What would you do if your business suddenly faced a catastrophic disruption tomorrow? For most of us, that's a terrifying thought we'd rather not consider. But the reality is, business emergencies don't wait for the perfect moment - they strike without warning, forcing us to adapt or risk losing everything we've built. That's exactly what happened to today's guest when a devastating house fire in July 2023 threatened to derail her thriving business coaching practice. But instead of letting crisis win, she discovered an unexpected ally in artificial intelligence that not only helped her recover - AI transformed her entire approach to business resilience.
Today, I'm thrilled to welcome my dear friend Judi Fox, creator of the LinkedIn Business Accelerator program and trusted advisor to countless professionals looking to maximize their LinkedIn presence. Judi has helped hundreds of business leaders generate consistent leads and opportunities through strategic LinkedIn optimization, and her innovative approaches have earned her recognition as one of the platform's leading voices. But it's her remarkable story of using AI to rebuild and strengthen her business after disaster that will change how you think about business continuity.
The AI Hat Podcast host Mike Allton asked Judi Fox about:
✨ Prepare Before Crisis Hits - Developing an AI-powered contingency plan before emergencies strike ensures business continuity.
✨ AI as Recovery Partner - Artificial intelligence can provide 24/7 support for critical business functions during disruption.
✨ Transform Challenge to Growth - Strategic AI implementation can turn business crises into opportunities for innovation and improvement.
Learn more about Judi Fox
- Connect with Judi Fox on LinkedIn
Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode
- Judi Fox Consulting
- Bardeen
- Read.ai
- AI Primer: A Comprehensive Guide
- Explore past episodes of the The AI Hat Podcast podcast
Full Transcript
(lightly edited)
From Disaster to Digital Recovery: A Business Owner's AI Journey with Judi Fox
[00:00:00] Judi Fox: I think sometimes we don't even know what we don't know, and I think that's the part of AI that I've really appreciated. There were so many things that I didn't know about even having a house fire and what I, I didn't know, I didn't know about insurance. There's a million things that I didn't realize.
[00:00:18] Why would you know? Because you never needed to be an expert in that space or have to deal with it before. So why would you have known any of that information? And I think the same thing with our businesses. So many people are like, I need to get this many clients, or this many leads or this many sales.
[00:00:37] And working our way backwards. What is gonna keep your business running and continue to generate sales and leads? And what could you put your time and energy effort into today that actually will bring you results a year from now, two years from now?
[00:00:55] Mike Allton: Mike's got The Hat, the AI kind. Unlocking power in business, you'll find. Cut through the hype, explore the tech. Every week, new ideas to check.
[00:01:20] Allton leads us on a digital quest. AI secrets, he'll always invest. Tune in tight, don't miss a beat. Knowledge, groove, keep you on your feet. Listen up! To the AI flow. Business growth, here we go. Cuttin' edge insights, that's the plan. With The AI Hat you'll understand.
[00:02:04] Greetings program. Welcome back to The AI Hat Podcast, where I selfishly use this time to pick the brains of experts at harnessing the power of AI across all areas of business. From streamlining operations and boosting productivity to gaining a competitive edge and driving explosive growth. Oh, and you get to learn, too.
[00:02:22] Subscribe to be shown how to prepare yourself and your brand for this AI revolution and come out ahead. And what would you do if your business suddenly faced a catastrophic disruption tomorrow? For most of us, that's a terrifying thought we'd rather not consider. But the reality is business emergencies, don't wait for the perfect moment.
[00:02:41] They strike without warning, forcing us to adapt or risk losing everything we've built. And that's exactly what happened to today's guest when a devastating house fire in July, 2023 threatened to derail her thriving business coaching practice. But instead of letting crisis win, she discovered an unexpected ally in artificial intelligence that not only helped her recover, it transformed her entire approach to business resilience.
[00:03:05] Today I am so thrilled to welcome my dear friend, Judi Fox, creator of the LinkedIn Business Accelerator program, and trusted advisor to countless professionals looking to maximize their LinkedIn presence. Judi has helped hundreds of business leaders generate consistent leads and opportunities through strategic LinkedIn optimization and her innovative approaches have earned her recognition as one of the platform's leading voices.
[00:03:27] But it's her remarkable story of using AI to rebuild and strengthen her business after disaster that'll change how you think about business continuity. Hey, Judi, welcome to the show.
