SaaS Dads S2/E16: She Toured the World in a Flying Car… Now She's Teaching the World How to Use AI

Speaker A: She asked him what I did for work and that he told her, oh, my mom owns Facebook. He's like a 40 year old in a 12 year old's body. Maybe not even 40, like 80 year old, 12 year old's body. Charlie goes, mom, I just think you should stop worrying about pleasing other people.

Speaker B: AI is going to replace the people that don't adopt AI. So you guys really need to figure out how you can use it.

Speaker A: I described it as a big sparkly boulder that was like crazy crashing its way through my business.

Speaker B: Welcome to SaaS Dads where we scale SaaS without sacrificing family. All right, so we ah, are here and back for another SaaS Dads SaaS Mum today with Molly Mahoney. How are you, Molly?

Speaker A: I'm so good. It is really just so awesome to get to spend so much time with you.

Speaker B: I'm going to tell everyone anyway, we've just been talking for like 5, 10 minutes and then I realized I didn't hit record. So we've just started again. So that is the professionalism and how we roll sometimes. We were just chatting away and they went, oh God, we didn't hit record. I didn't hit record. All my fault. So sorry, Molly. But for those people that don't know Molly, they should know you. You're Molly Mahoney. So you work in AI, do a lot of training, a lot of speaking, a lot of social m media. You've been featured on multiple platforms across Forbes, ManyChat, Entrepreneur Magazine, Social Media, Examiner, E Women Network, digital marketer, spoken on

Speaker A: many st at the level up. I need to add that to that list.

Speaker B: High level.

Speaker A: This level up logo is so blurry because the light is so bright. You can't even see the High level logo.

Speaker B: Oh yeah, it's got the arrows in the background.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. That was awesome.

Speaker B: That was awesome. That's where I met you for the first time actually in person. I met you at the summit last year. I'll see you there again this year, hopefully. You love sparkles. You got the sparkly microphone, you've got your blue banana phone to the universe that you talk through and you make. I, I think you make business fun. Honestly, you do a lot of stuff, you make business fun. But, uh, behind all that, we're here for uh, SAS dads, for very serious

Speaker A: things behind the scenes.

Speaker B: Very serious things behind the scenes. But you know, behind all that, behind all these things that we do and run and juggle as our lives as busy entrepreneurs and you yourself. And again, thank you so much for coming in today because. Because for me it's 11 o'. Clock. Just after 11 o' clock in the morning now in Australia. For you, it's just after 6pm I know you've had a full day. You told me already that you've been on podcasts and webinars and interviews all day. So.

Speaker A: And so now you're getting Delirious Molly, which is going to be the. Sometimes we have Spicy Molly. I don't know if you know this, but sometimes I get a little watch out, I'm going to hear to kick your booty. But today I think we have Delirious Molly. So here we go.

Speaker B: That's right. Let's see what we'll get out of Delirious Molly. But this is the life of, uh, an entrepreneur, busy business owner. And then you've also got your two sons to look after, Frank and Charleston, 12 and 14. So you're going to come out of today. And now you've got to step into Molly the mum. That's the next. That's the next role. So if you want to just take us back a little bit, if you can, into what your entrepreneurial journey started and then how you managed to bring the family into that and along for the ride as well.

Speaker A: Yeah. So I started as a professional musical theater performer. I did shows all over the world. And the final thing that I did was the national tour of Chitty Bank. So I got to tour the world with a flying car, which was so fun. While we were on that tour, it was amazing. We were on the tour for nine months. And so my husband, who's a bass player, we got engaged on tour and then we decided to leave our 400 square foot apartment in New York. But what I had actually been doing on the side during all of that is I had started my own knitting and crocheting handmade accessories line. So I would make felted beautiful scarves and all kinds of things and craft shows and whatnot. And I had two patterns published by Red Heart Yarn. One that was a dog Shrug on the inside back cover of Crochet Today. It was a really big deal.

Speaker B: That's a big deal in the crochet world on this.

Speaker A: It was a really big deal. Barnes and Noble, you know that bookstore? Yeah. So at Barnes and Noble there was like the magazine was there and you could find my dog Shrug.

Speaker B: What a climb to find.

Speaker A: I know. So that was my first real entrepreneurial endeavor. But Frankie was born on 1111 11, which was so awesome. And at that time I actually had 10 different jobs in 10 different locations. Teaching knitting and crocheting, teaching singing, teaching dancing. I was managing my dad's homeowners association for the neighborhood that he lived in. Just a bunch of weird things. And I started listening to the Social Media examiner podcast and found Pat Flynn. And Pat Flynn really taught me how to do everything. So I took what I was doing with my singing students and I started putting it online. That was the Prepared Performer back in the day. So in 2013, Frank was 2 is when I launched the Prepared Performer. And we taught singing and did, uh, audition coaching and career coaching for performers all the way up until 2016. And in 2016, we switched everything. And rather than teaching performers to have a business, I started teaching business owners how to perform. Mainly do. Mainly doing camera coaching. We had a program called Camera Confidence that turned into messenger bots in 2018, then it turned to AI in 2021, about two years before ChatGPT. So it's been a really fun adventure and the kiddos have been involved every step of the way.

