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AI Queens: Smart AF AI Tools, Automation, & Business Tips with Erika Stanley
AI Queens: Smart AF AI Tools, Automation, & Business Tips with Erika Stanley episodes
- Stop Thinking You Need to Code: Build a Real Business Tool With Claude
Queens, if you have been telling yourself that Claude Code is for developers and not for you, this one is going to change your mind. Hope Norton spent over 20 years in telecom sales at companies like Verizon and T-Mobile before founding Norton Mobility to help small and mid-sized fleets make smarter technology decisions. She had never coded a thing. Then a former sales engineer sat her down at a Starbucks and told her to open Claude Code and brain dump her idea. One weekend later, she had built Compliance Hub, a tool that is now live on her website and helping trucking companies manage drivers, trucks, and DOT compliance in one place.
Hope and Erika get into what it actually takes to build something real with AI, why your industry expertise matters more than any technical skill, and how to keep yourself from falling into the AI rabbit hole when every idea suddenly feels buildable.
What we cover:
- How Hope went from “I’m not smart enough for this” to building and deploying Compliance Hub in a single weekend
- Why being the subject matter expert is the real superpower, because AI will confidently give you the wrong answer if you do not know what good looks like
- Why Hope keeps the first three trucks and three drivers free forever, and what that says about serving underserved businesses
- How Hope built a second business, Magpie & June, with its own custom website and Stripe checkout instead of dealing with Shopify spam
- Guardrails for yourself, not just your AI: how both women decide which shiny ideas actually serve their goals
The terminal is not scary. You do not need a coding background. You need to know your industry, know what you want, and be willing to type the messy first version.
Ready to build it your damn self? Join an upcoming Buildathon: aiqueens.com/build
Connect with Hope Norton:
- Norton Mobility: https://www.nortonmobility.com
- Magpie & June: https://magpieandjune.com
- Her upcoming podcast: Miles and Megabytes
Connect with Erika!
- https://www.instagram.com/erikatheaiqueen/
- Erika's AI Consultancy: https://www.aiqueens.com/
- Erika's Branding & Web Agency: https://www.mileenddigital.com/
- Join the AI Queens Society: https://aiqueens.substack.com/
31 min - Your AI Is a Yes Man and It’s Costing You. Here’s Why You Need It to Push Back.
Queens, if your AI agrees with every idea you bring it, you have a problem.
Kim Mylls and Alexandria Alecci, co-founders of AI Boss Brainz, join Erika to talk about why generic AI tells founders what they want to hear. AI pulls from whatever is out on the internet, and it doesn’t know your industry, your budget, or your limits.
Kim and Alexandria ran a boutique sales and marketing agency for years. They put thousands of hours of their own sales calls and frameworks into a custom AI that pushes back, asks the next question, and helps founders build a real strategy.
What we cover:
- Why AI acts like a yes man, and how that can send founders in the wrong direction fast
- Why more AI content won’t help unless your sales and marketing strategies work together
- How to use AI as a 3am thought partner that tells you when an idea needs more work
- Why specialized AI tools are the future, and what that means for your expertise and IP
- Why community and human connection still matter as AI takes on more of the work
AI helps you move faster, but speed only pays off when you’re headed in the right direction. Give your AI real context about your business, check what it tells you, and let it challenge your thinking before you spend the money.
Ready for a sales and marketing brain that pushes back? Try AI Boss Brainz free for 7 days, or lock in the special AI Queens founding member rate while spots last.
- Try AI Boss Brainz free for 7 days: https://bossbrainz.aleccimedia.com/
- Get the special AI Queens rate: https://bit.ly/bossbrainz
Connect with Kim and Alexandria:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alecci_media/
Join me this fall:
- Register for the Her AI Era Summit: https://links.mileenddigital.com/her-ai-era-summit-2026
- Come join me at the She Leads AI CREATE Conference: https://sheleadsai.ai/create-2026/
- Register for the next AI Queens Buildathon: http://aiqueens.com/build
Connect with Erika!
https://www.instagram.com/erikatheaiqueen/
Erika's AI Consultancy: https://www.aiqueens.com/
Erika's Branding & Web Agency: https://www.mileenddigital.com/
Join the AI Queens Society: https://aiqueens.substack.com/
43 min - AI Events for Women Entrepreneurs This Fall: Where to Learn, Build, and Meet Erika
Queens, running a business can feel like living on an island. The fastest way I have found to learn AI is to get in a room with other women who are learning, building, and staying curious.
