How Tech & AI Are Changing Small Business

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0:32I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Mind Games, a new podcast exploring NLP, a.k.a. neurolinguistic programming. Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This season on Dear Chelsea with me, Chelsea Handler, we've got some incredible guests like Kumail Nanjiani. Let's start with your cat. How is she? She is not with us anymore. Okay, great, great, great way to start. Maybe you will cry. Ross Matthews. You know what kids always say to me?

1:16Are you a boy or a girl? Oh my God. All the time. That's so funny. I know. So I try to butch it up for kids so they're not confused. Yeah, but you're butching it up. It's basically like Dora's Day. No, I turn into Bea Arthur. Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:58I just, damn, that f***er got swag. Listen to the Questlove Show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This episode is brought to you by PNC Bank. A lot of people think podcasts about work are boring. And sure, they definitely can be. But understanding a professional's routine shows us how they achieve their success little by little, day after day. It's like banking with PNC Bank. It might seem boring to save, plan, and make calculated decisions with your bank, but keeping your money boring is what helps you live a more happily fulfilled life. PNC Bank, brilliantly boring since 1865.

2:42Brilliantly boring since 1865 is a service mark of the PNC Financial Service Group, Inc. PNC Bank, National Association, member FDIC. From a standpoint of technology, right? I'm interested to know how you guys are adapting to technology and how it's changing your business models. That's you, Mariah. That's me? Okay. So I consider myself the oldest one around here. And as you know, older people don't like that stuff. She calls me for everything. She had to help me. Check in to the airport. Check in. Here go your ticket. But we have really, we do lean into technology and AI and all of that. So one thing that we recently did was we talked about earlier, y 'all asked us, like, how do we bring our brick and mortar or our company to like our online?

3:41So people, when they walk in a tea shop, we can say, what do you want your tea to do for you? What's the vibe? What's the flavor? All of these things. Where do you want to meet you? And we can talk about that. So now we have on our site just as simple as a little robot that says, OK, click these little buttons and it'll tell you the first five blends that you need to go purchase. And that has helped us. One has increased the sales so much. You can go back and be like, wow, like they actually bought this extra tea and offer another discount and leaning into it to allow technology to be a part of it and take things off our plate.

4:12because if we think about it, we've talked about staffing, we talked about operation, and AI offers where you can take some of this off your plate. So we don't have to build every landing page. We don't have to write every little description or do all the little minute things and online orders. Click the buttons and use it. We don't need to email every person back. You have a little assistant right there that comes with your Gmail now if you're using Gmail Suite, and it'll do it for you like leaning into it learning it and um take it like just taking time to let allow those things and that takes up having to hire an extra person for it um that has really helped us um and then i just have to train her to know how to use those systems so that they're effective for us so that's one way that we have used it but yeah and our whole team has they're all young and we have square and they teach me how to use the square my team teaches the owner how to use the square and so the square the system it sounds like auntie but then when i learn it when i learn it then they change something yeah yeah and so we are they move the button this one right here they so i'm getting all right so that's an update no seriously y 'all the line would be out the door on friday it was me and her working it's us too because we let our team have summer breaks we told them like y 'all get y 'all mental help you want to take two weeks here you want to take two weeks we'll be at the shop so i made it it was an update and she's like i'm gonna be on a register today okay then until you you'll be on a register i'm gonna be in the back of house i'm making drinks you taking care of the people up front she's like well can you come help me with the register and i'm like okay i got you with the updates but knowing how but it makes it fun and it really does grow the company because when customers walk in um one thing that surprised us was like they walked and they saw both of us and they were like oh my god i'm starstruck and we're like no we're we out here hustling like we got it in us we're you're gonna see us doing every position at this shop somebody want to call out we are there to show up so whether or not we use technology some things we can't replace technology for we can't replace our personalities you're gonna get that but we can't replace it but you're gonna get us when you come to the shop um you're gonna get us on online and all of that we're low tech over here well i mean we have you know like kind of the same like square point of sale system set up we use the mobile ones for our you know the pop-up shops um at this point in business in terms of technology we're just trying to figure out how to enhance our data collection because we do so much service to community and we now have so many like funders and things with grants and we want to be able to tell the complete story of our business.