[00:03:38] Judi Fox: Excited to be here. Thank you so much. And I'm obviously really passionate about making sure people are more resilient in their businesses.
[00:03:47] So excited to have this conversation.
[00:03:50] Mike Allton: I'm excited too. And I'd love if you could start by just taking us back to that moment, share what happened when the fire struck and what were some of the immediate business challenges that you faced.
[00:04:00] Judi Fox: Yeah. One. It was July of 2023. I had just gone to a networking event that morning in a local area, in my local area, and I was on a Zoom call.
[00:04:13] So the whole thing is recorded and about 10 feet away from me, lightning struck my house. It hit the electrical panel and blew it out like just like you see in the movies when a transformer blows up or sparks. It literally had sparks fly. I am a Taylor Swift fan, so that quote, I actually saw sparks fly and I immediately, I was still being recorded on Zoom, which is very interesting that all that is recorded.
[00:04:41] And I got up, realized my house is on fire, immediately had to face 'What would you save?' I immediately saved my dog and I saved, I grabbed my purse because it was right there. I had just dropped it by the door and I was able to grab my computer 'cause it was just right on my desk. My door is a couple of feet from where I'm sitting while we record this podcast.
[00:05:05] So I did all of that within about 10 seconds, and like I said, all that's on recording, so it's interesting that I can see the movement that I was making a nine one one call and that I was getting my dog out of the house and grabbing my computer, so it happened so quickly. So when you wake up in the morning and you think, okay, I have a roof over my head.
[00:05:28] I have a bed to sleep in. I have all the things that I need in the world, and I have a business that I'm running out of my home to then, I'm on the lawn in my front yard watching I 20 firemen come into my home and spray it down with their. Firefighting gear and their chemical spray and making sure that I don't have any fire all the way up into the attic because fire is obviously so fast and it burned up a room in my house within about five to seven minutes.
[00:05:59] That's how they got here so fast, but the fire is faster.
[00:06:05] Mike Allton: Wow. Okay, so you had your laptop and your phone and, and that's it. Help us understand then, where that left you as a business consultant?
[00:06:18] Judi Fox: Yeah, I also I had my fox ears in my purse 'cause I was networking that morning.
[00:06:25] Mike Allton: For folks in my audience who maybe aren't, you guys aren't familiar with Judi, the Fox ears are literal trademark. She was, she was joking before we started recording about how she had gotten a call recently, a video call without the ears, and right away people are like, where are your ears? I'm so disappointed I don't see them. I've met Judi in in person many times. I think you've always had the ears, so maybe they're just attached.
[00:06:47] Judi Fox: I think they are. So I did get these custom made on Etsy, so I don't see, they're very unique to me 'cause I don't know if she made them for anyone else on the planet, that kind of feeling. So, either way I had my ears in my purse, but I did, I, I'm out on the front lawn and immediately, I had two clients that, of course, somebody doesn't know what you're going through in any moment, in any time.
[00:07:15] Yeah. Especially when they reach out or if they text you, or if historically you've been serving clients for four or five years, your clients reach out, you normally get back and it's not anything dealing with a crisis. So I did find it interesting that. Right when it happened, I did reply back to a few clients and gave them the answer they needed as I'm standing in my front yard wondering how much my home burned down.
[00:07:44] And I did let them know, like, Hey, especially the client that the phone call hung up on because they were like, what just happened? You, of course immediately I lost power. I lost access to our connection, and I'll just say that how people respond to you letting them know, Hey, I just had a house. Fire is a lot.
[00:08:08] It's, yeah, it can make or break every relationship at that moment. Like obviously my parents got in their car and were at my house as quick as they could possibly get here. Like, and those moments, like I'll just never forget. I'll never forget the people who literally. That they just found out I had a house fire and they just sent me $50.
[00:08:30] Like they just Apple cash gave it to me, or I will just never forget having one of my, the woman I had just networked with that morning, she just got in her car and drove over to my house and said, whatever you need, I'll sit here on the front porch with you. I will just hold your hand. The woman who's been cleaning my home for years, same thing.
[00:08:49] She just came over and was like, how can I help you? And. What can we do? And that is, that's that in-person community. Physical hugs that you need from people. And yeah, being able to, even at the beginning I made a post. I made a post I think on threads and I think I put it out on Instagram stories. I made a few posts, but not very many.
