Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Tried and True with the Dash of Woo, where we blend rock-solid tips with a little bit of magic. I'm Renee Bowen, your host, life and business coach and professional photographer at your service. We are all about getting creative, diving into your business and playing with manifestation over here. So are you ready to get inspired and have some fun? Let's dive in. Hey friends, welcome back to Tried and True with the Dash of Woo. I'm Renee, your podcast host, also photographer, certified life and business coach mom and proud creative.

Speaker 1: 0:36

I'm coming to you today with a really fun episode, but before we get into the nuts and bolts of AI, I want to let you in on a little behind the scenes secret. This episode was co-created with the help of ChachiPT's new agent mode, so I asked the agent to scour the web for the latest AI news. That's the deal. It needed to be very current Statistics and also tools, and then I sifted through the findings and wove them into a story that feels human. So I want you to think about agent mode as my research assistant who did the heavy lifting while I did the heart work. And we can talk about AI all day, every day. As you know, I love talking about it. But as we talk about AI today, know that I'm learning right alongside you guys. Okay, I don't profess to be an expert, but I love helping translate this data into insights that resonate with our lives and with our businesses, and I'm going to go into what agent mode is, don't worry, and I'm going to cover some other stuff in a way that, hopefully, will help you understand AI in a different way. Right, I'm going to try and take the tech and the statistics and the data and humanize it for you, because I know a lot of you guys are pretty intimidated by it, but we're diving head first into one of the biggest waves washing over the entire world really artificial intelligence.

Speaker 1: 2:16

Over the last six months, ai has exploded into our daily workflows. A June 2025 survey found that 61% of American adults had used an AI tool in the past six months, so that's roughly 1.8 billion people worldwide dipping their toes into AI, with halfa billion using it every day. And yet many creative entrepreneurs and photographers still are not sure where to start or feel really overwhelmed by everything. So if you're feeling curious and a little cautious, you're not alone. The thing is is that AI isn't just a tech trend. It's changing how we work. Studies show that 80% of staff who use AI and automation tools report higher productivity, and workers' throughput on everyday tasks can jump by 66%. But other research warns that improvements may be modest unless we deploy AI strategically.

Speaker 1: 3:17

So throughout this episode, we're going to unpack those numbers, share some stories from fellow creatives and explore practical ways to use AI without losing your authenticity. And, by the way, as a side note, but on the topic of AI, I just launched Senior Sunday. It's a custom GPT assistant for senior photographers specifically. It's been a labor of love designing this to make your workflow easier and more profitable. You can find the link for that below in the show notes. It's just reneebowencom slash senior sunday. It is going to help you with all your content, make you so much more efficient and, of course, I have it programmed with a little bit of mindset coaching as well. So throughout this episode, you're going to hear real examples of how specialized AI like this can transform your business, and at a price that I feel makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 1: 4:11

Okay, so let's talk about this AI explosion, the statistics and the trends and what they mean for creatives. Let's start with this big picture. Ai has gone mainstream. More than half a billion people are using these tools daily and two-fifths of companies worldwide are using AI in at least one function. Businesses adopt AI primarily to reduce manual or repetitive tasks. 65% cite that this is their reason, and that sounds like a tag headline, but what does it feel like on the ground for us? So when I talk to coaching students, they tell me they're overwhelmed by the volume of tasks required to run their creative business. But AI can really lighten that load, and studies find that customer service agents handle 13% more inquiries per hour, business professionals produce 59% more work-related documents and programmers code 126% more projects per week when they're using AI tools. So that's the equivalent of 47 years of productivity gains, but only if we apply the technology thoughtfully.

Speaker 1: 5:24

So here's the nuance. A February 2025 study by the St Louis Fed found that generative AI users saved 5.4% of their work hours about 2.2 hours in a 40-hour week. When you factor in all workers, including non-users, the savings translate into about 1.1% boost in overall productivity. That's still meaningful, but it's not a magic wand. It means we can reclaim a couple of hours each week, hours we can invest in high-impact tasks or self-care, living our lives or doing things that we'd rather be doing and, from a coaching perspective, those reclaimed hours are invaluable. They're the difference between editing all night long or having dinner with your family, between hustling to finish a gallery and taking time to brainstorm your next creative project.

