Have you ever wondered exactly how to utilize AI to help grow your business? We've all heard the good and the bad about AI and everyone seems to have an opinion on it. In today's episode, I sit down with AI and Automation Expert Alane Boyd to talk through exactly how she's embraced AI to grow and scale multiple companies. We discuss:
How to use AI to increase connection
The Power of Authenticity
Practicing Gratitude for Yourself
Alane Boyd is the Co-Founder of BGBO Co., an operations and growth strategy agency utilizing AI and automation to improve efficiency for their clients. In 2022 her company launched Arvo, an AI-powered visual documentation software for creating standard operating procedures, training documents, and company knowledge. Alane has been written and featured in Entrepreneur, HuffPost, South by Southwest (SXSW), PBS, FemFounder, and many more.
You can connect with Alane on LinkedIn HERE
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Former Executive Search Recruiter turned LinkedIn Expert & Entrepreneur. I'm here to show you that you can do it too! After 15 years of working in Corporate, I knew that I was no longer serving my purpose. There was this tiny voice inside of me saying "you were made for more" and I couldn't ignore it any longer. In 2021 I launched ChilledVino, my patented wine product and in 2023 I launched The Feminine Founder.
This podcast is a supportive and inclusive community where I interview and bring women together that are fellow entrepreneurs and workplace experts. We believe in sharing our stories, unpacking exactly how we did it and talking through the mindset shifts needed to achieve great things.
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I'm so happy you are here!! Thanks for listening!!!
Caroline (00:01.673)
You started your career in sales and have had multiple exits from successful tech companies where you were either the president or the co-founder. So I'd love to hear your story.
How do you make a team follow a process (00:11.964)
So I'm going to try to condense this down so I don't spend the whole podcast talking about how I got here. But you know, what I always wanted to be my whole life was a boss and wear cute outfits. And it didn't matter how I got there or what I did. That was my goal. And so luckily I fell into tech and my co-founder early on, he was definitely the tech guy and he coded our first software and I was more of the sales and marketing person.
our first time around and I was really hard on myself, like, oh, I can't help you code. And he was like, I don't need you to. We can't have a product and then not be able to sell it. You need to be out in front of the customer selling and I'll be behind the scenes building. That was such an epiphany moment. And I just ran with that idea. And so we did, we co-founded the company together. We had two software platforms and an agency and a media company bought us and then we're doing it again. So you just...
You never know where you're going to find the right kind of partner to build something together. And then I was just too early to retire. So I wanted to do it all over again.
Caroline (01:19.021)
So what's been your most helpful resource as an entrepreneur?
How do you make a team follow a process (01:27.965)
I'm losing you, Caroline.
Caroline (01:31.37)
Can you hear me okay now?
How do you make a team follow a process (01:32.976)
I can, and I just got an alert from Riverside saying that they're having issues with their servers.
Caroline (01:40.237)
Oh, Riverside.
Caroline (01:46.869)
Can you hear me okay now?
How do you make a team follow a process (01:48.228)
Yes, actually, and your video is back clear.
Caroline (01:52.789)
Okay, cool. I'll just ask the question again and I'll edit this out. What has been your most helpful resource as an entrepreneur?
How do you make a team follow a process (02:01.592)
Oh gosh, well, definitely other entrepreneurs. And that's where I really thrive. I felt after I sold and there was a period of time where I was just doing a lot of walking, I was hanging out with my young son and I realized how depressed I got not having anybody else that I was interacting with that were other entrepreneurs. And you kind of get in your own head and you kind of lose yourself through that experience. And so...
I really, my greatest resource, I've joined multiple organizations for entrepreneurs because we have to be able to share ideas. And so like EO Nashville, 10KSB, these programs that I've done are, entrepreneur programs has been just really wonderful in my growth for owning companies.
Caroline (02:49.773)
So when did you know when it was time to pivot and start another company?
How do you make a team follow a process (02:56.444)
There's been a couple of companies that I have not successfully grown and the burnout. And when I get too burnt out that I don't wanna do it anymore, that's how I know. And that's actually how I knew it was time for to sell my company previously with the two software platforms and the agency is that I wasn't enjoying the work anymore. I'd been, we'd been owning that company for about 11 years and we, it wasn't fun. We weren't waking up and just like ready to crush the day anymore.