Speaker B: Yeah. So you would have had. Sorry, was it Frank who was born first, you say? So Frank. And then Charleston would have come along a, uh, couple of years later.

Speaker A: 14. So, yeah. So I started the live video stuff when he was about 2. Uh, also. And when Charlie was little, he would do these live streams where he would draw monsters and sell them on Facebook Live. And it was the greatest thing ever. So he would sell them for $1 or. And he had a little speech impediment. So he would say $1 or do something tined. Because he couldn't say kind. So he would just say, do something tined. And we would share my PayPal link and he. He made about a hundred dollars selling those $1 drawings.

Speaker B: Nice. How did you cope through those early years? Because that's the big thing. I talk to speaking to dads or mums on this podcast like it is a journey. Building a business anyway is hard work. Right. You gotta. Yeah, you gotta show up even when you don't want to. You gotta do things you might not necessarily enjoy sometimes or things that you don't even know how to do. You've got to figure out because you are the person where the buck stops at the end of the day. You start the business or the entrepreneur, the buck stops with you. That's very difficult in and of itself. Right. It's very difficult being a dad and doing that. Right. Because I've got a young son, there's times he wants my attention or there's times When I'm just tired. Because young kids are amazing. Right. We love our, uh, kids, but they can drain the life out of you at the same time. Right. So you'd be very tired. So I might have just done stuff with my son, but then I'm just so tired. I need some me time, but I've got to go back to work. Right.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: That's a level as a dad, I think that there's another level as well for a mom. Right. Especially when you're starting a business. You've got young kids. Right. Because. Because I'm not breastfeeding. Right. That's not doing. So I don't really know what it's like, but I did see my wife doing it. And that's literally sucking the life out of you. Right.

Speaker A: Okay. I will say the secret for that. I was obsessed with baby wearing, like, baby wear, like, obsessed. Like, baby wraps and. Yeah. And woven wraps and all of that. And I would even teach dance classes with Frank. Uh, not all the time, but with Frank, I would. I would be wearing him. So there was a lot that I was able to do because I would just strap into my back. I have these amazing photos of me doing makeup for. We did a production of the Grinch, and I was doing the Grinch's makeup, and I had Frankie on my back the whole time. He. So he was like. We always make the jokes that he was theater trash. We just would bring him to the theater. That's a loving term of endearment in the world of theater. But he grew up sleeping on a baby wrap in the corner at, uh, the restaurant that my husband's jazz band was playing. We just. We didn't stop life for them.

Speaker B: They just came with us, came along for the ride.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So did you find that easy then? So they molded in with you, or did you just cope with it at the time as well? Because I just remember being extremely tired, obviously, like when you've got a young child.

Speaker A: I mean, very tiring, very tired. And also because it was at the time when I was first starting my business and I was doing a lot more done for you agency work. I do remember some specific nights where I was up till one in the morning working on someone's Facebook ads, which I no longer do, but. And then you don't know when your kids are going to wake up. And so then they would wake up at three, so you'd get two hours of sleep, that kind of stuff happening. And my husband always had this really great plan that we were going to have A hard trade off that I would watch the kids when, especially when they were babies and you didn't know like when they were going to get up, that I would be the one to get up from this time to this time, and then he would be the one to be up from this time to this time. But that was very difficult to actually maintain. Uh, I also, at the time when we had little ones, he was working full time. He's no longer working full time. We, we were able to shift his schedule now that our business has grown. So now he does stuff within our business, which is so helpful because we've been able to work it out where he's doing all the carpool, the driving in the morning. It's really a very different thing. We also, when they were that little, we lived directly across from the school, like literally five steps from our school's parking lot. Yeah, that was amazing as well. We just had a really awesome support system in that.

Speaker B: So, yeah, very nice. I'm, um, raising them now and raising them through an entrepreneurial journey. Do they understand what it is that you do for a living? They're old enough now, 12 or 14. They should obviously understand the Internet, what's going on, social media. They'd have a pretty good grasp around that stuff, I would imagine, anyway. But do they understand what mum does for a living or why mum's on the computer so much?

Speaker A: They do now, but there was definitely a time when Frank was in second grade. His teacher pulled me aside and said, oh my gosh, I have to tell you what Frank said today. And so she said she asked him what I did for work and that he told her, oh, my mom owns Facebook. I was like, good one, kiddo. I know I've always been really big about making sure that they understand when I am doing things for work, that really it's about making the impact on others. And I've woven them in. We, in our mastermind, multiply. We have events in our backyard. So they've been around our clients a lot. They are super involved to the point of. There was one event where they both put presentations together for our members. They. Charlie did one. He was really into north mythology and so he did a whole thing about the Vikings and how creative they were. And then he tied it into. And if the Vikings could create, you can create toothle thing. And then Frank didn't do a slide presentation, but he was really at the time into the Diablo. Do you know what that is? The Chinese yo yo.

Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. One string. Big thing that you Throw up and. Yep.

Speaker A: Yeah, with the strings. And so he did a, uh, yo yo presentation and taught people at the event how to do the Diablo, which was also awesome. Yeah. Even to the point of one of the best times, I think, bringing them into the business was we were doing an affiliate competition for another tool that is not rhyme with, uh, B B Bell, but this other tool that it was for samcart. So we were doing this promotion for samcart and we were vying for the top affiliate, and it was like neck and neck between me and my friend Christy. And the top prize was to win a Tesla. And I kept saying out loud, we're going to win, but I don't really want a Tesla. We're going to win, but I don't really want a Tesla. I like my little VW bug. I don't want a Tesla. And the boys were super involved. So Frankie even did a live stream with my good friend, not Sam. Scott Moran. I can't talk. I told you. Scott Moran, uh, one of the founders of. Co founders of SamCart. They did a live stream together where Scott taught Frank, who was like 11 at the time, taught him how to build a website, a sales page. Yeah, it was awesome. So I wake up the morning of the numbers all coming together and we got second place, not first place. And I was like, they were all into it, but what they learned was my friend Christy had written 177 times, I win cars. That's what I do.

Speaker B: And you said, I don't want a Tesla.

Speaker A: And I said, I don't want a Tesla.

Speaker B: So it was like a huge.

Speaker A: Yeah, a huge lesson about the banana phone. And what you put out into the universe comes back to you now. The interesting thing about that is that now what I ended up winning, I think was actually better than a Tesla because I won a full video set. So the camera, the teleprompter, everything that I'm using right now, the giant tripod is from that affiliate competition. And I probably wouldn't have allowed myself to splurge on this video equipment, so. So I was super stoked with what I did win. And we got a chance to fly to their headquarters and record in their studio. And the boys came with, and they were on the video with me, with him at the studio. So, yeah, it was good.

Speaker B: So it seems like you're really ingraining the boys in the business and that sort of entrepreneurial world, uh, and giving them the mindset as well. You've taught them some valuable lessons just from that little Bit I've heard there mindset's important. So that. Do you continually talk to them about that? About what you believe you can achieve, that kind of language with your kids?

Speaker A: We. So when they were really little, every time they would leave the house, I would say, what's the most important thing in our family? And again, Frank would say kindness. Charlie would say kindness. So that was like the kindness piece is really big. And also a big part of what we teach in business is that you have to figure out who you are as a human first. You have to find your weird and that your weird is your superpower. But when they were little, we would teach them the idea that weird is wonderful. And so I, uh, have always instilled that. And then my husband is really big about teaching them improv comedy. Like when we drive places, we'll make up songs about the names of the signs and the things that we see in the car. But also just having the autonomy to pursue what you want to pursue and create your own reality.

Speaker B: Yeah. And I love that you have a nice video on your homepage, on your website about embracing authenticity, which I think you do. Right. You bring, you bring the color, you bring the sparkles. And I think that's, uh, a. It's a really important thing to try and teach our, uh, kids today as well to like embrace who they are or to find out who they are. They've got to find out who they are, first of all.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Because it's such a weird and wacky world that we're growing up in now. Right. With the kids. Because, um, my generation, I think you're from the same sort of generation as me. We were like the first kids or the last generation. Sorry. To grow out or grow up without the Internet. Right. It didn't exist when we were kids.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Now the kids don't know anything but the Internet and social media and now it's AI So trying to figure out.

Speaker A: My youngest son is super opposed to AI I don't know if you have. How old is your kiddo? You have one.

Speaker B: He's eight.

Speaker A: He's eight.

Speaker B: Just the one little boy is eight.

Speaker A: Eight is my favorite age, by the way. When I was teaching kids, eight was the best. I love it because they're still, they're, they're like confident enough to start building their own opinions on things, but they're still young enough to still believe in magic. They haven't become jaded at all. Eight. I just love eight. But, but yeah, my 12 year old is, mom, please don't use AI. Okay.

Speaker B: So it just doesn't like it in general. For. Yeah, he's really anything specific like videos or using AI for chatgpt.

Speaker A: He loves indie designers and indie video games and wants to support the artists. And it's just very concerned about. He's like a 40 year old in a 12 year old's body. Maybe not even 40, like 80 year old, 12 year old's body. He just thinks about things in a way that he's. He thinks about the deeper meaning behind things.