[00:09:13] Just being like, I think my home just. Burned. I don't know. The full damage, I didn't know the full extent. I wish I had known because it would've given me more perspective, but maybe that's the protection you need to not be able to process everything you lost right that moment. So I just thought, oh, I have an electrical fire in my laundry room.
[00:09:37] It's not a big deal. But it was a very big deal and it ended up making my home be gutted from the inside out. So I just didn't realize, I don't think people realize how much smoke and chemical and firefighting damage happens in a home. So.
[00:09:54] Mike Allton: Yeah, and I was one of those folks who didn't see those posts. And we were at an event fall 2024.
[00:10:02] It was the first time you and I had seen each other face to face in probably a couple years. I think before that might've been, I. Social Media Week Lima or someplace like that. So that's when you told me what you've been going through for the past year. Mm-hmm. Which I was completely ob oblivious to and, and was standing at the tore down booths around us.
[00:10:20] It's aghast at, at everything that you'd come through and come through successfully at the other end. I know you're still dealing with it. We were talking about that before we recorded, but you're back in business now. But I'm still wondering, other than, not having like a, a desk I, my mind immediately goes to the, like, the logistics.
[00:10:39] Like, do, would I have grabbed the power cable from my laptop? Or is it gonna die five hours later? I'm just wondering through those kinds of things, what, what were some of those challenges right off the bat that you had to deal with other than, letting clients know, you know what, we can't talk this afternoon.
[00:10:55] I'm surrounded by firefighters.
[00:10:57] Judi Fox: Yeah, that, that was definitely very shocking for myself to also even have to explain to a client and say, Hey, I don't know what I'm about to face. I don't know what the challenges I have ahead of me personally, emotionally, mentally, physically. And yeah, you don't, I, I think the biggest thing that I am blessed with is that.
[00:11:22] That morning I had just gone to an in-person networking and I keep pointing that out and I will shout. Her name is Rachel Cook. She is a local entrepreneur and she works with women business owners and coaches, and I've been on her podcast, she's been on my podcast. We have been networking for years and friends for years, and she, it gave me a key to her office space and said, come on over if Oh, nice.
[00:11:47] I have a physical office space, I have. A flat surface and fast internet. And I don't think you people, I didn't realize when I thought about, oh, I have to go live out of a hotel, I was like, oh yeah, the internet is not built for, you need to be running a business. And then when I thought about, I have a dog, I have a kid, I'm a single parent, and just all the logistics of that didn't hit me until like maybe 24, 48 hours later.
[00:12:18] I have to say I really appreciated the Hilton Hampton Inn that I stayed in. But they saw me walking in and outta that hotel in tears every single day. It, I, I couldn't stop crying. So I do have to say that was probably, I'm being very vulnerable right here, just saying that. Mm-hmm. But it is such a reality that you don't know when you're gonna be hit.
[00:12:41] And most of the time, it was the end of the day when I had just finished doing all the things I needed to do that day and we're talking, my journey ahead of me was now gonna be a year. A year plus. Yeah. So yeah, my home was removed from the electrical grid because when you have a explosion in your electrical system, it destroys a lot. So they had to rewire my home. They had to re pipe my home with all new air handling system because the fire went through the air handling system. I don't think, again, things we don't think about, like Yeah.
[00:13:17] Mike Allton: Things you wouldn't know. Yeah.
[00:13:19] Judi Fox: Like I didn't realize how much that was just fire damaged inside like a fireball went through the air handling system, so.
[00:13:28] And they even had to replace all my attic installation because it was covered in fire damage and soot. So, yeah. Anyways, again, back to not knowing what you don't know about how much fire can impact your home, even if it's a seven minute fire. But yeah, when it comes to work, having. An immediate space. I did look into a coworking space.
[00:13:56] But like I said, my friend just offered up her space and gave me a key. So again, back to build real relationships before you need them without ever knowing what's gonna be needed by either you or them. Because I would do anything now for her, like Right. If, if, and I. I've brought her gift baskets, my mom's knitted her a blanket.
[00:14:16] Like we're trying to, but it's, it's more than that. It's just knowing that you never know when you're gonna be on the other side of needing something.
