Two Women Who Merged Their AI Businesses. And Don't Regret It. 🤓

Everyone Warned Us About Business Partnerships. We Merged Anyway.

Two women running AI businesses got put in the same networking pod. Two years later, we'd merged into one company.

This is the origin story of Her AI Club — how a calligraphy business and a six-month rock climbing trip through Asia both somehow ended in AI, why we merged instead of staying friendly competitors, and the week we each quietly wondered what we'd get to keep for ourselves.

In this episode:

• How two very different roads led to the same place: a Palo Alto tech job that became calligraphy that became Amazon paper planners, and a ski town that became Asia that became an accidental first client
• Why we merged two AI businesses instead of staying in our own lanes, including the honest part nobody puts in the announcement post
• How custom GPTs turned into Builder Skills, and why 20-page prompt packs never worked
• How to keep up with AI when the tools change weekly — Joyce's answer is that she doesn't try
• Where AI is headed, and why we think the answer is being decided right now

Chapters:

• 00:00 — Welcome and the Unhinged Check-In
• 00:30 — Kinsey had ChatGPT vet a podcast host before saying yes
• 01:45 — Joyce got free BTS tickets, so ChatGPT wrote her a study guide
• 04:55 — Joyce's story: calligraphy, tech dude bros, and a warehouse in Florida
• 09:15 — Why she wanted to bring AI back to her community
• 11:20 — Custom GPTs, 20-page prompt packs, and what changed
• 13:00 — How custom GPTs became Builder Skills
• 15:50 — Kinsey's story: a ski town, six months in Asia, an accidental first client
• 17:55 — The Amy Porterfield problem and how Authentic AI got its name
• 21:50 — How we met: the pod nobody should have put together
• 23:40 — The 2025 Summit and our first collaboration
• 28:45 — "Okay, I have a crazy idea"
• 29:45 — The part where we each wanted to keep something for ourselves
• 30:50 — Everyone warned us about business partnerships
• 32:35 — How Joyce keeps up with AI (she doesn't)
• 33:45 — Where AI is headed, and who gets to decide
• 37:40 — What we're going to go try this week

"I don't try to keep up with it." — Joyce, on running an AI business in an industry that changes every week

What we're going to go try this week:

• Kinsey — wiring a podcast player widget to an RSS feed, then teaching a bot inside it to recommend the right episode
• Joyce — turning her ChatGPT BTS study guide into a gamified Claude dashboard, with Easter eggs

One thing before you go: the Her AI Era Summit is October 12–16, and it's the event this whole show came out of. Save your seat here.

Full show notes and links: herai.co/podcast

Come find us: Her AI Club · @heraiclub

Listen anywhere: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · Amazon Music

New episodes every Monday.

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✨ COME NERD OUT WITH US

Her AI Club™ is where women entrepreneurs go deeper with AI — together. Skills, templates, live calls, and 300+ women who get why you were up at 11pm building a bot. 

→ Join the club: heraiclub.co

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🎙 THE SHOW

New episodes every Monday. Follow so they land in your feed, and if this one made you laugh or gave you something to try, a rating helps more women find us.

Connect with us:
Kinsey → follow on instagram: @ai.kinsey | @authenticai.co
Joyce → follow on instagram: @ai.joycechristine | @heraiclub

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The Her AI Era Summit is happening October 12–16  🙌

→ join the waitlist: heraierasummit.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Hello. Welcome to the Her AI Era podcast. I'm Joyce. This is my co-host, Kinsey. Oh, do you want to do that?

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hello, and I'm Kinse. We're figuring this out, guys.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

And we're gonna start, we decided that we're gonna start every show with an unhinged check-in. So, what is the most unhinged thing that you did with AI this week, Kinsey?

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Yeah, I mean, so many unhinged things, right? I will say, literally, right before we hit record, guys, I got an invitation to be on a big name podcasters podcast. And I was like, ooh, this is so cool. And I shared it with Joyce, and she was like, Hold up, we gotta vet this dude. So I was literally just having ChatGPT go down a deep dive to see is this guy cool? Is he worth it? Is he like fully unaligned in ways that we cannot handle? And it seems like it seems like he's good. But I'm gonna go a little deeper with ChatGPT vetting him later. So that's my unhinged thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Yeah, we kind of did something similar when we hosted our first summit where I was like Chatty Vibecheck, and I had Chatty Vibecheck all of the applicants because that's something that is important to Kinzie and I, that our values are aligned because obviously we are showing up in the women's space. Our our membership is for women. Kinsey and I have been clear on our political stances and etc. So it's very important for us. So this is not the first time Chatty has had to vibe check for us for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Yeah, and I mean Chatty goes way deeper than I ever could without AI. So just another use of AI. Joyce, what is your unhinged thing that you've gotten chat to do this week?

