Using AI Authentically, Ethically, and Efficiently in Your Business with Shirlee Engel

I'm joined by Shirlee Engel, founder of Camera Confident, who teaches business owners how to show up on video with purpose and presence.

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Summary:

Lacking confidence on camera? Want to utilize the support of AI but feel overwhelmed? If so, today's episode is going to feel empowering for you. I'm joined by Shirlee Engel, a former Canadian national TV reporter and founder of Camera Confident, where she teaches business owners how to show up on video with purpose and presence. In this conversation, we explore what it really means to be magnetic and authentic on camera and how you don't have to change who you are or become someone you're not to connect meaningfully with your audience. But what makes this episode especially valuable is where our conversation goes next, using AI tools in your business – we're talking about authentic messaging, guided by your own creative spark and supported by tools that help you do more with less time. So if you've been wondering how to create with less overwhelm and still feel like you, this episode is packed with ideas you can use right away.

Topics:

What “magnetism” means to Shirlee and why she’s made this the cornerstone to a lot of what she teaches at Camera Confident
How to use AI ethically while saving time, and a real time example of how Shirlee uses different AI tools in her business
The methods that Shirlee teaches to help her client not only develop their messaging, but bring it all into one place
What you can do to continually cultivate authenticity in your business, even while using AI

Episode Resources:

About Shirlee:

Shirlee Engel is the CEO and founder of Camera Confident, where she helps online business owners and experts master their on-camera presence and attract more clients through video and visibility opportunities. A former TV reporter turned-entrepreneur, she teaches professionals how to speak with confidence, refine their messaging, and leverage video and public speaking to grow their businesses. Whether on camera, on podcasts, or in the media, Shirlee helps her clients turn their presence into profit.

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Click here to read a raw transcript of this episode

Lyric Kinard (00:01.517) Hello, Shirley, it is so good to have you here. I am so pleased that you've agreed to come and chat with us. You are the CEO of everything at Camera Confident. I would love to hear your journey, how you started your background as a journalist and how you came to the business that you're running right now. Shirlee Engel (00:08.874) Of course. Shirlee Engel (00:24.384) Yeah, so my very first career was actually in an advertising, marketing and communications department at a big, big media company. So I was working on promos, which is basically like 15 to 30 second spots to advertise shows on HGTV, Life Network, which it's not called anymore, and a bunch of other channels, history channel. So I really got a diverse look at different different channels, but my background and my training was in journalism. So I became a volunteer reporter and I worked my way up from the humble beginnings of operating the camera, editing, being on camera, doing all the things, all the way up to Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada. So I became a national correspondent and I worked as a journalist for more than 15 years and then came to a point where I knew it was time to move on. That's a whole other story, which I won't get into. But I ended up working in executive communications and never quite found what I really wanted to do. So I ended up starting a business during COVID, as so many people did, an interior design business, which was a passion of mine as well. And through getting visible in that business and quickly scaling that business to six figures just by getting on TV, getting on stages, social media, people started asking me, how are you so confident? How do you make videos? And so I started kind of teaching on the side and it evolved into the business that I have today, which is helping entrepreneurs really develop that magnetic on-camera presence. And it's not just confidence, it's also magnetism. And then that in itself is one thing, but you also have to know how to tell stories on video. And that just takes me back right to the beginning, which is promoting things on video. Lyric Kinard (02:16.854) When you say magnetism, what do you mean by that? What does that mean to you? Shirlee Engel (02:22.818) The camera, you you often hear the camera adds 10 pounds and all of those things. The camera also sucks your personality. It's very hard to, you know, it's not natural to speak into a lens. I mean, let's face it. It's not like speaking to a person. Even as I'm speaking to you right now, I'm actually looking at the lens, not at you, which is really weird. But if I look at you, then I lose that connection. It's kind of the equivalent of looking at someone's chest when you're talking to them. Lyric Kinard (02:44.682) Mm-hmm. Shirlee Engel (02:52.704) So you have to lock eyes with that screen, with that lens, but then that also makes you lose a little bit of that connection. So magnetism is about capturing that essence of being in a real life conversation and being able to connect with someone through a lens in a way that feels as dynamic as if you were in person. So it is a skill. It's not like you either have it or you don't. You can develop it and you can actually develop it faster and more easily than a lot of people think. Lyric Kinard (03:25.43) Right, our audience are creatives and makers and people