What happens when an athlete, educator, and entrepreneur turns AI strategist?

In this episode of Executive Connect, host Melissa Aarskaug sits down with Marnie Wills, AI strategist and business transformation expert, to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping work, education, and everyday life. Marnie shares her journey from international athlete and business owner to AI advocate, revealing how she helps companies build human-centered AI ecosystems that enhance creativity and performance.

If you’ve ever felt “too non-techy” to understand AI, this conversation will show you how to make it approachable, fun, and transformative—for your business and your life.

What You’ll Learn:

How AI is transforming business and education

Why “AI literacy” is the new essential skill

The mindset shift from fear to curiosity

Real ways AI saves time and boosts creativity

How to integrate AI responsibly and humanely

Why athletes often make great entrepreneurs

How to achieve work-life integration in an AI-driven world

Chapters:

Marnie

(0:00) What do agents and robotics do for humans? (0:04) Because businesses only exist when humans consume or when humans do business. (0:10) How is that going to change your industry?

(0:12) It is more like how will people be applying for roles? (0:15) Do they need to be showing their AI literacy skillset within the candidate roles? (0:20) Will they be having an agent write or respond with them?

(0:24) When will human interaction come into play because that’s really important as well.

Melissa

(0:27) What do you get when you cross an international athlete, a mom, an AI coach and a business founder? (0:37) You get Marnie Lee Willis and no, she does not get much sleep. (0:42) From coaching on the rugby field to leading physical education through sports minis, Marnie is now helping entrepreneurs and educators discover the fun side of AI.

(0:53) If you thought tech training was dry, think again on today’s Executive Connect podcast, we’re diving into how Marnie blends sports strategy and smarts to empower the next generation of high impact leaders. (1:09) You’ve gone from elite athlete to business founder to AI trainer. (1:14) What’s been the driving force behind these pivot in the through line for you?

Marnie

(1:19) Oh, gosh, I think the pivot is always about the challenge, right? (1:23) It’s always about the next thing that’s going to improve me as a person and take me to that next step in whatever I’m doing. (1:31) I believe that we are living in an exciting world with the introduction of AI technology.

(1:38) And I wasn’t going to sleep on this, especially feeling like I was a non techy going through university life and going through my teaching career. (1:48) I didn’t see myself as techy at all, but somehow how I came about using AI with actually Jasper AI as my first copywriting AI tool. (1:58) I just loved the way it made me feel superhuman.

(2:01) I loved the way I felt really confident and I loved how it was just always pushing me to that next level.

Melissa

(2:07) I love it. (2:08) And as a fellow athlete, I think that plays such an important role in what you’re talking about, learning and growing and what’s next, what’s going to move you to the next level. (2:18) So let’s talk a little bit about sporty minis.

(2:22) What inspired you to focus on early childhood, physical education and how is this evolving through your leadership?

Marnie

(2:32) Yeah. (2:33) Okay. (2:33) So long story short, I was a PE and science teacher from Australia, moved to London.

(2:38) It was a really tough market. (2:41) I was on danger pay in some schools. (2:43) It was that rough, which is not what I’m used to coming from Australia.

(2:47) I fell in love with teaching a little bit. (2:49) I was a dual international athlete, so I was playing both netball and touch rugby for England. (2:54) And yeah, the straw that kind of broke the camel’s back was I was off to a tournament.

(3:00) I believe in Australia to go to Australia and my head teacher wasn’t really happy and didn’t want to give me the time off. (3:07) And I was so confused. (3:08) I’m like, I don’t understand.

(3:09) I’m like, you know, I’m your head in netball and I’m off to go and play netball in Australia. (3:14) Why? (3:15) Why is that a problem?

(3:17) And I just just after that, I just lost all faith in the education system from that perspective and thought, I’m going to start my business. (3:24) I’m going to fund, you know, the ability to be an amateur athlete because it is amateur. (3:28) I wasn’t getting paid to play.

(3:29) And you only live once. (3:32) And I was loving being having the opportunity to travel and play sport. (3:36) So I decided to start my own business.