Speaker 1: 6:19

Ai's promise isn't just about speed. It's about freedom. So let's talk about ChatGPT specifically for a minute and take a look ahead. Chatgpt 5 has not been released yet, but credible sources report that OpenAI plans to launch it as early as August 2025. So ChatGPT 5 is expected to blend OpenAI's GPT series with this reasoning, heavy O-series models. So, in practical terms, it will know when to quote unquote think for a long time and when to answer quickly, without you having to pick different modes. So that's really cool, because right now that's what you need to do you need to check which mode you want to use, decide which one, because the different modes do different things.

Speaker 1: 7:07

For instance, the agent mode that just came out that I'm using to create this podcast with is absolutely fantastic to go out and do things on its own for you. I gave it a pretty long prompt in order to help me create this podcast. I'm going to put the prompt in the show notes if I have enough room. If I don't. I'm going to find a different way. Maybe I'll make a doc and I'll put it down there, but I want you guys to see what I'm doing. Okay, Like so I'm going to show you the prompt. And it went off and it worked on its own for about 10 minutes and did it. It searched the internet, it came with all the sources, it gave me everything I needed, but it was a little too robotic. So then I just asked it to revise it and it did it perfectly. So 10, 15 minutes that amount of data that Agent Mo did for me would have taken me well over a week. It would have taken an assistant well over a week to compile everything in one place like this.

Speaker 1: 8:08

So the different modes in ChaiGBT do different things, and ChaiGBT 5 is expected to basically blend all that so that it's going to know what it needs to do. I don't know. It's going to be interesting. It hasn't been released yet, so I'm kind of excited about it. Also, there's going to be chain of thought reasoning. So, unlike ChaiGPT-4, which often answers questions in one pass, chaigpt-5 will be able to reason through complex problems step-by-step. So if you've ever tried to prompt an AI and gotten like a superficial response.

Speaker 1: 8:45

This upgrade should feel like working with a thoughtful colleague instead of a text generator, so that's going to be pretty exciting. There's also something called multimodal interaction. Chatgpt will handle text, voice and images seamlessly, so imagine using a mood board and discussing it with your AI assistant by voice. It's like having a creative partner who understands visuals. You guys are really excited about this. If you can't tell, there's also going to be an integrated search and browser. So OpenAI has already introduced a browsing agent that can navigate websites, fill out forms and perform research. That's agent mode, but ChatDBBT5 is expected to build those capabilities, in which means the assistant you talk to can fetch current information and cite its sources. And, by the way, I am also going to attach a Google Doc for you guys in the show notes with all my sources, just so if you want to go do your own research, you can.

Speaker 1: 9:45

And then, another thing that Chat2PT5 is supposed to be implementing is personalization and safety, so the model will remember context better and can be personalized to your needs. At the same time, openai is focusing on safety, ensuring that the system aligns with user values. We don't really know exactly what that means yet, but we will see. So, as a coach, I see these advances as tools, really powerful ones, but still tools. The goal is not to replace your creative vision or your client relationships. It's to free up mental space so you can focus on the magic. Only you can make All right.

Speaker 1: 10:24

So let's talk really quickly about some of the AI tools that I think every photographer specifically should know about. You don't have to use all this, but I want you to know what's out there. I've seen a lot of comments in some of the Facebook groups and things like that. You know, asking about this like what are you guys using for AI? It just seems so overwhelming, you know, so I just kind of want to give you a little bit of an overview of what is out there. This is not an entire list, but some of the most popular ones.

Speaker 1: 10:52

So most of you guys have heard of Aftershoot for calling and editing. Aftershoot started as a calling tool that sorts through thousands of images in minutes, taking composition, blur, closed eyes and duplicates into account, but now it includes an AI editor that can copy your style with, they say, 90% accuracy and turn out a thousand edits in under a minute. I don't use Aftershoot, but I have a lot of coaching students who do, and they do like it. So the best part of this is that it does work offline and they do like it. So the best part of this is that it does work offline. That's really interesting to me, and I don't do a lot of weddings anymore or events, but I do have a couple scheduled for later this year and I'm definitely going to try this out. The other thing that a lot of people like is Topaz Labs. They have a suite of plugins like is Topaz Labs. They have a suite of plugins Denoise AI, sharpen AI, gigapixel AI so it can do all of these different things for you Eliminate noise, recover detail, upscale images up to 600%, which is a really cool thing, and so when you're working with low light, high ISO things like that, this could be a really good tool.