who are often established teachers. They have been working with rooms full of students. They have been lecturing on stage for years often. No problem, no lack of confidence whatsoever. And then you turn on a camera and something disappears, something happens. What do you say to... Shirlee Engel (03:48.43) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (03:53.121) When you work with your people, what's the first thing that you help them with when they get this huge freeze once the camera turns on? Shirlee Engel (04:04.663) Yeah, the biggest, biggest thing, and this is an immediate shift that anybody can make right away, is a lot of people make this mistake that when they go on camera, they imagine themselves speaking to a big crowd. And you know, even if you're comfortable with crowds in person, having that camera and not having that feedback of the people watching you, which sometimes energizes a lot of speakers in person, there's nobody there. It's just you and the lens. And so you can really get into your head. So an immediate switch that I recommend everybody makes is stop trying to speak to a bunch of people, speak to one person and not just one person, stranger person, a person that you know. So picture your spouse, your partner, like a child, a best friend, a client, a student, anybody that you actually know. And that immediately will shift how you carry yourself, how you speak, because you already have that rapport. And you have to come to the camera with that rapport already, because you don't have the time to establish it. You need to come to the camera with that already in place. So that's the biggest thing I would say. And then the other thing is what I just talked about with eye contact. because a lot of people are hesitant to make that eye contact and especially when you're teaching online through a platform like Zoom or you you're having a webinar, you're having a meeting, your tendency is to look at the people in the room, so to speak, but they don't experience it that way. On the other end, if you're looking at them, you have to look at the lens, which takes some adjustment, but it is also going to instantly make you more magnetic. Shirlee Engel (05:47.756) because you're actually making eye contact. Lyric Kinard (05:51.391) Absolutely, I couldn't agree more. I often tell my people to take their window on their computer and squish it up really small right at the top because it's a huge shift to not look at the person you're talking to and look up at where the camera is. Shirlee Engel (06:08.862) And I would add as well, if you're doing social media content or anything where you're filming content on a phone, the automatic tendency is to look at yourself, right? And then that turns into a bit of that narcissist kind of thing where, you know, you're looking at yourself and you're so kind of like either hating what you see or loving what you see or anywhere in between, and you completely lose that connection. So it's a little bit of a mind hack, but don't... look at yourself, again, look at the lens or better yet, flip the camera around so you don't have that opportunity to look at yourself and fall into the, you know, into the water, so to speak. You are completely focused on the lens. So that's another thing that a lot of people trip up because it wasn't until either smartphones or the COVID experience where we all had to go online that we even saw ourselves speaking. You're not supposed to see yourself speaking, right? In real life, you don't know what you look like, you just interact. But with all of this technology, we have such access to ourselves in a way that can really get us in our heads. Lyric Kinard (07:17.824) I absolutely agree. Turn the camera around, get a remote, do something. Just don't look at yourself, look at the camera. It is a hard thing. And bringing up that energy, bringing up that magnetism, as you call it. At the same time, we as teachers and often one of the things, and I'm sure you agree with me, one of the things I tell my... students, my colleagues who are teaching is that it's really not about us, right? They're looking at us, sure, fine, but it's not about us. And if we get out of our own heads, because we're our worst critic, right? And our students are not. Shirlee Engel (07:52.536) Mm-hmm. Shirlee Engel (08:03.992) Hell yeah. Shirlee Engel (08:08.032) yeah, no, and even though I've been doing this for more than two decades, I still get in my head about stuff. Especially I think in today's day and age where there's so much AI out there and there's so much polish and perfection, which coming from the background that I come from, I mean, you didn't put raw stuff out there. It was all about polish in the broadcast industry, whereas now... it actually is better to be more authentic, which can feel very vulnerable because you're exposing parts of yourself that maybe you didn't really expect to, know, vulnerabilities, maybe insecurities, things like that. So especially with going live and all kinds of experiences that a lot of people have never had, it can really be intimidating. But the more authentic you are, actually the more effective you are, especially today. Lyric Kinard (09:03.924) especially like you said, because of AI. We are wondering all the time, is that real? Is it not real? And being real is super important. One of the reasons I wanted to talk to you originally is because you have talked a lot about using AI in your business and we're both on screen. The people I work with are artists and creators. Shirlee Engel (09:07.63) Mm-hmm. Shirlee Engel (09:26.584) Yes. Lyric Kinard (09:34.349) thought of mixing AI with a creative business. Often artists, the first thought