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Or yeah, Kinsey just catches me on these things, like with my K drama tracker, but this week, so I'm on a side quest, y'all. I just was presented with a side quest when I got free tickets to BTS in LA. And so not being like a hardcore BTS fan, but obviously knowing who they are. My side quest is now to become a hardcore BTS fan. And I had chat, I had chat make me a whole study guide, if you will. And it was 10 screenshots long. I took the screenshots on my phone, I sent them to a girlfriend who it has been a fan for years, and I was like, this is what chat told me to do, what to watch, what to listen to, in what order. And it had fun making me this plan. Do you agree as a human BTS fan? And she totally vetted it. Chat was doing a good job giving me my BTS homework. So at the time of this recording, end of July, that's my side quest. Fully deep dived into BTS, the K-pop band.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Oh, I love that. And like, how long? What's your timeline to the concert? How long do you have to study?

SPEAKER_01 2:53

I have a little bit over a month left. So my nights, and I'm like, oh my god, Kinzie, I can't do that because my nights are filled with filling with YouTube videos and interviews and watching reality shows on all the streaming things because they have they're like on everything. So I'm like, I'm a little busy at night, Kinsey. Uh because normally I work on the side. When am I gonna find the time to do this? So I I do it at night now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Okay, I do have a yeah, it's I was gonna say I have a serious question for you.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Do you think BTS is going to replace in sync for you?

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Oh, for my loves. That's dare, that's hard. No, because in sync is my first love, right? Oh my god, I'm gonna am I gonna cry? My first love. That's like your first that's like your first love. However, they're not together. I don't know. I met JC this year, my my big life bucket list is checked off. And it's not that my love has died down, but now it's oh, what's the next goal? Met JC. The next one is BTS member. I don't know. It'll never replace them though. BTS will never replace and sink in my heart. They might they might get up there though.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Yeah, you have room to expand that heart.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

You have space in the It's like when you have another kid. I have two kids now. It's like, how do you love the second one? And you do. I see that as my whole boy band thing too. There's space there.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Uh, okay, I love this. And I love guys, we're gonna ask that unhinned question every week. So look forward to that for sure. Thank God I already have my next one ready. Good, because we're about to record the second half of episode after this. That's great. Okay, so what we want to do, because this is a new podcast, and Joyce and I wanted to give you a little rundown of who we are before we even kind of connected and started doing what we're doing, and then lead you up through the Joyce and Kinsey Her AI era origin story, because you know it's a good one. So, Joyce, I'm gonna start out by asking you a few questions about like your story in life. Is that okay?

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

All right, so just like I would love to just start by like tell us like how your journey started. Like in the journey of Joyce being an online business owner and all those things, like where did you get started and kind of what has it looked like in the grand scheme of things?