Speaker B: And where did he get that from? Um,

Speaker A: I don't know. I don't let them play Fortnite. So I think that because I didn't let them play Fortnite when he was gonna play video games, he went to find other things that weren't super. I was doing this initially because I just didn't want everything to be about killing people. But I've had other parents tell me that actually the worst thing about for and I've never even played Fortnite, so I don't know. But they say the worst thing about Fortnite isn't the killing people. It's the way that the addictive tendencies of the game to get you to want to buy things like the SK skins and different things like that. So what he gravitated towards were these games that are more. Yeah, these indie video games. And so then he'll watch things about how to play those games. And I think in that he learns about the artists and then the artist must be talking about AI in a way that is like, this is not AI, it's hand drawn or whatever. I was the same way when the movie Beauty and the Beast came out in 19. I think it was like 1996 or something because I remember learning that it was computer generated, uh, art. And I was like, no, we need to be purists in our Disney lives. But clearly we're past that now.

Speaker B: No, that's pretty interesting. The Fortnite stuff. We keep our, uh, son off of those games. He doesn't have. He doesn't play. I was going to say Minesweeper, Minecraft. Yeah, Minecraft, Fortnite. None of that for him. And he has limited, very limited access to. Even at the television, you know, YouTube stuff like. No, no iPads for him.

Speaker A: We got ourselves in a weird, funny situation with the television. So my kids go to a French or went to a French immersion school. So they did only one hour of English a day. And my husband and I don't speak French. And it was the most magical place. But as A way to try and get Charlie to be able to catch up with where Frank was with French, because Frank was a few years ahead. We would play TV, son, which was like the TV5 French channel, and put English subtitles on the bottom so they would only be able to watch TV if it was in French. And we wouldn't know what was happening. But there was English subtitles. And Charlie at, uh, the youngest age, rather than learning how to speak French, he just got really good at reading English because he would read the subtitles. Yeah. Which is wild, but yeah, it's great. They both are pretty much fluent in French, which is amazing. And they can talk to each other and we don't understand what they're saying.

Speaker B: I was gonna say they talk to each other. You don't know what's going on.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: I think you might wanna learn a bit of French or get some of those earbuds. The AI earbud. You're someone like that, but the AI earbuds, that can interpret it for you.

Speaker A: Totally.

Speaker B: What's your favorite thing about being a mum and running a business?

Speaker A: I think that we get to teach them that anything is possible. I think they really see that. I also just think they say funny things and they are insightful about stuff. Like yesterday we were talking about something at dinner and Charlie goes, mom, I just think you should stop worrying about pleasing other people. Okay. 12 year old, they, they definitely have the ability to please put, give their input on things and call us up and all of that. So I love that we can work from anywhere in the business that we have with all the online stuff. So we go on amazing adventures and travel and I can still keep the business going while we do that. It's. It's pretty awesome.

Speaker B: So is that travel that you do as a family, like holiday time or travel that you're going on work and then involving the family in it?

Speaker A: Uh, both. So in the beginning when I was traveling for work, they would come with every. Almost every time when they didn't have school. Now it's gotten a little trickier because Frank is in eighth grade and he has realized he doesn't want to miss school as much. But two examples. Do you know who Gay Hendrick is? No. He wrote a book called the Big Leap. It's my most favorite business book of all time. My most favorite life book of all time also. I just love this book. And he's a very well known author in the personal development space. And I was going to Ojai, you know where Ojai is? That is. Yeah, it's in California, and it's a really beautiful valley that's very artsy. And it. For. It's about three hours from my house, but it's just this magical little valley of art and music. And I was recording an album with some friends there, and I'd let Gay Hendrix know that I was coming, and he was like, oh, why don't you stop by for coffee? So it was like this amazing trip that I was getting ready to go on, and I was telling friends Frank about it, and he said, mom, can I go with you? And I was like. And my first response was, I'm going to be recording this album. I'm going to Gay Hendrix's house. I can't bring. At the time, he was probably 11 at the time. I was like, I can't bring him with me to this. But I said, I'll think about it. I love that you asked that question. And then I had a serious conversation with him. If you come with me, these are the things that you have to do. And this is what's happening. And it's a business trip, but you're. If I bring you with me, this is what you got to do. And he was amazing. It was so awesome to have him with me as my little assistant on this trip. And then with Charlie, I was going to be going on this event called the Podcasters Cruise. My husband was supposed to go with, but he had this idea, what if I stay home with Frank to get him to school and you just take Charlie? Because Charlie had a. Had a break at that time. So Charlie and I went on this business cruise together, just the two of us, and it was amazing. It was so awesome. Amazing. And he sat in all of the business sessions that we did. And then when it was time off the ship, I just did excursions with him, and it was amazing. We swam with dolphins and held a sloth, all kinds of things. It was cool.

