Will AI take your job? Pranav Jajapur has a clearer answer than the headlines. In this episode of AI Made Simple, Carmen Skipworth talks with the founder of Prospexia OS, an AI diligence platform for venture investors, about how AI is reshaping hiring, coding, and marketing without replacing the humans behind them. From a hiring platform that throws out the resume entirely to why AI-generated content fails to convert, Pranav brings a grounded, insider view of what AI can and cannot do. Calm, practical, and refreshingly honest. Human-Led. AI-Powered.

HOST

Carmen Skipworth

GUEST

Pranav Jajapur — founder of Prospexia OS, an AI diligence platform for venture investors. Through an enterprise strategic partnership with Try Ikigai.ai, he also helps companies staff smarter by matching talent to roles based on fit, intent, and values. His background spans sales and venture capital, where he performed diligence on early-stage startups at a $3 billion firm.

SUMMARY

Carmen sits down with Pranav Jajapur, who goes by PJ, to unpack his journey from solar sales to venture capital and the two AI ventures that grew out of it. PJ explains how Try Ikigai.ai replaces the resume with a simple audio conversation, turning unstructured rambling into a structured dossier that employers use to ask better interview questions. The conversation moves to the big fear: will AI make jobs obsolete? PJ's answer is that jobs evolve rather than disappear, and the people who integrate AI tools will be held to a higher standard. He shares why vibe coding hits a wall without real expertise, why AI-generated marketing content converts at a fraction of human-made content, and how he uses different AI tools for different jobs. His simplest advice: treat AI as a thinking partner to bounce ideas off, not something that runs your life.

MAIN TOPICS

From solar sales to venture capital: PJ's path into AI

How Try Ikigai.ai matches talent without a resume

Turning unstructured conversation into structured hiring data

Will AI take your job, or evolve it?

Why vibe coding hits a wall without coding expertise

AI slop: why AI-generated content struggles to convert

Choosing the right AI tool for the right job

Using AI as an idea-bouncing partner, not an autopilot

INTRIGUING QUOTES

"Your job doesn't certainly get removed, your job evolves." — Pranav Jajapur

"It'll take the job, but the jobs will also be held to a higher standard, is the way I see things." — Pranav Jajapur

"Humans will always come up on top because you can relate to that person." — Pranav Jajapur

"It's a tool. It's not something that can automate your entire life." — Pranav Jajapur

KEY MOMENTS

[01:19] PJ's journey from solar sales to venture capital

[03:19] How Try Ikigai.ai works: no resume, just talk

[10:20] Should we be fearful of AI taking our jobs?

[12:58] Where vibe coding hits a wall

[14:42] AI slop and the truth about conversion rates

[17:27] The right AI tool for the right job

[20:24] AI as a thinking partner

NOTABLE RESOURCES

Prospexia OS

Try Ikigai.ai

Claude

Claude Code

ChatGPT

Google Gemini

Base44

CONNECT

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FXihmKLqS/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590720415359

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadwithcarmen/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadwithCarmen

Apply to be a guest on AI Made Simple: https://www.latpn.com/ai-made-simple-podcast-booking Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com

for information about our collection and use of personal data for

advertising.

Will AI take your job? Pranav Jajapur has a clearer answer than the headlines. In this episode of AI Made Simple, Carmen Skipworth talks with the founder of Prospexia OS, an AI diligence platform for venture investors, about how AI is reshaping hiring, coding, and marketing without replacing the humans behind them. From a hiring platform that throws out the resume entirely to why AI-generated content fails to convert, Pranav brings a grounded, insider view of what AI can and cannot do. Calm, practical, and refreshingly honest. Human-Led. AI-Powered.

HOST

Carmen Skipworth

GUEST

Pranav Jajapur — founder of Prospexia OS, an AI diligence platform for venture investors. Through an enterprise strategic partnership with Try Ikigai.ai, he also helps companies staff smarter by matching talent to roles based on fit, intent, and values. His background spans sales and venture capital, where he performed diligence on early-stage startups at a $3 billion firm.