Speaker 1: 12:04

Obviously, most of us know about the generative fill in Photoshop, which gives some really hilarious results. Sometimes it's powered by Adobe's Firefly model, and this tool lets you highlight an area type in what you want, like add a blooming tree, add a flower field, and it should be able to make it appear, and a lot of times it does, but sometimes it's a little sketchy. I don't know about you guys, but I haven't had great luck with this and I don't really use it. But that's also because I hate opening Photoshop. It's just I'm not a Photoshop girl. I use Lightroom for most of my editing and, on that note, lightroom has given us a really great generative fill tool, which I absolutely love, and I do know that they are coming out with even more AI tools built into Lightroom itself. Now I don't know if we're going to have to pay extra for those, which probably, but it could be really, really cool.

Speaker 1: 13:01

The other AI tool that I really use and love is Evoto AI, and I've talked about this at length. I did a whole podcast on it a week or two ago and I think it's as of now. I think it's our best tool that we have for editing. It is lightning fast. Yes, it can be pretty heavy handed, meaning you can make people look pretty fake, so you have to be careful, but I absolutely love Evoto AI and their sale ended. They had a summer sale going on. It ended, but I still have a code. If you use Renee07 at the link below in the show notes, you can still get a discount. So if you want to try it out, you can.

Speaker 1: 13:38

Another app a lot of people like is called Photo Prism. It's an open source app and it organizes your photos by location, date and content, it identifies objects and people, tags them automatically and it makes your archives searchable. So that's kind of cool. There's another platform called IEM. It's like E-Y-E-E-M, and this auto tags and categorizes your photos, making it easy to license your work, so it connects you with a community of photographers and buyers. So it's like having a passive income stream with like built-in marketing.

Speaker 1: 14:14

Canva has really upped their game as well with AI. So Canva's AI features remove backgrounds, resize graphics. You can create images and even video inside of Canva Pro. So if you already have a Canva Pro account, start playing around with their AI features. I mean, across the board, they have gotten pretty awesome. I saw somebody post a video that they made with just a prompt and it was pretty fantastic. Now, it was just a clip and it didn't have sound, but it was pretty awesome.

Speaker 1: 14:49

There's a really cool note-taking app called Mem M-E-M. It's a self-organizing app and so basically it connects your email calendar and contacts and it keeps ideas from slipping through the cracks. It also integrates with Zapier or Zapier, however you like to pronounce it so that everything stays in sync. I also use Notion, and Notion has its own AI, just like Google has AI, like everything is going to be going in that direction. And I personally really just love ChatGPT. I know a lot of people like Claude for writing, but I've been using ChatGPT since the day I came out, so I'm pretty deep into my ChatGPT and I use it quite often, so I prefer that. But there are other. There's lots of other AI writing tools for sure. Now, obviously, there's platforms like MidJourney, adobe, firefly, runway, ml, helping designers and videographers explore concepts really quickly. Vio Google Vio just came out.

Speaker 1: 15:53

It's kind of crazy how fast things are moving right now. You know you can take a prompt and create something completely out of thin air. Really, my husband has been working with VO and I think it's VO3, on creating video clips for a project that he's doing, and it's pretty incredible to see what you can do. Truly it's wild. So I think that, just in general, that whole area is going to start moving very, very quickly, and I mean, I've coached enough creatives to know that when something moves this fast, our first response is usually fear or overwhelm. You know, will it replace me? Will clients care that I used AI. Am I already behind because I haven't used it yet? But what I want you to remember is that AI is a tool. It doesn't replace your voice. It doesn't replace your vibe for sure, because it's not human and only humans can emit that sort of thing like your frequency. It helps you get to your vision faster and with fewer late nights.