Speaker B: Very good. So, uh, what kind of aspirations have you got for the boys as they grow up? Do you want to. We don't. We advise as parents. I think we can't tell them what to do. We can advise. What do you advise or try and guide your kids towards? Or are you just going to, hey, do what's going to make you happy?

Speaker A: I definitely want them to do what's going to make them happy. I also. Charlie is ready to move out now. He's very opinionated about. I know he used to want to be a veterinarian. I don't know if that's what he wants to do now, but he's going to figure out his own path. He's got that very clear with us. Frank. I have told him, you can just live with us forever and just work with me and they'll all be fine. I would be happy if they never left our house, which I know is not the actual case. And when they get older, I'm sure I won't feel that way. But I let them know if they wanted to do stuff with me, they can and they do. Uh, I have them hired to do photos and they help with other. Frank does follow up sometimes for me, which is really fun. But I want to encourage them to find their own path and journey and we talk about it. Frank maybe wants to be a teacher or other things like that. My family has a tree trimming business and most of my family works in that tree trimming business. And so that's something we talk about also. But I never want to. My dad was really great about not pushing that on me and my siblings. But my brother is a chainsaw carver and works full time in the tree trimming business. I still do, uh, some marketing for them and eventually may end up doing more in our family business. So that's like, you know, they know that's there as something if they wanted to pursue becoming an arborist.

Speaker B: It's interesting because I was going to lead into this and say, because with the way everything's changing with AI like, my son is very young. Right. So I don't really know where he's going yet. Right. He's very academic. We'll figure out his path. I'm trying to teach him a little bit about AI and stuff now just to sow the seeds for him. He obviously has no idea at the moment how powerful AI uh is even now. And I'm just looking at this, like, even him going to school now, I'm almost viewing as a waste of time. Like, uh, at the age of eight,

Speaker A: I talk about it all the time and I feel guilty and my husband sometimes is like, what are you? Don't say this.

Speaker B: But yeah, I'm saying in front of him.

Speaker A: Yeah, but. And I, I think that I gained great relationships and there's life skills that I learned. But I also recognize if they have the drive to do what they want to do, they could have a business launch. But by the time they're out of school and be already. My dad never went to college. He studied pottery like on a kick wheel, like making pots. Yeah. But when he was 17, he got picked up by a guy in a truck, asked if he wanted to trim trees for the day. And when he was 18 they asked him if he wanted the guy, his name was George, the tree man. That was the company. And George said to my dad, if too bad you didn't save your money, you could have bought me out. And my dad said, uh, that's funny, I did save my money. And then he went home to my grandpa and said, I need $5,000 to buy this company. And my grandpa said, let me take you to the bank. So they went to the bank and they told the bank, we need $7,000 to buy this company. And, and then the bank gave them $5,000. They bought this company. And my uncle and my dad pushed a truck physically down the street to trim trees. And now the tree trimming company trims over 300 cities trees. So we have 1300 employees. My dad never went to college. It's like the coolest story ever. We have a software system that my cousin built that tracks every single tree in these cities. So it's, it's super inspirational. And I think my dad is like Willy Wonka of the trees. And so having that, my dad is a SaaS dad.

Speaker B: That's a really interesting business though because as well this is what sort of guns like AI is taking over so many things. But you've got this tree trimming business. Obviously AI can affect that in terms of the admin and the way that you can run it and marketing and optimize a lot of that stuff. I don't know how long it's going to be until we've got AI chainsaws though. Right. I feel like that's a cool business. That's a cool business.

Speaker A: Somebody recently and she sent me a video of a chain of a tree with a strap around it with a chainsaw that just goes straight up the tree and takes off all the limbs. And I'm like, okay, yes, if you want to just destroy the tree. But what we're doing is like keeping the trees healthy and beautification and so there's like plant health care and we have AI in the trucks because a big part of this is safety and facial recognition and it's, it's a whole layer of a whole other world of drones and seeing how healthy the trees are from the sky. So when it comes to software, we are doing a lot for people's businesses in the marketing side of things. But what they're doing with software is a whole other level of wild things.

Speaker B: Yeah, but that's optimizing the end result, which is still a physical result there, which is always going to be required. So you're going to have this amazing AI layer to optimize the actual physical work that's required on the ground. At some point there'll probably be some little robot that will go around with the chainsaw, but I don't know, we're a bit of a way away from that, I'd imagine.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: I saw a thing today with AI cow fences. So they've created. They've had these for a while anyway. I've seen them before with dogs. Right. So the collar with dogs. And then you have a little wire in your back backyard and when it goes near the wire, it gives them a little shock. Yeah. So someone's built, uh. Well, they just raised $200 million at a $2 billion valuation for, uh, AI cow collars. And this is slightly different though, so it geom maps it. So you can just have on your phone and show the land like your farm and where you want the cows to be and then just draw where you want the fence for those cows. And then there's no physical fence, there's no wire, there's nothing. It's just geomapped into the collar. So when the cow gets nearer, it makes a little sound and if they get too close then it buzzes them. So they learn that. Oh, sound means turn back basically. Yeah. Then you can corral the cows with these AIGO fences off of a collar that cost five bucks. Yeah.