SPEAKER_01 5:16

I've been at it for a minute. So let's start there. I used to own a calligraphy business. So back in 2016, I've always been in tech. Like once I graduated, like my my first big girl job was in advertising technology in New York and San Francisco, Palo Alto, now I'm like in Seattle. But I've always been in tech. All right. For those who have been in tech, there are tech dude bros. I call them dude bros. When I worked at the most Palo Alto founded tech dude bro company, I needed a creative outlet. And I taught myself calligraphy. I it was just trending on Instagram at the time, and I was like, I want to do that because it was a way to be creative without I'm not someone who would I wouldn't call myself creative. I can't draw. I can't the I am Filipino, but the singing gene totally skipped me. Nine out of ten Filipinos can sing. I'm the one that cannot. So I don't have this creative bone in my body, right? But I thought I could do calligraphy. So I started a calligraphy business. So instead of angry typing at work, I j I channeled my energy into calligraphy, started it as a side hustle, ended up teaching workshops around San Francisco, teaching at tech companies actually, because they paid a lot of money. So I taught workshops and then I pivoted to being self-employed for about three years. It actually wasn't for me. It gave me a lot of anxiety to solely have the business pay for my life, right? And I didn't have kids at the time, but whoa, the health insurance in California is a lot just for one person. Um, so it actually gave me anxiety. I went back to tech in 2020 and I've been there ever since. And I've always just ran two things at once. But that's how it all started. This calligraphy business, it grew into online courses. I was able to run it side by side with my tech job. And then when I took a little bit of a break after having my first kid, I was dabbling into creating paper planners. I got I learned how to I found a factory in China, I found a factory overseas, I learned about freight shipping, I had a freaking warehouse in Florida. I logistically getting things to Amazon. I learned all of that. But it was more a way of me to stay in business. But I felt like I was hiding. I didn't have to be the face of my business, and that's what I needed at the time after having my first kid. But while I was doing the Amazon stuff and selling my paper planners on Amazon and online, I was starting to dabble into chat and it was helping me write better product descriptions and help me figure out the advertising because you have to when you see it on Amazon like sponsored posts, right? There's that person has paid to be there figuring out that. Chat was helping me with that, and then I was suddenly just why doesn't chat help everybody in 2024 or so. Um, and that's how that was the start of my pivot to AI.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Whoa. Oh my gosh, I love that, and I love how much of that story I did not know about you to start retyping at Dude Bro, you know what that company though, when angry at Dude Bro.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

That's anyone that has worked at startups know though, like when you started a startup, you get these these share, these options. They're not shares yet because it's not a public company. But if that company is bought, is acquired, or does go public, it has stocks on the New York Stock Exchange or whatever, there that's when they're worth something. That's the only startup that I worked at that ended up being worth a lot. So shout out to them. Started my creative business because I was angry, but also later got paid.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

I love when people can affect your life in a way that makes you really upset in the moment, but later you're like, uh, I guess like if I didn't go through that now, I wouldn't be here. So, okay, tell me now. I love, I also just like cannot get over how kind of different and unique our journeys are, which I think is like we're so fun and like work so well together. Like you bring so much experience that I have no idea about, and I love it so much. But I will say, where we merge a lot of times is when we both kind of started getting curious about AI. So I've talked a little bit before about how I was a little bit hesitant to start using AI and like felt kind of weird about it and stuff, but I don't think you felt that. Like, tell us kind of when you started using AI, and then you started thinking about maybe I should just teach people this. What did that look like?

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Well, I had this conversation this week too. So I was I had an online business for years, and so I knew how long it took to create webinar slides, how long it took to write email sequences, to build sales pages. I already knew what that was without chat, claude, whatever. And then when I started to see how fast I could do things, it just it really was like I need to bring this to my community. I think that's why a lot of people do start with using chat using Claude. It's the time savings. And I that's a perfect way to start. So instead of me taking three business days to create webinar slides, I could do that in an hour. So it's it's crazy the amount of time that you could save. And at that time too, I was like, I miss a community. I want to come back to my community, but in what capacity? Because I know it's not gonna be as a calligrapher. I know it's not gonna be as a creative business coach like I was doing. I don't really want to sell online courses anymore. So it it gave me that idea. I've been I was wanting to go back, but in what way? And it was to present to my people how can you save time? Because I was I had a toddler at that time. We were moving from Colorado to Washington, I was pregnant, and so it was like a crazy season in life. I think all seasons are crazy now, but that was particularly a crazy season. And if I could take that time savings and use it to take a nap because I was pregnant again or whatever, I was gonna take it. And that was the thing because I felt don't we start businesses sometimes where our ideal person is a version of you or a past version of you? And so knowing that my people were like strapped for time, I wanted to help them get that time back.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Yep. And you're like, oh my gosh, you guys, let's do this. So when you started playing around with AI tools, like what were some of your favorite like use cases that you get started with? What like really called to you as far as the different types of things that you were building and all that stuff?