And there were other passions that I wanted to do. So that's when I knew, okay, it was time in that moment to sell. And then within the companies that I have now, we might decide to pivot. If we're having a hard time with market fit and you've tried and you've tried and you've tried and it just doesn't feel like it's gelling, then it's time to pivot. It could be pivoting language. It could be pivoting who you're marketing to, or it could be an overall product. And so that's where I found it was beneficial for me is.
you know, when are things aren't fun anymore? And it's time for me to figure out, well, what are my options and how do I wanna move on from this?
Caroline (04:04.205)
So I'd love to expand more on the mindset of an entrepreneur. What is work best for you when preparing for each day? Has there been any specific habits or things that you do in your daily routine that has really helped you as an entrepreneur?
How do you make a team follow a process (04:18.84)
My number one thing that I have to do every day is workout. And I'll go through, if I go through a few weeks and I didn't get a workout in or I'm in a transition and I don't, my mental health completely declines. And I get, I have these episodes of I'm a failure, I'm a loser and my husband's like, what is going on? And then I'll realize I haven't been working out. The days got too busy, things got away from me. And so...
And even in moments during my day, if I'm having kind of a crisis moment in my head, it's not a real crisis, but to me at that moment it is, I've started going for walks and letting myself just remove myself from the situation, go for a walk. And that can be on my treadmill. I have one set up in my house so I can just hop on it if it's not nice out, or I go for a walk down the street if it is a pretty day. And those are my non-negotiables now. I have to get a workout in. And I have a bunch of different types of workouts so I don't get bored.
But that's part of my routine daily. Outside of that, I wake up around the same time every morning between 5.30 and 6 a.m. I like getting my day. I journal in the morning and I do a gratitude journal. And I do, it's not always gratitude for other people, it's gratitude for myself sometimes because I can be very, very hard on myself like a lot of us can be. And I started saying, you know what, Elaine, you did a good job. You were great at this. And I do it for the day before. So I...
Do it in the morning, think about the things from the day before, and I say thank you. And I have to come up with at least five, but I write down as many as I can think of.
Caroline (05:54.125)
I love that you just mentioned the gratitude for yourself because you're right, I think we when we talk about gratitude, we think about giving back or sharing or caring with others, but it has to start with us and we have to be kind to ourselves.
How do you make a team follow a process (06:10.684)
It's a hard one to do.
Caroline (06:14.005)
where our own is worth critic.
How do you make a team follow a process (06:16.254)
Yes
Caroline (06:19.477)
All right, so switching gears to your tech background and specifically AI, why is it so important for companies to embrace AI and automations?
How do you make a team follow a process (06:31.732)
I mean, the most expensive part of a business is the amount of team members you have. And you want them to feel really great at the end of the day because you want them to be there long-term. If you're having high turnover, then that is extremely expensive for you. So I think with AI and automation, you don't even necessarily have to think about it as replacing people's jobs, but it makes their jobs easier. It makes them get those tedious, those boring parts of their day and...
they can get more done or get it done and be happy at the end of the day that they accomplished a lot. And so I think that's the most important piece. Like there's so much talk about it's gonna replace jobs, it's gonna do all this. Really right now where we're at, it's just gonna make your day easier. And for a marketing team, for instance, you could go from maybe getting a blog post out a week to getting four to five out a week and still making them super high level.
Not necessarily high level, but where there's a lot of EO richness that it's super tailored to your business It's not just you know cookie cutter things that you copied off the internet And so I think that's where it comes in and then with automation if you think about how much If you're lit left up to manual processes how much room there is for error in there with automation You can start removing some of those errors because it's going to go through the process perfectly every single time
And so you can have a much more consistent employee onboarding, client onboarding, whatever it is, all because you got those little things out of the way through an automation sequence.
Caroline (08:07.805)
If someone's listening to this podcast and they are scaling their business, do you think the operations, sales, marketing, and tech all have to be on the same page when you're in growth mode?
