 Which Is Best?
(3 min read) As we continue our Human vs AI series at Read. Write. Engage, we'll take a look at how AI is doing in writing tasks. Last week, we considered AI as a proofreader where I'm still strongly on Team Human. In writing, AI is more useful. AI in Writing This is a task AI has been trained to do as one of its core functions. We can now ask AI to return information to us from a variety of "voices" or reference points and it does fairly well. We can provide prompts such as "You are an experienced marketer" or "Provide the information at a level of a 5th grader" and get reasonable suggestions. Paul Roetzer of the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute and SmarterX has created a JobsGPT using ChatGPT as its basis. Paul is a marketer by trade. He notes on the home page of JobsGPT that in Content Creation, "LLM can generate drafts for blog posts, social media content, and email campaigns. It can also assist with editing and optimizing content for SEO and engagement," saving 30-50% of your time. JobsGPT was introduced in this blog post dated August 13, 2024 for how dated the 30-50% reference may be. AI in Research This is another task AI has been trained to do and it does fairly well. For the benefits of AI, writing and research are two of its highest skills. Research is key for many writing tasks, be it writing an article, blog post, a term paper, or simply providing information to others. Many times it's useful to find details, further information on a topic, or corroborate (or refute) whatever point a writer is trying to make. We now have two tasks useful for AI in writing. Can I Write A Book with AI? I'd give that an emphatic no! Many editors - and readers - can tell the difference. It may not be noted immediately, but heavy AI use will get caught at some point, even years later. Many proofreaders and editors find themselves on the front line of identifying AI generated or plagiarized material in books. An ethical concern develops about reporting it to authors or publishers or even editing books with a high percentage of seemingly AI generated material. Former Harvard President Claudine Gay faced fierce consequences with questions of plagiarism that she strongly denied. The use of AI makes it more difficult to clearly define your words vs someone else's. It's fascinating to find that AI books are becoming more visible due to the volume of work produced daily, even attributed to legitimate authors who had nothing to do with the work! Amazon is trying to stem the tide (and confusion) by limiting self-published Kindle books to three per day. Do We Need Humans? Can I get a hearty "Heck yeah!" on this! Whatever writing AI provides, it needs shaped. All AI developers admit and recommend this. AI has been trained with an enormous volume of information to synthesize quickly in a general way to provide a generally satisfactory response suitable for a broad audience. Whatever information AI provides, humans need to shape it further with prompts or put their own writing to work. AI provides broad, general information. AI continues to need fact checked. "Hallucinations" occur where the AI may provide examples or websites that aren't even real yet look very real. AI tends to be eager to please and does its best to provide what it thinks you're looking for, whether it's real or not. Always ask AI for its sources, but even those need confirmed. AI cannot replicate your very special and individual voice and perspective on the world. AI is data and information, an aggregate of many, not feelings or experiences. Team Human or Team AI? I have to admit to a blend on this. Many humans using AI do find it useful to assist writing and research. Personally? I weigh more heavily on Team Human here.
Transparency and AI A discussion is always advisable to be clear the level of AI used to create a work and be sure all are agreeable. I see a Human© tag becoming likely in the future! In the realm of writing, are you on Team Human or Team AI? Love to hear your thoughts! I provide a number of services for nonprofits, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and authors. I look forward to discussing ways to Engage your customers - Let's Chat!
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 Which Is Best?