[00:14:25] Mike Allton: And, and I think the underlying truth here that, that everyone listens, need to be thinking about. And this was something that fortunately was ingrained in me literally decades ago because I used to work for a Fortune 500 company called Dana Corporation in Northern Ohio, and we had an actual disaster recovery team in place, and they would do quarterly disaster recovery scenarios where, this is northern Ohio, we get tons of snow. So they created a scenario, well, what if there's a blizzard and there's so much snow that piles up on the roof of this major flat building, which was our, our global technology center. That the roof over the server room caves in from the weight of the snow and ice and literally destroys servers.
[00:15:11] What would we do as an organization? How would we recover and so on? Because while that's a Fortune 500 example, yours is more akin to most of the people listening to this podcast where, you know, what, if something happens and your business shuts down tomorrow, how are you gonna recover from that?
[00:15:26] How are you going to get back up and running? Because if you're an employee. Maybe that's not top of mind, but if it's your business, you wanna make sure that your customers are taken care of, your employees are taken care of, and as quickly as possible, revenue starts coming back in. So, to the, to the point of the conversation today, at some point you realize that AI could help you get back up and running as a business, could help your recovery.
[00:15:55] What was that moment? What did it look like or, or what was your first step towards implementing AI? I.
[00:16:00] Judi Fox: Yeah, I'll, I'll take it back to being a part of different peer networking groups throughout the years, since 20 17, 20 18, I was a part of a YouTuber group that was video focused. So it didn't matter that you were YouTuber, it just happened to be a bunch of YouTubers created it.
[00:16:21] And these were all more private groups. They weren't paid communities. They were. Hey, we all know each other. We are friends. How about we connect once a month and just all check in with each other and stay connected and not try to do any major. It was just a light networking type of group and energy that I've stayed connected with over the years, and right about the time that I had the fire, a little bit after that was one of the people in the group said, Hey, I'm gonna start talking about AI. Do you all wanna get on a call together? We'll just brainstorm what we're all doing with it. And that opened my eyes up. I'm trying to think. So I had the fire in July and it was around, I maybe September, October, November, somewhere in that timeframe that I became aware of a lot more of the tools that you could use to quickly scrape your data and use AI to talk with your data.
[00:17:22] So what I mean by that is I found out if you've been collecting people's forms, like maybe you have a questionnaire on your website, which I did. I've had a questionnaire, a marketing questionnaire that asks things like, what do you wish you knew about LinkedIn? Or, what are your pain points for LinkedIn and what would help your business?
[00:17:42] And what could I do to solve your problems? Like what things do you need? And people have been filling out this form and I've got well over a thousand people who have filled out this form, but collecting and sorting through that data in a way that I could resurface in the future. It seemed like, oh, I'm gonna have to hire somebody, or I'm gonna have, it's gonna be in a spreadsheet.
[00:18:04] I'm gonna sort it and look for keywords and, but AI can do so much of that for you. And then it can talk with your data to ask it questions, and my mind was blown because that's exactly what I needed. I needed to know, Hey, in my business, what are some, maybe other areas I could support clients right now instead of doing all the one-on-one calls I was doing, is there something else I can offer? What is the biggest pain point some of them are dealing with and what can I put out into the world that I could do for them? And honestly, AI helped me brainstorm that maybe my best idea, like going through and telling AI, here's my challenges, here's what I'm dealing with.
[00:18:48] They were like, why don't you reach out to your past clients and ask them to, they already know you. You don't have to convince them. You already worked with them. How about you just tell them what's going on and you can create maybe a retainer product for them that they could hire you per month for something that is solving a problem for them every single month.
[00:19:08] And that's what I did.
[00:19:11] Mike Allton: Amazing. All right, so AI helped you identify by looking at the data that you already had, what some of those key pain points and issues were with your existing leads and prospects and email subscribers and so on. And so then you collaborated with the AI. Tell me if I'm wrong about that.
[00:19:27] You collaborated with the AI to decide, okay. Given all that information, it looks like a retainer model might work, and AI helped you build all that together. How, how did that end up helping in your business recovery.
[00:19:41] Judi Fox: Because you are sometimes as a business owner, wanting to think, I know what my clients want and I know what they need for especially 'cause I do LinkedIn.
[00:19:55] I think I know LinkedIn, but sometimes we don't always see the gap ourselves or know. Like I said, I have a thousand people who have filled out that form, and for me to see the trends in that data would be so much more work than asking AI to see the trends in that data and asking AI to confirm what I was assuming or to give me contradictory or challenge me.