Speaker A: That is amazing.

Speaker B: So I was thinking about that because there goes fencers jobs. Right. You got a five, five bucks for a collar on account you don't need a fencer anymore and you can move the cows anymore. Yeah, amazing. So there's all these things coming. We just have no idea. But it just makes me wonder for the future, our kids. So where we started this anyway was like we was just saying, I. I don't know why I sent my son to school to learn. Right. The thing that you said before was like getting. Meeting people, making relationships, learning how to

Speaker A: communicate and learning how to think, which is a whole different thing. Our school that they go to now is an art school. And when Frank first started there, they said we practice comprehension over compliance, which I thought was such a different way of looking at things. And I just really loved that.

Speaker B: Yeah. So that's where we're at with school anyway. And then figuring out what they're going to do in this new AI landscape. I just have no idea. We're playing it Day by day, I would sit there in teacher meetings and they're going through these things. They could do a bit better on math at this. Or writing's not so good and reading's amazing, comprehension's amazing. All these things. I'm just like, um, math's really important. I was having a chat with Danny a while ago, Danny Clark, and he was saying even when he was at school years ago, before AI, he used to sit there in class and they tell him about math. And he was like, yeah, but this is rubbish. I've got a calculator. I don't need to learn this. And he's rebelling. Years ago, now it's so much more advanced. And I just. I wouldn't say I worry, but I wonder for the future, because we just have. No, I don't think we have a full comprehension of where this can be even in two years time, the way that things change.

Speaker A: I totally agree. I just think we have to be careful to not as much as all I'm doing is teaching AI all day, every day. I think we have to be careful not to rely so much on it that we lose the ability to use our minds the way that we can. Learning, uh, the way to put numbers together into a math equation, even though you have a calculator, may be a good thing. Our kids learned cursive in school, which I guess a lot of kids aren't learning anymore. Are you guys doing cursive at your school?

Speaker B: Joined up. Writing Handwriting.

Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know how. Yeah, like script writing.

Speaker B: Yeah. Not at age 8. I don't think he's at that yet. I don't know.

Speaker A: Yeah, they started it in kindergarten at this, so they would write. When they write in French, they write incursive. When they write in English, they write in regular. Regular writing.

Speaker B: Not sure my handwriting, M. My handwriting personally, is like chicken scratch.

Speaker A: It is the worst. The actual worst.

Speaker B: Yeah, it's terrible.

Speaker A: It was, like, beautiful. I remember freaking out the first time I saw Frank write his name. I was like, what? Who are you? It was like, it's, uh, cool. So I'm all here for the tactile, weird ways of learning things.

Speaker B: It is. And with AI, I actually had this conversation with all my team recently and specifically with our cto and said, because they worry as well, team developers and stuff, they're actually worried about their jobs and stuff. And I said, hey, this is. What's going to happen is AI is going to replace the people that don't adopt AI, so you guys really need to Figure out how you can use it and then make our stuff work quicker, faster, better. Uh, adopt AI to improve and enhance your job. If you don't do that, then you're going to be replaced by people that do know how to do that. Basically that's going to happen. So we need to figure all that stuff out and then how that all fits in our business. Because we're a software company, we use AI a lot in terms of obviously our marketing and our, uh, development now. But it's changing so much and so quickly. I don't know where we are at in the level. And I always, as the founder, I'm always going to push and say, hey, we should be doing more. So we're trying to do that. But with all this. And let's go back to marketing with AI, which is a big thing that you do and you teach.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: And the authenticity of it and the person behind the brand. So I've had m. Multiple conversations about this as well with AI and marketing, but still the importance of a person behind the brand is important, certainly. Now, again, no idea where that's going to go in the future. I've had conversations with people that go, it's not going to be important in the future. Some people say it's definitely going to be important in the future. I sit in the. I don't know. But I think it's very important now because AI is still so new. People see these AI characters, AI avatars, the perfect videos, and people start to reject that a little bit in some degree. And having a good person or a personality behind it, a real person, I should say, is like, how important do you think that is? Because this is something that you teach. Right. What would you say to people about the importance of having that personal brand behind whatever AI is that you're using for your marketing?

Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's extremely important. And I think that people's spidey senses are up and, and when people find out that they don't really like the person behind a brand, there also can be like huge boycotts and things like that on the other side. So I think it's a very interesting multifaceted conversation. But I also think so in what we teach, we are very big about the fact that the actual humans behind the company are important. And having someone who is the face of the brand that can connect with other humans is your unique differentiator. Especially in something like with people who are doing things like with High Level, where we're using a similar tool as the white label. If you don't have unique differentiators on top of that. I mentioned on another podcast today that I feel like in the female AI space, I don't know if that's a niche, but there's this boss Babe gloss that goes over a lot of the AI companies that I see that are like this taupe and navy blue, and it's very sophisticated and whatever. And then I walk in and it's.