Speaker 1: 17:06

Editing or rewriting things Okay, but I want you to think of it as like a powerful studio assistant. You still direct the shoot, you still have the final say on the edit, but wouldn't it be pretty awesome if somebody else could do the other stuff that you didn't like to do, maybe writing your emails or automating some things, or even giving you a whole content plan for the next six months? So that's really kind of what I like to focus on here, and I know that again, I'm not a tech genius and that's not my area of expertise in general, but I love it. I love learning about it. I love tech in general. I think it's very fascinating, and I'm really more about looking into ways to make my life and my work more streamlined and more efficient, because I hate wasting time. I hate wasting time and I think Chai GPT Plus is a really good deal for 20 bucks a month, truly and some of the ways that most photographers and creatives I see using AI in general right now, aside from the ones I just mentioned, is caption writing right. So, using ChaiGPT to generate captions, your SEO, helping ittune your SEO or even create it or audit it Fantastic use of AI, in my opinion.

Speaker 1: 18:31

Email marketing, for sure, writing templates for proposals and investment guides and prep guides, and you can even connect your Canva to your ChatGPT and you can have it now in agent mode. Go in and do it for you In agentT and you can have it now in agent mode. Go in and do it for you In agent mode. You can give it a task, you can give it a prompt and tell it. I want to create a new style guide and give it the parameters that you want, and then it will ask you to log in to your Canva, so you do need to log in In agent mode. It asks you take over and when you click that and take over and you log into whether it's Canva or any other platform like Google it does not see your password. It does not look at that. So there is that safety built in, there's still going to be issues, probably, don't get me wrong.

Speaker 1: 19:20

Like nothing is foolproof, so you use it, you know, on your own terms. Like I'm not telling you that you have to, but you will be logging in like to have agent mode go and do all of these things for you. You do need to give it access to it. So, like you could tell it you want it to create this style guide. You could give it the parameters and you can tell it to write the copy. And then you can tell it to go search the internet for all the latest teen trends for the last six months with good examples. You could even give it more parameters than that. You can say keep it to the five mid tier stores, let's say you know, so that you could keep it pretty accessible monetarily speaking, for everybody. Give it the parameters you want, have it, pull all of that data and then create an actual style guide with images from these stores and links to where people can buy them and make it inside of your Canva and have it just literally do it for you, like it can do all of that.

Speaker 1: 20:30

The cool thing about agent mode as well is that, once you set it on its task. You can close your computer and come back to it. It'll be done. So like not everyone has access to agent mode yet you do have to have chat to PT plus. You have to be paying for it, it's just. The $20 a month is fine, but you are limited to I believe it's 40 inquiries with agent mode a month, even with the paid version. If you pay the $200 a month version, which I don't, then you get like something like 400, but they are rolling agent mode out to everybody now who has the at least the plus version, and I just got it last week. So if you don't have it yet, just keep checking, you will.

Speaker 1: 21:12

I had it create a spreadsheet in my Google Docs. So my Google Sheets. I had it go and source all the latest trends for teenagers with fashion, music and makeup and skincare for the last six months, compile that into a spreadsheet for me and then also create multiple pieces of content, captions, blog and SEO-rich posts based on that content that it found. So the spreadsheet had all of these columns so that I could just copy and paste it into the content. I could have hooked up my Canva to it as well and said, just from here, go ahead and make the content in Canva, but I wanted to sort of check and see that it had done it right first and maybe see if I needed to revise anything, and it was pretty spot on. So the time-saving capabilities here are pretty amazing. It's kind of crazy.

Speaker 1: 22:12

I'm working with a one-on-one client right now. She's a photographer and just sick of making content, hates making content like most of us do. And also it's about to be fall, and that's when feast or famine happens, because you get super busy and you're shooting and you're editing and you're doing your thing and you forget to market. And then, okay, it's like the holidays are early in January and you ain't got no clients and you're stressed. This is literally like the blueprint for what happens every year. I don't want that to happen to you guys. So I want you to be preemptive and I'm always talking about the fact that you got to still find a way to market when you're shooting.

Speaker 1: 22:48

And this is a fantastic use of AI. If you don't have an assistant, if you can't pay somebody you know 500 or more a month to do some of this for you, you need to be paying ChaiGPT plus 20 bucks a month and learn how to automate stuff, and it's really not hard. Like I walked a client through this. We created all the messaging and made it very, very clear so that it resonated distinctly with her target clients, and now we're creating custom GPTs based on that so that all she has to do is literally go in and say, okay, give me this month's content, and it just spits it out. So it's kind of amazing what you can do truly, and just as a side note, if you're not using AI for your marketing ideas, your scheduling, your reminders, your brand messaging, video scripts, whatever it is content calendars. You really do need to be doing that, because that is like I see that as like an entry level use of AI. Like that's kind of like where everybody starts and then you'll start to get more used to it and get better at it, and then you're going to you're going to start to see all of this amazing capability and again, like it's changing so quickly. Things are going to change. So now's the time to at least get your feet wet and start using it for simple things like content. So what do creators really think about AI? This is something I really wanted to know and kind of talk about here in this podcast.

