In this episode Chris McMartin sits down with Limor Markman, Influencer, Speaker, Trainer, Coach and Founder of Absolute Ascent to learn more about AI strategies and how entrepreneurs can integrate AI into all aspects of business.
Key topics in this conversation:
- With the right input, is AI is the magic wand?
- Real-world examples of how AI has transformed business outcomes
- Tips and tricks to start implementing AI into your business
- How to embrace AI to benefit your business and employees
Tune in to this episode to listen how AI changed Limor’s life, and can change yours too!
McMartin, Chris 0:03
As they come in. So we'll just have to ignore that. But thank you so much on behalf of The Scotiabank Women Initiative. I welcome all of you. I'm excited for today's chat and a special thank you Limor to you. I am so excited for today's conversation. I'm very much looking forward to learn from you. There's lots I have to learn and I know there's lots that you have to teach. So I'm just gonna start off with some housekeeping. Our privacy note by accepting this meeting invite, you consent to be recorded for The Scotiabank Women Initiative MasterClass. The Scotiabank Women Initiative MasterClass team will have access to the recordings. Please do not share your personal identifiable information or bank internal or confidential information during the call or in the chat window. So with that, I introduce Limor Markman and Limor, I always say that you can introduce yourself better than I can, so please tell us about yourself.
Limor Markman 0:59
Yeah. Thank you. It's an honor to be here and I'm excited to share with you some tips and tricks about AI, but a bit about myself. I spent 12 years in the corporate world marketing for some of our big banks. So it just like Chris's world. And then decided I wanted to see what else was available outside of the 9:00 to 5:00 and became a serial entrepreneur and about a year. Just over ago I found myself in a different situation. I had uh, 1 1/2 year old daughter and I was seven months pregnant with my next one and my husband told me, "Hey, I heard this thing called AI," and I was like what is that? And I started dabbling, playing, using, creating and. Like when I had never before. And you know, after my daughter was born, I said, OK, I wanna go all in on this. We started working with the large development team out of the US and we launched absolute dissent and our objective is to help entrepreneurs as well as small businesses to integrate AI into all facets of their business so that they can do things better, faster, cheaper, more imaginatively, have more revenue. We've got a very robust platform now with over 200 tools and I'm excited to be here today to talk about everything AI.
McMartin, Chris 2:21
That's incredible. I can sure identify with that. I know I am not an entrepreneur myself, but work with entrepreneurs constantly and I know that the one thing I hear all the time is they want to get more done in a day. They have so much on their plate. They're constantly looking for that time. Time, time, time is what we hear all the time. And as a mom of four, I can identify with needing more time.
McMartin, Chris 2:43
That's always. That's the true gift is time. So I'm really excited to dive in.
McMartin, Chris 2:49
So why don't we just start? I'm gonna go off some questions that we've received from individuals that are here today. We'll start that conversation, but please, those of you here today, if you have questions, feel free to drop them in the chat or we will open it up at the end where you can ask your questions if you feel comfortable coming off of mute. So let's jump right in. Do you think that all entrepreneurs should be using AI?
Limor Markman 3:14
Oh my goodness, absolutely without a doubt. To whatever varying degree is appropriate for you. But like as you were saying, when you become an entrepreneur, you have a passion, you have a vision, something you want to do, achieve, create. You didn't become an entrepreneur because you want to manage the financials, and do customer on boarding, and think about how to improve, and how do you hire. Like, at the end of the day, you got into entrepreneurship because there's something that you love and you want a different structure for your life. And so AI is really good at being that magic wand and doing things that were previously very challenging for you to do. So, for example, if you're somebody who, you know, loves your service but you don't love the marketing and that's heavy for you.
Well, AI can help with that. Inversely, if you love the marketing but you need help creating structures and processes, well AI is good for that. You know, if you need help with analyzing, looking at trends, looking at numbers, writing proposals, the sky's the limit, and the peace of your business that maybe you just didn't love that much can now be a whole lot easier with AI. So I know it's a big change, but I really, truly believe all entrepreneurs at some level should be embracing AI.