is, absolutely not, no way. I do not want a machine stealing or creating art and calling it real. I would love to hear your take on this and some of the ways that you are using AI in your business to help streamline it, to how are you using it ethically? Shirlee Engel (10:02.092) Yeah, such a great question. So the first rule of thumb is you never take an AI output and just copy and paste. And that's absolutely number one. I use multiple AI platforms to even come up with a single post. I workshop between platforms because some of them are better than others. I want to refine, I want to get the best possible outcome. But at the same time, when it comes to video, I never read anyway. So it's not possible for AI to completely overtake what I'm saying because my approach to scripting and to public speaking on video is to use bullet points and to use concepts. So AI is really great at helping you synthesize information. And it's not that you're letting the machine do it for you, but you are being more efficient. You are compressing time so you can do more in less time. The people who are not embracing AI are going to be left behind. They're already left behind because AI is, I mean, it's no longer the secret, but it was for a long time. It's the way to produce content at scale. I don't care how purist you want to be, how much you want to stay away from AI. There is no way you will be able to produce the amount of content necessary to keep up in today's online space, the online marketing space, unless you're using it. And so it's about using it for the right things in the right way. And as you talked about ethically. So what does that look like? That looks like strategic planning. So helping you map out your content, helping you take your ideas and organize them, helping you brainstorm because you might have a fabulous idea, but can you turn that into 10 ideas really well? Or maybe you have a great idea for a post, but is your hook the way that you pull people in? Is it as sharp as it could be? Could you ask for 10, 20 alternatives? Could you repurpose the same pieces of content across other platforms and change just little things about it? Shirlee Engel (12:17.268) Imagine all the hours you would spend doing that manually. It's just not, not only is it not efficient, but it's just not going to keep you, have you keep up with the pace of things in today's business space. And it really is about helping, it's about supporting you, it's about taking longer pieces of content and cutting it up into smaller pieces. That's not AI putting words in your mouth. That's AI being smart and grabbing the best of what you already said and making it smaller, shorter, more digestible. So there's lots of different ways to do it, but I think those who don't embrace it are really missing out on a crucial tool. Lyric Kinard (12:53.058) Thanks. Lyric Kinard (12:59.996) I happen to agree. I fell down the AI rabbit hole several months ago and have not emerged yet. I keep going deeper. So walk us through, say a teacher has a lesson plan. They're going to teach one specific content. They need to create a tutorial video for say an on-demand workshop. Give me a walkthrough of how you can use AI to use that one piece of content you're making and let AI help you leverage it. Shirlee Engel (13:34.926) And just to clarify, is this like an internal exercise or is there like a social media marketing aspect to this? Because that's another thing is it can be used in so many different contexts. Lyric Kinard (13:45.468) Well, personally, both. For me, I will create a video tutorial and then leverage that content everywhere. tell me how AI can help. Shirlee Engel (13:48.202) Okay, great. Okay. Shirlee Engel (13:54.35) I'm glad you said that. Yeah, so the first thing I want to say is that there has been a reluctance from a lot of creators, creative people. The knowledge-based economy as we know it has completely changed. Knowledge is not only cheap, it's free. So a lot of people that felt they had to gatekeep information inside their programs, inside what they teach, that fear right now everybody's putting content out there. So it's not about the actual knowledge that you're imparting. It's about how you are implementing. It's about the support. It's about how you show people, what do I do with this knowledge? What do I do with this? So that's where you're going to shine online. Going to your question about how you would use AI, I think depending on how you start, what I like to do is brainstorm. So the first stage is I have this lesson. or module or whatever it is, I want to teach X, Y, Z, and you just brain dump it out. And sometimes I find typing it out takes me a long time. So I'll just hit the microphone on chat GPT and I'll just talk. I want to teach this. I want it to cover this. What am I missing? Right? Cause there may be aspects to it that you didn't think about or what are some additional, you know, things that I can teach? What are some examples? Just have it brainstorm with you and then I'll ask it to create an outline. and it will give me the outline and then you workshop that. You you see it, maybe you don't love, you know, item number two or maybe you want to move things around. Just treat it like a colleague, like a brainstorming partner. And then what I would do is ask it to put it into a script. And depending on your comfort level with speaking, I know some people like to use teleprompters. I'm not a teleprompter person and I always encourage people to just rip off the band-aid, take off the training wheels. it's gonna become a crutch for you. So don't use a teleprompter. If you have to, you know, we understand. So instead of having it give you the exact verbatim