who doesn't know about this is now going to figure out how to use this. What a great tool. I loved everything that you've mentioned and how we can use AI to help the wedding planning process in our wedding industry business. W e talked about content creation, generating that content, admin, and communication. You also talked about media and photo. So are there any potential downsides to AI? Because for anybody who's ever watched West World, this is amazing. There actually is maybe a lot of downsides to AI. But in all jokes aside, what are some of the downsides or limitations that we need to know about?

[00:30:25.040] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

No, we're not having an i robot experience here, right? That's not our goal here. That's a whole different topic. But downsides for the wedding industry professionals, there are absolutely downsides. One is if it's not used well, it does have a potential to depersonalize your experience. So when it comes to using any tools in your business, there are times when I think you can have a very depersonalized experience. I don't care if you know that it's an automated reminder that your invoices do. I'm okay with that. I want that system to be there just to let them know that there's a system that's monitoring them. But maybe that experience like that touch point Midway, maybe I want that to be a little bit more personal. I'm not going to necessarily just let a chatbot take over and the entire communication experience with my client be AI. I also think it comes for content creation, blog posts, chat bots. Use it to help you get past the mundane so you can spend your time on that one on one interaction and that experience. So if not used well, depersonalization is a potential downside. There's also a margin of error because it is technology.

[00:31:43.690] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Now, there's always a margin in error because humans, we're humans. But when you fully rely on technology, sometimes it's really easy just to put up your blinders and not even think about checking it. And that's where people can get in trouble with technology. Just keep in mind that just like any other technology, it does have an opportunity for a functioning and for issues. If this is something that you want to be fully aware of and you're constantly watching it, you probably should not be using automation or AI for that piece of the process. Also, these tools can be expensive. We already pay for all of these subscriptions. We have all of these tools and all of these software. These would be adding tools to our toolkit. Some of them are going to be absolutely worth their money because you're saving so much time and energy and you're getting rid of those things that you don't want to do, but it is going to add up expense wise. Those are a few things that we're all going to have to consider and really do a cost benefit analysis if it's worth it or not.

[00:32:45.510] - Candice Coppola (Host)

What's cool about chat GPT for right now is that it's free. So right now you can use it for free. I think they're starting to offer a paid version or a version where you might get access to new features quicker or things like that. But eventually I don't think it will be free. Yeah.

[00:33:05.770] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

No, it's too popular. They know that they have a gold mine. Oh, for sure. They've already talked about GPT 4. I don't know if you've seen anything about the new version. New version. So this new version can take image input and use that to create its content. So for example, the one example that I saw was they took a picture of the inside of a refrigerator and they created a bunch of recipes with the items inside of your refrigerator. What? Right? So think about that in the wedding world. What does that look like for us? Could we take a picture of a color palette and then it generates me a floral proposal of what flowers are in season with those color tones in seconds. I don't have to go do the research to see if peonies are available in Texas in September. I can just take a picture and they'll be like, Oh, it is. Give you a whole breakdown of what's available. What does that look like for design? Can you take a picture of a room and it creates an initial design for you? Or maybe five initial designs for you to let your client pick the path that you want to go down.

[00:34:14.950] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

There's so much opportunity for this and it's going to be really exciting to see what it does in the next few years.

[00:34:23.380] - Candice Coppola (Host)

One of these questions that's bubbling up to the surface right now for me is why is it free? If it's free and it's so good at what it's doing, then it's got to be doing something that's making it money. The things that we're putting into it must be being used for some financial gain. I'm a capitalist, 100 %. I just don't believe in doing stuff. People don't do things for free out of the kindness of their heart most of the time. What do you think about that?

[00:34:58.440] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

I think this is also, I totally agree with you. One, I think they're either trying to get us hooked to it, so we will pay for it. I think that's a big piece of this. For example, if us as users who really lean on social media, if all of a sudden it became paid, I feel like a lot of us would pay for it because we're like, Oh, that's like our livelihood.

[00:35:19.140] - Candice Coppola (Host)

It's happening. It's happening. Yes, it's happening.