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Yeah, when I started, it was all about custom GPTs. People were selling, and I bought and I bought them too, right? Because I was just starting. I was like, I don't know what to do. I'm not a prompt master, I'm still not a prompt master. TBH, I'm a pretty shitty prompter, but I've trained my stuff, or it can be kind of shitty. But I was buying these prompt packs and they were like Google Docs and they were 20 pages long. And here's the yellow part change that with your business. You know what I'm saying? Like everyone has purchased those or seen those from years ago. They're probably people are probably still selling those now. And it just it didn't seem efficient. And so when I learned about a custom GPT and how to basically train it once on that task, that's when my world like blew up in the best way. And I started to shop with custom GPTs and selling selling them based on what I knew about running an online business, and that seemed to really resonate with people at that time when people were just dabbling into custom GPTs.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

And you guys, I will say, Joyce's bots are like her custom GPTs are actually still resources inside her AI club. Like, and members have like said, these are awesome. I think like Gia, the graphic design bot, people are like, girl, Gia like creates my YouTube covers, that's I said stuff. They're freaking awesome. And also, like, I mean, before we get into like talking more about our journey together and stuff, like since creating custom GPTs to now, I mean, AI tools have somewhat evolved again for sure. And I think that we've tried to somewhat take a lot of the ideas behind your custom GPTs and turn them into potentially AI skills that are also available in the club. Like, have you what did you notice, like as you've been kind of transitioning somewhat between custom GPT creation and now skill creation? Anything coming up?

SPEAKER_01 13:39

I think at the core they are they are similar, right? It's based on one specific task or function. But how we do things has been really cool to see. And I haven't seen that pop up much yet, but I'm sure it's coming. But how we have for our members the builder skills. And so when you used to when you use a custom GPT in general, like it's already created, right? And you still have to go through that process of okay, cool copywriter, custom GPT, here's my business, and then it's good. With us, how we've made our skills and the ability of skills to like interview someone about their business and then create a completely custom skill for them is just so awesome. It's so awesome because it's custom to the person who's being interviewed, right? It's custom to them, their business. But also I think that it has made us a little bit unique because I don't see that a lot. And it's also just easier for the person too, because we're not asking you to like mess around with markdown files and type anything up. It's like having a natural conversation with Claude or Chat GPT, and then it's going to make the skill for you. I couldn't have imagined that two years ago, like to customize this thing, right? Without fully giving instructions away, which is your IP, which is my IP, right? We're not we're not doing that. So that has been really cool. And two years from now, I don't even I can't even imagine, you know, how much cooler it could be.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Oh yeah. And I feel like that's why it's so fun for us to work together because we get to like kind of explore this together and kind of bounce around. Where are we going? Oh, this new thing popped up. Like, what do you think? What do I think? Okay, you go try out Chat GPT, or I'll go try out Cloud for this and all that stuff. So it's been so fun. I know for sure.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Okay, should we transition to your or what you're doing?

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Yeah, sounds good.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Okay, Kinsey, you'll learn a little bit about me. You learned stuff you didn't know about me. You know that I have my K drama trackers, and now I'm on a BTS side quest, but you didn't know about some of that corporate stuff. So now I want to know. I want to see what I don't know about Kinsey. Please give people the short version of who you are and where you were before AI just completely took over your business.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Yeah, for sure. And I love how Joyce is like the short version because she knows I'm a talker, you guys. So we will see how short this can be. But long story short, I actually got kind of thrown into the online business world back in like 2018. I kind of like to say that an online business plopped in my lap on accident because I had been living in Colorado in a ski town, being a ski bum for years, and then I met my now husband. We quit our jobs, we went to Asia for six months, climbed, rock climbed our way through Asia. We came back from Asia and I was like, oh, I gotta make I gotta get a job. I gotta make money, you know? So I got a job at a restaurant, and I was telling everyone about our trip. And long story short, when we were on the trip, I had decided to start an influencer Instagram account. We decided we were like, we're gonna blog, we're gonna Instagram, we're gonna turn into rock climbing influencers and travel the world for free. It's gonna be great. Spoiler alert, I think that lasted a month in a six-month trip. And I was like, Yeah, no, this is distracting. I hate this. No. But when I got back, I was telling the restaurant owner about our trip, and she was like, You know how to do social media and blogging? You should do ours. So that was actually my first client, and I just quickly like hit the ground running, dove straight in, and I was like learning as I was going, picking up strategies here or there, like being able to like exercise my own creativity in that way. And then I kept gaining more and more clients via word of mouth. And pretty soon I was like, I guess I better make this business thing legit, right? So that's kind of how I started an online business. And of course, I went through years of like throwing spaghetti at the wall. Do I want to do branding? Do I want to do marketing? Like, what do I want to do here? And over time, like I kept kind of honing like what really I really love and what really lights me up. And at the same time, I was learning who I was as like a business owner. I actually had one of those kind of moments in my business where I was looking to all the big name entrepreneurs online, like Amy Porter, Field, Jenna Kutcher, and I was like seeing them show up. And I was like, oh, okay, that's how you have to show up to be successful, right? And so I like kind of started trying to be like them a little bit more, but I quickly kind of exhausted myself. I was like, I feel like I'm just trying all the time, and I was like, I can't. Uh it feels icky, not a lot of teams of people.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

