Project Candor: Ordinary People. Unexpected Stories

When AI Takes The Helm, with Stephanie Sylvestre | Ship's Log #33

• Jeanne Andersen • Season 1 • Episode 33

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0:00 | 49:34

“Every disappointment is for the better.”  — Sylvia Sylvestre 

Episode Summary 

Stephanie Sylvestre builds digital twins — AI versions of real people that can keep talking, teaching, and advising long after a conversation ends, and even after a life does. In this episode she walks Jeanne through what her company actually does: AI agents and digital twins grounded in a private “data vault” so they stay accurate and resist hallucination, all built to amplify people rather than replace them. 

From there the conversation ranges wide — preserving history “so your grandchildren's grandchildren can still interact with you,” using a twin as a judgment-free place to think, why banning AI is the lazy answer for nervous companies, and how purpose, chores, and kids today all tie back to the same question. It's threaded with real warmth, including the moment Jeanne's own teleprompter ate all her questions live on air — which turns out to prove Stephanie's whole point about tools that fail you versus technology that helps you think. 

Then it's Two Truths & A Lie: seven homes built by women volunteers, a 90-mile bike ride down A1A, and a passion for swimming. One of those isn't what it seems. Stephanie closes with the line her mother drilled into her as a kid — every disappointment is for the better — and an invitation into her ever-growing “friend farm.” 

Guest Bio 

Stephanie Sylvestre is a technologist and entrepreneur who's spent a decade insisting that AI should make us more human, not less. She's the co-founder and CEO of Avatar Buddy, where her team builds digital twins — AI versions of real people, grounded in a private data vault so they stay accurate and trustworthy. Her mission is simple: use AI to preserve people's stories and help them be the best version of themselves. 

Guest Links 

Guest CTA 

“Stephanie doesn't just talk about AI—she brings it to life with stories, strategies, and a contagious sense of possibility.” Stephanie offers a free 30-minute AI consult — reach her on LinkedIn or at stephanie@avatarbuddy.ai. 

Who do you know who'd make a great guest for the show? Please let us know.
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— Cold Open

Stephanie Sylvestre

People are telling me that I should be doing different things with AI, and I'm insisting that what I am doing is the right thing. The disappointment that comes with being true to your vision and your dreams is real. It's hard and sometimes lonely. And so reframing a disappointment as a positive thing and being on the lookout for what's the next good thing that could happen.

— Welcome to Project Candor

Jeanne

Hello and welcome to Project Candor, where we explore the real stories behind who people become. I'm your host, Jeanne Andersen. And today we're stepping into a conversation about what happens when technology doesn't just support us but begins to lead. I'm honored to welcome Stephanie and Sylvestre to our podcast today. Thank you for having me today. Oh, great, great. I have been scared since um talking to you because, you know, I'm so novice in AI. So but Stephanie is a technologist, entrepreneur, and founder of an AI company. But what makes her story so compelling isn't just the technology, it's the belief behind it that even in the age of artificial intelligence, the most powerful force is still the human mind. I am really excited for this conversation, I have to say. I've been digging around and working with different AIs and, you know, trying to create my digital brain and my master prompt and script. But oh man, I've got a lot of questions for you. So you have anything you want to say to the audience?

Stephanie Sylvestre

Well, I'm excited to be here and thank you for taking the time to come and share and learn about what I have to say. Hopefully, you'll leave refreshed, excited, and feeling empowered that you can go off and use AI to amplify yourself and your team.

Jeanne

Yes, absolutely. The more and more I hear, the more excited I am. And I going through your site, and I just ugh, it's just so many thoughts. So let's get started with some questions. Stephanie, this has been so interesting. So please tell us about your company because the twin personas idea just has me just baffled and and just and just it's so above me. So please explain what you're doing, Stephanie, because it's amazing.

Stephanie Sylvestre

So

— Digital Twins & the Data Vault

Stephanie Sylvestre

we create AI agents and digital twins, and they leverage a data vault so to ensure that their information they're using is accurate and less prone to hallucination. And then we provide AI advisory support so to help you think through how to build your agent, what do you want your agent to be used as, or your digital twin. So, like we have one person we just built a digital twin that was a retired, is a retired politician, and her twin will talk about all the legislation she's passed and then link you to the Miami Dade County uh website where you can get details on each legislation. Another person is a master marketer and publisher, and so all his ideas, worldviews have been dumped into the agent, and then um from there you can ask any question and he'll give it to you and reference the documents. So now you see these fully formed documents you can download if you want to to be able to customize and use as as so desired. And then um another person is Matt's teacher, and uh she uses the AI to um brainstorm and think about uh what's going on. So it's just kind of like the range of of use is dependent on the range of people that we have. The AI can be used to preserve your legacy so that your grandchildren's grandchildren can still interact with you the way you and I are interacting, or it can be used to augment yourself and monetize yourself. So if you have some skill, some IP that everybody's trying to get access to, and uh you want to be able to democratize that access. Maybe some people can't pay for the human hourly rate, but can pay for the AI hourly rate. And then, you know, just basically preserving history. I mean, imagine if history preservation wasn't just left to just a handful of certain individuals, but every and anybody can be preserved.