[00:35:22.490] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Meta verified. Yeah, it's happening. It's happening. I will not be surprised to see how many blue check marks start showing up on my feed because... Listen, bitch, I'm going to be one of them. I don't give a shit. Exactly. Well, they're also saying that's going to give you a boost in the algorithm. How many of us are already bending over backwards to try to get our content seen by our potential clients? This is a big deal. They also offer security features like help with imposters, those accounts that create accounts. Didn't you just have one of those that tried to be you? Oh, my God. I had a.

[00:35:55.800] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Mail order bride website. That's right. is using my image, my bio, and linking to my real social media as one of their expert, the editor of this website. It's a picture of me from my Instagram, a selfie I took, and it's the most bizarre thing. I actually applied for Instagram verification again and tried to use that as an example, and they were like, B itch, no. Oh, no. I'm like, This is my...

[00:36:24.750] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Well, maybe you just need to lean into this and make a blog post about your mail orders. It's so annoying.

[00:36:29.710] - Candice Coppola (Host)

I'm like, What else do I need to do? I have a book in Target. My book is sold at Barnes & noble in Target. What else does a girl need to be to get a blue check? I guess more. It needs more. So I will be buying my blue check. I don't give a shit. Yes.

[00:36:44.820] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

I'm with you. Again, is that going to be the determination of is this a real business or is it not? Is it a hobbyist versus a pro? It's going to change and Meta's going to get our money. I think this is going to be the same with chat, CPT and a lot of these other tools. A lot of these other tools are already paid. But I also think this is also a good reminder to check the privacy policy. How much of this content do you actually own and how much of it do they now own? You're sending all this information in. At what point is it theirs versus yours? T here could be a lot of data mining going on. Again, it's different for every single tool. Just keep that in mind that you might not want to be throwing it all of your personal information and all of your clients information. It's going to be interesting to see how that changes, especially how the legal system catches up in the next few years.

[00:37:34.730] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Oh, yeah. I have some questions around that for you as how we're going to wrap up the episode. But I want to know, for the person listening, for the wedding pro listening who's just like, What? It's all of this. I'm not very tech savvy. How can they incorporate AI into their business?

[00:37:53.380] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

I totally think that you can. The reason why I think even the most untech savvy of people can do this is because this is not an all or nothing transformation. If you decide that you want to dip your toe into AI, that doesn't mean you have to do all of these things. Start with one thing. Start with chat GP. Log in, see what it's all about. Have a conversation with it. Ask it to plan your meals next week. Really give that experience and go through it. Give it a chance to see what it's all about. If you're a Canva Pro user already, you already have this built into your docks. So jump on to Canva, try it out. One of my favorite tools to recommend to somebody that wants to experience this for the first time and maybe needs a little bit of extra hand holding is Jasper AI. I love Jasper. It is made for marketing and content type templates is what they call it. So you log in and it has a whole list of templates. Are we creating a blog post? Are we creating an email? Are we generating ideas? Do we need to simplify something or do you need a description for your product on Amazon?

[00:39:04.850] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

It has all of these different tools. When you click on the tool you want, so let's say we clicked on Pinterest description. I click on Pinterest description. I love Jasper because it gives you boxes that you have to fill in. It's very clear on what it needs. It's like, what's the name of your business? What's the name of the product that this link is promoting? What are the things that you want to be ranked for on a search? Tell me about this product. It asks you for all of those things, and then based off of your input, it will generate you three or four different responses. I really like that tool and I really suggest it for the newbie or for somebody that's a little intimidated by it because it does really guide you through the process and helps you create exactly what you're looking for while using it.

[00:39:52.950] - Candice Coppola (Host)

I like that because I feel like, too, you have more of a hand in what's being created. You feel better about using the copy that you're being given because it's more personal to you. I think those are two great tips. Love chat, GPT. My copywriter uses Jasper AI and I've used it a few times too. It's easy to use. I love the prompts. I think that's a great suggestion. Let's talk about more downsides to AI because I think there's some ethical considerations that wedding industry professionals need to think about. I also think that this is going to change the overall landscape and how our businesses operate, maybe not always for the good. We can see the good in it and we're like, Oh, this is going to help us. Oh, this is going to save us time. Then 20 years from now, we're all out of a job. No, I'm just kidding. That's why your crazy uncle on Facebook wants you to believe. He might not be that far off base, honestly. I don't know. My first question to you, Dawn, is what are some of the ethical considerations that we need to keep in mind when using AI?