(3:38) And I originally started in primary schools but found it quite difficult. (3:42) There’s a lot of other companies around. (3:45) And I guess from my teaching days, especially for girls in the UK, not hopefully not not everywhere.

(3:52) But in the UK, girls sport wasn’t very well played. (3:57) It wasn’t, you know, they either loved football or they didn’t love sport at all or they didn’t have the basic fundamentals. (4:03) And I thought it doesn’t start in primary school.

(4:05) It starts in early years. (4:07) You know, so our ethos for sporty minis is getting children active, confident and loving all things sports and physical activity from an early age. (4:15) And so that was 11 years ago.

(4:17) And we’re still going strong. (4:18) We have changed our business model from franchising to business partners. (4:22) And thank you to AI for that, by the way.

(4:25) And we’re an impact driven business that not only creates opportunities for ambitious sports coaches to start their own business, but also to, like I said, to get children active, confident, loving all things sport and physical activity.

Melissa

(4:40) Ready to lead smarter and invest wiser? (4:44) On the Executive Connect podcast, we unpack executive strategies for wealth and influence. (4:51) Hit the subscribe button now.

(4:53) Don’t just watch ACT. (4:55) And I think it’s so powerful. (4:56) And I love what you said, Marnie.

(4:58) I think it has to start young. (5:00) I know personally, for me, I started young in sports and it was just part of my DNA. (5:07) I didn’t know any better and fast forward to becoming, you know, a college athlete and pivoting in, you know, from one sport to another.

(5:19) I felt like I lost part of my own identity at some point when I didn’t have the sports as part of my life. (5:26) And funny enough, I went from track to rugby, not because I even understood how to play rugby, but I just needed like the physical side of it. (5:39) And so some of my dorm roommates are like, hey, we need somebody to run the ball.

(5:45) We’re just going to throw it to you and you just run. (5:47) And so I just showed up and started playing rugby. (5:50) And I laughed probably for halfway through the year.

(5:53) I had no idea how to play the actual game of rugby. (5:57) People just can’t throw me the ball. (5:59) Oh, my God.

(6:00) I love that.

Marnie

(6:02) It goes to show so much. (6:05) Yeah, go ahead. (6:06) Go ahead.

(6:06) Yeah. (6:06) I was just about to say it goes to show that although, you know, sports and businesses, we all need, you know, to have expertise and actual facts. (6:14) Sometimes you need to specialize in one or two things for it to be a success and for you to contribute.

(6:18) And it’s the same in sport. (6:20) You know, you needed to catch the ball and you need to use your speed, you know, to score tries. (6:25) And lo and behold, you know, it worked for you and the team.

Melissa

(6:27) Yeah. (6:28) And I love it because so much of that that you said about starting young and just the simple way of moving your body, no matter what it is or what sport it is. (6:40) There’s so much power in that and so much way, so many different ways we can build relationships and lead through sports.

(6:50) And I some of those rugby players today, I still communicate with twenty five years later, you know, marriage later, children later, careers later. (7:03) And I only played rugby for a year. (7:06) So it’s funny how, you know, that happens.

(7:09) I want to switch gears to you hinted on it. (7:14) Yes, I love AI too. (7:15) It’s making, you know, so many things less daunting, easier to do.

(7:21) Now you run workshops, helping business owners and educators get comfortable with AI. (7:29) Let’s talk a little bit about that. (7:31) And then I’m also curious what’s holding people back from AI or leaning into AI.

(7:39) Maybe you can share kind of those two thought patterns.

Marnie

(7:42) Yeah. (7:42) So I get probably get maybe three groups of people that I get to speak to. (7:47) One group might be I don’t know how to use AI.

(7:52) My industry doesn’t use it. (7:54) You know, data security, cyber security, you know, my. (7:58) So, for example, if you’re a financial services or if you’re in a law firm, you know, there’s a lot of hesitation.

(8:04) So I get a lot of that. (8:06) And my feedback is always that shouldn’t stop you using AI for life and to better yourself. (8:13) And then I often get the maybe marketing agencies, maybe.

(8:19) Maybe even some people that work in tech like that, you know, that go in and help a business. (8:24) There’s Microsoft 365, for example. (8:26) So I recently spoke to a tech company who, you know, they go and implement that.