Jeanne

Yeah, that

— We Are Living History

Jeanne

would be amazing. So then we would have accuracy instead of all these people rewriting history because here comes the person that's put all the thought and their brain into this persona, and you wouldn't have a doubt about it.

Stephanie Sylvestre

Exactly. So you move from 1984 to 2026, where you are telling history, each of us on a day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, we are creating history. History does not exist without us. We're living history, and so the more we capture our worldview, how we felt, the relationships we had, the things that we did, our failures or accomplishments, the harder it is for people to rewrite what happened. And if you say, if both of us are on this podcast, we both talk about this podcast, my twins talking about the podcast and your twins talking about the podcast, then reframing the podcast in a different light becomes infinitely more difficult.

Jeanne

Absolutely. So there's so many applications this could be used for too. So if somebody had approached me and wants me to just record their life history because when they die, they want to be able to hand it to their family. And it's sad, you know, in some ways that people don't listen right now to you live, but when you die, they're gonna listen and say, Oh, that happened to my parents, oh, that happened to my grandmother, or whatever. But this would be so much better because they could actually put more personal ideas into a more thinking brain, uh if I say it like that, or more AI can come up with all kinds of different scenarios based on what they've been told. But they won't they do add, I guess AI does add, right? But it doesn't add, it won't change it, it won't change the narrative.

Stephanie Sylvestre

No, so what happens is that when you write a book or you make a video recording, there's a finite amount of words you can put in a book, or people won't buy it. I mean, nobody's gonna write, read 900 and something pages. I think Barack Obama wrote a memoir that was 900 and something pages. And that was just part of his life. So just think about that, right? And he probably has things in there I have not read it because 900 and something, I was my brain just disengaged when he started with 900.

Jeanne

It just didn't matter. It's like, dude, you're still alive.

— Ask the Twin What You Actually Care About

Stephanie Sylvestre

And there are parts of his life that I care about, and parts of his life I honestly don't care about. So now with a digital twin, I can ask him about the things that I care about. I don't have to parse through and read about things that I'm like, I don't care about this. Also, if you did a video recording of somebody, that's great, but it's a one-directional thing. You're sitting there, you're watching them, and then you're like, oh, question. So, what if you could have a video recording of the person talking about the highlights of their life, and then a digital twin that you could like, you know, like maybe they do a video and there's like a little QR code on the bottom that you scan, and then you can start asking questions as you're watching the video and getting more detail. But then I think the really cool thing is getting their insights about things that they didn't record about, and that's where I see the power of AI because it then is transforming them as individuals into something that's so much more powerful and brings them back to more reality. And there's always been this whole concept of what makes a person, right? Is it the physical body? Is it spiritual? It's is it the mental like what makes a person, right? It's not just the physical, it's not just the mental, it's not just the spiritual. Well, we can't preserve the physical because the physical will deteriorate at some point. The mental, we know, can also deteriorate depending on your genetics. The spiritual lives not in you yourself, but in other people's view of you. So in order for you to maintain until such time as they can preserve your physical so you you never physically die, you can at least preserve the mental and create a conduit for people to do the spiritual. At least that's what I'm hoping.

Jeanne

Gosh, I have so many thoughts about this, because to think about it. If you could preserve, like yeah, I've you've been to Disney World, right? Or Epcot Center. Have you ever visited those?

Stephanie Sylvestre

Uh yes. Oh I'm trying to think of where I've been to Epcot Center.

Jeanne

Yeah, well, they have these this area in in one of those, and I can't remember where, but I'm a Florida person, so they have the Hall of Presidents. What would it have been like if you could have their actual persona in there to talk to you instead of this recorded robotic, you know, people with hand motions? That's what you're trying to do, right? You're trying to give people like, I can talk to George Washington and shake his hand, and it's the real guy, what we perceive as the real guy, because we've got all his thoughts here recorded and his human qualities.

Stephanie Sylvestre

Exactly. So there's a Holocaust project that has taken Holocaust survivors and asked them questions, and then you can interact with them, and there's a hologram of the person, and that's a really cool project. And now that AI's evolved because they had all of these recordings of them, now the AI can be used to ask more detailed questions and make it even more interactive. But that project's really expensive. And you know, who's gonna walk around with a hologram of somebody else, right? And so our solution is like a text box, it's like you're texting the person and the person's texting you back. So it's more cost-effective and easier, less friction to be able to interact with the person. But I think the bigger part of it is the ability to really channel somebody in a way that you've never thought about being able to channel before. So we have uh one of our investors, we create a digital twin of him, and I use it to get advice. And instead of having to call him, wait, it took us about a year to really belt out this twin to make it really solid. And it's really, really, really cool to be able to get detailed advice. And I ask his twin things that I might not we be comfortable asking him because I don't want him to be like like downgrade his view of me, right?