McMartin, Chris 4:36
I love the way you structure that in saying that, you know, and it's true, entrepreneurs go, you know, often do their passion, right? Like whatever they're passionate about. But you're right, is that it's not necessarily their passionate about all aspects of running a business. So I love the way you structure that to say like it could be different for everyone. Can you give any practical examples about how AI has significantly transformed some business outcomes?
Limor Markman 5:03
Yeah, absolutely. There's lots of different ways, and I think that some of the ones that I've seen that have worked really well is across multitude of areas. So the first one, the very obvious, social media, OK. I need to do a post every day about my business. So let's create and in volume at mass. I'm creating lots of emails in my day. Absolutely. Let's speed things up. But where I've really seen significant changes and sort of the transformation of business that you're alluding to is around creating of new product ideas. How do I expand my business into a dimension that I've never considered before?
Limor Markman 5:42
What can I do as an upsell? What can I do as a revenue generator? Things like having our law firm, which is a client of ours. They're now creating. They don't have an HR department, but now they're creating standard operating procedures for the first time in like 15 years on like how to run their business from that standpoint. You know, I'm working with the cyber security firm and they take an eight week process of auditing and that's now compressed down to five because AI can do a whole lot of that. You know, working with an insurance broker who spends a lot of time creating cover letters for their underwriter to try to get accepted. We're doing that with AI now, and the acceptance rate has gone up significantly,
Limor Markman 6:22
So I could probably spend an hour giving you use cases of how AI is helping, but I would really just say like, whatever is the challenge. If it's hiring, if it's going through the resumes, if it's I'm hosting a master class of my own for my business, what do I talk about?
McMartin, Chris 6:36
Hmm.
Limor Markman 6:44
How do I structure it? How do I send a series of five emails to invite people to this in person event or this sale at our bakery? AI can do all of that if you provide the right input and think about it as, how can this technology solve my problem?
McMartin, Chris 7:03
I think that's very impressive and like you said, every example you were just giving, everyone was like opening up new doors and so I love that. But it can be daunting to try something new. So what is your advice to entrepreneurs that are saying, "OK Limor, we're listening and we're going to try AI" like, where do we even start?
Limor Markman 7:16
Yeah, I would say start with something that's very small. So create yourself a free ChatGPT account and just say, "hey, here's my business. What's five ways you can help me with my business? What's five opportunities?" And if you know that you are struggling with one piece, just go in and honestly, it's no judgment.
McMartin, Chris 7:38
Hmm.
Limor Markman 7:42
It's just you and a piece of technology and say, "you know what, I'm having a hard time onboarding my new hires, how can you help me?" or "I'm having a hard time with my customers coming back and buying from me a second time". So start super small with the ask but I would say just get started. The other piece where AI is super helpful is if you're doing something that's redundant or that you do it repetitively over and over again. So let's say for example, you know every customer that comes on, you're writing them a new welcome email. You're like, well, I've done this before.
McMartin, Chris 8:17
Hmm.
Limor Markman 8:19
Can I create a template, tell AI the three things about my new customer, and it populates it for me? You know, if there's something that you're really struggling with, ask. And I'll give you an interesting example. We actually have some fire stations that are using AI and they're all volunteers, so that's even more challenging than than being an entrepreneur. But you know, they're they're looking at things in their business and they're saying, like, "I wanna create a manual for this new pump that we just received." And they took a picture of it load it up and literally AI went to town.
So no matter how big or small the things that challenging you, just kind of like grab a coffee, sit in the darkness of your own room, and just say, "OK it's my first time, but how can you help me?" And you'll be absolutely amazed at what it can do. And the other tip I would say on top of that, if what you get is not what you're looking for, it's because you haven't given enough context. So, "Hey AI, I am this kind of entrepreneur.
McMartin, Chris 9:17
Hmm.