(8:29) But they’re quite behind in the use of generative AI in business. (8:32) And they’re saying, you know, my clients are asking for it. (8:36) What do I do?

(8:37) What do I offer them? (8:38) How do I talk about it? (8:40) So I get those type of people.

(8:42) And then I get and these are always my favorite. (8:44) It’s normally kind of your entrepreneurial, your very small businesses that say, yeah, yeah. (8:49) We use co-pilot all the time or, you know, we use chat G.B.T. And I’m like, oh, that’s amazing. (8:54) If you, you know, do you have a Teams account for data security? (8:56) Do you have you set up your projects? (8:58) Have you set up your G.B.T.? Are you doing deep research? (9:01) You know, have you got your connectors, you know, and they’re like, oh, what? (9:04) Sorry. (9:04) Oh, no, I just have all my chats on the left hand side.

(9:06) And I’m like, oh, dear. (9:08) OK, you know, so I guess I always start with reminding people about the mindset. (9:15) I believe that we all be adopting to to make sure that we’re all progressing nicely into having an AI first mindset.

(9:24) Because, you know, whether we like it or not, AI, generative AI is going to replace the way we research on the Internet. (9:32) It’s going to replace the way that we access information and communicate with each other. (9:37) It’s going to change the way we make decisions.

(9:40) It will probably, you know, put our iPhones to bed. (9:45) You know, generative AI is going to be the point where we’re using. (9:48) We’re going to be using agents.

(9:49) We’re going to have robotics. (9:50) It’s going to be a crazy world and we can’t bury our heads in the sand about it. (9:55) Instead, we have to start by using it every day and remembering that it is artificial intelligence.

(10:01) But I like to say it’s amplifying your intelligence and we don’t want to be lazy users of AI and have AI do everything for us. (10:07) Instead, we want to use generative AI tools to be a strategic thinking partner, to be, you know, a collaborative partner. (10:14) And that’s really, really important.

(10:15) And I always start there of the mindset of curiosity and abundance. (10:19) Yeah.

Melissa

(10:20) And I love that. (10:20) I think it’s so true, Marnie. (10:22) I think we can’t be fearful of things.

(10:26) We need to lean in and take teeny tiny steps and try it on. (10:30) It’s like the first time we rode a bike, you know, we were scared. (10:34) I think back to like, you know, Y2K and 2000, everybody in the US thought they were going to lose all the money in their bank accounts and all these things we were so fearful for.

(10:44) And I think it’s just like anything else. (10:46) It’s just trying and learning and educating yourself and deciding, OK, it’s probably not smart to put my private information in chat GPT and just just working and learning, like you said, how to set it up. (10:59) So we’re we’re best set up for success.

(11:02) I think that’s such a good point. (11:04) And I find it funny. (11:05) You know, I just put my parents on, you know, chat GPT and, you know, now they’re even more of an expert at parenting me now that they have this tool that tells them everything they need to know.

(11:23) It’s hilarious the amount of information I get now from my parents. (11:27) So they have really leaned into it as baby boomers. (11:32) So it’s interesting to see.

(11:35) And same with my children, I find it funny and my kids are like, well, chat GPT says that’s not sound parenting advice. (11:43) And so it kind of I have it going both directions in my life now.

Marnie

(11:47) I absolutely love that. (11:49) But it is amazing that even the children, even the next generation are really aware of what generative I can do. (11:56) And I think, you know, I think it’s so important that the education of AI, you know, is put out there as much as possible.

(12:03) And that can be from leaders within a business that can be from, you know, the parents. (12:08) It doesn’t have to be done within the education system because, you know, well, here in the UK, I know the education system is behind, you know, it’s forever catching up. (12:17) So, you know, I don’t think that the education system and the teachers are generally equipped to be teaching around the education of AI and AI literacy.

(12:24) But, you know, as parents and as leaders in business, you know, we can definitely be making an impact in the next generation because I’m not sure if you’ve heard this stat, but 64 percent of Gen Alpha who will be entering the workforce by 2030, 64 percent of their jobs do not currently exist yet, which is a crazy stat. (12:46) So, yeah, I wonder, like, you know, how are we really helping this next generation, you know, enter the workforce when we don’t even know what their jobs are going to look like yet. (12:58) And I think it’s very, very important that we are all especially leaders in any business or any leadership role.

