Pick One Job You Never Want to Do Again (Kelly Adams)

# Kelly at AIO IRL [00:00:00] **Kelly:** Okay. Good evening, everyone. Um, and thank you all for coming. I'm definitely not the tech expert here. I do love tech, though, and I've always liked technology and automating things. And when AI came out, it was just so much awesome for me that I have just gone nonstop, and I have got my family here to prove it. [00:00:25] I get very, very annoying. Um, but yeah, these are just... This is just from little old me, not in the tech field, but just because I love it, and all of the things that I have learnt to help, uh, myself, personal productivity, and business. So why do I bother with any of this? Um, it's basically for my three kids, and one of them is here. [00:00:49] So Seth is doing the photography and videography. Um, and Chelsea and Chloe, they basically do a lot of activities. [00:01:00] I am permanently driving them anywhere, everywhere, um, except for today, because Seth got his P's. Yeah. It is a new era for us. Um, but yeah, I, I wanna be there for my kids. And because I ran a dance studio and I was a school teacher at the same time, I was doing a lot of double shifts, and I was teaching other people's kids, and I missed out on a lot of what was going on with my own kids. [00:01:27] And so I sold my dance studio and, um, had a bit of a identity crisis, and then ended up falling into, um, running the business with my husband. And, um, now I get to be at every single event that our, our kids have, and it is a lot. So I am that parent at every single event. There's only, like, one parent at the high school athletics carnival, it's me. [00:01:53] So, but I, I made a bit of a, a promise to them that I would always be at all their events. So these automations and [00:02:00] the systems are very, very important to me. I hand off all the tasks I don't like, um, as well, so I can work in my zone of genius. So that's really, really important that I'm actually happy with the work that I'm doing. [00:02:15] So tonight, I'm just sorting it into two buckets. What I do in my business, um, in our business, and what we do in, uh, what I'm doing with personal life. And if AI's freaking you out a little bit and you, you don't really know where to start, just pick one job that you'd be happy to never do again, and then ask AI how you can automate it, and just follow the instructions. [00:02:39] I think that's one of the biggest things at the moment, is that AI can just tell you how to AI. So you don't really need to know. Just pick one, and just go down that rabbit hole. And, um, you can set it up yourself these days. Um, one thing that we have been working on in our business, and it is [00:03:00] our RKA app. [00:03:02] So we had an inspection form software for doing crane inspections and lifting equipment inspections, and it was pretty... It is pretty clunky, right? We actually have our service manager here tonight as well. Um, he can contest that it's very, very backwards, bit of a dinosaur. It's from America. I don't feel like it's been updated in the last two years, and so we've gone down the rabbit hole of creating one ourselves with the use of AI. [00:03:31] Um, we have been using a few different things. Main thing that I've been using personally is Lovable. Um, um, you know, it's been easier for me to use, but anything that's a bit more complicated, Seth's the man. He knows his stuff, and if he doesn't know his stuff, he will find it out. He's like a dog with a bone. [00:03:51] And so what we've built is we've got some inspection forms, it's got scheduling, it's got workflow, uh, we've even got [00:04:00] AI estimates. So we've put all of this information into a gem where we can just ask it a quick question so we can get the customer a range and say, "Oh, it'll be between this and this. Do you want us to do a formal quote?" [00:04:11] And that just speeds up the process a bit for us. Um, and we've also got reports, and we're in the process of syncing it. Uh, it syncs to Xero and it syncs to Slack, which is how we communicate Um, so at the moment I've played around with a few different things, but I've stayed with Gems in Gemini. Full disclosure, we do Google Workspace, so we don't sit in the Microsoft zone, so I don't, I can't really say or contest to too much of that. [00:04:41] Um, my brother-in-law Aaron might. Give us a wave. He does do a little bit of AI as well, but he is on Microsoft, so maybe speak to him afterwards. Um, and in this Gem, uh, think of it sort of just like a bit of a brain. I gave it a description, some [00:05:00] instructions of what I want it to do, some documents. Those documents might have our supplier CSVs in it, and we've got a parts matrix to see what that, um, how much we need to increase on top of