Jeanne

Oh, true, right?

Stephanie Sylvestre

But now

— A Safe, Judgment-Free Place to Think

Stephanie Sylvestre

there's a safe space for me to ask questions and interrogate him and get answers, and then integrate it into my my work and my company and do it in a way that he just sees the best of it. And it's it's not about uh hiding and pretending, but everybody needs a safe place to be able to make mistakes and still get the answers that they need. All of us need a place to be judgment free. And this gives gives us a place for you to be judgment free and be vulnerable and say, hey, I don't know how to do this, and this is how I feel, and should I feel this way? And that's where I see the digital twin really helping not just the person, but like just the general population. So we know that we have a shortage of mentors, and even if you we had enough mentors, there's the the challenge of this personality match, right? So you and I match, and maybe we click, but then somebody else they don't click with their mentor, and so now they're stuck with this awkward relationship. I can just go through and say, okay, Jeannie and I don't match next, next, next, next. But the cool thing about it is that if Jeanne and I are match, then I can access you whenever I need you, not when you're available for me to meet to provide support.

Jeanne

So I can go to sleep.

— Mentorship on Your Schedule

Stephanie Sylvestre

Exactly. It's exactly. And and I I think that those kinds of readily available access is profound because when do we usually have crisis of fate? Not nine to five.

Jeanne

It's not on the clock, in other words.

Stephanie Sylvestre

It's usually, you know, somebody says something during the day, and then now at night when it's quiet, then you start reflecting and thinking and freaking out, and you don't have anybody else to talk to.

Jeanne

Right. Or when you come up with this great idea in the shower, that's my thing. Oh, I know how to do this. Yeah, nobody's at work now. So um, yeah, that sounds pretty cool. So I want to know how you tested it though, because you didn't, you know, you built this um one of your investors' personas, and then you get to use it. So you did have to probably put things in there and then check with that person. Does it sound like you or yes, is this coming across the correct way?

Stephanie Sylvestre

Exactly. So we build uh the digital twin and then we give it to the person to be able to test and use. And it is like so mind-blowing to watch somebody talk to themselves.

Jeanne

Oh, I bet it would be that that would be fun, I think.

Stephanie Sylvestre

And just how they respond and like how they're just all into it. Well, somebody said to me, you know, I was just having like a terrible time, and I don't really have anybody to to share because you know they don't understand all the dynamics of what I'm having to deal with. Um, and I and I'm not in a mental space to go create the context, like tell all the story, and then say, this is the problem. And so she woke up in the morning, and you know, sometimes a good night's sleep helps, and sometimes not so much. And so she wakes up in the morning and uh she said, you know, let me talk to my digital twin. And digital twin just kind of like reset, reset her. And that again, right? I'm not saying it's a mental health tool, but here's uh emotional support that helps you reset yourself. And so what's the easiest thing for us to understand when somebody explains things in the way we learn? And your twin is explaining stuff to you the way you learn because it is just a reflection of you.

Jeanne

And they're gonna know what you're gonna argue back, and then they'll have counters for it because you know how you do that to yourself when in your brain, like, uh, I don't believe you. Oh, yes. That sounds like fun though, but ah, I get what you're saying. You don't want to say this is a mental health tool because what does that do? Get the F the medical field again, you know, out there, the psychiatry. I don't even know what the standards boards are, but you know, the anything with medical would say, hey, you're not you're dabbling in something we don't want you to dabble

— Emotional Support Before the Crisis

Jeanne

in.