SUMMARY

Carmen sits down with Pranav Jajapur, who goes by PJ, to unpack his journey from solar sales to venture capital and the two AI ventures that grew out of it. PJ explains how Try Ikigai.ai replaces the resume with a simple audio conversation, turning unstructured rambling into a structured dossier that employers use to ask better interview questions. The conversation moves to the big fear: will AI make jobs obsolete? PJ's answer is that jobs evolve rather than disappear, and the people who integrate AI tools will be held to a higher standard. He shares why vibe coding hits a wall without real expertise, why AI-generated marketing content converts at a fraction of human-made content, and how he uses different AI tools for different jobs. His simplest advice: treat AI as a thinking partner to bounce ideas off, not something that runs your life.

MAIN TOPICS

From solar sales to venture capital: PJ's path into AI

How Try Ikigai.ai matches talent without a resume

Turning unstructured conversation into structured hiring data

Will AI take your job, or evolve it?

Why vibe coding hits a wall without coding expertise

AI slop: why AI-generated content struggles to convert

Choosing the right AI tool for the right job

Using AI as an idea-bouncing partner, not an autopilot

INTRIGUING QUOTES

"Your job doesn't certainly get removed, your job evolves." — Pranav Jajapur

"It'll take the job, but the jobs will also be held to a higher standard, is the way I see things." — Pranav Jajapur

"Humans will always come up on top because you can relate to that person." — Pranav Jajapur

"It's a tool. It's not something that can automate your entire life." — Pranav Jajapur

KEY MOMENTS

[01:19] PJ's journey from solar sales to venture capital

[03:19] How Try Ikigai.ai works: no resume, just talk

[10:20] Should we be fearful of AI taking our jobs?

[12:58] Where vibe coding hits a wall

[14:42] AI slop and the truth about conversion rates

[17:27] The right AI tool for the right job

[20:24] AI as a thinking partner

NOTABLE RESOURCES

Prospexia OS

Try Ikigai.ai

Claude

Claude Code

ChatGPT

Google Gemini

Base44

CONNECT

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FXihmKLqS/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590720415359

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadwithcarmen/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadwithCarmen

Apply to be a guest on AI Made Simple: https://www.latpn.com/ai-made-simple-podcast-booking Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com

for information about our collection and use of personal data for

advertising.

Fire 50% of your workforce and replace them with agents by year's end? Graeme Rudd calls that snake oil, and he has the stories to prove it. In this episode of AI Made Simple, Carmen Skipworth talks with the Green Beret turned AI governance expert and co-founder of Assessed Intelligence about what happens when businesses adopt AI without a plan. Graeme shares how agents have burned a year's token budget in weeks, how an attorney was sanctioned over AI-hallucinated citations, and why over 70% of frontier AI logins happen on personal accounts, not corporate ones. Shaped by a decade field-testing frontier technology in the military, his advice is simple: understand what a tool actually does before you bet your business on it. Human-Led. AI-Powered.

HOST

Carmen Skipworth

GUEST

Graeme Rudd — co-founder and COO of Assessed Intelligence, a firm focused on secure and responsible AI adoption. He spent over a decade in the US Army as a Special Forces Green Beret, serving as both a medical sergeant (18D) and intelligence sergeant (18F) in the 10th and 19th Special Forces Groups. He holds a BS in Health Science from George Washington University and a JD from Lewis & Clark Law School.

SUMMARY

Graeme walks Carmen through the path that took him from Green Beret to AI governance: a decade assessing close to 350 frontier technologies, AI among them, in field exercises for a Department of Defense lab, followed by law school before he realised the same problems he'd seen in the field were now playing out across AI. He unpacks what he calls snake oil, the overpromising that tells businesses they can fire half their staff and hand the work to agents. The risks are already here: agents burning a year's AI budget in weeks, one caught mining cryptocurrency on the side, an attorney sanctioned after an AI tool silently rewrote his citations, and a Meta employee who lost her email irreversibly to OpenClaw. Graeme argues these are organisational failures, not technology failures, leadership adopting powerful tools without educating anyone on their limits. He lays out what Assessed Intelligence does, audit, advisory, and fractional governance work, and closes with the one policy every business needs before using AI.