Speaker B: Oh.

Speaker A: So I think, uh. But it makes it unique and different. And the people who want that more sophisticated, lovely branding thing, they'll go there. But the people who want something that's a little more in your face and a little without being, like, scary, but a little more raw and human, they're going to come to. To us. So if you don't have this as the human that this comes from, at least create what they call an attractive character, like the Geico lizard or something that can be that face of the brand.

Speaker B: Yeah. Uh, it's funny. This is not AI related, but when we look at our website stats and our traffic, the third most popular page on our website is our About Us page. We have, obviously me and the whole team, which tells me that people want to know who's behind this platform, who's behind your software? I mean, what's going on?

Speaker A: Such a good example with High level. Also, I think that the way that Sean and Robin and Varun show up and are actual human beings, it makes a huge difference for the level of trust that we put into what they're doing. It makes a huge difference with the patience that we have in software rolling out or, like, for what you're doing. We have another client that does a lot that. Com that combines with Facebook. And when Facebook goes through a change and they have to completely update their extensions and all of that, it could be like, people coming at them with pitchforks. But because we know the humans behind the brand, we understand they're working on it, they're getting fixed, and it gives us a little more leeway and patience because we've humanized. Is that Jenna humanized the brand. Yeah.

Speaker B: Yes, Jennifer, we actually spoke about that. We did a podcast with Jenna. We actually spoke about that and how. Because I was one of her customers when that happened a while ago when they first went through a big rollout. Yeah. And I was like, yeah, I understood it because I've seen you and I know what you're doing. And I was just like, okay, you guys are going to try and fix it. Because they did humanize it in such a good Way they brought, they went straight to the front of the queue and said, hey, this is what's happening. We're working on it. Constant updates. And you could just see that there were real people behind that problem trying to solve the problem.

Speaker A: They weren't just like sending people over. Right. It's a thing. So I think that helps.

Speaker B: Yeah. She talked about that with me and how people were sending them. Coffee, you go, coffee, you go. Here's some coffee. They awake. Fix the problem. We love you, but here's some coffee. Stay away. So, yeah, humanizing behind the brand is such an important thing, I think. Can you talk about. Let's talk about something in your life and real challenges that you've had on your entrepreneurial journey. You talk about something that's been a big challenge for you and then how you've actually managed to overcome that.

Speaker A: Yeah, I, uh, There was a time where many challenges were popping up and I was like, okay, some in business and some in life, but. And I can just mention a few. One time we had grown to a level where our financial person was not able to keep up with what we had growth wise. And just so many mistakes were happening. And she was someone that was a good friend of mine. She had started off as my business coach, but at one point she paid the wrong people. The affiliate commissions went to the wrong person. So I had to claw. I don't remember how we handled that, but it, uh, was a big mistake. Just multiple things were wrong. And I, uh, we had a very tough conversation. I said we needed to go different ways. Our contract was up until a certain. The end of day on a certain day. And she deleted all my financial information before the contract was up. Yeah.

Speaker B: Oh.

Speaker A: And I, uh, was like. And she said, I figured you had a backup. And I was like, uh. And at the time, not looking back on it, it actually seems not that big of a deal. She reinstalled it. It was fine. But in the moment of all of it, my stress level, as all of these things kept happening and the team wasn't responding to me, and then it was mistake after mistake. It felt so incredibly heavy at the time. And I described it as a big sparkly boulder that was like crashing its way through my business. And I was trying to be responsible as we were growing and all these things and trust my team and it was just not a fun time. And that terminology of the sparkly boulder has served me so well because as other things have happened. I don't know if you know this, but I tore the cartilage in my wrist. And I was in and out of a cast for nine months. And everybody be like, just use AI. And I was like, f off. Because it actually did not help me that much, only having one hand. So it was very difficult. But I grew through all of that. And I had a huge realization, actually, just at the event that we had a couple weeks ago, because around that time when my arm was in a cast, my mom passed away. It was just like my. I was fighting to try and keep my mom alive. It was like really bad things. And then the cherry on top was on my husband's birthday, our dog died. And I was like, I'm actually giving up. Like something is happening. I got onto the wrong timeline. I don't know what's happening. But our dog unexpectedly dying was like the worst thing that ever has happened to me in my life. Still to this day. It was like the most traumatic thing we have been through as a family. And all four of us in one bed just sobbing hysterically. But I realized this past week that now I'm, um, I seem to be, knock on wood, touch wood, whatever you do, on a trajectory where a bunch of really good things have been happening. And I have made these good things possible by my ability to stay calm through it all. And so one example, I was on Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi's recent AI Advantage event, which was amazing. We had 630,000 people registered, like cuckoo live in Scottsdale. But when they told me that it was happening and the date when they invited me to do it, I was like, so honored they told me the date. And I was like, oh no. Because I also produced a musical on Broadway recently, which is Beaches, a new musical based on the movie Beaches. And the opening night was the day before the Tony Robbins thing. And I was like, how on earth am I going to be in New York for opening night and then be in Scottsdale to speak on this event at this, uh, event at 1pm the next day? And I think most people would have said, oh, there's no way to make it work. But I have realized, no, I can handle anything. So I scheduled a flight to leave at 6:30 in the morning. I stayed up after the opening till 3:30. I got on the flight at 6:30. I flew to Scottsdale, arrived at 9am, checked into the hotel early. I booked it for the night before so I'd have a hotel, took a shower, and made it to the presentation at 1pm the next day. And if I hadn't gone through all of those Difficult things. I don't think I would have been able to navigate the energy that it takes to be able to navigate everything that I'm navigating in a good way. Yeah.