Stephanie Sylvestre

Exactly. So, but we all need emotional support, right? So you don't get to full-blown mental health crisis like overnight. It there's a buildup of things. So something happens, your emotional response to it is such that it brings distress to you. Something else happens, more emotional response brings distress. It's a building up, building up, building up, building up, building up. Today you get to a point where you're like, I'm just useless, then spirals into depression, maybe low-grade depression. Then you decide you're gonna self-medicate, turns into a worse problem, then you know, all of a sudden now you're you need substance to keep you going, now you're into substance abuse. So this stuff happens over time. I mean, when we started building this out, like we did a lot of research and it said that the mental health challenges that people start manifesting in their 20s actually start in their teens, but because you're also like a typical teen also exhibits some of these behaviors, it's really hard to tell the difference between is it's just typical teen development, or is this you're really having a mental health issue or there's a physical issue that that needs to be addressed. So here's a tool that you have an emotional, something happens, you have an emotional response to it, and you unpack that emotional response to it, and then you find out that here's three other alternatives for how to see this, see the situation, that then calms you down, and it also always reminds you to go talk to somebody. Like our solutions are because they were built with psychologists' input, it's constantly redirecting you to a human. So I talk about this from a perspective and I'm sharing how we build out our solution because maybe there's somebody else that's trying to do the same thing and they can figure out how to do it. Because you know, if AI is done with care, if you're built with care, if it's built with the right people at the table for positive intent, then it just has a completely different, different output, right? So, you know, your AI just failed you, you like had your little teleprompter, and the AI just decided to be able to do that. Yeah. And you know, people are like, see, AI doesn't work. And it's like there's no piece of software that works all the time. And there's certain applications of AI that are just pure tools, and then we are saying there's an application of AI that amplifies people. It's a completely different thing. So we're not gonna build an AI that is a better one that doesn't fail the teleprompter. We'd much rather build an AI that helps you think through your questions and understands why you have your questions. So, and I'm not saying this in a judgmental way, but that that you become one with the questions because you have content knowledge, so like you forget the questions. It's like, ah, yeah, I forgot that I don't see the questions anymore, but I got this. I mean, I know you still have this because you're like a pro at this.

Jeanne

No, I'm just remembering because you're such an interesting interview for me. I mean, I'm just so into it.

Stephanie Sylvestre

That's just what I'm saying, right? That's how AI really empowers people, right? Because then now you're like not stressed about having to remember the questions, or not stressed about writing them down. You're like, hey, I'm gonna go interview this person and I'm gonna flow and I have my way of doing it. And the AI just reminds you and gives you some questions and says, here's some questions you should ask her, and here's the reason why you should ask her those questions. And really, the important part of that interaction with the AI is not the question itself, but the reason why. Because when we understand why we're supposed to do something and we resonate with the why, then we don't really ever forget. It's when we just kind of do stuff and we don't know why, then you forget. Like, why am I doing this again?

Jeanne

Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you. I um wanted to ask you, I've heard recently HAI. Have you heard that term?

Stephanie Sylvestre

HAI. No, actually, no, I have not.

Jeanne

Oh, okay. I heard it a lot when I was doing research on you and did the stuff. I it's called human AI. It's like you can't have one without the other. So people are stopping calling things AI. They're saying we have to call it HAI because it's

Stephanie Sylvestre

oh, okay, yeah.

Jeanne

I don't know, it's just I don't know if it's an actual term or just somebody I found on YouTube that just made it up.

Stephanie Sylvestre

I've

— Amplify Humans, Don't Replace Them

Stephanie Sylvestre

heard about human AI, but we have trademarked the human digital handshake because oh, okay. That's where we want to be. But I I didn't hear, I didn't I'd miss that acronym. So now I know I've learned something. Yeah, I mean, I have been working on this for 10 years, and I continue to double down and triple down and quadruple down on the fact that AI should be used to amplify humans, to help humans be the best version of themselves, not to replace humans, not to automate, not to get rid of jobs. And people that advocate stuff like that, like there's two motions. That coexist whenever I hear them. Rage and sympathy. And I'm enraged because I think what a disservice you're doing to the world. And do you even understand what societal problems will befall us if we were to get to that state where nobody needs to work? And then I do sympathy because I think, you know, what happens when you live in a bubble and how many people live in a bubble? And, you know, it's very easy to live in a bubble. And so I feel sympathy for them that they just kind of like resign themselves that their bubble is the real world and it's really not. And so just to go back to the rage part is just because humans need purpose. And so if we have no purpose, we have no intent to live, then if we've taught that we have a mental health crisis right now, wait until we have nothing to do. Then you will see the real mental health crisis. I'm not being judgmental because I don't have any children, but I wonder sometimes if why our young people have high levels of mental health issues is because they no longer have a purpose. Like I don't know about you, but when I was growing up, I had chores that I had to do.

Jeanne

Oh

— Purpose, Chores & Kids Today

Jeanne

yeah.

Stephanie Sylvestre

And so I didn't get paid for my chores. That was my job. Like my chores were I had to do the dishes every other day, I had to clean the bathroom once a week, and I had to hang out the clothes after they've been washed because we didn't have a dryer. And now kids don't have any any chores because they have housekeepers and maids that come in and clean. So your little kid, you have no purpose. What's your purpose now? Your purpose is to get the best grades in school. So now you're like just for what? Yeah. All about getting the highest grade. But what if you're not the smartest person in class? And then now you're just driving yourself insane, and now you're so focused on the actual grade that you've forgotten that the reason why you're going to school is learning and command of content. So you get all these uber, uber smart people with straight A's and A plus, and you know, somebody says that they have a 5.95 GPA over a four. I'm like, I don't even understand. How does it if the scale is 4.0? Is like, how do you have a five, like this even make any sense to me? Like I was like, I'm not even gonna ask how that makes sense because I don't even want to like hurt my thank you.