(13:03) And I’ll give you an example of how I used AI just on the weekend with the youth sport team. (13:10) But I think as leaders in life, it’s very important that we’re helping the next generation understand the, I guess, the revolution of what Genitive AI is doing and how it can help in life and business.

Melissa

(13:22) This episode is brought to you by Summit Ventures. (13:27) If you’re an accredited investor, Summit gives you access to one of the greatest tax advantage opportunities, direct ownership in oil and gas. (13:39) Their projects deliver what they call the triple play cash flow, equity growth, and powerful tax benefits.

(13:47) And here’s the best part. (13:49) These investments qualify for 1031 exchanges. (13:53) That means you can roll gains from real estate into energy while deferring capital gains.

(14:00) To learn more and get a free white paper, oil and gas demystified, just visit wwwsummitven.com forward slash executive connect. (14:14) Yeah. (14:15) And I think it’s just learning the little tricks like my 15 year old just got her driving permit and using chat GPT to help her study for that test outside of, you know, pre-purchase study material that she needed or apps or things like that.

(14:35) So, and then my 12 year olds are like, we need a cookie recipe. (14:39) Let’s just find one. (14:40) We don’t have this ingredient.

(14:41) Let’s see what else we have in the pantry. (14:43) And so it’s, it’s simple, simple things like that that really make our lives effortless instead of getting in the car to get an ingredient asking the tool. (14:55) Is there other ways we can make this ingredient work or a better recipe for it?

(15:00) So I think there’s small baby steps. (15:03) I think is really key, but you’re spot on. (15:06) And I had not heard that statistic.

(15:07) That is crazy to me. (15:10) But it’s also interesting to me because, you know, my youngest child can work the, you know, the, all the electronics in our house like he’s three and he can move things around turn our thermo like he is just tech is his thing. (15:27) He knows how to work it.

(15:28) So there, it’s almost like they’re coming up now with fully understanding how to work the tools regardless of the manuals. (15:37) So I totally agree. (15:38) I want to switch gears and kind of circle back to something we were kind of unpacking a little bit, but you’ve coached athletes and built businesses and now you train on tack.

(15:55) I want to get from your perspective how the experiences as an athlete teaching sports help you in the world you live in today.

Marnie

(16:07) Yeah, I always cringe when you when I hear like you teach tech because my brain is like I’m not a techie. (16:13) I think what I see when I feel well what I kind of like to talk about AI is not techie. (16:19) It’s kind of just a way to communicate and be efficient.

(16:24) It’s kind of how I see it. (16:25) So I always get really cringy about the tech, but yes, I’ll I’ll embrace that and I’ll I’ll go with that and and I guess I’ll say to answer your question. (16:37) I don’t know how I managed to understand the importance of getting the always getting the best out of yourself and trying to be the best version of yourself.

(16:49) I’m not sure where it started. (16:51) I’m not sure kind of, you know, if it was one particular moment, or if it was just a snowball effect, but that is like a way that I generally just live life of what are the 110 20% margins that I can be doing can be learning can be creating that is going to allow me to be the best version of myself. (17:14) And I think with that mindset, I’ve been able to almost have no fear.

(17:19) I know there’s a there’s a in the mindset. (17:22) Well, there’s a whole lot of research around fearing success and fearing failure. (17:27) And I guess for me, I don’t often get caught up in that because it’s just about it’s almost like the progression of life.

(17:36) It’s it’s about how can I just be better that little bit extra better every time. (17:40) And I think that’s probably why I love AI so much because I feel like every time I use, you know, my AI models from my pre trained AI models to using Claude using chat GPT. (17:54) I just feel like I am getting that 1% smarter or that 1% more efficient or or I’m creating opportunities for other people because that’s definitely a value of mine.