This week I'm coming to you from Austin, Texas with a short episode and a big invitation. I have a busy travel season ahead, and there are four chances this fall to learn with me, online or in person.
What we cover:
- Her AI Era Summit (October 12 to 16, free and virtual): More than 35 women who are AI experts are teaching on creative work, marketing, and operations. My session shows you how to find software subscriptions you can cut because you can now build the tool yourself. The VIP upgrade includes my mini blueprint, which normally sells for $99.
- She Leads AI CREATE Conference (October 16 to 18, Salt Lake City): This is my second year attending and my first year presenting. I'll also be recording episodes at the AI Queens podcast booth, so come say hi.
- Women's Leadership Conference (November 19, Hickory, North Carolina): I'll be at Dr. Lauren Jarrett's speaker's table answering your in-depth AI questions.
- The final AI Queens Buildathon of the year: It's free, it's virtual, and we'll build a custom app together that you can use through the holidays. The date is coming soon.
Every one of these events gives you the same thing: time around women who are building with AI. If you can't make any of them, find a group where you can build, chat, and collaborate.
Join me this fall:
- Register for the Her AI Era Summit: https://links.mileenddigital.com/her-ai-era-summit-2026
- Come join me at the She Leads AI CREATE Conference: https://sheleadsai.ai/create-2026/
- Register for the next AI Queens Buildathon: http://aiqueens.com/build
Connect with Erika!
https://www.instagram.com/erikatheaiqueen/
Erika's AI Consultancy: https://www.aiqueens.com/
Erika's Branding & Web Agency: https://www.mileenddigital.com/
Join the AI Queens Society: https://aiqueens.substack.com/
14 min - She Built an AI Brain So Her Company Runs Without Her (with Alisha Esmail) Guest info: Alisha Esmail
Queens, what would it take for your business to keep running without you in the room?
Alisha Esmail spent seven years in international development before she founded Rode Coffee, a Canadian coffee company with fully female supply chains in Costa Rica, Kenya, and Peru. Along the way, she built an AI business brain in Claude Code that holds 11 years of company knowledge. That brain gave her the freedom to step back from Rode and launch her second company, Latch AI, a client retention engine for service-based businesses.
Alisha and Erika talk about why AI only works when your systems already work, how to spot a client who is about to leave, and why human connection still matters in a business that runs on AI agents. Alisha also shares the rule her whole team follows: "My golden rule is we're never allowed to blame AI."
What we cover:
- Why documenting your processes first makes building an AI brain much easier
- How Alisha's team keeps a human in the loop with monthly client calls and their own CRM notes
- The four client categories Latch uses: at risk, slipping, stable, and expansion ready
- Why a frustrated client is less worrying than one who only says "sounds good"
- Alisha's advice for women who feel they aren't technical enough to build with AI
Alisha's story shows that AI does its best work when you pair strong systems with real relationships. Write down what you know about your business, and let AI help you carry it forward.
Ready to build your own business brain? Get the Brand-to-Bot Blueprint at aiqueens.com/blueprint.
Connect with Alisha:
- LinkedIn
- Instagram @alishaesmail
Connect with Erika!
https://www.instagram.com/erikatheaiqueen/
Erika's AI Consultancy: https://www.aiqueens.com/
Erika's Branding & Web Agency: https://www.mileenddigital.com/
Join the AI Queens Society: https://aiqueens.substack.com/
40 min - Stop Settling for the Number Two Seat: What an AI Founder Wants Women to Know (with Rebecca Liao)
Rebecca Liao has been building AI companies since 2014, back when getting a computer to understand plain language was still a struggle. Today she is the co-founder and CEO of Saga AI Labs, which turns well-known characters from games, sports, and consumer brands into AI agents that talk with fans around the clock. Before Saga, she led growth at a SoftBank-backed unicorn and co-founded a crypto company that grew to about $5 billion in annual volume.