[00:40:59.190] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

The first thing I want to say is I'm not a lawyer, so this advice is worth what you're paying for. Zero.

[00:41:07.750] - Candice Coppola (Host)

You're paying nothing.

[00:41:09.670] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Yeah, exactly. You're paying nothing, but it's a tequila shot, nothing. I actually do have a friend of mine, her name is Gheorghe with GPB Law. She is amazing and she talks about AI in the legal system a lot. She's an attorney. So if you're looking for some really great resources, I highly recommend her. She has a YouTube channel, so check her out. But I think we're going to see things change as the legal system catches up because technology moves way faster than the legal system. The legal system is like, What is going on? All of these things are coming to the forefront. One thing that we do know is the copyright office has deemed that anything created 100 % by artificial intelligence is not copyrightable. There's this whole appeal going on for somebody that created a graphic novel. And Geerja talks all about this in one of her podcast episodes or on her YouTube channel. But we've gotten to the point where they've already said, Okay, if it's AI generated, it's not yours. So where is the point where it's mine versus where it's not? I f AI edits something for me, is it? And we don't really have answers to that yet.

[00:42:23.660] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

So I think as that changes and the legal system becomes more clear on how these tools can be used, we're going to get a lot more solid advice. But for me, this is why I firmly stand on the grounds of if you're planning on just saying, Write me a blog post, and you're going to copy and paste it into your website and call it a day, I think that's where we're going to start getting in trouble because we don't necessarily know where it's getting this information. We know it's coming from the internet, but what does that mean? Is it really creating its own opinions about something, or is it pulling bits and pieces from other posts around the internet? One thing right now, so Microsoft being the search engine, they have introduced a AI tool to their platform. One thing I really like about Bing's AI is that they cite where the information came from. If you say, tell me about wedding trends in 2023, and it'll spit you out a four paragraph answer, it'll actually cite and give you a link to the places where it got that information. I think that's one really great way that things are going to change and we're going to start to see that.

[00:43:34.870] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Are we using our own words? Are we taking somebody else's? But if you're worried about something, then don't do it. Use your discretion. I think we're going to get some clarity here in the next few years. But use it as a tool to do the mundane tasks, to help you get past that writer's block, to get you past that analysis paralysis, and I think you're going to be in okay shape moving forward. I agree.

[00:44:00.740] - Candice Coppola (Host)

I'd be curious to see how the legal implications of using AI begin to bubble to the surface. I don't think we're going to have to wait too long. I know that the legal system is probably trying to figure this all out. I have no doubt that they will and that we will start to see more conversations around the ethical and legal use of AI copy or insert the blank. I also wonder, and maybe this is part of our next question, which is how you think AI is going to change the overall landscape of the wedding industry. But one thing that's popping up for me is this sea of sameness. In a previous podcast interview with Aleah Harris, we talked about how to differentiate yourself in the wedding industry because everybody looks the fucking same. Everybody is doing the same thing. We're all learning the same shit. We're all buying the same courses. We're all talking the same way. We're all buying for the same customer. There's this benchmark that everybody is sitting on and then doing things very similarly. How is AI going to make that even worse if we're all just putting the same shit into chat GPT and then using the same stuff in our Instagram and our blogs?

[00:45:10.570] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Is this even an opportunity for people who are vehemently anti AI to really shine by using their own voice and not being sucked into this? I don't know. Just something that I think about.

[00:45:23.530] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

I had a conversation about this with a photographer, and I feel like this falls into the same category of film photography. When digital came out, the film photographers were like, Oh, no. But guess what? Now people pay a premium to have a film photographer. It's not gone. It's actually a art that people will invest in. Is that going to go where this is? Ai is going to shift. Is it going to do that? We already pay more money for organic produce at the grocery store. Is that going to change how we do things? But I do think you're right. I think that bench that we all sit on is just going to be a little bit higher. I think it's just going to really emphasize the fact that as wedding professionals, our interactions with clients and how we make them feel in their process is really what's going to be the differentiator between us. How we use our voice. For me, the first thing you saw in my wedding photography website was you, me, and the dance floor. I'm the one with the camera. It was all about the party and all these things. I did that to really attract the bride that was about to have the best damn time of her life and probably not remember the night and really detract the bride that wanted a dry wedding.