cost price, depending on how much it is. [00:05:15] Uh, we've got our last 12 months of quotes, our last 12 months of purchase orders, and we put the information in there, and that drafts a quote for us. And we don't just send it off. So one thing is we really do need to have that, a human checking over it. We don't just do that and send it off, ever, okay? [00:05:33] But all this does is just speed up the process a little bit. So instead of finding, we can be checking [00:05:43] Claude CoWork. This is, this is my most recent rabbit hole that I've been going down. Um, the best way to explain it is that it's a doer. So it's not just getting information, but actually does things for you. So I have been blown away with [00:06:00] how much it's been able to do. Um, but in saying that, this is still very basic stuff. [00:06:06] This is, this is just... I've only just started, and it's just the tip of the iceberg. So I put all of our statements in, um, I put all the tax we paid, our BAS statement, super, everything, and now I've got an average of what I need to pay every week as a, as a standard thing so we don't fall behind. Um, we have meetings. [00:06:28] We have a technician meeting on Monday, and we have a weekly huddle on Tuesday. And because we do that on Google Meet, I've got an automation that just does the meeting notes, and then I've got Claude CoWork to tell it every Tuesday afternoon to take all of the action items and post that into Slack. So everyone's got, um, a channel that says Action Items, and then they can just tick those off once they're done. [00:06:54] So we were doing everything manually before. I was taking manual notes, I was taking manual [00:07:00] to-dos, and it was just a nightmare, and now we can actually just have the meeting and be in the meeting and be present in the meeting. Um, I'm also doing a daily email sweep to pull receipts and invoices into Xero, and it just goes into a dashboard, and then I go, "Yes, send to Xero. [00:07:16] Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes," instead of doing a manual process as well [00:07:24] Um, we have just put in, uh, we've just been using NotebookLM. And, um, we recently onboarded a new staff member, and we've put things in there like, um, his contract, any- anything that he's learnt that we've taught him, any policies, procedures. We've just put it all in NotebookLM, and then I share that notebook, Notebook with him, and then he can just ask it questions. [00:07:52] So save asking me questions about what was in his contract, he can just ask that questions, and it filters through all that information, [00:08:00] and then he can just ask it and not ask me, basically. But but, um, that's, that's the beginning of what we're doing with our staff members as well. Um, and, and as far as I can tell, I mean, AI, you know, it's never gonna be super secure. [00:08:15] I understand that. Um, but in Google Workspace, uh, we can only share it to the people in our workspace at the moment. So, um, hopefully, you know, it's as secure as it's gonna be for now. Uh, we've also done an Australian Standards one, and we're about to add some crane manuals. So the Australian Standards are, how many pages, Seth? [00:08:40] I don't know. It was like, Aaron, hundreds of pages of the Australian Standards. Like 300 pages. It, it's a lot. And we have to inspect the gantry cranes and lifting equipment in accordance to those standards, and that's a lot of work. So now we can just ask [00:09:00] the NotebookLM questions about the Australian Standards instead of, like, taking all of that time and reading it, and it will reference the parts that it says. [00:09:08] So it doesn't just spit out the data, it's this. It's actually gonna do the notes of, um, where it found that information as well. And as a bonus, as I found out recently, uh, it can do so many other things. It can do documents like reports, a quiz, story, slides, videos, or even a podcast. There are so many things it can do, and I found that out when I got very angry and I put all of my energy into NotebookLM and made some very funny videos and very funny audio and, and, um, photos and everything, and I annoyed the crap out of everyone. [00:09:49] It was great. And, um, yeah. And obviously cu- customer information reports. So we can put some customer information into NotebookLM, and then we can [00:10:00] ask it questions based on what their previous reports were Uh, more recently, we've created a dashboard with it as well. Uh, input, we input some data manually into a Google sheet, uh, and we also have some of it automated into a sheet, and then we've got financial sales, marketing, and operations into a dashboard. [00:10:23] And it's just been so helpful just to know your numbers and just be able to see that rather than looking through spreadsheets, and it was pretty easy to set up, and that was also Vibe Coding and Lovable [00:10:38] Something that I found very helpful in the beginning when it came out is speaking to ChatGPT, and Gemini also has one that you can talk to as well. Um, it is quite handy if you are fired up, or you need to vent, or you need to talk things through. Um, you can get it to ask you questions as well. It doesn't need to tell you all the answers.