(18:05) But to create opportunities for other people, you also have to create opportunities for yourself. (18:09) And, you know, Oprah Winfrey says it right fill up your own cup before you can serve other people. (18:14) So, yeah, I don’t know if that answers your question, and I’m not sure how it evolved, but it is just that mindset of always trying to be that little bit extra, though that extra be that be better have that high performance mindset.

Melissa

(18:28) And I know for me, like I think back to kind of the sporting side of it. (18:35) You know, I got started playing baseball because there weren’t there wasn’t softball at the time where I lived in the state so I played baseball with the boys and so I think back to like how I had to learn to swing or to step into my swing and just like you were saying getting a little bit better and working with my coach or my parents to get a little bit better. (18:58) And back in the days when I was coming up in sports, we had these giant cameras.

(19:03) It was horribly embarrassing that my father would record me while I was trying to get better. (19:10) But just seeing myself and how I was stepping and how I was swinging and it was teeny tiny. (19:24) You know, I did the change.

(19:25) I practiced it a little bit and then the next game I you know, I it was like I knew how to do it because I’d practice it so much. (19:33) And so I for me, I think athletics has helped a lot of that high performance, high, high fix change within me. (19:43) I think, you know, I think back to how I’m using it in tech now.

(19:48) But it’s tiny tweaks, right? (19:50) It’s like, okay, well, don’t slide into home base that way because you’re going to slice up your legs. (19:56) I only had to make that mistake a couple of times and I never did it again, right?

(20:01) It’s the same thing with rugby. (20:03) I’m like, you know, I just knew I had to run fast. (20:06) Otherwise, you know, my legs would have potentially been broken if I went fast.

(20:11) And so I just got faster. (20:12) And so I think it’s this I love that you said that with AI because it’s like it’s just never stopping. (20:20) It’s just constant fire, horsepower all day, every day.

(20:24) And as soon as, you know, we put it, we work through it. (20:28) The next model comes out and the faster things are computing, the more data it can compile. (20:33) So I love it because although I don’t identify as an athlete anymore, those cleats are hung up, the bats are put away.

(20:44) I think I get that same, you know, runners high, if you will, with tech and AI now. (20:51) It’s I love the kind of flip with it. (20:54) But yeah, I love now let’s talk about I think back to like balancing athletics and a business and my career and all the things the the how do we balance it, integrate it so we don’t burn out and fall out.

(21:15) So you’re a mom, a founder, a coach, a speaker, all the things what does I don’t know if I love this word balance. (21:23) I love the word work life integration. (21:26) What does that look like in your world today?

(21:29) And how are you protecting your time and your energy?

Marnie

(21:34) Yeah, that’s a tough one. (21:37) Sometimes I nail it and sometimes I don’t. (21:41) Definitely probably the last month I probably hasn’t nailed it.

(21:44) Something’s given maybe it’s time with my children. (21:47) Maybe it’s, you know, spending more quality time talking with my partner, you know, maybe I’ve not been the best at socializing and replying to all those WhatsApp messages with my friends. (21:56) Right.

(21:57) Like, I don’t, I definitely don’t have the magic answer. (22:00) But I guess, I guess the most important thing for me is making sure I’m true to myself and and only working with the people that like me up or only helping impact driven businesses that I want to help or, you know, not doing something because I feel like I have to or it’s part of business growth. (22:21) It’s, I have been lucky enough, honestly, in all of my careers.

(22:26) I’ve been so lucky. (22:27) I’ve never really had to do things I didn’t want to do, you know, from the age of five I wanted to be PE teacher, worked all the way through to become a PE teacher, you know, then it’s like, oh, I’m an athlete. (22:36) This is amazing.

(22:38) You know, to, oh, I should just start a business and then fell in love with my business. (22:41) Oh, I’ll just start another business. (22:42) Great.

(22:42) No problem. (22:43) Oh, exit that business. (22:44) Oh, I’ll change that business model.

(22:45) Oh, I’ll just become an AI trainer and consultant. (22:48) Like, I just feel like I have just kind of been really lucky to probably be in tune to the things that light me up and haven’t felt like I’ve needed to do things I didn’t want to do. (23:02) And if I’m honest, if I have to do things I don’t want to do, I leverage it out.

