AI and Voice
Last week I typed my own name into ChatGPT and asked it who I was. Someone told me to do it and to be honest, I was a bit nervous about what it would dig up.
OK, so most of it was what you’d expect. Founder, some awards, a few clients. Then near the end there was this one line: “Circle In was about helping people navigate work as humans. Brandiie is about helping people remain human in a world increasingly mediated by AI.”
Boom! There it was staring straight at me. You see, I’d never actually put the two together and had often wondered how my old and new chapters aligned. Since leaving Circle In, people ask me all the time how my two businesses connect, and I usually say something about “people” and “work” and then change the subject. One was a platform for working parents and carers, and the other helps leaders and their teams get AI to sound like them. They don’t look connected at all. But it turns out my purpose has been completely clear all along. I just hadn’t seen it written down.
It’s helping humans, and putting the human back in whatever we do. It’s what drives me, motivates me and it’s why I do what I do.
Where it started
When I went back to work after having my kids I struggled with the two new worlds. I was still good at my job, I just didn’t know how to be me there anymore. That’s why Kate and I started Circle In in 2017. We spent nearly eight years showing working parents and carers that having a career and being a parent are not mutually exclusive. We were giving parents a voice, building their confidence, and I loved it.
When I exited I hit my own version of that. I’d been “Jodi from Circle In” for so long. I knew my work was good but I had no clue what to say about it on LinkedIn, so for months I said nothing. Then people started to ask me ‘how did you build your brand’ and that is how my work and Brandiie came out of that stretch.
What’s changed
We all know everyone’s using the same tools now and everything reads same same. I always say we are in a trust recession. People don’t know who’s real, and the people I coach are scared someone will comment “this is AI” on a post they wrote themselves at 10pm.
My work always starts in the same way and with the person. How they talk about their work when they’re not trying to sound impressive, the stories they’ve told a hundred times at dinner and never thought of as content. AI has no idea what you had for breakfast, or that your last meeting went sideways. You have to bring that bit. That’s your story and a great post needs you in it.
I love what I do. I really do. I love every conversation. I love meeting people at the start when they’re feeling cringy and completely out of their depth, and then seeing them at the end of our work together. Only this morning I had this exact moment and moved someone from the beginning of the conversation to the end. You can see the confidence in their face. And then they post something and put it out into the world, and the reaction they get... that’s the best bit. Every single time and this morning was one of those moments for me.
So here I am doing the same thing I did at Circle In, just in a different place. Giving people the confidence to know who they are, show up online and build their brand.
So yes, I’ve built the same business twice! Two different problems, same people underneath. Same same but different!
SO go type your name in this week. Did it get you right?
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