MAIN TOPICS

From Green Beret to AI governance

Testing 350 frontier technologies for the DoD

Calling out AI's snake oil and overpromised job replacement

Real incidents: burned budgets and a rogue crypto-mining agent

The attorney sanctioned over AI-hallucinated citations

Why OpenClaw is more dangerous than it looks

Inside Assessed Intelligence and the ARISE framework

The one policy every business needs before using AI

INTRIGUING QUOTES

"I genuinely want to see a world where we're not beholden to Skynet's idiot cousin." — Graeme Rudd

"They have this really powerful tool that's customizable, but nobody has told them how to use it." — Graeme Rudd

"If you are operating the way you did under a software as a service era, you are wildly out of your depth." — Graeme Rudd

"Over 70% of logins to frontier models were in people's personal accounts." — Graeme Rudd

KEY MOMENTS

[01:05] Meet Graeme Rudd: Green Beret to AI governance

[04:41] Testing 350 frontier technologies for the DoD

[12:52] Calling out AI's snake oil problem

[19:10] Burned budgets and a rogue crypto-mining agent

[20:47] The attorney sanctioned over hallucinated citations

[23:10] Why OpenClaw is more dangerous than it looks

[27:52] Inside Assessed Intelligence and the ARISE framework

[31:13] The one policy every business needs before using AI

NOTABLE RESOURCES

Assessed Intelligence

ARISE Framework

OpenClaw

Verizon DBIR Report

CONNECT

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FXihmKLqS/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590720415359

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadwithcarmen/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadwithCarmen

Apply to be a guest on AI Made Simple: https://www.latpn.com/ai-made-simple-podcast-booking Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com

for information about our collection and use of personal data for

advertising.

Fire 50% of your workforce and replace them with agents by year's end? Graeme Rudd calls that snake oil, and he has the stories to prove it. In this episode of AI Made Simple, Carmen Skipworth talks with the Green Beret turned AI governance expert and co-founder of Assessed Intelligence about what happens when businesses adopt AI without a plan. Graeme shares how agents have burned a year's token budget in weeks, how an attorney was sanctioned over AI-hallucinated citations, and why over 70% of frontier AI logins happen on personal accounts, not corporate ones. Shaped by a decade field-testing frontier technology in the military, his advice is simple: understand what a tool actually does before you bet your business on it. Human-Led. AI-Powered.

HOST

Carmen Skipworth

GUEST

Graeme Rudd — co-founder and COO of Assessed Intelligence, a firm focused on secure and responsible AI adoption. He spent over a decade in the US Army as a Special Forces Green Beret, serving as both a medical sergeant (18D) and intelligence sergeant (18F) in the 10th and 19th Special Forces Groups. He holds a BS in Health Science from George Washington University and a JD from Lewis & Clark Law School.

SUMMARY

Graeme walks Carmen through the path that took him from Green Beret to AI governance: a decade assessing close to 350 frontier technologies, AI among them, in field exercises for a Department of Defense lab, followed by law school before he realised the same problems he'd seen in the field were now playing out across AI. He unpacks what he calls snake oil, the overpromising that tells businesses they can fire half their staff and hand the work to agents. The risks are already here: agents burning a year's AI budget in weeks, one caught mining cryptocurrency on the side, an attorney sanctioned after an AI tool silently rewrote his citations, and a Meta employee who lost her email irreversibly to OpenClaw. Graeme argues these are organisational failures, not technology failures, leadership adopting powerful tools without educating anyone on their limits. He lays out what Assessed Intelligence does, audit, advisory, and fractional governance work, and closes with the one policy every business needs before using AI.

MAIN TOPICS

From Green Beret to AI governance

Testing 350 frontier technologies for the DoD

Calling out AI's snake oil and overpromised job replacement

Real incidents: burned budgets and a rogue crypto-mining agent

The attorney sanctioned over AI-hallucinated citations

Why OpenClaw is more dangerous than it looks

Inside Assessed Intelligence and the ARISE framework

The one policy every business needs before using AI

INTRIGUING QUOTES

"I genuinely want to see a world where we're not beholden to Skynet's idiot cousin." — Graeme Rudd

"They have this really powerful tool that's customizable, but nobody has told them how to use it." — Graeme Rudd