They got like, yeah, no one can do that.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Yeah. So I like made, I kind of had this moment where I was like, I'm exhausted, just trying to be this thing and for success. I feel like I'm gonna run myself into the ground unless I just decide to make it easier on myself to show up as who I really am, to dirt, like frizzy hair, dirt under the fingernails. If I share the things I really believe in, like that I get passionate about as far as topics and stuff. And when I made that decision, everything felt like it clicked into place for me and became more aligned. And I'm sharing this story because when I kind of took that theme of like authenticity being a huge value in my business, like for several years. And that's kind of what I then brought into AI when I started kind of getting curious about that.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Yeah, for sure. We'll know that we have separate brands and then we've merged, and we'll talk about that in a little bit. But you even named your brand authentic AI. But definitely, I don't know, it fits you. It fits you because I think there's a lot of that. I think, like I know, we know there's a lot of conversations of uh authenticity, is it stealing creativity? Is it slock? What about the environment? And so I have just even before merging, I've just enjoyed seeing your POV on those things and tackling them and kind of having because those are hard conversations and having those conversations with people, even if that can be difficult. I've just I love that and I love seeing your brand tackle that, like I said.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Thank you. Yeah, it's kind of it's kind of like an oxymoron like feeling. But I do think that you can use AI authentically, you know? And we yeah, we've worked our way through that, and that's kind of like a foundation of her AI club, too.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

I think yeah, okay. I do have to ask you this, then we can talk about our merger. Sounds so like official. It is. Yeah, it's legit. Legally, we're bound to each other. You okay, Kinsey? You build a lot of weird stuff, weird, cool stuff. We're all a little weird. What is the first thing that me that you made that surprised you?

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Oh, what is the first thing I made that girl, like every day? Like what did you say? Like this morning, this morning inside her AI Club, one of our plus members posted, hey guys, like I want to create a podcast widget like for my website and stuff. And I was like, Ooh, that's a great idea. I'm gonna create that and like add it to the club library. And like I was not planning on it, but within like two hours, I have it pretty much ready to add in there. Like, this is your side quest of the day.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

I'm just listening, I'm memorizing Korean and you're like making these widgets. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. No, I love it because normally when you put a player on a website, it's just like that, I don't know what to call it, the track bar or whatever, but like ours are you're gonna learn something about us. It's gonna be pretty. So ours and ours is pretty. Um all right, so let's tell the people who are interested. I hope y'all are still there. How did we first meet? How did we connect? And we'll jump into the summit too. But yeah. So how did we first meet, Kinzie? Do you remember that day?

SPEAKER_00 22:06

Oh, girl, I do. Because we, Joyce and I joined an online community membership called the Mixer Mind. And it's just so wonderful. We're both still members. And like it's really focused on being able to be in the room with a lot of awesome online business owners, women, especially who are kind of like in that growth phase and really want to help each other like grow our visibility, grow our audiences, and like are aligned and can collaborate in really nicely, nice ways that are complementary to each other. So Joyce and I both joined this community. And inside the community, you we get put into small groups called pods. And Joyce and I were in the very first pod with our pod mom, Kristen Lawton. She's so great. And that was the first time we met. And I remember Joyce coming in and being like, Y'all, I'm about to have a baby. Like, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

I might not make the next call.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

But that was like our first little meeting moment, and we just kind of got to know each other over a few months. And yeah, I think it just kind of spiraled from there. What do you remember?