(23:06) You know, there is someone that cleans my house. (23:08) There is somebody that does my finances. (23:10) There’s all the, you know, if I just, how do you get the best out of yourself?

(23:14) You do the things that you want to do. (23:17) And, you know, I often get mum guilt a lot, especially if I’m at a training weekend, like I was away in Ireland at the weekend coaching a youth England touch team to the Youth Atlantic Cup. (23:29) And I do get a little bit mum guilt, you know, I, my little girl’s three and a half and my oldest is eight and, you know, I get little, mommy, we miss you.

(23:37) Where are you? (23:37) I’m like, don’t worry. (23:38) Bring me home a gold medal.

(23:39) It’s all okay. (23:40) You know, like, you know, those type of things and I get a bit mum guilt about it. (23:44) But I guess I know that I am better with them when I feel like I’m purposeful and I’m getting to be me.

(23:53) And although you become a parent or you become a business owner, you do not have to be solely in that one element. (24:00) You know, we’re humans, we’re holistic person and there’s many elements that allow us to be fulfilled. (24:07) And it’s really important that we are trying really hard to fill them all.

(24:11) So again, we can be the best versions of sales for the people around us. (24:15) I kind of view life as a bit of a stool with three legs. (24:19) You’ve got your family, you know, your love, your social, you’ve got your purpose and then you’ve got the way you monetize it.

(24:26) And if any of them are unbalanced in any way, it feels a bit rocky. (24:29) So if I ever feel a little bit rocky, maybe I’m burning out a little bit because I’ve been too much on the trying to monetize, right? (24:36) Or maybe I’m feeling a little bit down because I’ve not been socializing or spending time with my family.

(24:41) You know, it’s just those cues of like, why do I feel like that today? (24:44) Right. (24:44) Let’s look at the calendar.

(24:46) Let’s prioritize. (24:47) You know, let’s have a little think about where you can get back to balance. (24:51) So that, for me, the balance is more just making sure I’ve got a little piece of everything.

Melissa

(24:55) This episode sponsor is a couple I absolutely love. (25:00) David and Alexis Keeley. (25:02) They help power couples be successful at home, just like they are at work.

(25:07) If you’re crushing it in the business world, but quietly disconnected from your spouse, you’re not alone. (25:13) Check them out at David and Alexis Keeley.org. (25:16) They have spent years creating a simple tool set that will help you save your marriage.

(25:22) Don’t forget to use code executive one to save $500 off their six week coaching programs. (25:28) David and Alexis Keeley.org. (25:30) Code executive one.

(25:32) I love it. (25:36) And it sounds like, tell me if I’m wrong here. (25:38) You lean in to what is interesting to you and then you focus on it while still taking care of yourself.

(25:49) Cause I hear kind of like that you’re using your intuition as well. (25:54) Like I hear that like mom intuition coming through as well. (25:58) And so I think that’s such an important nugget of things don’t feel right.

(26:03) And you’re unhappy and you’re burnt out and you’re stressed out and your relationships are not doing great. (26:10) Then it’s time to really check you down the right path for you and your family. (26:15) And so it sounds like you’ve really figured out how to navigate, you know, those different waves in life.

(26:22) And so kudos to you. (26:25) It’s constantly changing.

Marnie

(26:27) Yeah. (26:29) I don’t think you ever figure it out. (26:30) I think as long as you can stay in tune and you can have your reflection time, you know, you can journal a little bit.

(26:36) You can keep it real. (26:38) You know, at the end of the day, you know, life isn’t always meant to be easy. (26:43) So sometimes you have to roll with the punches, right?

(26:45) And I think the winning combination, I hear myself say this a lot. (26:48) I say this a lot on the weekend to my athletes, but I also say this a lot in our quarterly business meetings with my business partners is the winning combination is playing with your head. (26:57) And your heart.

(26:58) Like if you aren’t connected with your heart, you know, if you don’t feel like you’re making an impact, if you don’t feel like you can really put it on the line, you know, you’re not going to succeed. (27:07) But if you don’t play with your head, you know, if we don’t make mistakes and learn fast, if we’re not trying to continually stay on top of things, make strategic changes, you know, you can’t do one without the other. (27:18) And sometimes in business, we try and play up here and we forget to connect here.