"If you are operating the way you did under a software as a service era, you are wildly out of your depth." — Graeme Rudd

"Over 70% of logins to frontier models were in people's personal accounts." — Graeme Rudd

KEY MOMENTS

[01:05] Meet Graeme Rudd: Green Beret to AI governance

[04:41] Testing 350 frontier technologies for the DoD

[12:52] Calling out AI's snake oil problem

[19:10] Burned budgets and a rogue crypto-mining agent

[20:47] The attorney sanctioned over hallucinated citations

[23:10] Why OpenClaw is more dangerous than it looks

[27:52] Inside Assessed Intelligence and the ARISE framework

[31:13] The one policy every business needs before using AI

NOTABLE RESOURCES

Assessed Intelligence

ARISE Framework

OpenClaw

Verizon DBIR Report

CONNECT

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FXihmKLqS/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590720415359

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadwithcarmen/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadwithCarmen

Apply to be a guest on AI Made Simple: https://www.latpn.com/ai-made-simple-podcast-booking Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com

for information about our collection and use of personal data for

advertising.

AI was supposed to give us more time. So why do we feel more overwhelmed than ever? In this episode of AI Made Simple, Carmen Skipworth talks with wellness and resilience coach Sarah Jordan-Ross about what constant connection is doing to our nervous systems, how to recognise when you're stuck in survival mode, and the simple practices that bring you back into balance. From the brain dump technique to knowing when to close the laptop and talk to an actual human, this is a grounded conversation about using AI without losing yourself in it. Human-Led. AI-Powered.

HOST

Carmen Skipworth

GUEST

Sarah Jordan-Ross — wellness and resilience coach, speaker, and host of Taboo Talk with Sarah, where she leads honest conversations about resilience, burnout, and staying human in challenging times. With over 25 years in the wellness industry and a background in bioscience and sociology, her work focuses on nervous system regulation and helping people move out of survival mode so they can think clearly and lead effectively.

SUMMARY

Speaking from Tasmania, Sarah explains why the body can't tell the difference between an email backlog and a saber-toothed tiger, and why being on all the time keeps our nervous systems locked in fight or flight. She breaks down the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems in plain language, shares the warning signs of survival mode, and walks through her brain dump practice: write everything down, breathe deeply, then sort it into do, dump, and delegate. The conversation covers why high performers burn out trying to master everything, why we're more connected yet more disconnected than ever, and where AI helps as a sounding board versus where it can't replace human connection. Sarah closes with how she uses AI in her own podcast workflow and the story behind Taboo Talk with Sarah.

MAIN TOPICS

Why AI-speed life leaves us more overwhelmed, not less

Fight or flight versus rest and repair, explained simply

The signs you're stuck in survival mode

The brain dump: do, dump, delegate

Why you don't need to master every AI tool

Connected but disconnected: social media and the highlight reel

Can AI replace a friend or a therapist?

One daily habit to stay grounded while using AI

Inside Taboo Talk with Sarah

INTRIGUING QUOTES

"The body can't tell the difference between a psychological or emotional threat and a physical one." — Sarah Jordan-Ross

"I don't need to know how it works. I just need to know that it does." — Sarah Jordan-Ross

"It's only as good as what we train it to do." — Sarah Jordan-Ross

"There's nothing wrong with hanging out with your AI friends, but make sure you also spend time with your human friends." — Sarah Jordan-Ross

KEY MOMENTS

[01:35] Why faster technology means more overwhelm

[04:03] The signs you're in survival mode

[05:35] The coffee cognac state and the nervous system seesaw

[07:38] The brain dump: do, dump, delegate

[11:10] The car analogy: you don't need to know everything

[12:23] Connected but disconnected

[14:13] Can AI replace a friend or therapist?

[18:28] One habit to stay grounded

[25:01] The story behind Taboo Talk with Sarah

NOTABLE RESOURCES

ChatGPT

Taboo Talk with Sarah — available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube

CONNECT

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FXihmKLqS/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590720415359

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadwithcarmen/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadwithCarmen

Apply to be a guest on AI Made Simple: https://www.latpn.com/ai-made-simple-podcast-booking Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com

for information about our collection and use of personal data for

advertising.