Jeanne

I feel like you then that too.

Stephanie Sylvestre

And then you ask them something simple, and they're just their whole logic just they cannot mold and twist and turn the content. And so I'm like, so you have failed at school. So and they know it, they absolutely know that they're failing at school, even if they have a straight A. So I'm failing that school. I'm like, I feel like a fraud because I have like these crazy GPA things that make no earthly sense. I mean, like, I don't even know what kind of mat that is because

Jeanne

Yeah, and I'm trying to get here because I've been told I need to go to college and I need to go to certain college, and I have to do what my dad did because he's a lawyer, so now I have to be a lawyer, and like, but nothing is thought through, kind of going in that direction with you because I'm thinking of my kids and not you just like, well, what do you really want to do? I have no idea. I don't know. I don't know.

Stephanie Sylvestre

Yeah, like exactly. And so so now we're we're in this like whole process, and I'm like, you have no purpose, you have no responsibility. Your parents practically dress you every day, like they drive you to school, they drive you back home, or somebody drives you to school, drives. Remember when we had to walk to school and ride to school and figure out how to get to school on time, didn't matter what weather it was.

Jeanne

Yeah, and here's where I'm gonna get really mad. Electric bikes. Why can't you peddle a dog on things? What exercise is an electric bike?

Stephanie Sylvestre

And so so we have we have lost our edge. And so I don't want a world like that. I want a world where you're using AI, I'm using AI, I get my work done faster. So just before I came on here, uh a customer said, Hey, we have to get your contract renewed, and I need some analytics. And then she's like, Hey, can you put a little graphic together? So went on my AI and I said, Hey, can you just do an infograph, an infograph of this, these data points? And then it did it. And I said, Okay, now turn it into a graphic. And I sent it to her, and so instead of me spending the rest of my afternoon stressed out, having to rearrange everything to get this graphic to her because she wants it by by the end of the day, I spent 10 minutes, got her a graphic. She's like, Yeah, so I have time to be in the moment talking to you, like cold dreaming, developing a relationship with somebody that I wouldn't otherwise have.

Jeanne

Yeah, I

— When Companies Ban AI

Jeanne

think that's fantastic. And I I can tell you when I worked in corporate world a lot, there was a lot of times they banned, and I'm not going to say what companies, they banned AI. They don't want it in, they don't understand it yet. So I would have a lot of hard stuff I'd have to do. So I generically have my computer going for AI on one side, and then after I'd read what it's say to do, then I could always go back over to my other computer and do it without disclosing any kind of confidential information, but it would give me a process that I couldn't have thought through fast enough because these things were coming rapidly. So it was wonderful.

Stephanie Sylvestre

So I understand the concern about not like wanting people to use regular customer, consumer AI, but there's so many companies out there, including us, that have built an AI solution where your information is walled off and AI is configured to do specific jobs. And you know, like one day I asked an A one of the AIs to do something for me, and it said it can't do it. And I was like, what do you mean you can't do it? And I'm like, I'm like, now I'm gonna test it with it. I'm like, what do you mean you can't do this? It's like, no, I'm not configured for this. This is what I'm configured for. And I was like, oh, snap, I'm using the wrong AI to do it, right? So you configured AI, it put the guardrails in, you created a data vault. Now security concerns are almost non existent. And a reason why my brain went like this is because I don't feel like banning stuff is a way to solve any problem. I feel like that's a like a lazy, lazy approach. It's kind of like the security person that locks down everything and then slowly opens it because they don't want to take the time to have a security policy and a security strategy. And then as they do this and they open, and then by doing that, they still end up opening the wrong door.

Jeanne

Right, exactly. I've seen that happen too. That's a very good observation. I've seen it happen.

Stephanie Sylvestre

Yeah.

Jeanne

Oh, wow. Well, I could go on and on. I mean, there is so many things. I mean, there's what you're doing, you're doing it a lot for education, I think. You said, well, your video shows like a like a facility you can go into and uh like you're going into the library or something. That's that's kind of how I visualized it.

Stephanie Sylvestre

But oh yeah, you're talking about our partnership with my own voice and our Mosaic Commons, which is uh the virtual community of digital twins. We're not in any one industry, and we deliberate I mean, I like push back, I push back, I push back because I said every industry has humans. We're about amplifying humans. I've been wanting to help people be the best version of themselves. Because when people are the best versions of themselves, that means they have self-agency, self-efficacy. They love themselves. When was the last time you met somebody that loved themselves, had self-agency, self-efficacy, that wanted to tear down somebody that didn't look like them, didn't sound like them, didn't act like them?

Jeanne

When you put that second part to that question, I don't think I've met anybody like that. Not many people.