(3 min read) Ah, a classic response - "it depends." It depends on the level of accuracy you want. Yes, humans do have failure rate—tools are your friend—but there are plenty of examples sharing "hallucinations" of AI or simply wrong source material or "where did it even get that from"! We should be able to agree that AI needs humans to double-check its work. AI is very much in its infancy and is in a training phase. You wouldn't let your 4-year-old proofread your doctorate dissertation or business proposal, would you? What About Cost? Ah—another "it depends" response. Many seem to choke on the price to hire a trained proofreader. Absolutely understandable. If you're an author, there are many layers of editors to consider hiring, each with a different purpose, giving pause to consider how many is really necessary or useful. Can't you just pass it to Aunt Mary who used to be a teacher? I suppose so, but how long has she been retired or what subject did she teach? Is she really the best proofreader to help your project be amazing? There are many less expensive options on Fivvr or Upwork. Many offering their services on these platforms are often new to proofreading or from another country where English is not the native language. It makes a difference in how your work is proofread. What About AI Options? Many have heard of Grammarly as a great AI editing/proofreading resource. There are similar services available. Grammarly readily notes it uses AI to "improve" writing suggestions. Be sure to see if your AI proofreading tool follows a style guide if it's critical for your work. If you need to follow a particular style guide for your work, Grammarly admits it uses a rather general frame of grammar reference. If you need to follow CMOS (Chicago Manual of Style), AP (Associated Press Stylebook), AMA (American Medical Association), or other style guides, Grammarly will not be useful. Team Human or Team AI? Many proofreaders and editors feel bound by a standard of ethics to call out writers using a high level of AI to create their work. I'll admit, I advise caution in this. Many now blend their own words with assistance from AI. It's a subjective scale to decide level of human vs AI and determine what's predominantly AI. Plagiarism checkers have historically been challenged on their level of accuracy. This is an interesting article from the University of Kansas urging caution in plagiarism checkers. We're all cautioned on the need to fact check AI results. I've found many instances of AI "hallucination" or just plain making things up. Many folks even fight suggestions offered in Office's Word with good reason! AI is useful as an idea generator and to help refine your thoughts, but as a proofreader? Sure, I'm biased, but I'm on Team Human all the way for proofreading. Transparency and AI The best bet is to be up front with your clients how much of your proofreading work is human vs AI assisted. There are a number of tools available to proofreaders to maximize their eyes catching errors. I wouldn't consider all of them "AI," such as the use of "macros" or PerfectIt. Could an author use these tools themselves and not a proofreader? Sure thing! I suggest it depends on the cost of the tool and your time, how prolific you may be in your writing, vs hiring a trained proofreader who may use these tools to assist their human read-through. Hiring a proofreader should carry the expectation of 1-2 human readings of your work and not fully rely on tools. I predict a day will come soon where work will be stamped as Human© as there is already a demand by some to note AI use. In the realm of proofreading, are you on Team Human or Team AI? Love to hear your thoughts! I provide a number of services for nonprofits, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and authors. I look forward to discussing ways to Engage your customers - Let's Chat!  Evacuation Planning (3 min read) Natural (and unnatural/man-made) disasters have been in the news a lot in 2024 and 2025 is not starting much better. Hurricanes, Polar Vortex, and fires to name a few large-scale recent disasters. I've been incredibly fortunate in my life, but the "prepper" is strong within me. I suspect that's a combination of being raised by Depression-era parents and being Mom of a family of four. Let's now add a business owner to the mix! How Do You Plan You start with the advantage of Time with no disasters in your life. (a crazy schedule does not count as a "disaster"!) On one of your "CEO Days," start with simply 30 minutes - more if you're lucky - and make some lists. Grab your favorite drink and some calming music for background noise. Whatever you do to get focus.  Start with a Checklist There are plenty of checklists readily available on an online search. There are books on disaster planning. If you live in an area with a higher risk of natural (or unnatural/man-made) disasters, you may even have a "bug out bag" of items in the back of your vehicle to simply GO if the need arises. Reviewing a basic list as shown here, these are items you may have multiple copies of depending on your needs. Items may be in a fire resistant lock box and you have copies ready to be portable. You may have some items stored elsewhere deemed safer or at least in more than one location. (not all in your home) This is often recommended for external hard drives/tech back-up. The idea is chances are high that disaster would not impact multiple locations. What Time Is It?
Time may be a factor in your planning. Consider a list of what you'd grab with immediate evacuation orders, 15 minutes, 30 min, 1-2 hours, or even days. You can role play in your head or with others how you'd react in an evacuation situation to help remain as clear and focused as possible in the moment. You have to plan for the potential of panic to grip you and freeze you or others in place. Keep most critical items in your mind or within grab-and-go reach, especially if you're in an area prone to potential evacuations. So What About the Business? The list shown and in pdf format with this post is an all-purpose list. Some items may also pertain to your business. You may prefer a separate "business only" list. There are a number of resources to consider protecting your business assets and information.