AI was supposed to give us more time. So why do we feel more overwhelmed than ever? In this episode of AI Made Simple, Carmen Skipworth talks with wellness and resilience coach Sarah Jordan-Ross about what constant connection is doing to our nervous systems, how to recognise when you're stuck in survival mode, and the simple practices that bring you back into balance. From the brain dump technique to knowing when to close the laptop and talk to an actual human, this is a grounded conversation about using AI without losing yourself in it. Human-Led. AI-Powered.

HOST

Carmen Skipworth

GUEST

Sarah Jordan-Ross — wellness and resilience coach, speaker, and host of Taboo Talk with Sarah, where she leads honest conversations about resilience, burnout, and staying human in challenging times. With over 25 years in the wellness industry and a background in bioscience and sociology, her work focuses on nervous system regulation and helping people move out of survival mode so they can think clearly and lead effectively.

SUMMARY

Speaking from Tasmania, Sarah explains why the body can't tell the difference between an email backlog and a saber-toothed tiger, and why being on all the time keeps our nervous systems locked in fight or flight. She breaks down the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems in plain language, shares the warning signs of survival mode, and walks through her brain dump practice: write everything down, breathe deeply, then sort it into do, dump, and delegate. The conversation covers why high performers burn out trying to master everything, why we're more connected yet more disconnected than ever, and where AI helps as a sounding board versus where it can't replace human connection. Sarah closes with how she uses AI in her own podcast workflow and the story behind Taboo Talk with Sarah.

MAIN TOPICS

Why AI-speed life leaves us more overwhelmed, not less

Fight or flight versus rest and repair, explained simply

The signs you're stuck in survival mode

The brain dump: do, dump, delegate

Why you don't need to master every AI tool

Connected but disconnected: social media and the highlight reel

Can AI replace a friend or a therapist?

One daily habit to stay grounded while using AI

Inside Taboo Talk with Sarah

INTRIGUING QUOTES

"The body can't tell the difference between a psychological or emotional threat and a physical one." — Sarah Jordan-Ross

"I don't need to know how it works. I just need to know that it does." — Sarah Jordan-Ross

"It's only as good as what we train it to do." — Sarah Jordan-Ross

"There's nothing wrong with hanging out with your AI friends, but make sure you also spend time with your human friends." — Sarah Jordan-Ross

KEY MOMENTS

[01:35] Why faster technology means more overwhelm

[04:03] The signs you're in survival mode

[05:35] The coffee cognac state and the nervous system seesaw

[07:38] The brain dump: do, dump, delegate

[11:10] The car analogy: you don't need to know everything

[12:23] Connected but disconnected

[14:13] Can AI replace a friend or therapist?

[18:28] One habit to stay grounded

[25:01] The story behind Taboo Talk with Sarah

NOTABLE RESOURCES

ChatGPT

Taboo Talk with Sarah — available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube

CONNECT

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FXihmKLqS/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590720415359

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadwithcarmen/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadwithCarmen

Apply to be a guest on AI Made Simple: https://www.latpn.com/ai-made-simple-podcast-booking Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com

for information about our collection and use of personal data for

advertising.

What if you could reset your nervous system in three minutes, no cold plunge required? In this episode of AI Made Simple, Carmen Skipworth talks with Xavier Duport, founder of X Factor Coaching, about why AI has become one of today's biggest sources of stress and what to do about it. Xavier shares the X-Reset, his three-minute technique for clearing a stressed mind, explains why vague questions get vague answers from AI, and reveals where he draws the line between what AI does in his business and what stays completely human. Practical, grounded, and refreshingly honest. Human-Led. AI-Powered.

HOST

Carmen Skipworth

GUEST

Xavier Duport — founder of X Factor Coaching, a mental fitness coaching practice helping high-performance founders break the survival patterns keeping them stuck in reactive mode. Before launching his practice, Xavier spent 12 years in corporate leadership, including nine years at L'Oreal. He has coached over 80 clients, combining neuroscience-backed mental fitness training with nervous system work and one-on-one coaching. Originally from France, he is based in Southern California.