[00:46:40.220] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

I got you. You wanted to do a dance?

[00:46:43.100] - Candice Coppola (Host)

You wanted to do a dance? tequila shot with your bride. Exactly.

[00:46:46.600] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

I've done that many a time. But that's because that's what was important to me. I wanted my clients to know that if they wanted somebody that was always appropriate and that wasn't going to curse and make dirty jokes during their wedding day, if you don't want that person, I'm not your person. No AI tool is going to change that. I think it's just really going to make that an even more important part of the process. We're going to use AI to do things, to do the admin, to manage our task, to make our experience better. But at the end of the day, how we make our clients feel and finding the right personality fit up for our clients is crucial.

[00:47:25.840] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Do.

[00:47:26.420] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

You think that people.

[00:47:27.440] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Can totally resist AI? Do you think that in the wedding industry, you can be completely not involved in it at all and still be successful? Or do you think that there is going... We need to adapt in some way in order to stay relevant or even get ahead? I think it's going to.

[00:47:45.660] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Make the to do list longer. A lot of us when we started, it was about blogging. Like, Oh, you have to blog. Blogging is not dead. It's a big part of SEO. It's still there. I still get thousands of hits to blog posts. It's still happening. We had blogging on our plates, and then all of a sudden we had Instagram on our plates, and then all of a sudden we had Reels on our plates, and then all of a sudden we had TikTok. The other things never went away. I think what AI is going to do is it's going to take those tasks and make them almost more mandatory because people are getting them done now. People are tackling those blog posts and that social media management and all of these things. It's going to make that bar a little bit higher and that can be really overwhelming. I don't think it's impossible for somebody to succeed without that, but I think it's going to be... There's going to be more importance on showing up the same way that the other people are, whether or not you're using the tool to help you do that.

[00:48:46.990] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

I like to think of the tools as a way for me to spend more time with my family than to, Am I doing this to make more money? No, I'm doing this so I can spend less time actually doing this myself to keep myself relevant, to keep the bar high so I can go be with my babies. I think you're going to have to decide whether that's worth it or not to you. Or if maybe blogging is not for you, then that's fine. But you're also going to experience You can't get not blogging and be like, Why isn't this working for me? There's a lot of data out there, and I think we're going to see that evolve and change because it's just going to be so much more content. Oh, yeah.

[00:49:25.030] - Candice Coppola (Host)

I think it's only just beginning and the bar is already being set and raised because early adopters have adopted and they're already a few paces ahead using it and then also with the strategies that they're using with it. So I completely agree. Dawn, you're at the forefront of all things tech for wedding industry pros and especially photographers. I know that you've mentioned a few tools here. You have an amazing list in our prep sheet, which is just too long to go over. So I'm hoping that our listeners who want the most up to date information on AI tools that they can check out that you've checked out, that you think are interesting or cool, or maybe even that you use yourself, where can they get that? So I have.

[00:50:11.320] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Created a free resource. It's called the AI toolkit for Creatives. And you can find it at textivycreative. Com AI. And on this resource, I have listed all of the things that we've talked about here, plus some. And as new tools pop up, which seems to happen every week and I have a chance to play with them, I will be adding them to this list. This is also where any blog posts or social media posts related to AI will be put as well. It's your one stop shop. But again, this is a free resource, so go check it out and sign up for it.

[00:50:44.810] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Good. It's so good. I'm glad that you have created a place where all of this can live and that we can even go back to it to get your thoughts, maybe on new technologies that are emerging. But you've got a one stop shop for all of the AI tools that Dawn knows about that she thinks could support you in your business. She's not an attorney and she by no means wants you to give your data and information away. So be an adult. You get to make your own decisions.

[00:51:10.410] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Make your own decisions. And you can.