Erika sat down with Rebecca expecting to talk about video game characters. Instead, they got into who gets to tell the story of AI, why the rooms where tech gets built still feel like a boys' club, and why so many talented women settle for the number two seat when they have what it takes to lead.
What we cover:
- Why Rebecca believes the scariest AI safety headlines have more to do with company valuations than real risk
- How being the outsider in a room shapes your career, and how to find allies who help you build
- Rebecca's challenge to women who stay in the COO seat when they have the talent to be CEO
- What a character agent is and why brands use them to reach new customers
- An honest back-and-forth on when an AI agent should tell you it is not a real person
The way women use AI matters, and the whole conversation gets better when more of us share what we are doing. If you have been using AI in your business without telling anyone, this is your sign to speak up, because someone a few steps behind you needs to hear how you did it.
Want AI that sounds like you and knows your business? Grab the Brand-to-Bot Blueprint at aiqueens.com/blueprint, or DM Erika on Instagram or LinkedIn and she will send it over.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Brand-to-Bot Blueprint: https://aiqueens.com/blueprint
- Saga AI Labs: https://saga.xyz
Connect with Rebecca Liao:
https://x.com/beccaliao
https://saga.xyz/Connect with Erika!
https://www.instagram.com/erikatheaiqueen/
Erika's AI Consultancy: https://www.aiqueens.com/
Erika's Branding & Web Agency: https://www.mileenddigital.com/
Join the AI Queens Society: https://aiqueens.substack.com/
45 min - Even the Guys Building AI Are Scared: 3 Things You Need to Know Before You Panic
If you woke up to headlines saying AI has a 10% chance of ending humanity, take a breath. This episode breaks down what actually happened: a high-profile resignation, a CEO calling for the industry to slow down, and the major labs agreeing that guardrails need to happen at a global level, not company by company.
The bigger conversation is about what all of this means for you as a woman using AI in your business. Panic is not a strategy, and neither is opting out.
What we cover:
- Why researcher Jacob Coxon resigned and what "recursive self-improvement" actually means
- What Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's new paper says about the next six to twelve months
- The Hugging Face incident and why it matters that AI agents worked around their guardrails
- What happened to the 2023 AI executive order and why regulation now sits with voters
- How to reconcile using AI in your business with staying clear-eyed about the risks
- Why women opting out of AI means losing our seat at the table where decisions get made
The people building this technology are telling us to pay attention, so pay attention. Stay informed, keep using AI with your eyes open, and remember that being informed is its own form of activism. And if AI regulation matters to you, you vote in November.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Fortune: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and AI whistleblower Jacob Coxon agree something terrifying could happen in a matter of months
https://fortune.com/2026/09/13/anthropic-dario-amodei-ai-whistleblower-jacob-coxon-openai-sam-altman-recursive-self-improvement/- Heather Cox Richardson: September 13, 2026
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-13-2026- Scientific American: AI researcher Jacob Coxon quit, fearing extinction. Security experts see a familiar fight
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-jacob-coxon-quit-extinction-fears-security-experts-see-familiar-fight/Guest spots now open!
Season 3 is adding real-time problem solving with business owners like you. Bring your messiest business problem and let's solve it together on the air: aiqueens.com/apply
Ready to build something of your own? Join the list for the next AI Queens Buildathon — a live, hands-on workshop where you walk away with a working tool built for your business: aiqueens.com/build
Connect with Erika!
https://www.instagram.com/erikatheaiqueen/
Erika's AI Consultancy: https://www.aiqueens.com/
Erika's Branding & Web Agency: https://www.mileenddigital.com/
Join the AI Queens Society: https://aiqueens.substack.com/
17 min - ChatGPT Recommended a Deodorant That Doesn't Exist: 4 AI Updates That Change How Your Business Gets Found
Queens, a marketer invented a deodorant brand that does not exist, and three weeks later ChatGPT was recommending it above real products. That story opens this week's roundup of four AI updates that matter for your business, each paired with one move you can make this week.