Speaker B: Uh, I think it's very well put. And that's the constant lesson that comes through, or constant message that comes through from so many of the entrepreneurs that I talk to. It's like these challenges build you for the future. Right? Because something you said there about the financial information getting deleted, and I caught it. When you said it, you said, oh, and it was like the worst thing ever. Looking back now, it wasn't actually that bad. Because in hindsight. Site. Yeah, it wasn't that bad. But also the things that are so challenging when you're beginning or growing with team stuff, building, it's a bunch of stuff that you don't necessarily know how to do. And then something goes wrong, you don't know how to fix it. But you learn over time what's important. And then stay calm. And if you can stay calm and centered, there'll always be a tomorrow. Right? You just get through. And tomorrow will be another day. Things will calm down, look at it with fresh eyes. And that's something that we always need to remember as entrepreneurs. Parents deal with our kids as well. But you've got to be the calm one in the center of the storm, really, to get through everything. If you can do that and hold it together, that's where the growth really comes from. It's all going to be okay in the end. And if it's not okay, then you just gonna be okay tomorrow or I'm okay now. I've had the same thing. Been through enough stuff, and then just go, all right, look, it's okay. Still life, still breathing, still got some food on the table at the end of the day, what else do you need? And if you can manage all that stuff and just hold yourself together, just think about what's really important in life. And then I think a lot of people need to just sit back and not be worrying too much about the. Trying to buy a Ferrari or a Porsche or I want a mansion or whatever it is. Looking at all the Instagram rubbish that's out there today in this unreal world of nonsense with people taking pictures on private jets that are actually not even a real jet because it's a simulator in a hangar that you fly for an hour.

Speaker A: Right now, I can see my kids are out in the backyard playing fetch with the dog. It's those moments, I think that matters most.

Speaker B: That's Perfect.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Would you, uh, we've got near our time. We wasted. Not wasted. I messed up a little bit at the beginning over recording. Uh, I know you've had a very long day, so I don't want to keep you over time here and I appreciate all your time. Do you have a last message you would like to leave out there for any SAS mums watching this? Anything that you would like to say to the SAS mums that might be listening to this to leave with them as a nice message?

Speaker A: You are just juggling all the things. And so I would just say, be kind to yourself. Give yourself grateful grace. Uh, find a community of other people who understand what you're going through and develop hardcore systems behind the scenes. Because I think the more systematized you can be, the more freedom you have. I love to say frameworks, equal freedom. And the more that you can really know why you're doing what you're doing and come back to that truth and what that bigger picture dream is, the better it is.

Speaker B: Perfect. Thank you so much for your time today, Molly. I really appreciate it. If anyone wants to find you, Molly Mahoney.

Speaker A: Yeah, I actually find you. I put together and I forgot.

Speaker B: Hello.

Speaker A: I put together an awesome little gift for y' all as well. So when it comes to figuring out who you are and what makes you weird, you also have to figure out what makes your ideal client weird and how you can really, uh, dial that in. And so we have an awesome tool that helps you to create. Create your ideal client avatar. And so I put that together. You can go to Molly live sasdads S a a s so SaaS dads. And if you are like, I already got my ideal client dialed in, it may help you find some new things, because a lot of people focus on pain points, but we help you find the tickle points.

Speaker B: So we help you love the tickle. The tickle points in your banana phone and everything will be okay.

Speaker A: All kinds of fun things. But I'm Molly Mahoney on Instagram, Facebook, and my website, so I'd love to.

Speaker B: We'll pop the links wherever this is on the YouTube videos, the podcast, whatever. We'll pop the links to those things below. Thank you so much, Molly. Everyone go and connect with Molly. Get your sparkles.

Speaker A: You're the best. Thank you so much.

Speaker B: Thanks, Molly.