SUMMARY

Xavier shares the two turning points behind X Factor Coaching: losing his mother to pancreatic cancer at 24 and a divorce at 37 that forced him to reassess everything. He walks Carmen through the X-Reset, a three-minute full-body technique that creates a controlled stress response, then triggers a parasympathetic rebound that delivers deep rest and clarity of thought. The conversation turns to AI as a modern stressor: why the noise overwhelms entrepreneurs, how Xavier meets clients wherever they are on the AI curve, and why the biggest mistake people make is asking AI vague questions without context. Xavier explains how he uses Claude Code to build client avatars and tailor his marketing, how he loads the knowledge bases of marketers he trusts into Claude, and why the coaching itself stays one-on-one and fully human.

MAIN TOPICS

The two turning points that created X Factor Coaching

The X-Reset: a three-minute nervous system reset

Why AI has become a trendy source of stress

Meeting clients where they are on the AI curve

Why context is everything when you ask AI a question

Building client avatars with Claude Code

Loading trusted knowledge bases into Claude for marketing

Where AI stops and human coaching begins

Trusting your gut when AI sounds so sure

INTRIGUING QUOTES

"You actually hijack your nervous system into creating a fake but real stress response." — Xavier Duport

"I think it's a trendy source of stress." — Xavier Duport

"The main issue that people have with AI is they don't contextualize properly." — Xavier Duport

"Each of these answers can be right for the person who will respond, but that doesn't mean they will be right for the person who asked the question." — Xavier Duport

KEY MOMENTS

[01:12] The story behind X Factor Coaching

[03:04] The X-Reset explained

[06:13] AI as a trendy source of stress

[08:10] Meeting clients where they are with AI

[09:41] Building client avatars with Claude Code

[12:04] What stays human and never goes to AI

[13:22] Why context is everything when asking AI

[19:38] Loading marketer knowledge bases into Claude

[21:30] Who Xavier works with and how to reach him

NOTABLE RESOURCES

ChatGPT

Claude

Claude Code

X Factor Coaching: https://xfactor.coach

Email Xavier: [email protected]

CONNECT

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FXihmKLqS/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590720415359

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadwithcarmen/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadwithCarmen

Apply to be a guest on AI Made Simple: https://www.latpn.com/ai-made-simple-podcast-booking Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com

for information about our collection and use of personal data for

advertising.

Can AI help you meditate without losing your soul? Carmen Skipworth talks with mindfulness coach and energy healer Alana Cahoon about using AI as a marketing tool without letting it speak for you. Alana shares how she uses ChatGPT while protecting her own voice, why she's still cautious about AI a decade in, and the daily meditation practice that keeps her grounded. Human-Led. AI-Powered.

HOST

Carmen Skipworth

GUEST

Alana Cahoon — mindfulness coach, energy healer, and speaker who helps high-achieving professionals align their careers with their soul purpose. Former tech startup incubator director turned holistic coach. Bestselling author of Meditation Made Simple, host of the Creating Abundance podcast, with a new book of the same name on the way, foreword by Moe Rock, CEO of the Los Angeles Tribune.

SUMMARY

Carmen and Alana trace her path from actress and tech startup incubator director to mindfulness coach, and the cosmic moment that pushed her into holistic work. Alana explains how daily meditation keeps self-doubt in check, and tells the story behind Meditation Made Simple, written during a nine-day silent retreat at Kripalu that was cut short when COVID-19 was announced mid-retreat. On AI, she uses ChatGPT mainly for marketing, introduced by a Zen Buddhist teacher, and stays deliberate about keeping her own voice in anything it touches. She shares a prompting tip: ask AI to answer as a specific trusted teacher rather than a generic chatbot. The conversation closes with a preview of her upcoming book Creating Abundance, a client success story, and three takeaways: meditate first thing in the morning, build it into your routine, and stay authentic with AI.