script, ask it to give you a script outline. And where you really wanna concentrate is what I call the top and the tail, the beginning and the ending. Because you have to nail that first 30 seconds to really bring the person in, even if it's in a course that you've already got people in. Shirlee Engel (16:15.606) you still need to keep them interested, tell them why they need to watch, what are they gonna need to, what are they gonna learn? And then I would refine with AI to get that first 30 seconds to be really compelling. And maybe you memorize that because you wanna get the words out well so that you can really get into it. And then the rest of it, what I like to do is, especially if it's not a live situation, I won't record it all in one bit because if you mess up, two minutes in, then would you have to go back and start again? So film it in bits, right? So I have my first concept and I'm like, okay, I read it, I think about it, and then I turn on the camera and I start talking. And then I stop. And then I go to the next part and the next part. Because people are forgiving, they don't mind if they can tell there's an edit. And then as far as repurposing it, then I would be uploading that video into an AI platform that can chop it up into smaller pieces. and repurpose that all over social media all day long. Lyric Kinard (17:18.132) So are you uploading the actual video and having AI chop out bits of the video? Shirlee Engel (17:25.89) Yes, so there's some really great platforms and new ones coming out every day. I like to use one called Opus Clip. You can upload a whole long format video, press a button and it'll give you not only smaller videos, but also rank them. Like this is 99 % like the best one or, and when you click on them, you notice that like the best ones go first. So it doesn't just spit out a bunch of videos and you're like, okay, where do I start? It actually ranks them for you in order of like, you should really start with this one. Another platform that I use a lot for editing is called CapCut and that has a lot of that AI functionality already baked into it. I was already using Opus Clip, so I haven't done a ton in CapCut with the AI cutting things up, but that's a whole other kind of one-stop shop. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (18:15.34) I use CapCut a lot and it does once you have edited your long form it will bring up five or six short forms. Usually two of them are terrible and four of them are amazing. Shirlee Engel (18:26.818) Yeah. So that's why I really like Opus Clip because I find that because even on the platform we're recording on right now, Riverside, there is a an ability to they call it magic AI clips and they have been terrible, terrible, like not usable. So I have spent a lot of time because it's my line of work really going into different platforms, testing them out and really Lyric Kinard (18:35.105) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (18:40.086) Right. Shirlee Engel (18:53.268) making sure that the outputs are higher quality because that saves you time as well. Lyric Kinard (18:58.752) Right, it absolutely does. And I love the ability to move everything and to reuse it. So when I get a long video script, I'll have the captions or the transcript and then say, create an article for my membership. Out of that article, create four paragraph short tips that will go in a newsletter each week. And out of that, give me 20 social media captions. And then you go in and edit them, of course, right? But it's amazing, like you said, exactly how much time it can save and all of that in between process. Shirlee Engel (19:43.086) And at the time of this recording just the other day Canva, the graphic design platform, released a whole suite of AI tools that I haven't even had a chance to try yet. And one of the biggest... issues that I and many many others had with Canva is if you had a post or a Carousel or something you wanted to put on social media and it was in portrait and then you wanted it in a different aspect ratio or different format you had to like Resize it and start a new file and you had like 20 tabs and it was really confusing now. They've created a whole Platform where you can create a presentation a social media plan like all in one project Lyric Kinard (20:15.17) You Lyric Kinard (20:25.332) in one file. with different aspect ratios, that's huge. Shirlee Engel (20:26.61) one file and like this just blew my mind. I don't have any feedback yet on what it's like or how to best use it. That is something I am going to be totally nerding out on in the next few weeks. So stay tuned. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (20:39.85) I can tell what I'm going to be doing too because we do that as well. Create a thumbnail for the video and then you have to go copy it and create a square format for social media and then short covers for reels and things. And also it wasn't, I mean, would resize the files, but it wouldn't fill them. I mean, you'd have to go move everything around. So this will be interesting. If it works, this is gonna be. Shirlee Engel (20:48.866) Yes. Lyric Kinard (21:09.206) Fabulous. Shirlee Engel (21:10.058) And again, going back to our earlier conversation, if you're not using this stuff, you're not going to be able to produce content at scale the way that everyone else is. And so it's critical to keep up with some of these updates. I know a lot of people are either intimidated by AI or they're like, I don't want to use it. I won't be authentic. But look at all the ways we're discussing that have nothing to do with intruding on your authenticity or your voice. These are just practical. ways to do more in less time. Lyric