Limor Markman 9:21
I have this kind of client. I'm looking to create this kind of communication manual process. Can you help me to do that?" And if what it gives you you don't like, say, "Oh actually I want it to be shorter, or longer, or funnier", or whatever you're thinking in your mind.
McMartin, Chris 9:35
Hmm.
Limor Markman 9:38
Don't be afraid to say like, "OK, next iteration, let's do it this way."
McMartin, Chris 9:43
I think that's so important to point out is the varying degrees of information you have to provide. One of the objections I've heard from entrepreneurs is, you know, when just ChatGPT is a perfect example. They said, like I don't know how much information to give.
Limor Markman 9:55
Yeah.
McMartin, Chris 9:59
I don't know how much I have to do before I can ask it to provide me with a deck, speaking notes, whatever it is that they're looking for. And so I love that you point out that, you know, it's not just one time and go. That like you can make adjustments. That you can make changes very easily along the way. So I think that's a really good piece of information. I think that's important.
Limor Markman 10:20
Mhm.
McMartin, Chris 10:22
Now Limor, you provided us with an amazing video, and if you haven't seen it, I highly suggest everyone go. First of all, follow Lamour on LinkedIn and then you'll be able to see a great video that she provided and in the video you mentioned an effective way to use AI for customer facing material is to start with a customer profile.
Can you talk about that a little bit?
Limor Markman 10:45
Yes and this is so important and something we don't think about because as entrepreneurs in all of our years of creating stuff for our customers, and I'm guilty of this as well, I'll sit down in front of my in front of my computer and I'm like, OK, I'm gonna write a blog post that's gonna interest my customers and I'm going to, you know, send it invite to my next session that I'm hosting, but I'm creating it from my mind. And even though obviously I've had a lot of experience with my customers, I don't know what they're thinking to the same extent. So what the big companies have been doing for many, many years is they hire a fancy agency and they pay $50,000 for a customer psychological profile and they go out and find 100 of their ideal customers.
McMartin, Chris 11:28
Hmm.
Limor Markman 11:32
They take three months of interviewing them and at the end the company gets this big, fancy report that says here's your customers dreams. Here's your customer's fears. Here's their concerns. Their suspicions. Here's what they want, and big companies have been doing this for very long time. I know, we did it when I was at some of the financial institutions, but when you start with what's in the customers mind, you have a very different output. So now, as entrepreneurs, we have an opportunity to work with AI, give a couple of inputs and we actually have at Absolute Ascent, a really cool portal and platform with over 200 tools and one of them for entrepreneurs is your customer profile.
McMartin, Chris 11:58
Hmm.
Limor Markman 12:13
It will ask you a couple questions about your business and it will spit out something very robust and I'm amazed time and time again how accurate it is.
Limor Markman 12:25
And when you have that profile and then you state, based on this profile, give me 10 blog post ideas. You're not coming up with things that aren't just what you're thinking but what's in the mind of your customer.
McMartin, Chris 12:36
Hmm.
Limor Markman 12:36
And if you're like, let's write a sales page based on that, let's write an onboarding sequence based on that. Let's design an ideal product that matches the current products that I offer, that speaks to their greatest challenges. Well, now you're ahead of the game because you're not just creating from your world, you're creating things that really resonate.
McMartin, Chris 12:53
Yeah.
Limor Markman 12:58
And you know, when I mentioned having big revenue spikes in my business, that was one of the main reasons because I used that as the jumping off point and created things that I had never imagined.
McMartin, Chris 13:10
That's amazing. That's amazing to me. I have a very specific question and this was from one of our attendees.
Limor Markman 13:15
Yeah.
McMartin, Chris 13:17
So how can AI be utilized to optimize supply chain management and logistics?
Limor Markman 13:23
Great question and I love when people have really practical questions because then they get really awesome, practical answers.
McMartin, Chris 13:26
Yeah.
Limor Markman 13:29
So there's a number of things that they can do in supply chain management and logistics using AI. So the first one I would say is forecasting. When you have systems, supply chains, data. You can load it into the AI, and I'm sure you and I are going to talk about privacy a little bit later, but let me just get to it.