SPEAKER_01 23:14

I thought it was interesting to, and I think that the person who's in charge of this networking group, Linda, I think she was probably like, hey, let's see if this works to put like AI people together. Because it could be seen as a direct competition thing. And it just it just wasn't. Right. Everyone has can have their own lane in online business. Even if you have the same niche, like AI. And that's what I loved about that first pod, especially. Yeah, it could on paper be like, let's not put the AI girls together because that could be weird. But she did it anyway, and it worked out. And I yeah, it worked out. And so we later on were like, hey, I was thinking about starting a summit. I was too. Should we do it together? And that's how our first year, so 2025, her AI era summit was born. It was it's been interesting. And this was before we asked chat, hey, can you analyze our human designs? Can you analyze our sun, moons, and risings? We just already knew we were gonna work well together, and we did in that summit, and we work well together, I would say, because we have we're so different that we naturally have our lanes, right? Even when it's come to like thinking about offers for her AI, like services or whatever, right? We've even found our own lanes in that. And should we do corporate clients? And that's like my lane. Should we this is like a design thing? Like I can I can try to prompt with Claude, but like I can McKinsey is the designer. So it's been cool to have our own lanes. But yeah, so it started from that networking group. We our first big collab was definitely our first summit. And then at that time, we had our respective like memberships, right? I'm like all about monetization of AI of your skills, like making that an AI asset. And Kinsey is really good at like systems and tech and design, like I said. And we were just like, okay, these are we're complementary, like we could make a kind of bigger space to offer all of this, plus we work well together. How do we do that? And in I would at the later end of Q1 this year, we like we made it official in that we we put our LLC, started a new LLC, we got bank accounts together, we got old documents together. So that's like the future of us. Like I'm phasing out only boldly. I'm even like, do I need a website, girl?

SPEAKER_00 25:48

We've been having that discussion a lot, guys.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Yeah. I don't really I like Kinsey designed my website. Actually, I hired Kinsey to design my website when I did a rebrand, but now I'm just like, I don't even know if I need it. So yeah, we're fully we're fully merged. This isn't just like a passing thing. We have officially done that, and now we have like her AI Club. That's our main offer, and that's all legit, official, our main thing.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

Guys, we're for real. But no, so for real. I do have to say too, okay, so my thought process, my memory of like her AI era summit, just to like toot toot our own horn a little bit, guys. Toot toot.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

Insert toot somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

Pops. No, it might look like farts or thing, but anyway. Okay, so when Joyce, like like I had been thinking about potentially hosting a summit all year in 2025 because we were part of this amazing community that like a lot of people host summits, and we were a Joyce and I were a part of like what 25 summits last year, if not more. We got to the end of 2025. We were like, no more summits. No more summits. Yes, but the the spoiler alert, we did more summits, but it's fine. We love them. But so like last year, I had been kind of thinking, Oh, I want to do a summit, but man, that's a lot of work, you know. And like, oh, am I gonna be able to pull it able to pull it off, you know, and all that stuff. And then Joyce one day just randomly messaged me, Hey, I'm thinking about hosting a summit. Like, what are your thoughts? Like, what do you have do you have any thoughts about like what it could be, or like can I bounce ideas off of you? And I was like, Can we please host this together? Because I want to too, but like it seems so huge.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And then that's how it was. And then you know how more official we became? We moved from Voxer to Slack. Yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Well, that was this year that we should have done that before the summit last year, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

Yeah, but yeah, so that's where it came to be. And then at the end, it's just like for a few months, we're like, okay, cool, like we we'll do it again next year, 100%. And then there's something in the beginning of 2026 where it was just I don't want to do this alone.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

Yeah, well, I'll tell you what it was. It's because okay, so we hosted the summit, and guys, to be honest, we had a pretty awesome, successful summit for our first year.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

Cause we were like, wait, can we still do our sinks?

SPEAKER_00 28:10

Yeah, we were like talking about I was talking to you all the time in October, and now like I'm not. But like for real too, I think that the summit, her AI era summit in last October was so fun, right? Like the vibe was so good, and we got to the end of it, and I was kind of like, I want to keep this party going, right? Like I had that feeling of man, could it? I think that that might have been the first seed for me where I was like, maybe do it, like, could we just like what else should yeah? Yeah. And then, and then after that, we were kind of like, it wasn't ready yet and stuff. And we kind of both, yeah, started our own two separate memberships, but then that seed just kept planning in my head, like it just kept popping up. And I think, yeah, I finally messaged you beginning of this year, being like, Okay, I have this crazy idea. Like, what if we merged our memberships? And guys, I'm not even lying. Joyce was like, I love it, let's do it. And like within like a month and a half, we had done it. And like, I will say too, I think there's something about us that we just like work so well. Like, the universe likes to put us together and like get cool results because I had launched my membership, I had felt good about it, but like then we relaunched her AI club and like more like quadrupled the membership numbers. It was awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