Kinard (21:42.957) Right, and you can talk into it and have it use your words and the cadence and the things that you use. Also, if you've done writing, I have, well, 25 years worth of blog posts on my website and pointing it towards that or, you know, almost as long essays in my newsletter that I copied and pasted. You can teach AI your voice. And also, this is one thing that took me a while to learn because... I don't know why I didn't ask this, but ask AI to teach you how to use it. Ask AI, how can you better help? What other ways can you help me make this easier and faster in my business? Shirlee Engel (22:16.33) Yeah Shirlee Engel (22:21.474) Yeah! Yes, absolutely. And then nevermind the whole aspect of automating the process itself. This is something that I'm just learning now, which is, yes, you wanna use AI to create the content and I want this here and I want that here, but what about... pulling from other sources and you know taking data and turning that into something visual in a completely automated way that you don't even have to press a button it just does it. There's so many ways to especially coming from a journalism background when you're creating content are there timely events in the national discourse or in the news or just in popular culture that you could be tapping into to get people interested because people like timely content. Obviously you want evergreen content but it's also great to mix in some current events kind of content. So the other day I was seeing someone who was teaching how to create almost like an AI journalist that will like know what's going on and pull it in and I mean there's just so many places to go. I think it's more figuring out how to not use it all. I think that's one of the problems that you and I have is like we just want to know all of it right and I think so that that's another thing is that Lyric Kinard (23:38.754) Ha ha! Shirlee Engel (23:42.198) everyone's using AI, but I think there's an even more pressing demand for people who can help people optimize it and use it in a way that doesn't take up hours learning this only to realize there's a better thing here and another thing came out do I need to learn that? So there will always be a human element to making sense of all of this, right? And also just knowing what do you need, what do you not need? Because they all cost money and it can add up fast. Lyric Kinard (24:09.066) Exactly. It can absolutely add up fast. I tell my students, my colleagues, fellow teachers often that if you already are on a platform, just use it until it won't work anymore. So, so far, I am only using ChatGPT and Claude because I don't have time to go explore all the different AI platforms. I spend my time exploring all the different video tech, different things, right? Shirlee Engel (24:38.442) Yeah, yeah, it's true. And just because something else that's slicker comes along, if you've got what's working for you, why change? think especially with ChatGPT, the other day I saw a notification that it now learns you even better and remembers even more. So if you spent like a year working on ChatGPT, it has a whole library of your knowledge of your interactions. that if you go and start cold on a brand new platform, and this happened to me when I went to Claude, because I was curious about Claude, and I was like, wait a second, everyone says Claude writes so well, it doesn't have a clue. Because my custom GPT that I had trained just knows me so well. So there is time kind of onboarding your AI as well, right? Lyric Kinard (25:27.326) Absolutely. I found that I didn't get anything useful out of it at all, either of them, until after I had trained it. And it doesn't have to take a long time. You can use AI to create training documents for other AI. I used chat GPT, that chat feature. I take it on walks with me and call it Jarvis. And we just, I'm a verbal processor, so. Shirlee Engel (25:42.989) Yes. Shirlee Engel (25:52.03) Okay, you're the straight. Yeah. Me too. Lyric Kinard (25:55.351) bouncing ideas off of this. I told it everything I could about myself, about my accomplishments, my likes, my dislikes, my weaknesses, my strengths. And over a week or so had it come up with a personality work, whatever profile, and it also that I can create a document with and put it into other AIs. Shirlee Engel (25:58.316) Yeah, absolutely. Shirlee Engel (26:14.798) Mmm. Lyric Kinard (26:25.246) so that they can more quickly learn that. And also had it come up with a really long description of my voice so that I could put that into other AIs. If you're working with teams, have each of your team members do this and keep those documents in a shared Google Drive or something like that so everybody can upload it and work together. And that was an interesting thing because then you could come back and say, Shirlee Engel (26:32.654) What's that? Shirlee Engel (26:39.681) Yes. Lyric Kinard (26:53.824) This is my assistant and their personality profile in mind. How best should we work together? Shirlee Engel (27:00.202) Ooh, that's good. That's really good. And I think also just even things like human design. Everybody's talking about human design. know, ask it to, you know, ask, it to ask you the questions that it needs to ask you to be able to do whatever personality type or whatever you're interested in, whatever you're looking at. Getting it to explain things to you is really good. And for me, a big thing that I'm always talking about with my clients is being more conversational. Because a lot of professionals, a lot of entrepreneurs come to me and they have what I like to call like LinkedIn speak. So I ask them, know, give me your elevator pitch. And then I'm like asleep by