What Do You Recommend? This post is written by someone fortunate who has not actually lived through an evacuation or disaster but is familiar with memory keeping and electronic storage best practices. What additional considerations do you have to add to this resource list? Your insight is especially valuable if you've lived through a disaster. I provide a number of services for nonprofits, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and authors. I look forward to discussing ways to Engage your customers - Let's Chat!  Goals - Love 'Em or Hate 'Em?
It's that time of the year when everyone is talking about or thinking about GOALS. It's a natural topic at a milestone like the start of a new year. But it doesn't need to be only at the start or end of a year. Any time is good! And sometimes they need updated along the way. Focused or Loose Goals? How detailed do you get?
Quitter's Day The 2nd Friday in January has become known as Quitter's Day! By this time, many have already fallen short of New Year's goals and just quit all resolutions. Perfectionism is a challenge for many and some decide "If I can't achieve all of them, then none of them are worth pursuing." No One Size Fits All You can find a lot of "Goal Gurus" out there with a variety of suggestions for how to develop goals.
What Kind of a Goal Setter Are You?
As we look to the new year, how are you setting yourself up for success? If you're looking for strategy or marketing assistance to create engagement for your business, Let's Chat! I provide a number of services for nonprofits, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and authors.  Networking - The Key to Your Next Job That is not an understatement. Various sources indicate 70% or more of jobs are attributed to the power of networking. The number is hard to pin down but multiple sources agree with its importance. I've written about the value of events, volunteering, and LinkedIn. What IS Networking? Networking is simply meeting and chatting with others. This can be done in person, at events, virtually, online - however you meet people. I'm at local recent events in the photos. PHOTO: Three smiling women sitting around a table reviewing resumes.  WHY Network? Many employers tend to hire someone they know personally, are at least familiar with, or someone in their organization is familiar with. It reduces the "get to know you" factor to identify a fit for a corporate culture. Many jobs aren't even officially posted on job boards but are shared among employees to share with contacts. Employers may even have an incentive or bonus program to encourage employee referrals! PHOTO: Group photo at a local restaurant. Who is in Your Network?
Basically everyone you know, including those you only vaguely know, like those you connect with online. Anyone and everyone can become part of your network - you just never know!
How Do You Network? Simply begin chatting with folks - anyone and everyone! Have a ready smile and be prepared to make small talk. Play a game with yourself to find commonalities with who you're speaking with! Indeed offers a number of ideas. Introverts: Baby steps. Start online or wherever you're comfortable. Start with comments on socials posts. Begin the conversation by writing something - nearly anything! - about a topic that's easy and comfortable for you: gardening, something you did over the weekend, a special hobby or talent of yours. Then respond to comments. Then try it again. Attend LinkedIn events - lives or audio rooms - and simply be seen, react, comment if that's an option. Have business cards at the ready to continue conversations on socials or by email when you meet someone in person. Follow-up after chatting with someone if you have a way to reach out! That's where a business card can help provide email addresses or social profiles. Offer a way to demonstrate your skills and personality! Consider volunteering to assist someone or create a small free gift that fits with your business. A gift can be
Offer your Time if that's better suited to your goals. Volunteer at an event related to your field of interest or job. Get Focused! It makes a difference! Occupational Outlook Quarterly offers a resource that remains timely.
Getting Warmer? I'm a far bigger fan of the power of "warm" leads over "cold."
Do you network? Love it? Hate it? If you're looking for brand marketing or communication assistance, I offer a number of services for nonprofits, small businesses, fellow entrepreneurs, and authors - Let's Chat!  Current Fave Podcasts
Do you listen to podcasts? They're a favorite free education tool of mine! Many can also be found on YouTube if you prefer video content. This is my one-hour guaranteed daily education time while walking the neighborhood. Marketing Focus There are a few on my current "Can't Miss" playlist that I catch as soon as they're released. As I developed this list, I realized there are a number of marketing shows I listen to fairly regularly. This does not include a few others I'm looking forward to testing, but I won't make recommendations if I haven't listened. I was originally going to also cover LinkedIn and A.I. podcasts, but the list for all became far too long. Future content! General Marketing Podcasts All of these podcasts are easily searchable but a link is provided to find them. You should be able to find nearly all on whatever your podcast player platform is. Names are linked predominantly to the host's LinkedIn profile for your following and connecting convenience - one prefers Facebook/Instagram over LinkedIn.
