Post Show Greenroom Chat with Chelle Honiker

In this post-show supporter episode, we continue our conversation with Chelle Honiker:

• Dealing with fear around AI and tech changes
• Resources for learning about AI

Links:

• Author Automations Substack 
• Indie Author Training

🚀 Jami’s Consulting and Workshops: https://www.jamialbright.com/authorworkshops

❤️ Jami’s books https://amzn.to/3wSraA5

🔎 Sara’s books https://www.sararosett.com/bibliography/

📚 Sara’s How to Write a Series book and audiobook: https://www.sararosett.com/how-to-write-a-series/

The Big List of Craft and marketing books mentioned on WIKT podcast episodes https://bookshop.org/lists/recommenced-resources-for-writers-from-the-wish-i-d-known-then-podcast

Transcript

Sara 0:00

Okay, so we're back with Shell for a little green room chat, and we're talking about AI and the changes that are going on. And I just want to get your perspective on fear because I feel like there's so much fear around using this tech, and I don't know enough about agents and things to feel confident using them. So, what is your like guidance around what people help help us figure out how we can handle our fears around this? Because you use it a lot and yeah, reluctant to dive in 100% on the agent stuff because I just don't understand it and I don't know where I might be playing with fire. That was a long question, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

But I think you you answered it in the question, Sarah, and that is you don't know enough about it. And so anytime you don't know enough about something, it does spark fear. It is confusing and it does cause a little bit of fear. And I also think that there's so many conflicting sources of information out there that you really have to stop and do your own homework and educate yourself. Because I think at the end of it all, education is the antidote to fear. Educating yourself so that you know what's true and what's not true, how it helps and how and what's hype, and how you can incorporate it or not into your own workflows and your own business is that's the key to it all, is understanding it. Stephen Covey always says, seek first to understand and then be understood. And that's the way that I think all of us can approach fear is if it seems really scary, just learn about it, figure it out. And then you can make a good decision about all of it.

Jami 1:38

Yeah. And I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say learning going to social media to learn about it is not the place. Because that I mean, just by its very nature, social media and the algorithms are just you're just gonna hear more of more of your fears or have your fears reinforced. So I think that you know, there are lots of great articles, there are some good books, there's some good, great podcasts on it, and I think that there are ways that we can mitigate that. I mean, I'm not I'm not sitting here saying I'm not I'm not fearful because I have some reservations, a lot of reservations, but I'm also willing to keep an open mind because I do believe that we are on this path and we didn't ask for it, but it's here. So I just feel like it's you can choose to stay out of it and and not use it at all, but that's a different business model than other people are gonna use. And you have to decide which is which.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

You have to decide, but I and I think that as you evaluate your choices for information, I always look at what is that person selling, right? Are they selling a so if it's a free webinar, at the end of that webinar, are they now selling you something? And if so, that's there's probably some bias. So that's not necessarily to say that's not great education, but it is to say that is one data point that you have to use to evaluate if it's good information for you. And unfortunately, we do have to navigate all of these things now because there's just more, there's more data, there's more noise, and you have to critically think about these things. And I think that's become more true as social media has become more pervasive and the noises become noisier. We do think about those things. I would also say there's a lot of fear around what people will think of you if you decide to employ some of these. And I know I always give a little disclaimer at the beginning of every talk or webinar or training that I do, which is kindergarten rules apply. Eyes on your own paper and no biting and no hitting and no calling. Yeah. Right. Because uh unless you're paying my American Express bill, you don't get to decide how I run my business. Right. You can have, you can ask me questions or you can have opinions about it, but ultimately how I run my business is how I run my business. And I certainly would never go into somebody else's business and tell them to write in a different genre or change their logo on their website. Like that's just it's just ridiculous for us to think that we have any kind of control over someone else's business. And I think AI is a tool and how we use it ethically and with our own morals involved is the only responsibility that we have.

Jami 4:48

Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

To make sure that we're doing the very best we can for ourselves and for our communities and for our world, right? And yeah, I'm very troubled by doxing, and I'm very troubled by one star brigades, and I'm very troubled by a lot of those things. So yeah, just in terms of fear, educate yourself and then keep your eyes on your own paper.

Sara 5:10

Yeah, I love that. I love these simple wheels of engagement. We used to, we didn't talk about certain things that we avoided religion and politics, and that was a good thing in many ways. I know that there's discussions that have to be had, but sometimes you just want to have dinner and have a nice time. You don't need to talk about these dramatic things. Quickly, let's mention author automations is a good place to go to find information. Yeah. Do you have any other recommendations of that people should check out for finding information, researching this?

SPEAKER_00 5:43

I would say Indie Author Training, because we have a diverse thought and we have multiple people that are teaching, you're gonna come and find different people teaching on different topics, right? And so you can come and find people that are talking about straight 100 artisanal authorship and nothing else and no AI, and you'll have people that are using AI in all aspects of their business. So you it's you will find happy places that arrange. You'll find I hate the word safe space just because that's become an overused buzzword. But we we don't suffer trolls in the dungeon, I will say that. So we if you can't be civil, then don't come hang out with us. You can't sit with us.

Jami 6:26

Yeah, exactly. Well, and I think that this is important because even if you're gonna choose not to use AI AI at all, you need to know how to navigate that because you may be using AI and you don't even know it. Right. We've talked about off camera. And I think that you educating yourself on where AI has snuck into your life with before without you knowing it is super important. If this is a if it's if this is a hard line in the sand for you, you you need to know where where it's come in and you may not be aware of it.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yeah, for sure. And I think also it's it's helpful to understand how to navigate tools just in general and being able to have conversations that are productive because even if you don't decide to use AI and you come and tell people that they're thieves and unethical, right? That's not gonna help your business at all. Right. You're just making you're just making other people less willing to help you and your business. It's almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy. You're not gonna be successful because you're literally damaging your business by damaging the relationships that could help you in a different way. There is a case to be made for not using AI. I'm 100% of that belief, but educate yourself first and then you'll know. Yeah, you'll come at it from a an informed perspective.

Jami 7:57

Right. Exactly. Exactly. Anything else? Because that was great. No, I think we've covered it all. Yeah. We've covered it all. Thank you, Shell. Thank you. We've got hanging out with us a few more minutes and doing this little green room chat for our supporters. All right. Thanks, everybody. Bye.