the time they're finished because that's not how people talk. So one thing that I always tell AI when it gives me an output, and I was asking it to give me something yesterday and I said, tell it to me like I'm in fifth grade. You know, they're like. Make it more conversational. Say it like you were telling me over a beer or over coffee. You you can say things like that. Like if it gives you an output. And the biggest tip that I have for people is read it, especially if you're going to say it on video, read it out loud first. Because if you're tripping over the same section two or three times, it's got to go. You can't use that because it's going to trip you up. It's going to make you nervous. And then you're going, I forgot, I forgot the like fourth and fifth word. And then you get in your head. All of these things are so important, we just need to talk like we talk to other humans. And then it's just so much easier. And it doesn't mean a lot of people mistake that, like, I don't want to dumb it down. It's not dumbing it down. It's just how people actually speak. Lyric Kinard (28:40.802) Right. And this is a side trip for my teachers. You don't need to do this, but you can ask it to have conversations with you in different voices or, you know, say, I'm feeling really snarky today. Be brutally honest, you know, pretend you're Mr. T. Do whatever and have it have it just come back at me in. in different ways and it loosens you up and it's just hilarious. It is so much fun. Shirlee Engel (29:11.628) Yes. Shirlee Engel (29:15.342) Absolutely. But you can also go down some rabbit holes. Like the new social media, right? Like, you know, I don't no longer go down Instagram rabbit holes. I go down Chachapi tea rabbit holes. Lyric Kinard (29:18.434) Right? Let's stay focused. Let's get back on target here, right? Lyric Kinard (29:29.09) Right, but we are business people here. We do need to stay focused. We do need to work on our businesses. So what are some of your organization workflows? I think sometimes when we're not familiar with it, we don't realize that with these AI tools, we need to be, I do so much copy and pasting. So pull stuff out into a document, edit it. Shirlee Engel (29:33.292) Yes. Yes. Shirlee Engel (29:54.754) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (29:58.595) pull it back in, and then you keep your verbiage, your final scripts, your final bullet point outlines, not in AI. Tell me how you work it. Shirlee Engel (30:09.166) Yeah That's a really excellent point because a lot of people are getting overwhelmed by the fact that ChatGPT doesn't really have a very good way to organize your past conversations. I'm sure this is gonna come at some point. But what I do is I've actually developed a tool that my students use inside my program. It's called the Storytelling Studio Engine. And what it does is we are... pulling AI into this platform to be able to work ChatGPT inside a spreadsheet. So you're not going back and forth and back and forth and then you can have hyperlinks to document. So it's keeping everything organized in one place because one of the biggest things about content creation is if you want to be efficient and you want to be consistent, you have to batch produce. And it's really hard to like, it's great, you can tell AI come up with a 30 day content plan for me. Great, awesome. How do you get that off the page and not have to like yo-yo between platforms? So one of the things I really got totally geeked out on was figuring out, how do I bring the AI and take some of the methods that I use to help people really develop their messaging and bring it all into one place? And so that's what we've done and just this year we've released it and it is really blowing my mind because one of the things I love to do is what is the problem that I have that I want to solve as a content creator and chances are if it solves the problem for me it's going to be something that will solve the problem for a lot of other people. So I think having a tool or a way to bring it all into one central place. Shirlee Engel (31:56.852) And you know, there's multiple ways to do this and depending on how you like to create content and you know, how you want to organize your information. But I think that's a way that really is going to be a game changer for keeping everything streamlined for you and keeping it all in your head. And there are a lot of companies that are hard at work creating these types of solutions. I mean, it's I think Canva came up with something similar. Again, I haven't tried it and I'm definitely interested in seeing what they do because You know, I think people are like, well, I have a Google spreadsheet and then I have Chad GPT and then I have Claude and then I have this and like, how do I up? And then I have later or Metra Cool or I mean, just there's so many things and you know, there's we're all entrepreneurs. There are people seeing opportunity and how to take this and make it simple. And I think that's the key is that it's great to have all these tools. But if you get overwhelmed trying to put them all together or use them or jump between them, you're not going to use them or you're not going to post. Lyric Kinard (32:56.556) So you have a platform that integrates AI. Did that involve coding or was it, my goodness, okay, I'm out. Shirlee Engel (33:03.34) Yes, and I don't code. I don't code, but guess who coded for me? Claude, AI. So I'm using AI to create an AI-powered platform that takes all of my teachings and all of my frameworks and puts them all in one place. And so, you know, again, going back to, I know, right? Going back to, no, AI's coming for my job. No, it's not. Lyric Kinard (33:10.848) AI! Shirlee