(27:22) And then sometimes, you know, in business, we’re like, Oh, I love my business. (27:25) It’s so great. (27:26) But then we don’t do the strategic thing at the top and it’s not a success.

(27:29) You’ve got to have them both together. (27:30) That is that winning that winning formula.

Melissa

(27:34) Yeah. (27:35) And I love kind of another thing that just popped in my head when you said that is you share with your kids so they don’t have to, you know, assume, right? (27:47) Mommy’s bringing home that medal for you, right?

(27:50) And, and so they’re part of that, right? (27:54) Instead of saying, okay, Mommy doesn’t want to be here. (27:56) She doesn’t love me.

(27:57) She doesn’t like me. (27:58) You’re having that open dialogue communication with your child and then they get excited about it. (28:06) Okay.

(28:07) Good luck, Mommy. (28:08) Good luck. (28:08) We’re cheering for you.

(28:10) And I think having those bringing your work and your family into it makes it so, so rewarding and so easy to really enjoy what you do.

Marnie

(28:22) I’ve been doing that a lot with AI, actually. (28:24) So my oldest daughter loves the gladiators. (28:27) I’m not sure if you’ve heard about it, but as glad as UK and she created her own character.

(28:32) So we use chat to write her song. (28:35) Then we use sooner for her to record, you know, so taking her along that journey. (28:40) She wanted to create a website from her little PowerPoint.

(28:43) So I showed her how to use Gemma and she put her PowerPoint in from her Aztecs project for history, made this website. (28:50) And then, you know, I’ve been loving building on lovable. (28:53) So she loves languages.

(28:55) So I said, you know, what type of languages do you want to learn about what topics? (28:58) And we created this little app for her to do. (29:01) And, you know, that’s taking her along the journey.

(29:03) Like this is what I’m doing. (29:04) And she’s asked me the other day, she said, why did you do that for me? (29:07) I was like, it’s fun.

(29:08) I’m like, you know, that’s what life is about. (29:11) It’s to do fun things. (29:13) It’s to be creative.

(29:14) I like being creative. (29:15) And I said, and I wanted to solve a problem for you. (29:17) And I think that’s kind of implementing like in in probably planting the seed around that entrepreneurship of, you know, entrepreneurs are always looking to solve problems, aren’t they?

(29:28) That they’re saying this is a problem in the market. (29:30) I could solve it like this or, you know, I could do this better. (29:32) And I was just trying to plant those seeds a little bit around, you know, because again, we don’t know what the job market is going to look like for them when they’re older.

(29:39) So, you know, and just showing her that it’s easy, you know, your mom that, you know, doesn’t like to do the dishes, likes to build you apps, you know, like, I think that’s really, really important for them to see.

Melissa

(29:52) Yeah, I love that. (29:53) I agree. (29:53) I think it’s when a parent is side by side with their children, you’re, you know, telling them it’s okay not to be scareful.

(30:03) That’s even a word. (30:05) Fearful. (30:07) And to really support them in it.

(30:09) And so you’re being their coach, their mentor, you’re really taking those first steps with them so they can feel comfortable in it. (30:17) So, so kudos to you for doing that. (30:19) I need to do more of that with my kids.

(30:22) Looking to the future and really thinking about why AI matters at all to everyone, what should entrepreneurs and educators pay attention now as it relates to AI from your perspective?

Marnie

(30:37) Oh, so much. (30:40) But I don’t want to overwhelm. (30:42) So I think the most important thing would be for entrepreneurs and business.

(30:50) I think we need to look forward. (30:52) What does agents and robotics do for humans, because businesses only exist when humans consume, or when humans do business. (31:02) So what, how is that going to change your industry?

(31:05) I think it’s really important to look forward on that. (31:08) So, you know, for example, if I was working with a recruitment agent this morning, you know, it is more like how will people be applying for roles? (31:17) Do they need to be showing their AI literacy skill set within, you know, the candidate roles?

(31:23) Will they be having an agent write or respond with them? (31:28) When will the human interaction come into play? (31:30) Because that’s really important as well.