So I don't know, 100 per 100%. I think, and not to be all sunshine and rainbows, I think we were we I've always been solo, right? And Kinsey's always been solo. And so we've we did have discussions of in the very beginning, and now I think we're over it, but in the very beginning, it's like, wait, I kind of want to leave that for me. Like me and me as in my business only boldly. Or should that should those services just stay as an asset and Kinsey? Yeah, yeah. And so I think I had that for like I don't know, a week, if that of hold on, you build all of this thing and all of these things, and it's your company and it's just you, and then with the merger, it's like, what do I leave for me? What do I leave for that? But I think over time too, we just realized it just made sense to like fully merge and what would that look like. And it wasn't just a snap in the fingers that Kinsey had services that she was like wrapping up that's fully ours and that's fully hers. And so and we needed to figure out these assets we had, like, how do we present them into the club? And now we have a second tier in the club as well that includes other things. So it wasn't like I don't want to be like, oh, Kinzie and Joy, it's just like confetti. Most of it's been confetti, but I think we I definitely did. I don't want to speak for you, Kinzie, but I definitely remember being like, wait, I want to leave this for only boldy. Now I'm like, nah, take it all. But at the very beginning, because the merging was like so new, I remember feeling like that and telling you that.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

Oh, yeah. I mean, I had those kind of same thoughts too, but for me it was almost more like like I don't know if you've had people tell you this before, but just like kind of hearing like, oh, beware of business partnerships, you know, like girl, they're gonna go, they're gonna turn sour, make sure you're protective, blah blah blah, and blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

Yes, yes, and I was kind of like in April, this is like all I got from everybody.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

I know, and I was kind of like, okay, like if plus I can also be very enthusiastic and semi-nai, you guys, too. So, like, I'm always trying to ch naivety check myself in a way, but but like I also believe in like things working out and like things feeling good and like following your gut and being like, you know, I think this is this is good and this is okay. And also, side note, that's why I bring up like how successful our summit was, how honestly successful the club has been, and like I'm so grateful. But like Joyce and I together are so much more powerful than I could ever be alone, and like it just feels right, you know.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

I haven't said ditto in a long time, but yes, ditto, I love it.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

Okay, lady, I kind of wanted to ask you a few like funny questions or like not funny questions, but like bigger picture questions about like AI. Let's go. Okay, wait, I wrote these down somewhere and I don't know where, but that's okay. Long story short, I kind of wanted to ask you as a business owner and leader in the AI space, when AI is such a huge thing, right? And like it's changing every day. Like we release a training, and all of a sudden Claude decides to change his freaking internet interface next week or like release new features or models or whatever. Like, how do you as like an AI founder stay like centered and stay like feeling confident and like just like how are you able to roll with the changes in this space?

SPEAKER_01 32:52

Right? Like, I can't, I'm not, do not come to me to be like, why is this model different than that model? There's a lot of people that will dissect that for you the second a new model is out, right? And I I'm not I'm not the person. I eventually get to it, but I think that is the gist of it. I cannot keep up with it. You I don't know who can unless you're like a news source type of AI business. And not that I'm not predictable, right? I want to try all the new things, but I also have limited windows of time where I can. And so that's also I actually just have natural boundaries of like being unable to try all the things. And that's made me like I'm still working really good and efficient and doing and using what I know, and I'll try the new thing next time because it's not life or death. So just having a natural boundaries is what's kept me from this feeling of needing to always catch up or try the new thing. Oh, I wanna okay. Here's a big question for you, Kinzie, before we wrap things up. Where do you think AI is heading in five years?