AI is quickly becoming the front door to your business. It decides whether your dream clients find you, how your writing sounds, and even whether your website content gets seen at all. This episode is your shortcut through the noise.
What we cover:
- How a fake brand called Marowin got ChatGPT to recommend it, and what that means for getting your business on the new AI shelf
- GPT-6 Astra vs. Claude Fable 5.1: why you should pick a default model per task instead of model hopping mid-project
- How five professional writers actually use AI, and why the human bookends of your writing are the whole thing
- The September 15 Cloudflare change that could block AI from finding your website, and the settings to check now
The businesses that stay visible in AI search will be the ones with painfully clear positioning and a narrow lane they own. Pick one move from this episode and you're already ahead of most of your market.
Guest spots now open!
Season 3 is adding real-time problem solving with business owners like you. Bring your messiest business problem and let's solve it together on the air: aiqueens.com/apply
Ready to build something of your own? Join the list for the next AI Queens Buildathon — a live, hands-on workshop where you walk away with a working tool built for your business: aiqueens.com/build
Connect with Erika!
https://www.instagram.com/erikatheaiqueen/
Erika's AI Consultancy: https://www.aiqueens.com/
Erika's Branding & Web Agency: https://www.mileenddigital.com/
Join the AI Queens Society: https://aiqueens.substack.com/
20 min - Stop Treating AI Like a Search Engine: How to Build With It Instead
Queens, if you're still using AI to check the weather or rephrase an email, you're leaving the good stuff on the table. Sarah K. Heeter of PodFox Media is back for round two, and this time we're pulling back the curtain on what we actually text each other about: the apps, dashboards, and tools we're building for ourselves instead of paying for someone else's almost-right software.
Sarah built her own session scheduler for her podcast after a $15/month tool kept letting guests miss their slots. I rebuilt my whole client management system and ditched Dubsado. And yes, we both built spinny-wheel book recommendation apps, because reading is expensive and we have priorities.
What we cover:
- Why "solve a problem" beats "answer a question" every time, and how that one shift changes what you build
- Fable 5 vs. everything else: when the big model is worth the credits and when it isn't
- The skateboard-to-car rule for minimum viable products (start with the skateboard, not the wheels)
- Research first, then build: how Sarah used Claude to shop the market before deciding to DIY
- The real downsides of building it yourself, including the fact that you are now customer support
The best part? You don't need a dev team or a market of thousands. You're a market viability of one, and that's all it takes to build something that fits your business exactly.
Want to solve a problem on the show?
Season three is open for guests. If you've got a challenge in your business or your day-to-day that AI might be able to fix, apply at aiqueens.com/apply or DM me on Instagram or LinkedIn.Connect with Sarah:
- Podfox Media: podfoxmedia.com
- Big Brave Business podcast: bigbravebusiness.com
Mentioned in this episode:
- Brand-to-Bot Blueprint: aiqueens.com/blueprint
- Claude (Chat, Cowork, Code, Design)
- Dubsado, TidyCal, Breeze Docs, Sendbox (AppSumo)
- Supabase, Vercel, Railway, GitHub
- Google Apps Script
- Libby, Kindle Unlimited, Audible
- Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
Ready to build something of your own? Join the list for the next AI Queens Buildathon — a live, hands-on workshop where you walk away with a working tool built for your business: aiqueens.com/build
Connect with Erika!
https://www.instagram.com/erikatheaiqueen/
Erika's AI Consultancy: https://www.aiqueens.com/
Erika's Branding & Web Agency: https://www.mileenddigital.com/
Join the AI Queens Society: https://aiqueens.substack.com/
47 min - 5 Apps I Built With Fable 5 That Cancelled $1,200 of Software
Queens, what if you could cancel $1,200 in software subscriptions — not by cutting corners, but by building the replacements yourself? That's exactly what Erika did during the Claude Fable 5 preview, and she's breaking down all five builds: what they replaced, what they cost (or saved), and the one mindset shift that made it possible. The big unlock? Stop telling AI how to do its job. Give it a goal and let it run.