[00:20:22] I would literally go back to AI and say. This is what I think you are saying, and this is what you think the data's saying, and this is where I want to spend my time and what I wanna offer. But do you think there's data to support that offer? Do you think that I'm framing it in the way that used the words directly out of the mouth of the client.
[00:20:44] Not my words, not what I would want to do, because, I think just I'm gonna spend the most time in my brain on this planet and for AI to be able to access a thousand people's brains and what they filled in a form and use the, and I had to the number one key I wanna point out that I had to tell AI is "do not infer."
[00:21:07] The key word was infer. I don't know why that was the perfect word that I found, but that key word do not infer what was not said. So do not infer anything that this client never said. Don't put words in their mouth. Don't put words in my mouth. Strictly take the DA data that you're being given and the spreadsheet and the PDFs and everything I'm giving you strictly take this and do not infer.
[00:21:35] I have to constantly do not infer, I don't know why that was the word, but I, once I discovered it, it helped me. Make sure that my data was the only thing being considered, not the public, not what it gathered from the universe, but, or whatever it was coming into the system with. It was using my data.
[00:21:57] Mike Allton: So I think the first key lesson for, for folks listening is to just ingrained in your mind that you can turn to AI as an analyst and as a strategist when there is a moment in your business when you are at a loss as to what to do next, and you're struggling. Now I hope and pray it's never this kind of level of crisis where your entire business is at risk, but it could be something as simple as, we've got a product line that's not selling or, or a service that's just not, hitting its goals or our market or industry or region is changing and we need to think about pivoting.
[00:22:38] All these scenarios would be very similar, where you can bring the artificial intelligence in and have it help you analyze past data. Past inputs and come up with some options for moving ahead. Now, before we move on, I, I'm curious, what, what, what tools were you using then or others are you using now?
[00:22:56] Were you just jumping all, dropping all this into Chat GPT or what were you doing?
[00:23:00] Judi Fox: I did test out a lot of the tools the number one tool that I used at the beginning to help me scrape my emails, which that sounds interesting, but if you have a thousand people fill out a form and you weren't maybe organizing it for years.
[00:23:16] It's, it's great that I could search by a keyword and I could have a folder of all those forms, but for AI to take every single form and for me to talk with AI and tell it, I would code it. I would basically code and say, Hey, I have this folder in my email. That I can give you access to. Can you scrape this folder in every single form?
[00:23:41] Can you start to build a spreadsheet with all this information and I'll give you access to that folder? That to me, was mind blowing. I didn't know that you could do that. Like I didn't know that common, regular, everyday language could code something that allowed me to have a code that ran that script.
[00:23:59] And I don't know how that worked, but it worked and I was like. Holy. I just could wake up to a, when I say wake up, I could click run and practically seconds later I had a spreadsheet with all the data organized by every question I asked, every potential client, everything, and it was all finished, so.
[00:24:19] Mike Allton: And what were you using that alone?
[00:24:21] Judi Fox: I used Bardeen for that one.
[00:24:23] Mike Allton: Oh, interesting. No one's talked about Bardeen on the show before.
[00:24:27] Judi Fox: Yeah, that one. I just found it really intuitive. I found it easy to use and it did it really fast. The other thing I'll say Bardeen did at the beginning was I could ask it to go to my public posts on LinkedIn and scrape the comments and then link to their LinkedIn profile and make a whole spreadsheet and then surface up near the top my top commenters and who has been supporting me and how I should be networking with them.
[00:24:59] Mike Allton: That is fascinating.
[00:25:00] Judi Fox: And all I had to tell Bardeen was the link to my LinkedIn post. 'cause it's a public post. I'm not scraping anything private. I'm not, I. Against terms and conditions, right? It's a public link to a public post. It is the public comments. So that was really cool.
[00:25:16] Mike Allton: Makes sense. Yeah. It's a very similar way that I'm using AI plus LinkedIn to prepare for these shows. I give my AI a link to your LinkedIn profile and it takes, look at it and it verifies, oh yeah. Judi Fox is a LinkedIn expert and so on, which I've talked about before. In past episodes. Folks we're talking with Judi Fox about how AI helped her.
[00:25:36] Can help you and protect and fortify your business. I've got seven more questions for her that you're not gonna wanna miss. But first, a quick word from our sponsor.