SPEAKER_00 34:02

Oh man, I mean, it's kind of the same with the figuring out how to stay up to date and like be light on your feet in like an industry that's changing every day and all that stuff, right? It's hard to imagine what AI is gonna look like in five years. It's hard to imagine what it's gonna look like this time next year, to be honest. And so I think that that's why with you and I, I really love we both learn by doing, and like it's very practical the way we experience AI. We're like, oh my gosh, I did this thing. Like you and I starting a podcast. Okay, well, now we're gonna figure out how to freaking edit our podcast with the script connector to our clouds every week and stuff like that, you know? And and of course, we're gonna share that with our people, right? And it makes what we teach very in the know very now. And then when it comes to thinking future-facing, because we don't necessarily know exactly what AI is gonna look like, I usually try to think about AI in like foundational building blocks. And like, and I kind of like that's kind of how AI, like leveling up with your AI use is working these days. Like, you can start with the foundational training elements for your tool, whether you're training on your brand, your business, your tasks, your workflows, anything like that. Like having that foundation understood and like concrete and in place somewhere is like the first step. And then after that, you build, you know, repeatable training methods like skills, you know. Then on top of that, you might add scheduled tasks or automations. Then on top of that, you might add some agentic letting AI actually do things for you and moving things around and stuff, right? But it all kind of like your foundational knowledge and like building blocks that you're creating with AI today can help us with whatever the heck AI is gonna look like in five years. And that makes me feel better. But if we do want to get doom and gloom, I'm not gonna get there. But like, y'all, I will say one thing I'm gonna say about the future. And this is why Joyce and I are so freaking passionate about helping women get excited about AI, feel empowered using AI, and feel knowledgeable about AI, being able to have a conversation about AI is because I do think the future of AI is being determined right now, with like the conversations we're having, with the way companies are doing things in the world, with the way politics and big tech are like happening in our world, and and the way it's being brought into education systems, everything, right? And it's happening now. The future's happening now. We're making decisions now that's going to affect AI in five years. And so that's another reason why I'm like, if we can now feel empowered to have conversations about AI, bigger level, talk to our teachers about it, talk to our families about it, potentially even donate money to organizations that are actually helping show up to those data center town halls that are happening in your town or state right now. Like, the more we can like actually kind of take a responsibility to shape the future of AI, like the better it's gonna be. So that's not really answering like what is the future gonna look like, but I guess I think that we can shape it right now.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

We can shape it and hopefully shape it to something that is good or better better than now for sure. All right, so let's close this out. And I think this is gonna be like a thing with us, you guys. We'll see if it sticks. But what is the one thing you're going to try this week?

SPEAKER_00 37:46

Oh, okay. What is the one thing? Well, I'm currently, I mean, that podcast widget girl, it's like on my it's on my task list now, right? So so I've already got the podcast widget designed, and now I'm like integrating it into like functionality on like a web page that is gonna make sense. So like I'm figuring out how to bring in your RSS feed and or bring in like self-hosted audio files for like a podcast widget. And then, oh girl, this came from our clubie who posted in the club being like, Y'all, can you help me with a podcast widget? Okay, she was like, Okay, then next step, I want to integrate a bot into the widget that can help recommend the correct episodes or meditations to the person. And I was like, okay, that's coming. So that's gonna be next on my functionality list. So that's probably what I'm gonna attempt this week.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

We don't, we're not Santas, we don't make everything that they ask for, but like Kinsey ran, it was timely because of of us. Our podcast for sure. I think for me, I'm going to I have my study guide, right? But it's currently living in chat. So I'm gonna make a cloud interface because I do really well with checklists and checking things off. So I'm gonna have I'm probably gonna make a cloud artifact style with all of the homework that I have to do because I do I don't know where I'm at right now and I want to track it.

SPEAKER_00 39:19

But um you should make it like BTS branded too, right? Like cute.

SPEAKER_01 39:24

Yes, she will be. Okay, he will be. I don't know. Now I'm confused. Um he, she, it, will be, they'll be they will be BTS branded, like these calculators and stuff for us. So now I'm gonna do a dashboard. That's what it's gonna be. A dashboard is gonna be like, oh, I'm gonna gamify it because it is like my side quest. Oh I'll show you what that ends up looking like.

SPEAKER_00 39:49

Oh, yeah, and then like fun little things can pop up, like Easter eggs.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

Yes, but it'll be like members, like one of the BTS members with like a little quote, yeah, or like and you have to know what it is. Yeah, something or where's it from? Okay. Uh that's what I'm gonna do. Um, because that's all part of my study guide, right?

SPEAKER_00 40:09

All right, guys. Well, that was our very first episode of Her AI era podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. Hopefully, you feel like you know me and Joyce a little bit better. The vibes are gonna be great. We promise you, we just get nerdy. We talk about real applications, use cases with AI, specifically for your business andor life, or concerts, or whatever it is. So keep tuning in. We would love to connect with you on Instagram as well. Our Instagram is at her AI Club. And you can check out our website at heraiclub.co. Thanks, all. Cool, cool.