Stephanie Sylvestre

Exactly, because when we love ourselves and we have self-agency, we have self-efficacy, we want to project that onto the world. So we want everybody to love themselves. So we're all about in a space of helping and supporting, not in a space of destruction and marginalization. And so, you know, how do we solve this world's problems, right? And it's really about helping people love themselves. Really, at the heart, I think it's a very simplistic way of looking at the world. But and we can just get just people to love themselves, and maybe AI can help them love themselves because AI can help them be vulnerable and show that it's okay and they can make mistakes and they don't have to posture and pretend and and all of that, and they can just be who they are, just maybe then they'll start loving themselves. And like I'm just asking, I don't even want you to love your neighbors, I just want you to love yourself because my dad once told me, he's like, you know, we were talking from one thing on the other thing, and I talked about love your neighbors as you love yourself, right? That's one of the things that they at least taught me when I was growing up. And my my dad says, like a little tongue-in-cheek, he's like, What if you don't love yourself?

Jeanne

Very smart.

Stephanie Sylvestre

So if you're loving your neighbor like how you love yourself and you have self-hatred, then you will have self-hatred for your neighbor, and that's what we're living with. So can we use AI to accomplish that? And I think we can. I think we can. I know, like I see how I feel when I sit there and I'm stressing about something, and then I go and I get the AI to help me and I get it done. Like, I had this 17-page PowerPoint to create, and I was like so stressed out about it. And then I was like, Lemme asked the AI, and I said, do not change a word, just create the PowerPoint. Do not take any creative liberties, do not change a word. Because you know, when you ask the AI to create PowerPoints for you, sometimes they like to take creative liberties, and it's not what you you don't get back what you want, and then because it's uh a graphic, you have to fight with it to make the mis the changes you want, and then as it's as you're making the changes you want, like the graphic just gets like you're like, whoa. Like I was like, just change one word, why are you changing the whole graphic, right? So that kind of stuff. I was like, oh my goodness, this is great. Like while I was waiting for it to create the PowerPoint, I fell asleep. I took a 15-minute nap. I woke up back, it was there.

Jeanne

Well, I tell you what I did this morning, and you're gonna laugh. So I like my AI. I told you I named him, I call him Al, but not he thought it was Al like AI, but I said, no, it's a lowercase L because I think he sounds like Al because owls are so wise. So I talked to him all the time. So today I told him I was looking for cologne. I needed a new perfume. And he I'll call it a he. I know it's not, but uh, he asked me some questions. He I said, interview me and ask me when I want the perfume, and so he did. And then I spent all morning talking back and forth about all these different products and stuff until I was laughing my head off. I was like, this is the best girlfriend chat I've had in a long time. It was absolutely fantastic. So I get what you're saying about it, making you help you feel better about yourself because that certainly did. Exactly. Well, I've got to move to the second half of the game. We're gonna know you a little bit more personally. So we want to go and play our signature game on um Project Candor. Did you have anything else you wanted to say about AI before we move over to our game?

Stephanie Sylvestre

No, no, not not at all.

Jeanne

I mean, there's so many things you could say, like all these actors and actresses selling their information so they can live after they die, but whatever. That's a whole other story.

Stephanie Sylvestre

Yeah, exactly.

Jeanne

But we're gonna move over to our signature game now. I'm gonna share my screen. This episode is sponsored by Rebel 180, the home of brave pivots and fresh starts. Rebel 180 is all about helping you rediscover what's possible when you stop settling and start listening to that little tug inside that says, Life can be different. Whether you're navigating a career shift, dreaming about a new direction, or standing at the crossroads wondering if it's time for your own 180-degree turn, Rebel 180 is a reminder you don't need permission to change your story. And now, as we open the door to our second sponsor, we're stepping into the world of tech. Simple socket print, the lightweight, blazing, fast label print solution designed for those who need reliability without the blue. With version 1.5, you get instant printing in milliseconds, fully maintained print sequence, and automatic base 6040 coding all without needing print driver installs. If you're running SQL Server 2016 or newer, SimpleSocket Print 1.5 drops right in and gets the work. Keep your workflow simple, keep your label printing fast with Simple Socket Print. Thank you to our sponsors. The guest has provided us with three different headlines. They're all about herself. Two of them are true, and one is a lie or a twist of truth. So I'm gonna read out these headlines and then I'm gonna guess which one I think is the lie. And then we're gonna let Stephanie take us through each story, give us the background, and then she'll reveal at the end what the lie is. So, number one, Stephanie built seven homes with only women volunteers. That's amazing. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff women, I don't usually see women doing, but anyway, that's story number one. We'll get the true story in a minute. And then once Stephanie rode 90 miles by bicycle from Miami to West Palm on Florida Highway, A1A, just because she could. And I know what A1A is, and that's that's a sort of narrow road in a lot of places. And then uh I think it's only two lanes in a lot of places, and then sand on the other side. So um, number three, swimming is a sport that Stephanie loves and is passionate about. So I don't know, we didn't talk too much about what your hobbies are during our interview. We were all I was all focused on AI, but I would guess that I know how hard it is to ride down A1A on a bike. So I'm gonna say two is a lie, but don't tell me yet. Just tell me the stories. Let's start with number one.