[00:51:13.200] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Find that at techsavicreative. Com AI. I'm also going to link to it in the show notes so that you can go directly there and get all the information. Dawn, how can people connect with you outside of this resource? Where do you want them to go and find you? Is it Instagram, TikTok? Where are you living these days? I am.

[00:51:30.200] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Most active on Instagram. So you can find me at tech savvy creative on TikTok. Wow, I'm sorry. You can find me at the tequila. The tequila. You can find me at tech savvy creative on Instagram. I'm also tech savvy creative on TikTok and also tech savvy creative on YouTube. That makes it easy. Youtube. A big goal for us this year as soon as I get my youngest daughter into childcare is to really ramp up that YouTube channel. So keep an eye on that. Subscribe there too. And we'll be posting content as the world changes. Oh, my God.

[00:52:08.750] - Candice Coppola (Host)

That is going to be my favorite channel ever.

[00:52:13.080] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Are you going to break.

[00:52:14.400] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Down, do tech talks and break down software and hardware for us? Absolutely.

[00:52:22.610] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

I've always had this unspoken dream of being a tech blogger. And I'm like, Oh, I'm actually living it. This is it is here.

[00:52:30.420] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Absolutely. There's so much space for someone like you to talk about technology, how it relates to a creative business, how it might relate to a wedding industry business. I know there are a lot of tech people on YouTube, but there's no dawn. Yeah, exactly.

[00:52:44.030] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

You are.

[00:52:45.060] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Able to break things down in such a simple, relatable way where it feels way less scary and it's like, Oh, okay. Yeah, that makes sense. My goal when I.

[00:52:54.440] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Started Tech Savvy Creative was to be a friendly corner of the internet to ask the scary questions. I get these DMs all the time. They're like, dumb question. T hen they ask me a question. But when it comes to technology, the only dumb question is the one that's not asked. Go in here. I'm here. I'm your resource. I'm friendly, I promise. It's my goal to create things that are easy to learn about and consume, even if you don't feel like you're the most tech savvy person. Well, Dawn, you're the best.

[00:53:22.320] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Thank you for spending so much time with us today for breaking down AI, making it feel less scary, opening this conversation. I feel like we might have to do this again as things advance and we've got new, maybe an AI report with Dawn on the podcast, something like that. I like it.

[00:53:39.400] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Thanks again for.

[00:53:40.640] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Taking tequila. Take tequila. Maybe there's something in that. That could be fun for your YouTube.

[00:53:47.660] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

Tequila Tuesdays. Oh, my God.

[00:53:49.150] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Take and Tequila Tuesdays. I love it. Well, thanks again for being such a great guest and for celebrating the 100th episode of the podcast. We'll see you next time. See you.

[00:54:00.370] - Dawn Richardson (Guest)

That was such.

[00:54:01.510] - Candice Coppola (Host)

A great episode. I can't thank Dawn enough for being such an incredible guest and for you, my friend, for being along on this journey with me and giving me space in your week to share stories like Dawn's and knowledge like Dawn's, and then also all the other fun stuff we get to talk about here on the Power and Purpose podcast. I have everything that we talked about linked in the show notes, especially Dawn's incredible resource for you, where she has pulled together all the AI tools that you could use in your wedding industry business and created an incredible resource to get you started using AI. You can find that at techsavvycreative. Com AI. Make sure you go and follow Dawn on Instagram, on TikTok, on YouTube. When she really gets going on YouTube, you're going to want to be there because she's going to break things down for you in the way only Dawn can do it. So make sure you go and subscribe to her YouTube channel too. Let me know over on social media the question of the episode. I'd love to hear your answer. Are you going to be implementing AI in your wedding industry business?

[00:55:06.500] - Candice Coppola (Host)

Head over to Instagram, head over to my post. Let me know your thoughts. I'd love to hear from you. Dawn and I both would love to hear your insights and what you thought of today's episode. My friend, happy 100th. I'm here to remind you, as always, there's so much power in your purpose until next time. Thanks so much for tuning in to this week's episode of the Power In Purpose podcast. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode and consider leaving a review. Head over to powerandpurpose podcast. Com to access all of the resources and links mentioned in today's episode. That's powerandpurpose podcast. Com. I'll see you next time.