(31:32) You know, how will your clients, who are the business owners, what type of skill sets will they need? (31:38) Not knowing what they don’t know yet, but knowing that there will be some AI integration. (31:44) So how can you, you know, be an AI mentor for your clients?

(31:48) Because that’s really important as well. (31:51) And how will they do business? (31:53) Is their industry, is their industry going to be massively disrupted?

(31:56) I mean, is it a call center industry? (31:58) You know, is it a big administrative industry? (32:01) So really, I think having that kind of thought leadership for entrepreneurs as well, and like SMEs especially, is what will your industry look like in terms of the end users, which is the humans.

(32:12) And then I guess for, you know, just generally as a person, as a human, I think if we can work out how to leverage generative AI to do mundane tasks that we really don’t need to do, like calendar and, you know, booking things for us. (32:32) And I don’t know, even, you know, ordering things, I’m just thinking mundane stuff. (32:39) If we can really tap into a way to do that more efficiently, I think we’re going to have more leisure time, and that leisure time is going to be enriched with that human connection and that giving back to community.

(32:49) And I would really challenge anyone that, you know, is doubling a little bit into AI to really put your foot down and really step it up and become a bit of an AI mentor to your family, to your friends, to those in business with you, because now is the time to really step up and be that go-to person. (33:13) And I think there’ll be big, big rewards for those that can do that.

Melissa

(33:18) Yeah, I agree. (33:19) I absolutely agree with that. (33:21) Any final thoughts or anything that we didn’t touch on that you want to leave with our listeners today?

Marnie

(33:28) No, just some little bit of tough love. (33:34) If you are not using AI for a minimum of two hours a day, do not hesitate. (33:40) Get stuck in, because that is about the average rate now of AI use from a single person, regardless of what industry they’re in.

Melissa

(33:50) Top three favorite AI apps right now. (33:52) What are your top three? (33:54) Okay, top five.

Marnie

(33:56) Whatever. (34:00) I love Claude. (34:02) Claude is my go-to.

(34:03) Claude connects to all my Google drives, so the memory is constantly updated. (34:10) I have quite a lot of GPTs built for my team in Chat GPT, so a lot of streamlined work going through there. (34:18) I love Notebook LM for education and learning, so I recently uploaded.

(34:25) I’m trying to become a bit of a replica queen of learning agents, and I wanted to compare replica with Lindy. (34:32) I know you guys use Lindy and a few other tools, so I put as much information as I could into Notebook LM, and then when I needed to do a task, I basically asked which kind of AI tool and why, so I’ve got my little notebooks for certain things. (34:46) I obviously love Lovable.

(34:50) Again, created many things from a language app for my eight-year-old, to a mental fitness app for my athletes on the weekend, to a wealth builder, a female property wealth builder for one of my clients, to something for a HR consultant. (35:06) It’s endless how much fun I’ve had with Lovable, and then a really simple one, but Otter. (35:13) Otter AI is my genius.

(35:15) It’s been taking meeting notes for me for years now, and the other day I remembered I had to get some stats about some government funding for some learning and development for one of my clients. (35:30) And I thought to myself, I remember having a conversation. (35:33) I just cannot remember who it was and what it was.

(35:35) Just jumped onto Otter AI chat and went, can you remind me of the government funding initiative and how much each person gets in the UK to do learning and development, and searched through all my conversation, and boom, it was done. (35:48) I was like, this is amazing.

Melissa

(35:51) I love it, making life so much easier, and now we don’t have to remember everything all the time. (35:58) Marnie, thank you so much for being here. (36:02) And I mean, we’re green today, even sharing all your wonderful thoughts about rugby, AI, family.

(36:11) Where can our listeners best connect with you and what all the good things you’re doing?

Marnie

(36:15) Thank you so much for having me. (36:17) It’s been so fun. (36:18) I love the conversations.

(36:20) You can find me on LinkedIn. (36:21) I love LinkedIn. (36:22) It’s Marnie Wills.

(36:24) Otherwise, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, it’s business with AI strategist.

Melissa

(36:31) That’s great. (36:32) Follow Marnie Connect with her. (36:34) That’s the Executive Connect podcast.