Any Favorite Marketing Podcasts? Do you have any favorites to share that we missed? Love to hear what you find useful in your marketing education! If you're looking for strategy or marketing assistance to shine a spotlight on your business, Let's Chat! I provide a number of services for nonprofits, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and authors.  What is Co-Working?
Co-working is meeting with other individuals to share work time while increasing focus and productivity. According to Merriam-Webster: "being, relating to, or working in a building where multiple tenants (such as entrepreneurs, start-ups, or nonprofits) rent working space (such as desks or offices) and have the use of communal facilities." History of Co-working Co-working is said to have begun as early as 1995 in Berlin, Germany. The term is credited to Bernard DeKoven in 1999. The first "official" co-working space is considered to be in San Francisco in 2005. These references can be found in many articles. A solid history is available thanks to a LinkedIn article by Matthew F. February 2024. Another good history is brought to us by coworking resources in April 2021. Where Can You Co-Work? As of 2017, Focusmate has been offering this concept online. I discovered it June 2024. They offer some great science behind why co-working works, complete with footnotes. They also have a great pricing structure - free for up to 3 sessions/week, roughly $7/month for unlimited sessions, and they offer business plans. I've been participating in a weekly co-working session created by a few editing friends from a Facebook group. One person has created a recurring weekly zoom-style link and added weekly Events on Facebook as a reminder. There's a related discussion group to let each other know if the leader will be taking the week off and to communicate for someone else to manage the link or motivate each other. I've headed to a local Panera on my own or with a colleague or two for years to work on projects related to an organization, each doing our own thing or sharing ideas on a certain collaborative project. I didn't realize I was "co-working!" How Does This Work? The appeal is primarily to those who work from home who would like the accountability of committing to showing up at a particular time and place (productivity method + goal strategy) or who want a bit of social resemblance to a work site. Whether you meet at a physical location or online, the general concept is you arrange to meet at a certain time - someone is counting on you as an accountability partner. You show up with a brief introduction and your goal(s) for the session and you get to work. You reconnect for a few minutes at the end of the session as a check-in on goals and success of the work session. Lather, rinse, repeat. Focusmate tends to have 50 min session blocks that start at the top of each hour giving you a 10-minute stretch or bathroom break. You can schedule as many as close together on your calendar as you wish. You may be part of a group on Focusmate to find partners within that group, or you can partner with anyone who is a Focusmate user from around the world. There are desk sessions and active sessions (exercise or clean together). It's tricky to find particular people until you've had a session with that person or send someone an "invitation" to find your calendar to collaborate. Once you collaborate and it seems to work well, you can "favorite" someone to more easily search for sessions on the calendar. Focusmate has an active Facebook group where members can seek and respond to others with similar interests to partner in these sessions. Is It Useful? I've become a big fan of these co-working opportunities! As a solopreneur, my home is my office. Scheduling these sessions helps me focus on work activities with someone else who is working. It does improve my productivity and keeps me accountable - I promised to show up. It's also a fabulous networking tool as you meet others from around the world, in your affiliated field, potential clients, or completely unique individuals! It's useful to get out of your own space and interact with others. Have you had any co-working sessions using Focusmate or some other platform? Love to hear how it went for you - likes and dislikes. Looking for a co-working partner to make progress on your goals? Let's chat!  Amazing Business Networking
If you haven't tested out LinkedIn and you're a nonprofit, solopreneur, business leader, or simply looking for work, you are missing a bet. LinkedIn is the go-to resource for your business connections! Just Another Social? I suggest this platform is different than the others available.
How Often Should I Post? The short answer - as often as you have time for.
Ring the Bell LinkedIn recently changed how this little gem works. Whenever you Follow someone on LinkedIn, a bell appears at the top right corner of their profile. You now have options to decide level of notifications when someone updates their profile, similar to Facebook levels of interaction on groups or pages.
Company Pages - Followers I heard a magic number recently on a Gillian Whitney podcast with her guest Aoife Noone.