[00:11:00] [00:11:00] Sometimes you need to bounce things off someone else, and sometimes your husband doesn't wanna hear it. So, I love you. He's a very patient man. Just know that not all those conversations were had with you, and sometimes I spoke to ChatGPT. [00:11:22] Homework and birthdays. So this is more of the personal side, where I have a little bit of a fun, little bit of fun with it. Um, for homework, yes, I am a trained schoolteacher, and I don't think that they should use AI to get the answers. But you can use it in another way, especially if they're stuck, and you can get your kids unstuck by getting it to ask them questions, or at least get them to do, uh, get it to do a bit of a, um, beginning draft layout, and then move forward, instead of just sitting there paralyzed. [00:11:56] So I've found that that's been quite helpful. Um, our daughter [00:12:00] Chelsea, our middle daughter, she's in year eight, and her grades were starting to slip a bit. And so what I did is I put her notes into NotebookLM, and we created some study notes together. And then once we had the study notes, I helped her study and remember things, and quite recently, she just brought her D to a B. [00:12:20] So I was pretty happy with that, and it just showed that she just needed a little boost. And it wasn't necessarily... Like, it's stuff that she'd learnt in class, and all we did was just summarize the notes. But it helped her, and then she could spend more time studying. And I also do birthday songs. This is another one that people love to hate. [00:12:41] So Gemini does birthday songs, and more recently, it does an entire song now. So from Ryan's birthday in May to Seth's birthday in June, it had gone from one verse and one chorus to an entire song in Gemini now. I won't, I won't play it, [00:13:00] but that is awesome. That 17th birthday song, it is in the style of Linkin Park, and it completely rocks. [00:13:08] Okay. So five stars for using Gemini to create quirky songs that make people laugh, and even more so because it doesn't really always get it right. Mispronunciations everywhere, and now they just sort of become a bit of a, a laughing joke in our family. [00:13:31] Yeah, and more recently, um, a gift money can't buy. So I use ChatGPT because the cartoons, the images are getting so much better these days. For my husband's birthday, I wrote a children's book about his life, and believe you me, it wasn't as easy as, um, you know, just saying, "Write a children's book about my husband's life." [00:13:56] There was a long process and a lot of crap, to [00:14:00] be honest. A lot of crap, a lot of things wrong, and it did take time to go over. Um, but the final product was really good in the end. W- had an idea, I worked on the words, I refined the words, and then I did page-by-page illustrations, which took a bit of time, and then fine-tuning at the end. [00:14:19] So I was really proud of that, and that's something I would have never have done, um, without AI. So I feel though a lot of people think that creativity is getting squashed a little bit with AI, and it is, and I agree, but I also feel like I'm quite inspired as well because I can do things like this [00:14:41] I'm part of the North West Business Chamber. Shout out to my peeps in the room. Um, and I'm the membership coordinator there, and I just thought, "I wanna have a faster, easier way to check in," because we're getting so big. 53 new members this financial year. [00:15:00] And, um, so I built a little, uh, an app, sign-in app, and it's not perfect, but I had a bit of fun building it. [00:15:08] And so that's just another example that I've just been able to use it in the community as well, and it's just been really easy for people to just go check in and then just walk in But full disclosure, my secret weapon is actually Seth. So as much as I'm, you know, I like to use my tech, Seth is pretty much the brains if I get stuck, and he's just really awesome at learning anything, basically. [00:15:42] Uh, he, he works in AV now. His business has, uh, he can do automations, networking, sound, lighting, video, photo, video. He can also dance, sing, act, whatever, and get his peace. So there's, there's plenty of things that he can [00:16:00] do. Um, and yeah, as I mentioned before, if he can't do it, he will learn