McMartin, Chris 13:47
Yes.
Limor Markman 13:49
If you load it into AI you can say, OK based on the history of the last year, what can I expect this season, the next month? How do I structure my forecasting so that it's more appropriate? And AI can give you some absolutely amazing insights.
McMartin, Chris 14:00
Hmm.
Limor Markman 14:04
It can also secondarily do your inventory management, right?
McMartin, Chris 14:04
Umm.
Limor Markman 14:08
If you've loaded that data and you said OK, here's my challenge, how can you support me from an inventory? This is how long it takes me to order it, till it's delivered, till it arrives, AI surprisingly with a lot of accuracy can support you from that standpoint. It can also help with things like root optimization.
Limor Markman 14:27
So, let's say that you know part of your supply chain is transportation. Well, AI is getting better every day and it can start to incorporate things that like, we can't even think of.
McMartin, Chris 14:34
Hmm.
Limor Markman 14:38
It can look at what's the weather, what's the construction, what's the time of day, the price of gas, like, it's amazingly exciting, but a little bit scary as well.
McMartin, Chris 14:45
Wow, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Limor Markman 14:50
You know, it can help you if you're going to be evolving your supply chain and you're looking at five new suppliers. Well, maybe you've got an overview of each of them.
You upload it and you say, what do you think? What are the pros? What are the cons? Which ones do we like? Here's my main factor or consideration when selecting a supplier. Which would you recommend and why? And so, you know, you can definitely provide that kind of insight.
Limor Markman 15:17
The other thing that you can do with AI and again when you start with ChatGPT you've got kind of this blank slate here, but you can also ask for advice.
And this is one of the things that we have in our platform is what would a certain person do. So what would Tony Robbins do? What would Brené Brown do?
McMartin, Chris 15:36
Oh wow.
Limor Markman 15:36
What would a supply chain management expert suggest that I ask AI to help me to improve that process so.
McMartin, Chris 15:44
OK.
Limor Markman 15:45
The sky is certainly the limit and when you come with a specific question to AI like how do I improve my supply chain management? It can give you some phenomenal responses with very actionable things that you can implement.
McMartin, Chris 16:01
Wow, that's very impressive. But you did mention the scary, the privacy.
The. So let's so let's talk about that for a minute.
Limor Markman 16:07
Yeah.
McMartin, Chris 16:08
Let's talk about the potential risks associated with AI and implementing it into your business. How can we make sure that we're mitigating that risk?
Limor Markman 16:15
Yeah. So I would say first of all, the nice thing with you implementing AI into your business is that you are in control of what you're using AI for, right?
Limor Markman 16:26
So if you are, you know, a larger company and you're gonna upload all of your customer data because you wanna know some trends. Well, I would say, "uh uh." That's probably not a good place for you to start, but if you're looking to create new products, create new processes, create marketing material that's going to be out there in the marketplace, then it's actually totally fine to be doing that.
McMartin, Chris 16:41
Right.
Limor Markman 16:54
I will say that as you continue to progress with the use of AI, there's also features and protocols that you can do and take into consideration that make it easier. So for example, if you've gone into Chat GPT, there's a free account, OK? And whatever you put in there is gonna end up in open AI and somehow can be used or extracted.
McMartin, Chris 17:08
Mm-hmm.
Limor Markman 17:13
I don't even know how, but if you're saying OK, well, you know what? I actually wanna ask ChatGPT to look at my contract that a potential partner just sent me. Well I would make sure that you're signed up for a teams account. It's $30.00 a month.
It's not even the the $20.00, but the $30 account per month comes with elements of privacy that says anything uploaded in here is not going back into open AI. They do also have a much more secure platform and it's called the executive I believe and it's like $100,000, not for us entrepreneurs at all. But what I'll come back to is that for your business, you get to decide what you put in and what you tell them.
McMartin, Chris 17:55
Mmm yeah.