Groups on LinkedIn Groups here are very different from Facebook groups. There are less of them available, the interaction is often less, and vetting each is useful to filter out the more spammy or sales content groups, unless that's something you're after. Begin with some searches in areas or fields that interest you and expand your reach from there. It's hard to say what may pop up that interests you! Once you find a few interesting groups, see how the group interacts, then jump on in! It's easy to become a thought leader within a group as there is simply less commenting or activity here. The opportunity is rich for making more connections! Developing Your Feed The above suggestions are the best way to improve your feed or your Home page.
LinkedIn is one of my favorite platforms to connect with folks! We'll likely have more discussions on here about this powerful tool with ways you can leverage it for your own business. LinkedIn is seemingly always changing. Have you come across any great tips to share about LinkedIn? Love to hear them - Let's Chat!  What Comes to Mind
When you think of A.I., what image comes to mind? For me, it's definitely Doris, Bowler Hat Guy's hat, in the movie Meet the Robinsons. That's probably not ideal! The short premise of this 2007 movie is a time travel adventure in which a young adventurer saves the space-time continuum and the world as we know it from an A.I. robot (Doris) gone mad with power. SPOILER ALERT: Our young hero comes face-to-face with his invention and promises to never invent it. POOF! GONE, and the world is saved! I keep wondering if we may not have similar regrets as we seem to keep racing to keep up with the advances of A.I. Podcast Recommendation I've caught a few episodes of The Artificial Intelligence Show with Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput. Thanks to Ilise Benum for recommending it! I highly recommend this one! The guys are brilliant - genius level - and are incredibly knowledgeable about current A.I., the direction it appears to be heading, and how we can best prepare ourselves for this rapidly advancing technology. They offer a number of resources on their website. Episode 105 of their podcast particularly struck me, prompting this post. My anxiety was fortunately tempered by listening to episode 103 and their Intro to AI for Marketers program offered monthly with a limited time replay available. How Will We USE A.I.? I noted a few options that seem useful in business on a prior blog post. Such options include for research purposes, content idea generation, create a model client as a reference point, and assist creating a list of potential ideal clients. Paul and Mike are visionaries, and they read a lot of material to stay on top of the A.I. world. They advocate a lot of A.I. literacy needs to happen to be prepared for how rapidly A.I. tech is advancing. That seems accurate to me, so I'm at least dipping my toes into what A.I. is, how to try to master it, and spread the gospel of educating yourself. Current Challenges The trick at this time is A.I. remains a bit unwieldy. You need to become darned good with your prompting skills and be prepared to keep poking A.I. tools to dig deeper to come up with material that's semi-useful yet still relies on human insight to read decently. It's also useful to use the same prompt in a few different A.I. models to see how they respond as each will produce different results. There is a fair amount of friction or resistance on the part of the human public to actually use A.I. tools. The current percentage using A.I. remains extremely limited. It just doesn't make sense or fit in most of our worlds to be easily used - yet. "Apple Intelligence" Apple announced in June 2024 at its Worldwide Developers Conference that "Apple Intelligence" is coming Fall 2024/spring 2025. The features described on multiple Apple platforms aim to integrate many apps and accompanying info embedded within your device to better respond to your particular queries. This will likely bring us a step closer to making A.I. more "useful" with less friction for the average person. It will simply be in your everyday use. Google and Meta are embedding A.I. into their platforms as a feature that's simply built in and you can't remove it. There are other examples of A.I. at work that we're coming to simply expect will be there to assist us - Siri is one and Alexa is another. We also all see Office, Google Drive products, and our own phones "suggest" words and material as we type. That is A.I. at work. The less people need to do to A.I. to make it useful, the more quickly it will be adopted by the general public. Job Security After listening to podcast episode #105, and we can all see this coming, A.I. models are in the process of rapidly becoming less buggy in how they operate or even loop back on itself. Sure, there will be jobs created to oversee the output of A.I., but the number needed will be far less than the current number of employees on the job market. It was predicted on the podcast that current high-human roles such as physicians and lawyers will be targeted soon as something A.I. can take over in a few years. How often do you joke you "got your degree from WebMD" as you searched the meaning of lab results or tried to compile symptoms into a disease or syndrome to "help" guide your doctor? Haven't we all longed to have the handheld device Geordi of Star Trek uses to quickly diagnose and initiate treatments? When sci-fi becomes