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[00:26:34] Tap the link in the show notes to visit Magai today to learn more, and now back to the rest of today's episode.
[00:26:41] So, Judi, you're using AI to help you analyze and strategize and practically save your business and, and come up with a, a new business model that'll work for you given the situation that you found yourself in.
[00:26:53] How else are you using ai? How has incorporating AI changed your approach to business resilience and planning?
[00:27:01] Judi Fox: I will definitely say that AI in integrating AI into your, either if you're trying to put more content out in the world, things like that, like I was gonna point out that having I would say two buckets of AI.
[00:27:16] One is the ability to serve clients with strategies that leverage AI for their content. What I mean by that is if you have a podcast, you can take the podcast script, script transcript, and tell AI, Hey, using my exact words, the words that came outta my mouth, help me write a LinkedIn newsletter for this podcast so I can publish it and give me some ideas of my title and it's allowing you to take the weight off of creating from scratch. You already have your voice. You already have your message. It's not generating a topic that you never discussed. It's still you and your thought leadership. It's amplifying your leadership. It's allowing you to get that first draft off the page and going.
[00:28:08] And then the second bucket for coaching and strategy was I was able to take the coaching calls and the discussions I was having with clients, putting that transcript into AI, and then giving myself and the client away to talk with the advice that I was giving to say, oh wait, what was the tasks we were gonna both work on?
[00:28:30] What was the next step? What's a deliverable here? What was the advice? Can you give me some bullet points that she said in this call and summarize the advice that I was just given? All of that is just immediate. Like the moment the phone call ends, you practically have a transcript that you can talk with AI and immediately ask it, what's my next, next task based on a call I just had.
[00:28:56] Mike Allton: Yeah, I love that aspect. Today I'm using read ai in, in every single meeting I'm working with clients that'll help them use read ai to send summaries both to the, their own employees and to their own clients, and have those transcripts readily available so that, no one's wondering at the end of a call, wait, what, what?
[00:29:15] Talk about how do I remember what to do? That sort of thing for, for businesses that want to think about preparing for some kind of crisis or disaster, what? What advice would you give them from an AI perspective in terms of, what should they be thinking about? How should they be using AI from that continuity perspective?
[00:29:34] Judi Fox: Yeah, I, I think sometimes, and what you just said earlier about having a crisis preparation plan, sometimes we don't even know what we don't know, and I think that's the part of AI that I've really appreciated. There were so many things that I didn't know about even having a house fire and what I, I didn't know, I didn't know about insurance.
[00:29:57] There's a million things that I didn't realize. Why would you know? Because you never needed to be an expert in that space or have to deal with it before. So why would you have known any of that information? And I think the same thing with our businesses. We think, okay, I have gotten, we're so many people are like, I need to get this many clients, or this many leads or this many sales and working our way backwards.
[00:30:27] What is gonna keep your business running and continue to generate sales and leads, and what could you put your time and energy effort into today that actually will bring you results a year from now, two years from now? So I guess just adding in, I don't know if this exactly goes where you were headed, but, LinkedIn newsletters, for example, or having these podcast episodes live on. These are evergreen pieces of content. YouTube content. I would say YouTube became one of my number one places where I was getting clients after the fire. Which I never realized just having a few YouTube videos out there continue to drive traffic to my website, my business forms, my onboarding links and my calendar to book a call.
[00:31:19] So all of those pieces are now more important to me to plan in advance to make sure that I stay active in the spaces that are gonna be evergreen and last longer.
[00:31:33] Mike Allton: One. One thing that you mentioned that I really wanna under underscore the fact that you don't know what you don't know about what can happen or what you're going to deal with if the worst happens.
[00:31:43] And again, that's where AI can be, I think, a real valuable resource. Every one of us today could be having conversations with AI. It doesn't have to consume in entire weeks of of time, but you can have an ongoing conversation. Just one of the chats that you're having with ChatGPT or Gemini or Claude about what are the things that could happen to my business and let's bucketize and prioritize those things and, yeah, AI could dream up everything that could potentially happen to a business. And some of that stuff is, less feasible or, or possible than others. And let's prioritize what could potentially happen, like a high percentage thing, and what could I potentially have to plan for?