Speaker 1: 24:20

In April of 2025, the content agency Bread and Circuses surveyed 51 creative professionals and 70% said that they see real benefits in AI. Yet 75% use AI for less than 25% of their creative process. Their top uses were research, planning and ideation, with refinement and editing at a distant second 45%. So why the hesitation here? I think that creators are drawing boundaries. They really want to keep that concept development editing. They want to keep concept development, editing, decisions and final review human, so they're willing to delegate these admin tasks, but not that soul of their work. And only 24% are willing to pay more than 50 bucks a month for AI tools. And I totally understand that, because the last thing we need is another damn subscription, right? Like, especially, photographers, we have to have so many things and it would be great if we could just have everything in one. But yeah, 20 bucks a month, I think, is 100% doable. Anything more than $30 a month, it better be doing a whole lot more for me.

Speaker 1: 25:36

So as a coach, I hear that same tension all the time, right, excitement mixed with anxiety. It's okay to feel both. The key is to treat AI as an assistant and not an identity. We've seen these stories. It can create psychosis in people and I really do think that you have to already sort of be walking that thread of mental illness to begin with. But I mean, it can be dangerous, right, but it's okay to be excited about it and also anxious about it. The key is to treat AI like your assistant and so use it to get unstuck, to handle repetitive tasks, for sure, but at the end of the day, trust your intuition when it comes to creative decisions and what feels aligned to you. Okay, ai is amazing at generating options, but it's terrible at knowing which one will make your heart sing.

Speaker 1: 26:30

And we can take this a step further. I think I've mentioned it before that I have created a GPT for myself that is based on my human design chart, my astrology chart and every personality test I've ever taken. I've uploaded it to that GPT and it helps me make decisions based on that, because human design, especially, is really all about alignment. And, of course, you have to continue to be a critical thinker and you have to ask your chat GPT or whatever AI you're using to challenge you, because it is a mirror. So if you are just like letting it hype you up constantly and be like yes, renee, that is an amazing idea. And it's just yes, yes, yes, yes, yes all the time. That's not great, okay, you can't learn and grow in a vacuum. You do need to be challenged. So all these people saying that they're using it as their life coach or even as their therapist, I would be really careful with that, really careful with that. We're not there yet. At the end of the day, it is you, it is a mirror of you and it's feeding you what you want to hear, which is why some of these people are going on psychosis. So you have to train your chat, gpt or whatever AI you use to challenge you, to ask you questions, not to just be a yes man all day, every day, truly. So if you haven't done that yet, at least dive into that.

Speaker 1: 27:56

So, looking ahead again, in addition to the things that I had mentioned earlier, we know that AI agents and browsers, you know, are going to become more of a thing as these agents mature. They could handle administrative tasks like booking sessions for you, sending invoices, ordering prints, emailing clients, making sure your website is structured for AI navigation all that kind of stuff. I mean agent mode already can do like it can log into your email. It can email clients for you, it can book you dinner reservations, all kinds of stuff. So we know that that is just going to get more robust. But something else that's coming for ChaiGPT is shopping like. Right inside of ChaiGPT they're testing an in-app Shopify integration and this could turn ChaiGPT into a standalone sales channel. So imagine a client asking ChaiGPBT for senior portraits in Los Angeles and completing the booking without visiting a website, right? So we kind of do need to be thinking about preparing our product data, our links and our offerings and our pricing to be AI readable and consider partnerships with platforms that integrate with ChatGPT.