Limor Markman 17:56
And so long as you're not putting, you know, your financials or contracts or customer data, you're going to be totally fine.
McMartin, Chris 18:06
I love that and you bring up a good point with the cost. So how do small businesses get the best of AI without that big upfront cost?
Limor Markman 18:16
Yeah. So I think that it's it's really about not starting with 50,000 tools cause there is a lot of tools in the marketplace and just kind of a side out here, a lot of them are kind of like shiny objects.
McMartin, Chris 18:23
Hmm. Yeah.
Limor Markman 18:31
So as an entrepreneur, I know we some oh there's this cool thing here and I could do this cool thing over here. But I would say ultimately use AI to solve your business challenges and say, "this is the challenge that I'm facing," and if I could wave a magic wand and this piece of my business could be significantly improved, it could be done better, or faster, or I could get feedback on it. It's going to make a significant improvement. And so as a result of that, I would say small steps, you know, start with your maybe free account, start with a couple of tools that serve you and what you're trying to do. Like for example, there's some really great tools on video editing, right?
Limor Markman 19:16
So maybe you do one or two. You try them out, you find the one that's right for you. They're all nominal monthly fees, and then you're able to take that and implement it. We do also have an academy for entrepreneurs called the Ascension Academy, where we teach different strategies and how to use it. Every week something new plus our portal. But I would say as an entrepreneur, there is a lot you can do with AI kind of starting with little tiny steps. Luckily, this is not the revolution of PC's. When you know, in order to get in the game, you had to spend five grand.
McMartin, Chris 19:50
Yeah.
Limor Markman 19:50
Hunk of metal that you still have no idea what to do, but I would say kind of getting started, finding some appropriate training, and this is something I can guarantee you the ROI is going to be through the roof.
McMartin, Chris 19:53
So you talked about, you know, you don't have to know everything. You don't have to be an expert. Start small, but are there some skills that are essential for business leaders to effectively manage and leverage AI?
Limor Markman 20:18
Yeah, I would say this is brand new. This is totally different and when you say kind of business leaders, I think of both like entrepreneurs and maybe businesses that are small businesses. So if that's kind of what you're referring to in terms of business leaders, I would say first of all, embrace AI.
McMartin, Chris 20:32
Yep, yeah.
Limor Markman 20:39
It is here to stay.
McMartin, Chris 20:41
Hmm.
Limor Markman 20:41
Your competitors are using it, whether they're doing it right or not, it remains to be seen for the moment, but it is picking up steam. It is being used in all kinds of use cases and so I would say as a leader the first thing you can do is just make it A. OK for everyone to be using it and then B. find a way to ensure that you're having good conversation about it and that you are celebrating and that you're sharing cause what I find is happening right now, especially kind of in smaller business. So maybe there's 20 people or 10 people. You know, everyone's still kind of using it on their phone, off to the side, on an iPad. You know, some companies still have firewalls like.
McMartin, Chris 21:23
Yes.
Limor Markman 21:26
No, no, no, don't use that. You're cheating in your job. You know, I think if leaders say, OK, it's here to stay, it can help us. How do we A. get some training on it so we're all looking at the same way, we're all using it the same way, we're benefiting from the little tools and hacks and things that each person is creating.
McMartin, Chris 21:44
Mm-hmm.
Limor Markman 21:47
And really, embrace it in our culture. That's where business leaders can ensure that they are thriving with this and they don't become the next Blockbuster because something more innovative, a competitor that says, OK, I'm all in, just takes the bull by the horns.
McMartin, Chris 22:00
Yeah. No, absolutely, that makes sense for sure. So you mentioned you said you know those the the companies and stuff are like, "no, no, that's cheating," and it very much reminded me I have got a mom story, not necessarily an entrepreneur story, but I have teenagers and one of them was using it to work on a project.
Limor Markman 22:19
Yeah.
McMartin, Chris 22:26
And I thought you can't do that. And they were like, yeah, I can, we all do it. And the teacher, the teacher knows it and we. And so when, like let's talk, the ethical side of things, you know, what do we need to keep in mind to make sure that we're not cheating? But per se and that we're actually using it to, you know, advance ourselves.