[00:32:23] Like if you've got a brick and mortar business, then you absolutely must be prepared for things like structural damage, like we were just talking before the call about how your kids were outta school for a whole week because there was no water service for the entire reality. That's the kind of thing that can potentially happen.
[00:32:39] And there's no water service at your business. Could you open? Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. You'd have to think about that and have that, potentiality prepared for, so you can turn to AI, I think very reliably as that disaster recovery committee and, and planning. And, and like I said, you don't have to have all of the things figured out tomorrow, but I, I think it's worth carving a little bit of time out every single day, just 15 minutes a day.
[00:33:09] Let's have that little bit of a conversation and, and build that plan. But what's the one thing that you wish every listener, every business owner knew about leveraging AI specifically for, preparing for dealing with this kind of a crisis?
[00:33:25] Judi Fox: That AI will amplify what you are talking with it. It's going to amplify your thought leadership, but it should not take over your thought leadership.
[00:33:34] It's gonna amplify pieces of your business that you focus on because it is what you are focusing on. And sometimes I think we can push AI to challenge and push back and give us real advice and real thoughts, but to, I guess the biggest thing that I had in my resources and in my bucket was knowing that I had access to real life humans that I could meet up with and spend time with right after a fire or disaster occurred.
[00:34:05] So knowing that I still had AI to talk to and brainstorm with, but in reality, every single week I had a therapist that I could go and do a walk and talk and meet with her in person. 'cause she can read my body language, she can look and hear the challenges. She can hug me and comfort and AI can't do that.
[00:34:28] So I think it's just knowing that I didn't spend all my energy and effort trusting and hoping and putting time into ai, but I put time and energy and effort into real people and real relationships.
[00:34:42] Mike Allton: I love that advice and, and one of the things that I'm learning from you as a reminder is the importance of having processes and workflows and, and evergreen marketing strategies and those kinds of things in place, or ramped up quickly.
[00:34:57] I. Because in the event of a crisis, all of a sudden now all of your attention is focused on that thing, whatever that thing is. Folks who've known me for a long time know that the reason I came up with the original name for my business to Social Media Hat was because I had been working for a very small business for many years, and the owner wore all the hats in the company. He wasn't just the owner, he was in charge of sales. He was in charge of IT implementations. It was an IT company. So he was the one going on site to build servers and do the networking and stuff. But he was also hr, he was also payroll, he was also finance, he was also painter, contractor, construction.
[00:35:39] Anything we needed done around the place, he was it. And most people can't afford to wear all those hats. And then in the event of something monumental that happens like this, all of a sudden. They're not wearing any of those hats. They're wearing the, I have to talk to insurance today, hat. I have to deal with the contractors today, hat. And they're not doing sales and marketing and those kinds of things.
[00:36:00] So working with AI to help streamline those kinds of things. That is absolutely fantastic advice. And Judi, you've been incredible. This has been such an important and valuable conversation for folks who want to talk to you more, maybe they wanna learn more about the work that you're doing to help them potentially with their LinkedIn, where can they go to talk to you?
[00:36:20] Judi Fox: Go to LinkedIn, go to J-U-D-I-F-O-X on LinkedIn. I have, my fox emoji in my username, and my, my ears are definitely on my profile somewhere, but also you can go to my website, J-U-D-I-F-O x.com and I have launched a, I have my LinkedIn Business Accelerator, which is a one-on-one coaching and group coaching.
[00:36:42] I just launched a course. It is my LinkedIn newsletter course, so I will shout from the rooftops having access to evergreen resources and things that you build online. That last, I will shout that from the rooftops now for how important that was in maintaining my business.
[00:37:02] Mike Allton: Love it. We will, as always have all of Judi's links in the show notes.
[00:37:06] Thanks so much, Judi. Thank all of you for listening. If this is your first foray in the world of AI in business, don't forget I've got the perfect resource for you in the show notes below the AI primer. It's designed to quickly get you up to speed on terms, tactics and the underlying technology that's powering that's AI revolution. Check it out and I'll see you on our next episode. Welcome to the Grid.
[00:37:27] That's a wrap on another episode of The AI Hat Podcast. I hope you've gained some valuable insights and actionable strategies to boost your business with AI. If you enjoyed this show, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your network. And don't forget to visit the ai hat.com for more resources and to connect with me.
[00:37:45] Until next time, keep innovating and remember, the future of business is human and it's powered by AI.