real. Paul and Mike advocate discussions begin happening soon to offset the potential sudden dramatic shift in workforce needs as a worldwide. Wait - what? Who's in Charge Here? Aren't the humans in charge of the invention? Just because A.I. can do things, should it? Or does it need to? There's something of a sense that we are merely bystanders as A.I. becomes developed and it's up to us to keep up. Plenty of concern has been raised about the use of A.I. by major super-power countries in defense. Remember the 1983 movie War Games? There's even a concept called "P(doom)" - "the probability of catastrophic outcomes...as a result of A.I." (Wikipedia) Let's Step Back a Minute My general Life philosophy is "What can I control or impact in my little corner of the world?" I aim to trust humans will realize the benefit of humanity being involved with jobs rather than throwing everything at "digital employees." This sentiment is echoed by Paul and Mike at the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute. Their message is actually more hopeful than doom-and-gloom. Their mission is focused on education - increase A.I. literacy and help businesses develop processes, teams, and risk reduction to enable employees to use A.I. optimally to maximize human effort. Message of Hope You know how none of us have enough Time or hours in the day to do the million things we'd like to do? The idea is to focus on the tasks you do that are repetitive or that you don't like to do. Train an A.I. model to do those so you can focus on the human aspect needed in the job, maximizing the time and effort you put into things. Paul has given examples of the dramatic difference A.I. has made in his team's work projects.
Paul sees A.I. as a way to "democratize" knowledge and skills - all of us having tools readily accessible to share our message with others. What Makes YOU Unique? As a hospital physical therapist, we have been challenged for years to identify how we differ from nursing, an aide, or a family member walking around a unit with a patient. What can YOU offer that only you can do? That is the crux of A.I. Consider it a tool - a helpmate - a partner. (that's far less scary than trying to take over the world, right?)
Now What? I can see future articles revolve around the topic of A.I. It IS big! Paul Roetzer notes "A.I." has actually been around for decades at this point, but it wasn't until ChatGPT was introduced to the world as a useful tool for all in November 2023 that it really rocked everyone to take notice. These A.I. models are now learning rapidly and exponentially. It's here and not going away. If we can think of it as a helper, a tool, a digital coworker, it will still require human input, massaging, and training to be most effective and to keep learning. We do need to also consider the dark downside potential and keep that in check. It's up to us to be human! While we learn more about A.I. as a helpmate, I would be happy to help you do what only you can do best. None of us have all the skills to do all the things. I would be thrilled to partner with you to bring your vision to life - Let's Chat!  What is "Stolen Time"
This thought evolved for me after a conversation on LinkedIn recently where a friend was wondering if she was a "bad mom" for sneaking away from the kids to do bits of work. My response? Heck no! You're a "good mom" for insuring your kids are happy, safe, and self-entertaining when they don't "need" you at this moment. Way to go! Why the Guilt? I'm not a fan of things (or people) that make me feel guilty. There should be no shame or guilt in maximizing your time and energy. This includes while you're on full parent duty or your attention is supposed to be fully in one place, yet you find your attention drifting or have a short window of time to insert something else to your advantage. Four Thousand Weeks I highly recommend this book Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. The general premise is, based on an average lifespan, we have roughly 4,000 weeks in this life. So how do we maximize that time? Is This Multitasking? I suggest no. Per Merriam-Webster, multitasking is "the performance of multiple tasks at one time." In 2006, the American Psychological Association cited multiple studies from as early as 1994 indicating multitasking actually isn't more efficient. "Stolen Time" Rather than multitasking, what I suggest is instead making the most of unexpected short points of time that become available.
Have Those Tasks Ready! I suggest having a list of activities in mind or (better yet!) written that you can refer to on just such occasions. These activities are likely to vary in type for your setting, space available, and time available. Suggestions below are more in the 15 min time frame.
Go Ahead - Steal Time from that Clock! You have my permission to maximize your time and energy! The kids will not always be small. Stealing time becomes a bit easier as they get older. There are other tasks you can consider in very short windows of time that move you forward in self-care or time with your family. We'll review a few of those next time. Are you a "Time Thief?" Do you "steal time" to work on other things? What very small tasks have you found that slip into such found moments? If you're looking for someone to cover some of these tasks or help you maximize your special talents, Let's Chat! I have many skills that may fill in the gaps you're looking for. |
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