How do you make a team follow a process (08:21.5)
Early on, if you're in growth mode and it's just you and three people, I think it looks very different than when you get to a team of 30 people. And at the beginning, when it's just you and three, you're gonna be, you can't do everything all at once. You don't have enough people, you don't have enough time, so you need to pick and choose what's gonna be the best thing for my growth. And if you're already good at operations and you're already good at marketing, then you need to look at tech. It really kind of depends, like where are you not great at and start putting some energy there so you can grow and scale.
When you get to be a 30 person company, things start getting really hard then, because you've got a lot more people needing to know. So it really is, I would say about five things. You need tech, you need operations, you need some automation in there, or else your time and everybody else's time is getting questions. They need help, hey, can you help me with this? And they're jumping on Zoom calls or huddles, whatever it is, because you don't have enough resources in place, and that is not people resources.
Caroline (09:21.793)
So you brought up a good point earlier about there's a lot of chatter in the workplace or out there on the internet about AI taking over human capital. But to add to that, connections are obviously really key in the workplace and connections with your employees and connections with your customers are also super important. How do you think AI help or hurts the connection side of the business?
How do you make a team follow a process (09:49.832)
that there's a fit for it to help with making better connections. If you can have AI, like for instance, if you're a salesperson and you need to reach your target market, you can use AI and automation to help you find your exact target market and help connect with them in a much better way than just blasting a whole bunch of people. And so I think in those instances, you can use it to help you have better connections, help write LinkedIn comments if that's your thing and you want to write things.
You know, sometimes just getting started is the hard part. It doesn't mean that you're less personal. It just means, I don't know what to say and I need help right there. And that's what I love about AI is that nobody's there watching you. You can use it in your vulnerable moments and get help. And I think that's where those bridges start to form is the people that are the introverts or don't wanna or are scared to be vulnerable. I mean, I know I get there.
I can go and have AI assist me and then I feel really confident and I'm not so scared to stay inside my world.
Caroline (10:54.905)
Is there a middle ground with that? Because I'm with you, like, you know, LinkedIn can write your posts and everything, but there's an authenticity factor there too that I think myself and other creators or other companies want to keep in there. So how do you balance that?
How do you make a team follow a process (11:12.968)
What I like to do for myself and what I tend to recommend is use it as an idea starter. I can tell the people on LinkedIn and social media that are copying and pasting from chat GPT and I want to call them out, but I don't because I'm not rude yet. You know, I might change, but don't do that. That's not what it's there for. It's there to give you 80% of the way there or maybe just 10% because sometimes I'm like, oh God, I don't even know what to write about. I've got this.
kind of an idea, but I don't know how to develop it. And then I'll just use it to like, oh, okay, I got some like things here, and then I'll go and write 90% of it. And I think that's the piece that we all need to take home. Don't copy and paste what AI puts out. It's there to get you, it's not a person, it's not you. It's never gonna be you. You've got your own experiences that it does not have. So use it to help you and always edit.
Especially if you're using it as like a, you know, chat GPT where you're manually going and writing stuff. If you're using it in an automation sequence, like a Zapier or make sequence, and it's to help analyze a report, sure, that's data that you're putting in and it's going to follow a sequence and spit it out. Great. But if it's something where you need feedback, use it to get you 90% of the way there, a portion of the way there, and then always use your voice to make those changes. And that's for anything.
You wouldn't copy a proposal from your friend and submit that, you know? Like you need to customize it. So keep that in your head.
Caroline (12:50.925)
I'm with you a million percent on that. I can't stand the people that use AI and don't insert themselves in their posts, and you can smell it from a mile away.
How do you make a team follow a process (13:01.244)
You really can't, even the formatting, you know that it was copied and pasted.
Caroline (13:09.377)
So as we wrap up, how can our listeners find you?
How do you make a team follow a process (13:12.796)
Well, since we've been talking about LinkedIn, I'm very active on LinkedIn. Elaine Boyd is my name and connect with me on there. And then my website is Workday Ninja. We're helping people just make their workdays easier so they can get to go in and join their real lives. And Arvo is my software.
Caroline (13:36.045)
Thanks, Elaine.
How do you make a team follow a process (13:37.256)
Thank you so much.