Limor Markman 22:47
Yeah. So before I answer that if it's OK, I kind of want to address this like cheating mindset because you know how there's like the five or the seven stages of grief that you go through.
McMartin, Chris 22:51
Please yes please. Yeah.
Limor Markman 23:00
If you're experiencing something that you've gone through and a hardship. So what I have sort of seen on a consistent basis, both within individuals, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and this definitely applies to students as well. Is that when you first have your "AHA" discovery moment, somebody shows you something or you've used it for the first time. You're like, "Whoa, that usually takes me 4 hours. How did it do that in 10 seconds?" You have this like, wow, I've got this exciting thing in front of me, which is quickly followed up with like, "am I cheating?
McMartin, Chris 23:27
Yeah.
Limor Markman 23:31
Is this legal?
McMartin, Chris 23:32
Yeah.
Limor Markman 23:33
Is this OK?"
McMartin, Chris 23:34
Yeah.
Limor Markman 23:34
And honestly, everyone goes through that process in some way, shape or form, but the next step is then OK, well, maybe this technology is daunting. Can I learn it?
Limor Markman 23:45
Can I get good at it? And as you're working through that process, you kind of result into a place where it's like I'm getting better, right? You know you got your 10,000 hours, even if you're making progress. And then you start to feel like, wow, me and AI, we're besties and the best version of what I can create is together.
McMartin, Chris 24:03
Yeah.
Limor Markman 24:06
And then someone says to you, "Oh did you use AI?" You're like, "Yeah, I used AI. Who doesn't use AI?" So what's happening is that our skills of what we're required to do is shifting. So if before our brain had to write the essay, well, all of those students, when they get into the working world. AI is going to be there. So it's no longer the skill of can I write the essay? It's can I be the conductor? Can I think big enough to direct AI to create the output that I want to do. So I will get to the applicable question, but I think it's kind of important to acknowledge this like stages of AI integration. It totally is and it requires those around you whether that's your boss, or your teacher, or your business partner, or even your customer, to be OK that this is happening in the world at such a rapid pace, but that we need to really embrace it to go forward.
McMartin, Chris 24:37
Hmm. Yeah. It's a brand new skill. Yeah, it's a brand new skill, yeah. Hmm.
Limor Markman 25:04
So coming back to the ethics, I think that the first thing that we need to do is really be transparent, tell people we're using it, you know, and it's not about AI replacing.
McMartin, Chris 25:10
Yes.
Limor Markman 25:17
You know, if you if you hired someone to help you with your website or, you know, a component of your business and they said to you, you know what, I have a much better output than I used to for my customers because I use AI, because I use customer profiles, and I write your copy based off of what your customers are thinking. You're not going to say, "Oh you're cheating." You're going to say, "Wow, you're giving me an even more amazing output. Thank you for skilling up, embracing AI, and sharing with me that it's really a new way you're serving me." And so I would say we need to be transparent and say we're using it rather than kind of ethically saying, oh, no, no, no, I don't use AI. But literally I'm like in the background using it, you know. I think I think it kind of alleviates this like stress and pressure around it.
McMartin, Chris 26:05
Yeah. Yeah.
Limor Markman 26:11
And then just also be accountable, because AI sometimes if you let it run, it can behave like a little bit of a like, a bratty toddler, where if it doesn't know the answer.
McMartin, Chris 26:23
So you're the expert.
Limor Markman 26:26
And I have two kids under 3 right now, so I know what it's like with.
McMartin, Chris 26:31
You're the expert with the bratty toddler.
Limor Markman 26:31
You ask the question and they look at you and they say, "No Mommy, I didn't eat the sprinkles or I didn't feed them to the dog" and literally the dog is eating them right there.
McMartin, Chris 26:34
I love that.
Yeah.