Engel (33:32.16) No, it's not. It's giving me even more to work with because I think people are realizing that nobody wants to like, a lot of people don't want to have to create this themselves. Like even me, I'm like, give me a platform and I'll pay to use it. I just want someone to give me something that's going to work. So, you know, depending on what your niche is and what you teach, there's also a ton of opportunity. I saw some big influencers refer to this as the AI gold rush. You know, there is so much business opportunity right now in using AI. And the people who are fearful of it and kind of shrink away from it are the ones who are, like I said, going to get left behind because there are so many ways to use this to create new businesses, augment your existing business. If you're not using AI in your business in some way, I would question, did you really think about it deeply enough? Go to ChatGVT and ask it. How can I use AI in this business? Lyric Kinard (34:27.186) that right? Right. And then let's circle back around to the authenticity part. We use AI as a business assistant, as something to compress all of the time that we would have taken otherwise to do all of those things that we've just talked about. Let's circle back to then showing up for our people. Shirlee Engel (34:36.493) Yes. Lyric Kinard (34:56.018) As our real selves. I was laughing when you were talking about stumbling over words and cutting that part out. I just leave them in because that's part of my, I get words wrong constantly. They don't connect between my brain and my mouth. And I just laugh and move on and leave them in because nobody can replicate that about me and my students don't care. They laugh with me because I'm laughing first, right? Shirlee Engel (35:09.048) I'm sorry. Shirlee Engel (35:23.938) Yeah, yeah, and I think it was less about cutting out the ums and ahs and more about, I have a whole pivot now to another topic and I want to take a second and just look at my notes and synthesize the information in my head, maybe practice it out loud a little bit. That's where I would stop. I don't cut out my screw ups either. I was doing a live training the other week and I got kicked off my own call and... Lyric Kinard (35:32.908) Hmm Lyric Kinard (35:39.458) All Lyric Kinard (35:48.258) no. Shirlee Engel (35:48.718) You know, somebody could have been like, my God, what? I came on and I just laughed. I'm like, you're all still here. Don't you love technology? You know, I've messed up dates. I've messed up names. You know, you name it. I totally agree. I think and I'll bet AI is going to start doing that too. Like trying to pretend that, you know, they're like people are creating avatars of themselves and there's all kinds of stuff, deep fakes and Lyric Kinard (35:55.618) Right? Shirlee Engel (36:15.814) There's some creepy stuff going on there. So, I mean, I think to me, I think humans have those instincts. We can tell when something is fake. We can tell even if it's the best imitation, there's just this, even if it's subconsciously, you just know something's off. Something just doesn't feel right. And I think that the more we can be our authentic selves, you for me, it's recording when I don't have makeup on or recording when you know, my kid comes into the shot and I'm like, sorry, you know, or just random moments in your life that you don't always or you thought nobody's going to care about this. I'm making lunch. For some reason, people love videos of people eating. I don't know why it's like a thing. don't know. I was listening to something the other day and it was like. Lyric Kinard (37:02.434) Mmm, some people love those. Shirlee Engel (37:08.748) all these viral examples of people like I think there's someone on TikTok who just eats burgers on camera. That's all they do. Not suggesting we do that. But I think it's just about showing your real life in its rawness. And I think there is a tendency for some people to overdo it. Like I think you still need a healthy balance of showing your real self but then also showing up as the leader that you are. And so, That balance is different for everyone, but I think showing a little bit of that human side is critical as well right now for sure. Lyric Kinard (37:45.623) Right, and a maker and a teacher is you have to be centered on your audience and what you have to teach and what they need from you. If you center that at every video you make, every message that you send out, you think of your people and think, how can I help them today? How can I serve my people? That takes yourself out of the equation as well, so you don't have to be all. Shirlee Engel (37:56.587) Exactly. Lyric Kinard (38:15.656) stage fright or imposter syndrome, which by the way everybody experiences. Shirlee Engel (38:22.483) Everybody. Absolutely. Lyric Kinard (38:24.532) Right? Absolutely everybody. And you can just choose to move on. Shirlee Engel (38:30.158) No matter what level of success you reach, I mean it doesn't go away. It just comes back in a different form, right? You get to that next level of success and then you feel that imposter syndrome. is this gonna go away? Was this a fluke? you know, do they actually believe? Or you get in front of bigger audiences and so I think a lot of people think, I just have to get over my imposter syndrome. Well, newsflash, when you get over this version of it, you'll encounter another version of it because Because if you're growing and you're sort of moving along a trajectory and you're making progress, it's going to come back at the next stage, at the next challenge, the next plateau, right? Lyric Kinard (39:11.266) And there's always going to be a student who knows more than