Speaker 1: 29:13

Now, I'm not saying you need to go out and get a Shopify account and make a Shopify store, but I mean a lot of you guys who listen to this podcast create your own courses. You have digital products. This is going to be a thing Okay. So for photographers, especially high-end photographers, this is not necessarily, I think, as important, at least right now, because we don't even have, like, our full pricing necessarily listed on our websites. You know, that's not the kind of photographer I am. I'm not a turn and burn photographer, so I'm not going to just have a lot of these things where you can book a high-end senior portrait session with me without having a conversation with me at some point about it, so that I don't see that happening. But for my headshot sessions, absolutely, I do 30-minute headshot sessions at the studio and I've got that system already fairly automated. So, yeah, if Chad GPT can help get me booked, yes, that would be amazing Because I already have those things already lined up, so that's going to be very interesting.

Speaker 1: 30:15

They're also doing something called record mode and Canvas. So ChatGPT's record mode allows the app to record meetings and transcribe them and generate summaries, and Canvas is an interactive workspace for brainstorming and document editing. So these tools can really help photographers and creatives. Just capture client consultations, zoom consults, outline project plans, shoot day plans, produce final deliverables more efficiently, just in general. Chatgpt isn't the only one. Like I said before, claude 3.5 by Anthropic is faster and processed as longer documents, according to some articles, and that makes it useful for contracts long briefs. Google Gemini is embedded into Gmail Docs and Sheets, offering context-aware suggestions across your email and editing workflow, and Meta's AI is integrated into WhatsApp and Instagram, handling translations and content generation and customer inquiries. Even so, as a photographer, you could use Meta's AI to answer some common client questions on Instagram DMs or generate your captions without having to pop in and out of ChatGPT.

Speaker 1: 31:26

As always, though, please do make sure it sounds like you, because I don't know about you guys, but maybe it's because I use AI so much I can you know. You can tell when something's written completely by AI. You can just tell like there are certain signs, speaking in your own voice and tone, because I think that the more people are using it and the more generic stuff is going to sound, the more it's going to be a turnoff for clients. Truly. So, while you can use and you should use AI, I think, to free up your time, be intentional about it too. Right, consciously reinvest that time in high quality client care, personal projects, rest or even marketing efforts that you don't have time for. Okay, speed should be a means to more meaningful work, not an end in itself.

Speaker 1: 32:24

In coaching conversations, I encourage clients to focus on what we can control our mindset, our craft and our community, and AI can be a very powerful ally, but our human ability to empathize and to tell stories and to connect will always be our differentiator. Embrace lifelong learning Instead of fearing displacement. Ask how you can partner with technology to create deeper value for your clients. And don't forget to rest Even the most advanced AI can't recharge you for you. I know it's scary, especially as a photographer, because we see a lot of these. You know, ai generated headshots or whatever, and, honestly, like some of the programs out now, are incredible at creating an AI twin of yourself.

Speaker 1: 33:14

I've played around with it, so I think that that technology is going to get better and more accessible to people, but there's a lot of money to be made with this too, you guys, as a side note, so you know, if you are a photographer and you are looking for a side gig or just a creative in general and you're thinking about, like, well, how can I use AI to create a side business? Basically, some really quick ideas, because I do want to wrap up. I don't want this to be super, super long, but some quick ideas for you guys. If you're looking for some side gig, money and you're into tech and AI, you should look at some of these. Okay, you can build an AI twin, become the face of your own content empire without ever showing your actual face. You can build an AI twin that literally acts and speaks like you and is the face of your brand. I'm not saying that you should do this. I think it's interesting for certain things, for certain businesses. I mean, I wouldn't do it for my photography business, but it's an interesting thought.

Speaker 1: 34:17

You can use AI to offer ghostwriting services like blogs and emails and captions. You can offer content days, where you use AI to script and plan a month of posts for a business in town that you know about once a day. Maybe you want to start working locally with other people. This is great for anyone really who needs fast content, not fluff. You can partner with service providers. You do the AI side, strategy systems automation and then they do the delivery. You can create and sell AI video scripts for TikToks and Reels and YouTube Shorts on specific industries. You can build an affiliate income stream by reviewing and teaching how to use AI tools, creating tutorials, comparisons, use case videos and links that you would recommend. You can start a monthly subscription where you deliver AI generated content ideas to creators and businesses or influencers in one specific niche. You can offer one-on-one AI-enhanced strategy sessions.