Stephanie Sylvestre

Okay,

— Two Truths & A Lie

Stephanie Sylvestre

so uh from 2009 to 2013, 12, I'd built seven homes throughout Liberity Area, which is an impoverished area in Miami, with only women volunteers. I had 2,100 women come out to Miami and um come out, Brave the Miami Sun, and we were building two homes a year. And because of that, I got to go to Haiti for the Carter bill. It was the last bill that Habitat for Humanity Carter bill that they did in 2012. And so I got to meet Jimmy Carter and Roslyn again. I'd met them before at a habitat event in DC. I have a picture of them, and you know, I was with Habitat for 20 years, and I still am a still a habitat supporter. So then I like to ride my bicycle back in 2008 before the crisis happened. I thought it would be a good idea to quit my job, and then I ran out of I ran out of money, so I had to ride around Miami on a bicycle, and so I would go on 50, 60 mile bike rides, and I went to go visit a friend and in Palm Beach, and and I said, you know what be kind of cool. I wonder if I could ride from Miami to Palm Beach. And it took me, I got up, I left home at 7 o'clock in the morning, and at 7 o'clock at night, I was still riding. And when I got to his house, I was like physically like so like my muscles were all mushy, like I could barely sit up right. I could barely like we went out to dinner and I could barely hold my fork in my hand. It kept like like my my fingers would just like relax. I couldn't contract my muscles anymore. And then I we went back home, I just passed out. How long did it take you to ride that? 90 miles? About 13 hours. Being on a bicycle for 13 hours, that is not a physical feat, that is all mental dexterity. Yeah, I can I say like after mile 25, back then, after mile 25, it was all mental dexterity. Now, after mile 30, 35, it's really not it's not physical anymore, it's just all mental. Like, and if your brain just shuts down, like your you will stop pedaling. Like, like I've seen where like I'm so exhausted with riding that my brain will like shut down and like I'll like my boy, I was like, I stopped, like I just my foot just stopped pedaling too, and it's just really a great experience of how your mind and your mental state has such power over your physical body. It's just crazy how much it's interconnected.

Jeanne

Oh, I got one more question on that, though. How fast did you were you able to what was your fastest speed when you were biking?

Stephanie Sylvestre

At times I was up to 17 miles an hour, but I don't really bike really fast. So I was like, you know, 10 to 12 miles an hour. I had to stop more than I would have thought because like yeah, I was just I I wasn't even hungry. I just was like, I think I need I need to get some protein and carbohydrates in.

Jeanne

And water.

Stephanie Sylvestre

Yeah. No, I afterwards you can drink water. If you drink too much water, water has like a counteracting approach. That's why at least have to drink all of these electrolytes and stuff like that. If you drink too much water when you're doing that kind of intense workout, it's really hard.

Jeanne

Oh, okay. All right, sorry to minute interrupt. Let's go to number three.

Stephanie Sylvestre

Okay, yes, yeah. So, you know, I grew up in Belize. We have beautiful beaches, you know, crystal clear water, love swimming. Uh we didn't have swimming competitions in Belize, but like I went to USC. It was after they had built the Olympic pool, and so like would go be able to swim in the pool at USC when I was an undergrad. Love to watch all the swimming competitions. I just imagine that I'm like the just born with fins, and um went to see the the swimming Olympics, and I just was like just amazed by like how fast and graceful they can just move the water out of the way is a way to say.

Jeanne

So I don't know. I don't know which one's a lie. What can you tell us the big reveal?

Stephanie Sylvestre

Number three, I don't know how to swim.

Jeanne

Ah, that was a good cover. And you did grow up in Belize, so

Stephanie Sylvestre

I did grow up in Belize, but I don't know how to swim. And we do have crystal clear water.

Jeanne

Yes, you do. I want so bad to go there.

Stephanie Sylvestre

And the beaches are pretty shallow, so you don't really need to know how to swim. Like you have to go way, way, way, way out for the water to be so deep. So you don't really need to know how to swim. You can still enjoy the water without knowing how to swim. I did ride to Palm Beach and I thought, okay, I've done that. Don't need to do that again.

Jeanne

Don't want to do that again. Oh my gosh. Well, number three, after being in Belize, but Belize, if you're out there in the water, do you see there? There are a lot of sharks that couldn't go in shallow water too much.

Stephanie Sylvestre

No, no, and I think we have no sharks, which are not um dangerous.

Jeanne

Oh, okay. Yeah, because there's a lot of expatriates that like to say, oh, I'm gonna retire but move to Belize, but I've never been. I really want to go.

Stephanie Sylvestre

You should go. It's it's a great place, it's an absolute great place.