MAIN TOPICS

From actress to tech incubator to mindfulness coach

The cosmic moment that pushed Alana into holistic coaching

Managing self-doubt behind a confident exterior

Writing Meditation Made Simple during a pandemic lockdown at Kripalu

Using AI for marketing without losing your own voice

Asking AI to answer as a trusted teacher, not a generic bot

Three takeaways: morning meditation, routine, and authenticity

INTRIGUING QUOTES

“I literally had one of those cosmic moments where I felt a hand on my back saying, it's time. This is what you're meant to do.” — Alana Cahoon

“When using AI, be clear and authentic about who you are and what you need and what your intentions are.” — Alana Cahoon

“Authenticity, maintaining that authenticity throughout all of your work with AI, is key.” — Alana Cahoon

KEY MOMENTS

[01:07] Introducing Alana Cahoon

[03:46] The cosmic moment that changed everything

[10:16] Writing Meditation Made Simple during lockdown at Kripalu

[15:35] Using AI for marketing without losing her voice

[20:48] Ask AI to answer as a trusted teacher, not a bot

[25:47] Three takeaways: morning, routine, authenticity

NOTABLE RESOURCES

ChatGPT

Meditation Made Simple by Alana Cahoon

Creating Abundance by Alana Cahoon (upcoming, foreword by Moe Rock)

Creating Abundance podcast

alanacahoon.com

CONNECT

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FXihmKLqS/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590720415359

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadwithcarmen/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadwithCarmen

Apply to be a guest on AI Made Simple: https://www.latpn.com/ai-made-simple-podcast-booking Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com

for information about our collection and use of personal data for

advertising.

AI is not the enemy. Confusion is. In the very first episode of AI Made Simple, Carmen Skipworth sits down with digital marketing leader Jeff Ross for a calm, practical conversation about what AI actually is, why it is not out to get you, and how to partner with it instead of being intimidated by it. Jeff shares how AI transformed his content creation as a dyslexic high school dropout, why AI is an amplifier rather than a replacement, and the simple first step anyone can take to bring AI into their work and life. No hype. No jargon. No panic. Human-Led. AI-Powered.

HOST

Carmen Skipworth

GUEST

Jeff Ross — international speaker, customer value journey strategist, and digital marketing leader with over 17 years in online business, social selling, and influence-based marketing. Creator of the HeroMakers movement and author of the upcoming book You Don't Need to Shout.

SUMMARY

Carmen opens the show with the mission behind AI Made Simple: cutting through the noise for people who know AI matters but feel overwhelmed by it. Jeff explains how dictating to AI removed the friction his dyslexia created in content writing, and why treating AI as a teammate rather than a shortcut is the difference between getting stuck and getting results. He walks through where beginners should start, how he wrote his book in four days, how he and his business partner produced a full animated music video in ten hours for around $200, and how ChatGPT helped him troubleshoot a disabled iMessage account in two days instead of a week. The conversation closes with Jeff's take on the future of search and his upcoming book.

MAIN TOPICS

Why AI feels overwhelming and how to cut through the noise

The fourth industrial revolution and the fear of being replaced

AI as an amplifier, not a replacement

Where beginners should start: define the objective first

Finding the bottlenecks in your job that AI can remove

Writing a book in four days as a partnership with AI

Producing a music video with ChatGPT, Suno, and Google Veo 3

Using AI as a troubleshooting partner

The agentic AI wars and the future of search

You Don't Need to Shout: going from invisible to influential

INTRIGUING QUOTES

"Well, first off, I like to say to people, AI saved my marriage." — Jeff Ross

"AI is really just an amplifier." — Jeff Ross

"I was able to write that book in four days versus probably doing it in four months." — Jeff Ross

"So yes, AI will take jobs away, but it will also, it'll create space for the new jobs to come up, just like any technology has in any day of history." — Jeff Ross

KEY MOMENTS

[00:52] How AI saved Jeff's marriage

[03:06] The tractor analogy and AI as an amplifier

[07:32] Where to start: get clear on your objective

[11:19] The $200 music video built in ten hours

[13:04] Troubleshooting a disabled iMessage with ChatGPT

[16:50] The agentic AI wars and where search is heading

[18:14] Inside You Don't Need to Shout

NOTABLE RESOURCES

ChatGPT

Claude

Suno

Google Veo 3

Final Cut Pro

Google Gemini

Perplexity

You Don't Need to Shout by Jeff Ross (coming soon)

CONNECT

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590720415359

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadwithcarmen/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadwithCarmen

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advertising.