6:58So it's really more like kind of in like research and development right now, trying to figure out what things can we use to be able to collect as much data as we can to be able to tell a better story of who we are. I was going to say, I've become an AI bot. Some of my team members call me Kika Bot. I love AI. I remember when ChatGPT first came out, you guys know TJ. Me and TJ were on Zoom every single day, like playing with prompts, like when it first came out. And so now he's like, hey, look what I did. I'm like, how did you do this? So for me, it's helped. It's like the kryptonite that I needed.

7:40I think as human, this sounds so bad. I'm sorry. Shout out to AI. Shout out to Square. but it's actually made me like a super woman because the things I lacked now I can get from AI to attach to what I so like as a creator I'm creative I can create a business from scratch strategy I can create from scratch but how do I make sure this strategy is going to lead to millions oh that's a prompt make sure it leads to millions and actually that's what I did I built black box franchising using chat gbt prompts and i've reverse engineered so this is how much i want to make the first year now how do i do this give me all the steps i follow the steps we got there after four months and i'm not making this up so it's like it's it's really helped me a lot um i don't want to i feel like i'm on a commercial like this is my best friend somebody tap her I'm talking to a robot.

8:40Is this really her? I know. This is not me, guys. I saw your shout-out to your last episode. I'm like, oh, that's not her. This is not me. This is my bot. But no, I encourage everyone to embrace it because if you still don't know what we're talking about, it's already like kind of too late. Ernest, what's up? Look, this episode is brought to you by Square Banking. One of the things we love most is seeing neighborhood businesses level up. There's this West Indian spot right in our community that started with a small takeout counter. Now with Square, they've been able to expand into a full sit-down restaurant and even started catering events across the city.

9:17That's the kind of growth that inspires us, and it's powered by Square. Square is built for all types of businesses, from the corner bagel shop that turned into a local chain, to the specialty market with thousands of unique items, to the stylist who's been holding you down for years. With Square Banking, growth gets easier. You've got more control over your cash flow, access to capital right in the same system you're already using to run your business. And with a free Square savings account, you can automatically set aside a portion of your sales for upgrades, taxes, and those slow seasons, setting yourself up for long-term success.

9:55And when it's time for the next big move, Square makes it simple to get approved with a Square loan based on your actual business performance. No long waits, just quick access to capital. In fact, 88 % of businesses with Square loans report growth. So go to square.com slash go slash E-Y-L to learn more about how your business can grow with Square. That's S-Q-U-A-R-E dot com slash G-O slash E-Y-L. Block, Inc. is not a bank. Banking services provided by Square Financial Services, Inc. and Sutton Bank. Members FDIC. Loans are subject to credit approval.

11:03NLP, a.k.a. Neuro Linguistic Programming. Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, hello, all my people. What's up? It's Questlove. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with the one and only ASAP Rocky. He reflects on his journey from Harlem roots to global icon status and discovering the hip-hop origin of his name. The ledge was on the TV. Rakim had the bucket hat Kangol join on. My pops was like, that's Rakim. That's who you named after. I just was like, damn, that f***ed, I swear.

11:43Listen to the Questlove show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This season on Dear Chelsea with me, Chelsea Handler, we've got some incredible guests like Kumail Nanjiani. Let's start with your cat. How is she? She is not with us anymore. Okay, great, great, great way to start. Maybe you will cry. Ross Matthews. You know what kids always say to me? Are you a boy or a girl? Oh my God. All the time. That's so funny. I know. So I try to butch it up for kids so they're not confused. Yeah, but you're butching it up. It's basically like Doris Day. No, I turn into Bea Arthur.

12:20Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A new year doesn't ask us to become someone new. It invites us back home to ourselves. I'm Mike De La Rocha, host of Sacred Lessons, a space for men to pause, reflect, and heal. This year, we're talking honestly about mental health, relationships, and the patterns we're ready to release. If you're looking for clarity, connection, and healthier ways to show up in your life, Sacred Lessons is here for you. Listen to Sacred Lessons with Mike De La Rocha on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

12:57This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.