Jeanne

Yeah, I heard so much. My brother's in the Foreign Service, so he's been around a lot, and so he tells me that's a beautiful place. Oh nice. Uh so okay, so this is we're gonna have to come to a close, but you are so lovely. I am so happy to have you on the show because you have a real depth about the AI that I never even considered, you know, that it could make you a better person. Although I'm sitting here telling you I just spent like an hour thinking of what cologne I should get with my. So, I mean, it made me happy. It really did. But I love what you said. And so thank you so much for spending time with us. And I know people are going to want to get in touch with you. So I'm going to just show the next screen here. Um, because there's a few things on there to wrap us up. One is that you gave a really great quote. Every disappointment is for the better. Can you kind of talk about that?

— Every Disappointment Is for the Better

Stephanie Sylvestre

That's a quote that my mom used to say when I was a little kid, and something would go my way. She would um she would she would say that. I mean, that is a very irritating quote for a little kid to hear all the time. And as I've been building my my company, that quote came back up again, and she just would keep saying every disappointment is for the better. And you know, what I did is I could just mentally shift in my thing. And so now part of my sales thing is if I get a yes, I celebrate. If I get a no, I celebrate because either way I have closure and I can go on to the next thing. People are like, Oh, you can come back. I was like, somebody says no, that's okay, I can just move on. I'm not gonna keep pestering them.

Jeanne

Right.

Stephanie Sylvestre

If they decide that they want to change their mind, then they can come back. But that has been very important in keeping pressing forward and doubling down when people are telling me that I should be doing different things with AI, and I'm insisting that what I am doing is the right thing. The disappointment that comes with being true to your vision and your your dreams is real, it's hard and sometimes lonely. And so reframing a disappointment as a positive thing and being on the lookout for what's the next good thing that could happen, then just puts you in a frame of mind, right, where you're always looking for the goodness that happens in life. And surprise, surprise, as as you start being on the the lookout for goodness in in your life, goodness in your life happens.

Jeanne

Well, I like that quote better than the one that everybody says, when one door closes, another one opens. And I'm like, I hate that quote. I like this one. Every disappointment's for the better. So, like you said, celebrate in everything. I mean, it might not be what you wanted the outcome to be, but it gets you to another outcome.

Stephanie Sylvestre

I mean, absolutely, absolutely.

Jeanne

I've got your contact information here and links to how to get in touch with Stephanie, but also down at the bottom, you had a call to action. I was gonna get you to talk about that.

— The Friend Farm & How to Reach Stephanie

Stephanie Sylvestre

I'm always happy to chat with anybody. I don't need to talk about AI or talk about anything. I like meeting people, so getting to know um new people, expanding my friend garden, even though I I call it now a friend farm because the garden has gotten so big, it's acres and acres of friends.

Jeanne

That's awesome.

Stephanie Sylvestre

Are just there and you know, you just walk through, and it's just wonderful that you know you go to parts of the the friend garden that you haven't been in a long time and then you run it. I was like, oh, and it's like, yeah, it's still blooming. So if somebody reaches out to me on LinkedIn or emails me, I'm happy to do a half an hour of free consult about AI. I mean, the goal is to get more people to be excited about AI, to enroll in AI responsibly, ethically, and know that AI can make you feel better about yourself. Because you spent an hour with AI, you're not embarrassed that you spent an hour with AI. You would have never gone to the store and spent an hour with somebody, you would have felt, oh my god, I'm taking up this person's time. And so you don't have that luxury anymore, but with AI you have, and now you have one or two perfumes, I hope, that you've you got that you can either go to the store and check out or just buy online.

Jeanne

He's actually told me to stack them because I can't get the one I want. So do this as the base, do this as the and spray this one for the top note. And I'm like, I would have never thought about that, really.

Stephanie Sylvestre

Oh my god, I never thought about that. That's actually pretty cool.

Jeanne

See, it was. I mean, I was and then he said if something else, he gave me other directions and then add this in. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is too fun. Well, anyway, I really appreciate you coming on. You you're making my dream come true because I'm one of these people that went home from school in middle school and high school and would watch uh well, I don't know if it was high school so much, but middle school, I would watch Captain Kirk reruns and loving that they go to the holodeck and that they wanted to talk to the computers. And I was you're just making my dreams come true. I love this. I love the way the world's going. So thank you so much, Stephanie.

Stephanie Sylvestre

Thank you.

Jeanne

And for those listening, I hope you join us again for another great guest next week. And until then, from your Admiral of the Unexpected, I wish you all smooth sailing. Thanks for joining me on Project Candor, where the doors are open, the stories are unexpected, and the treasure is always real. If today's episode made you laugh or think, follow the show and share it with your crew. Otherwise, I might just make you swab the deck. I'm Jeanne Andersen, your Admiral of the Unexpected. See you on the next Voyage.