Speaker 1: 35:17

This is something that I do because I love AI. I use it anyway, and most of my coaching students. We do this kind of work anyway. So I have that option as well. If you want to like literally just have a power hour with me, you can do that and we can actually build a custom bot in less than that time. You can build and sell many digital products. You can use ChatGPT to create, like checklists and guides and swipe files and templates that you can easily sell on your site or Etsy or any of the other sites, right? I mean, I'm doing that with my custom GPT Senior Sunday. I have other products, of course, like I create digital products and courses for photographers and creatives, and Chai GPT helps me with a lot of the legwork. So there's a lot of possibilities here and it is moving very quickly.

Speaker 1: 36:08

So I understand that it can be really scary to think about, but just take a step, just like dive your toe into it and see if it's something that's even interesting to you. I encourage you to at least understand you know pieces of it, understand why people are using it, because the fact of the matter is that it isn't going anywhere and you know, even if we don't like it, even if it's intimidating, it's not going anywhere, and so that's kind of why I like to do these episodes from time to time. Again, this podcast is not going to become just a straight up AI podcast. I just I like to bring it to you in this context so you can see what's coming, and that's really kind of what I wanted to focus on, for this episode is like there's some stuff coming up very soon that is going to really help you a lot. So I just kind of want you to understand what's here, how to use it and to know what's coming.

Speaker 1: 37:09

And one of the reasons why I created Senior Sunday is because I saw a need in my industry. As a photographer who also coaches creatives and other photographers, I saw how much time you guys are spending on repetitive planning tasks, brainstorming session themes, writing emails, crafting marketing posts and really just like not enjoying it right. So Senior Sunday is a custom GPT that I built specifically for high-end senior photographers. It understands the language of our niche, from session flow to pricing strategies, and it can help you draft client emails, brainstorm unique location ideas, find out the latest trends, outline blog posts and even suggest upsell opportunities. Because it's a specialized assistant, it gives you better answers than generic AI models and it saves you the countless hours it would take to build your own and it's just 44 bucks. And ChaiGPT helped me build it. Yeah, I built it on ChaiGPPT and it's programmed with all of my marketing knowledge and ideas and a lot of my coaching. So I've really curated the prompts and ensured the outputs align with this boutique senior photography experience you want to deliver. If you're a senior photographer, it's kind of like having me in your back pocket, cheering you on and making this whole process so much easier, because I really want you to have a life outside of your business and so many of you guys don't, especially in the busy season. If you have any questions about Senior Sunday or anything like that, just hit me up over on Instagram at Renee Bowen. I'm happy to chat. I will have the link for that for you below, as well as all the other links that I promised you.

Speaker 1: 38:50

So we've covered a lot of ground on this episode. I think how widespread AI adoption has become, the exciting upgrades coming with ChatGPT5, the tools that can make your photography workflow smoother, and the nuanced ways creators are embracing technology. We've also seen that AI's promise is twofold it can dramatically improve individual productivity, but its aggregate impact is modest unless we integrate it thoughtfully. So here's some action steps. Experiment intentionally. Pick one AI tool that feels exciting and try it for a specific task and notice how it makes you feel and whether it truly adds ease or not.

Speaker 1: 39:29

Protect your creative core. So delegate the research, editing and admin tasks to AI, but keep concept development, final edits and client relationships personal. Your vision is your brand. Invest in specialized solutions. Generic models are powerful, but niche assistants like Senior Sunday or any kind of custom GPT they're going to deliver better results faster because they speak your language.

Speaker 1: 39:53

Prepare for what's next, so stay curious about upcoming releases like ChatGPT 5 and competitors like Claude and Gemini. Join communities, read up on ethics and be ready to adapt. And finally, if you're overwhelmed, work with a coach. Find somebody, even if it's not me, who can help you navigate the mindset shifts that come with scaling your creative business in an AI-infused world. This is something I absolutely love doing, so thank you guys for listening today. I always love chatting with you about this and I welcome your questions and your concerns. Hit me up over on Instagram at Renee Bowen, or just shoot me an email and let's discuss Renee at Renee Bowencom, and those of you guys who do have senior Sunday who did grab it, while the price is this low. Let me know how it's working for you. I've heard some really good feedback so far, but I am always interested to hear all the feedback, because I do want this to be a really amazing tool for you. Thank you, guys. Have a great rest of your week. Love you, bye.