it. So thank you, Seth, for your, um, tech help t- um, helping your old mum So my top AI tips are the AI sandwich, which was covered before. [00:16:17] So I usually start with my own ideas, obviously, put it in into whatever I'm using, get, uh, just a layout, an outline, whatever, and then use that, and then I have to look at it as a human at the end as well. So just make sure that you're doing human, AI, human, um, because of the story that you mentioned before. [00:16:41] And I s- I see AI slop everywhere. You know, people are just putting data in, and then they just go send or post or whatever. So just make sure that you're checking it. Um, you can also get it to check itself. It's like, "Okay, what have you missed? What's something else that we could do? How could you make this better?" [00:16:59] [00:17:00] If I was giving a speech to a room full of people that ... Yes, I used it for this as well. Um, and if you're getting scared, just make sure you start internal. So look at your internal systems first. Don't do any front-facing AI- AI until you're really confident as well, but obviously still human check everything. [00:17:22] Um, mind your data. And so we just had a training day about AI, and I thought, "Don't put any of our customer in- information into any public GPTs, anything at all." Um, just make sure that we're using our Google Workspace and being signed in as well. And the thing that I needed, that I don't want anyone else to make the mistake of, is when you build a check-in app for the chamber, make sure you have a database attached to it. [00:17:51] Yeah. 'Cause if you want it to save information, it doesn't save to nothing. So you need to make sure- ... that it has a [00:18:00] database attached, and that you have tested it outside your house before you launch it. So yeah, yeah, live and learn. Um, and these, these tips on the side, they've helped me as well. "Teach me something like I've never done it before," "Build this with me one step at a time," or, "Explain that like I'm 5," "Explain that like I'm 12." [00:18:23] The 5 ones are very, very good. Very, very entertaining storybook stuff And so if anyone's not sure about what they wanna try, this is just a, a, a quick list. But honestly, whatever clicks for you, pick one tonight and just start, and then tomorrow a new one will be out. So it's just gonna keep evolving at a really rapid rate. [00:18:48] Um, so there's just some of the things that I have been looking at and really, um, have, have enjoyed. So you don't need to, you don't need training to start. You [00:19:00] just need curiosity. Um, it was never about the tech. It's the time and freedom it buys you as well. And for me, that was a seat at every one of my kids' events. [00:19:10] So I'm a big believer in AI, automations, and systems. And if you haven't got the notes, they are there. I'll keep my laptop open. I'll put it up there if anyone wanted to get it. And I just wanted to finish on this wonderful [00:19:32] It did make me laugh, actually. So never trust it implicitly. Um, AI hallucinates. Um, it i- has an inherent human bias. Uh, it has zero actual comprehension, and it has context bi- um, blindness, which is what you were saying before as well. So as much as I love it, it's really important that you don't just put all your eggs in one basket either[00:20:00] [00:20:02] I didn't. It's everywhere. And I just saved it, and I went, "Oh, that's gonna be a kicker for the end." [00:20:11] I think that's it. Thank you very much [00:20:17] **Dave:** Thank you, Kelly. That's a great Uh, yes, yes. [00:20:28] **Speaker 6:** How did you select those? And then were they freely available for the scope of what you're doing, or you had to get licensing for all of them? [00:20:43] **Kelly:** In the handout I've got approximately what they cost. Um, I wasn't doing the X, what was it? 5X Claude of what you were doing. Um, so the Claude CoWork was about $150 a month, for example. Yeah, Australian, that's [00:21:00] converted. And then, um, Lovable can start at about $70 a month, but we have been doing the 200 USD while we've been building the app, for example. [00:21:13] Um, ChatGPT, I paid for the paid version for a little while. I've since turned that off. We've been using our Google Workspace because that's included in what we already pay for with our emails and whatnot. Um, so the extra ones I've probably been doing the most is Lovable, and we started on the bottom one building the app, and then we'll probably go back down. [00:21:38] And then Claude CoWork, only just started that, so only like first month of that [00:21:46] **Dave:** Thank you. Yeah, there's lots of, uh, different options and pricing and stuff. It's all relative, and as you heard Kelly, you can turn stuff on, turn stuff off. [00:21:53]