Limor Markman 26:39
So sometimes AI fills in the blank even though it doesn't quite have the answer. So going back ethically, it's really important that us, the business owner, the subject matter expert, is reviewing the output and not just cutting and pasting. Especially if we're using it in ways that genuinely impacts our clients and our customers.
McMartin, Chris 26:47
OK. Yeah. Hmm.
Limor Markman 27:06
We don't just want to go oh oops, I didn't realize that there was this thing that has completely irrelevant. Most of the time it's spot on, but there's definitely occasions where I'm like, what? That's not what I told you like.
McMartin, Chris 27:10
Umm. Yeah.
Limor Markman 27:18
Yeah. So I think from an ethical standpoint, we need to be on top of it and not just kind of trust it to let it run. We need to have spot checks in there. We need to ensure that our customers know that we're using it, especially if they're asking like, hey, did you use AI in this? Yeah, I did. And here's how. And here's why. And if there's an implication for them, maybe they can opt out or there's another process.
McMartin, Chris 27:39
Yeah.
Limor Markman 27:44
But I can pretty much guarantee you like give it another six months, eight months or a year. You know, if you talk to someone that you're hiring to support you in any part of your business and you ask them, are you using AI, you're gonna expect them to use AI. You're like, what do you mean you're copywriting by hand?
McMartin, Chris 28:00
Yeah.
Limor Markman 28:01
Like, who does that? We're not in the dinosaur age anymore, so things are going to continue to evolve and as long as we're operating with integrity and we're being transparent, I think we're we're going to be OK.
McMartin, Chris 28:05
Yeah. It's very it's very much. It's funny that you say that like you know the dinosaur ages. If you're not using AI, it very much reminds me of 16 years ago I started with the bank and we did everything by paper. Like you'd come in to open a bank account, and we would literally write it on a form and you would, you know, take the carbon copy out from underneath. You'd get your copy, I'd keep mine and like.
Limor Markman 28:32
Yeah.
McMartin, Chris 28:35
Could you imagine if we were still doing that now?
Limor Markman 28:39
Oh gosh.
McMartin, Chris 28:39
Right. But when they came out and we're like, everything's gonna be online.
We're like what? Like you know, it was all different and so it very much, that sort of sentiment reminded me of that. Is that it's just another change that everyone needs to get used to, right.
Limor Markman 28:44
Yeah. For sure. And I think as entrepreneurs and business owners who got into business because we're passionate about doing something, achieving something, helping someone, having a better life, geographic freedom.
McMartin, Chris 29:03
Yeah.
Limor Markman 29:07
Like whatever your reason was, if you're true to that, you're probably going to realize that you know you've needed to be adaptable to even get to where you are. You needed to pivot a few times.
McMartin, Chris 29:17
Absolutely.
Limor Markman 29:18
You've had to be resilient and this change, if you embrace it. This is actually gonna move you so much closer to where you wanna be or why you actually got into business that some of these, you know, bigger companies is gonna be clunkier and harder to embrace change. But if it's just you or you and a small team or you and contractors, like, you have such a competitive advantage right now to do what others are not doing by really embracing it, integrating it, using it, loving it. And trust me, the numbers will show up in your financials. That's for sure.
McMartin, Chris 29:56
Absolutely, absolutely. So this this is the point where I have one question left and it's my own personal question. And then I'm gonna open it up. So those of you who are with us today, if you have questions, you have the option that you can raise your virtual hand and you can come off mute and ask or if you feel more comfortable, you can put it in the chat and we'll be sure to propose it to Limor. So my last question to you would be that is there any, whether it's I'm gonna say resources and when I say resources, I mean is there books, is there podcasts, is there specific apps, is there specific tools, that you would recommend to small business owners to start with. And I'm talking very starting. Never used AI before and I know you mentioned ChatGPT as one of them, but is there anything else as far as resources goes when it comes to adopting AI that you would recommend to us?
Limor Markman 30:48
Yeah, I would say instead of trying to only figure it out on your own, you know, for the use case that you're looking for, go to YouTube and say I'm trying to do this and there's so many people posting videos of what that looks like right now.