you. And that doesn't matter. They're not the ones who showed up to serve and teach and make the lives of their students easier and happier and more creative, right? Shirlee Engel (39:15.127) Of course. Shirlee Engel (39:19.628) rates. Shirlee Engel (39:27.182) Yes. Absolutely. Lyric Kinard (39:31.508) Right. So as we wrap up, tell me one thing that is just lighting you up in your business right now. Shirlee Engel (39:41.006) Ooh, so when I left journalism, I was what I really wanted to do. was help people tell stories on video. And I think with social media, there's been a little bit of a frustration for storytellers like me and others who feel like, well, Instagram's all about just like slap a caption, shoot some quick video of you typing on a computer and call it a day. So what I'm super excited about is helping entrepreneurs come up with what's called a sizzle reel. which is the unique brand trailer for your business. So imagine like you wanna go see a movie, unless you really know the stars or you've heard rave reviews about it, you wanna see the trailer, you wanna see like a preview of what it's about. about two weeks ago I ran a challenge with a bunch of entrepreneurs who created these unique videos and it was just such an incredible experience and really brought me back to my roots and why I do what I do, it's not just about. showing up and being magnetic. It's also about telling stories that connect, that compel people into action, that really tell stories and create connection. And so I'm really excited about that because we're doing a lot of really fun things with that right now, both online and in person. And that is just something that has always lit me up. It's what I've been doing my whole career. So... I'm just really excited to do more of that and help more entrepreneurs create those incredible videos because they're not just for social media. They're for all aspects of your marketing. It's like the one video that you need to market yourself. And it's not the one that's necessarily gonna go viral. It might. Chances are it probably won't. But it's the one video that I would argue is the most important one you will ever make. And so I'm super excited about that. Lyric Kinard (41:30.868) If I hope you're doing this challenge again, because teachers need to have a meet the teacher. This is who I am. This is what I'm about. This is why I teach. This is what I teach. But not a long boring, you know, let me tell you everything I teach sizzle reel. That sounds fantastic. Shirlee Engel (41:39.436) Yes. Shirlee Engel (41:47.349) No Shirlee Engel (41:51.33) Yes, it's a movie trailer. It's basically the brand trailer for your business. And I can tell you when I put this out, I mean, the response was absolutely overwhelming. I still have people asking me, when are you doing it again? People just love this idea. Because I think people are craving the ability to tell their stories without the constraints of like, you need this and you need this and it has to be 15 seconds and da-da-da-da and you're boring people and you have two seconds to get their attention and you're kind of like... whoa, I just wanna like talk about what I do and I don't wanna have to do it in this like roundabout, ooh, but don't sell because then you're being icky, but you wanna share your gifts with the world. Why would you be doing this otherwise? So how do you do it in a way that doesn't come across as like, you know, the greasy snake oil salesman, but tell people what you do and not be afraid to invite them to join you. So I think it's like the ultimate way to do that. And again, the response has been overwhelming. So it wasn't just me that thought it was a cool idea. So that is gonna be a huge focus for me and I'm really excited because I think it's something that just gets a lot of people really excited and especially given all the uses for these types of videos. Lyric Kinard (43:03.98) Right, you are going to do it again, right? Yes, where can people find that? Where can people find you, Shirley? Shirlee Engel (43:07.168) Absolutely, stay tuned. Yes. Shirlee Engel (43:12.994) So the best place to find me is on YouTube at Shirley Engle, Shirley with two E's. And I guess we can link that in the show notes. And that is a place that you want a trailer, right? Anybody who has a YouTube channel, which is such a fabulous platform for teachers, because you get to actually get out there and get a sentence out. know, people will watch a 10, 20, 30 hour long video on YouTube. you know, there's ad revenue. There's all kinds of areas. Lyric Kinard (43:21.472) Yeah, we'll have everything down there. Shirlee Engel (43:42.358) So YouTube is gonna be a huge focus for me and it's going to be my primary platform going forward and I'm excited to really dive into that. Lyric Kinard (43:51.362) Excellent, well we will definitely have all the places where people can find you in the show notes. Your business is camera confident, you can find that online, it's fantastic. I'm gonna sign up for the next sizzle reel thing. It will be super fun. mean, yes, every teacher needs a sizzle reel. Let's just put it that way. Great. Shirlee Engel (44:00.686) Camera confident? Shirlee Engel (44:08.372) yay! Excited? Yes. Shirlee Engel (44:17.486) This disorder needs a sizzle reel. Absolutely. Lyric Kinard (44:21.516) so much for taking time to be with us and to share your passion and your knowledge and the insider insights that you have with AI and with speaking on camera with our audience. Shirlee Engel (44:36.93) Thank you so much for having me, Lyric. This was really fun. You too. Lyric Kinard (44:39.583) Alright, take care Shirley.

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