Before diving in, Erika gives a shoutout to a Claude skill built by previous guest Vanessa Chang that turns a messy brain dump into a clean, structured Fable 5 prompt — a must-have for anyone who has the idea but struggles to communicate it to AI. Link below.
What we cover:
- Why Fable 5 is different and why micromanaging it actually caps what it can build
- The website rebuild that moved Erika off Webflow and onto Netlify for $5/month (saving ~$400/year)
- The custom email management tool that replaced Fixer.ai and works better for how Erika actually operates
- The client management system built to replace Dubsado, saving $500/year and counting
- The book club app that has zero ROI and might be the most revolutionary thing Erika built
The real takeaway here: the most powerful thing you can do with AI right now is build something too weird, too small, and too you for any software company to bother with. That constraint — that a tool has to serve thousands of people to justify its existence — is gone. Go build the dumb little thing that makes your week easier. Start there.
Ready to build something of your own? Join the list for the next AI Queens Buildathon — a live, hands-on workshop where you walk away with a working tool built for your business: aiqueens.com/build
Mentioned in this episode:
- Download Vanessa Chang's Fable 5 Prompt Skill: Prompting Fable — A Beginner's Guide
- AI Queens Buildathon: aiqueens.com/build
Connect with Erika!
https://www.instagram.com/erikatheaiqueen/
Erika's AI Consultancy: https://www.aiqueens.com/
Erika's Branding & Web Agency: https://www.mileenddigital.com/
Join the AI Queens Society: https://aiqueens.substack.com/
23 min - 5 AI Connectors That Turn Claude From Chatbot to Second Brain
Queens, if you've been using Claude just to write captions or brainstorm content, you're only scratching the surface. Claude can read your emails, check your calendar, pull from your meeting notes, and brief you before a client call — all without you lifting a finger. In this episode, I'm walking you through the five connectors that completely changed how I run my business and how you can set them up too.
Think of connectors as windows into your business. Without them, Claude is a brilliant brain sitting in a room with no view — it only knows what you've typed into the chat box. With them, it can securely link to the apps you're already using and actually work with your real-world information.
What we cover:
- Your AI note taker (Fathom, Otter, Granola) and why it's the first connector to set up
- Team communication via Slack and how to get a daily action item digest sent straight to you
- Your Google Calendar connector and how Claude can find and block focus time on your behalf
- Google Drive and how to build a client-specific project with full document context
- Email (Gmail or Outlook) and how to walk into any meeting fully prepped in minutes instead of hours
The best part? You don't need to pay anything extra. If you already have a Claude subscription, connectors are sitting right there in your settings, waiting for you.
This is AI working for you, not the other way around. And the two things it gives back more than anything else? Time and headspace.
Ready to set all of this up with me, live? Join the waitlist for the next AI Queens Buildathon at aiqueens.com/build. Spots are limited and we do this hands-on together.
Connect with Erika!
https://www.instagram.com/erikatheaiqueen/
Erika's AI Consultancy: https://www.aiqueens.com/
Erika's Branding & Web Agency: https://www.mileenddigital.com/
Join the AI Queens Society: https://aiqueens.substack.com/
20 min
About AI Queens: Smart AF AI Tools, Automation, & Business Tips with Erika Stanley
From the publisher's feed
The AI Queens podcast empowers women entrepreneurs to confidently leverage AI and cutting-edge technologies to elevate their businesses. Hosted by AI strategist and branding expert Erika Stanley,…
Branding and AI Strategist, each episode delivers quick wins, creative tools, and actionable strategies to help listeners explore AI as a playground for growth and innovation. Whether you're AI-curious or ready to rule your industry, AI Queens is your guide to rewriting the rules and making tech work for you.
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