McMartin, Chris 30:58
Hmm.
Limor Markman 31:04
You know, we definitely have an academy for entrepreneurs where we teach new skills every week, new tools every week, to be able to propel you forward because it is changing really quickly and it can be overwhelming. But I would just say, you know, don't be afraid to kind of get in the game and have ChatGPT almost be like a little bit of a tutor for you.
McMartin, Chris 31:12
Amazing. Yeah.
Limor Markman 31:25
Like, how can you help me?
McMartin, Chris 31:28
Hmm.
Limor Markman 31:30
What can you do for me? And that's also a really good jumping off point for sure.
McMartin, Chris 31:36
That's really great advice. That's really great advice, so I'm gonna open it up. Is there anyone that has questions for Limor? Like I said, you're welcome to come off mute if you like or if you're more shy about that and would prefer you can put it in the chat. I don't see anyone with questions Limor. I bet you they're exactly like me, where they're just like, I wanna get off this call so I can go try all of these things. They're all just itching to, like, get to their ChatGPT and go try it out. But I wanna put it to you Limor. Is there anything that we didn't have a chance to chat about today that you want to make sure that you share with us, whether it's more about AI and the knowledge that you have or about what your company specifically offers and how our entrepreneurs can get in touch with you afterwards?
Limor Markman 32:28
Yeah. Thank you so much. I mean, I think the biggest thing is to realize that there's a big change and there is no going back and it might feel a little scary, or new, or like it's a totally different language.
McMartin, Chris 32:33
Hmm.
Limor Markman 32:43
But I would say it's OK to start small and it's also OK to get really excited about what this can do for you and for your business. I will say that we do offer an academy. It's called the Ascension Academy and we have the Absolute Ascent platform with uh, well over 200 tools. Not to be overwhelming, but to support you on every function that you're already doing in your business. And instead of trying to go to ChatGPT and say OK, this is my customer, this is what I need. All of our tools are very much like a direction where you come in with one question.
McMartin, Chris 33:21
Hmm.
Limor Markman 33:23
One challenge I'm trying to you're going to the podcast script for example, and it asks you a couple questions about your podcast. What's your goal, it asks a few clarifying questions because all of our tools are structured in a way that is like multiple choice rather than open-ended. We find that it works well for people that way, and then it helps you to have an answer that you are looking for. So, you know, if you're not using AI, if I can support you in any way, I know your team has my LinkedIn and my website that we're posting.
McMartin, Chris 33:41
Yes, we will share all of that, yes.
Limor Markman 33:59
If anyone would like to get in touch with me, you know you're kind of like maybe I wanna get started. I'm not sure why or I'm not sure how, maybe even if you're a larger company, feel free to reach out. I'd love to have a conversation about your goals, your challenges, and how we can support you moving forward because the world is changing and I definitely believe that there is still an opportunity for first movers to really embrace and compound steps in your business with AI. And again, like I said, it's really about getting back to the reason you've got into your business. And for the first time, there's like this tool that I kind of call a bit of a magic wand because it makes the things that are hard for you a whole lot easier. And we've never had that before. And of course, it's way more cost effective. So you know I congratulate anyone who's here, who's listening, who's interested in AI.
McMartin, Chris 34:49
Absolutely.
Limor Markman 34:52
Maybe haven't gotten started and maybe you're going to do that, that tonight, play around. But yes, with absolute pleasure, feel free to message me on LinkedIn.
McMartin, Chris 35:04
Amazing. Limor, I can't thank you enough. On behalf of The Scotiabank Women Initiative, thank you for taking the time. Thank you for making us smarter today and maybe making AI just a little less scary. So thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
McMartin, Chris 35:18
We will definitely share all of your contact information so that those who are on the call today can definitely reach out to you and to all of those of you who showed up today. Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to join us and thank you for taking the time for yourself to learn more and and to discover more about AI. So I wish you all a very fantastic day. Thank you and enjoy.
