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29. The Future Isn’t Branded It’s Designed: Building Brands with Creative Intelligence™ That Lead — Not Chase with Bex LaFranchi
39 Plays23 days ago
If you’ve been craving a brand conversation that doesn’t sound like a warmed-over marketing course you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be. Bex LaFranchi is rewriting that future with her bare hands and a whole lot of brainpower.
From her roots in the Pacific Northwest to leading design strategy for IKEA US, Bex has built, broken, and reimagined brands across the spectrum not to impress the industry, but to disrupt what the industry thinks it knows. She’s not just a creative director. She’s a pattern breaker.
A strategist with soul, a high vibration AI rebel who isn’t afraid to call out the fluff and build tools that actually work. Now she’s the founder of Hey Bex Creative Intelligence™, where she helps entrepreneurs supercharge their brands with AI that feels like it gets you because it was designed to.
On this episode of Gritty is the New Pretty, Bex doesn’t hold back.
She shares the unfiltered version of her journey (spoiler: it wasn’t cute or linear), her take on the evolution of branding, and why creativity always always comes before the algorithm.
- The development of Creative Intelligence™ and how Bex turned an AI “aha” into a methodology that centers human tone, not robotic output
- Why brand differentiation isn’t just strategy it’s survival
- What it really takes to lead creatively in a space obsessed with trends and templates
- And the future of branding that doesn’t just look good it feels true
So pull up a chair because Bex isnt here to play it safe.
She’s here to show you how to lead with resonance and design a brand that moves people before it ever markets to them.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Focus
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to Gritty is the New Pretty, where resilience meets real talk. I'm your host, Crystal, entrepreneur, leadership coach, change maker, and outdoor enthusiast.
00:00:15
Speaker
Join me as I sit down with powerhouse women leaders, entrepreneurs, and small business owners who share their raw, unfiltered stories of success, success, struggle, and the grit it takes to make an impact.
00:00:27
Speaker
From navigating change to redefining success, we'll explore what it takes to rise, lead, and thrive. Expect raw conversations to fuel your journey, whether you're breaking down barriers in life or in business.
00:00:42
Speaker
We're redefining success, not by perfection, but by the strength it takes to rise again and again. Because in this space, gritty is the new pretty.
00:00:53
Speaker
Hit subscribe and let's get gritty with it.
Episode Sponsor Introduction
00:00:58
Speaker
This episode is sponsored by Hey Becks Creative House, founded by brand strategist Becky LaFranche, known for building crave-worthy brands that blend story, soul, and strategy.
00:01:10
Speaker
Explore the work at heybecks.com.
Guest Introduction: Becky LaFranche
00:01:17
Speaker
On today's episode of Gritty is the New Pretty, we have Becky LaFranche, brand experience designer and creative strategist, founder of Hey Becks Creative Intelligence, and sponsor for this podcast, Gritty is the New Pretty.
00:01:31
Speaker
Becks has built, broken, and reimagined brands at every level, including leading design strategy for IKEA U.S., s These days, she's the founder of Hey Beck's Creative Intelligence, where she helps entrepreneurs supercharge their brands with AI that actually fuse human and get shit done.
Becky's Career Journey
00:01:49
Speaker
Welcome, Becky. Thank you, Crystal. I'm so excited to be here. We have been planning on this for a little while. You were busy, I heard. Yeah, ah we're both very busy. I know you're busy. I'm busy. That's how ah the cookie crumbles with this line of work. um Getting the opportunity to work with super awesome powerhouse women like yourself. You know, it's it is what it is. We have to make the stars align ourselves sometimes. So yeah, that's right. I've been busy having my own little baby over here. Beck's creative. Yes.
00:02:23
Speaker
I'm excited to get into that. So why don't you tell us about you and we can get right into it. Yeah, so I have a very like, I guess, nonlinear path to where I landed here today.
00:02:37
Speaker
i usually start by saying that I was a teenage mom. It was a very big part of, I guess, like my work ethic and my drive and my motivation and my ambition. ah and um you know, my kids are healthy and thriving and that's amazing.
00:02:51
Speaker
i I was in the hospitality industry for about 25 years while I was raising my babies. And I was one of those people, though, that actually loves hospitality. I loved serving.
00:03:03
Speaker
I was really, really good at it. I worked with a lot of great people. And it was a has really become part of my identity. i've i'd like to say that, you know, the you could take the girl out of the restaurant, but you can't take the restaurant out of the girl.
00:03:17
Speaker
It definitely is still part of who I am and how I serve my family. community and you know my friends, everybody. When I was about 30, I've always been interested in interior design. I've always just been like really obsessed with space and environment and experience.
00:03:34
Speaker
And when I was a kid, I used to draw floor plans on a graph paper. And then I would furnish my little house with from the JCPenney catalog. And I thought everybody did that.
00:03:47
Speaker
They don't really. I was always just really, really obsessed with space. And so finally, when I was about 30, I went to school for my interior design degree. And I ended up working for Ikea very shortly after i graduated.
00:04:02
Speaker
i ran the design department that's there in the store here in Brenton. I'm a Pacific Northwest native. And about, I mean, within about two years, I got a promotion to run the design department for the country, for Ikea U.S. s And so I moved across the country to Philadelphia and I jumped in And I really do think that my hospitality experience helped me out a lot there because there's just something like very disarming about service industry people. You know, we just get right to it. We learn fast, we move fast.
00:04:37
Speaker
And I think that all of that really helped me. I had worked for like smaller corporations, local corporations and small businesses here. And so that was really my first corporate experience.
00:04:49
Speaker
And I definitely loved it. Like I loved the big picture. i loved the high level conversations. I loved the strategy. i loved the depth of thought that goes and the intention that goes into every single little movement. And it was there that I was really able to see what brand is and how everything that everyone does all the time is either building a brand or killing the brand.
00:05:19
Speaker
And so i learned a lot there, but I was there for about eight years, came back here to Seattle and I knew I didn't want to go back to corporate actually, because I do think that small business runs the world.
Founding Hey Becks Creative Intelligence
00:05:31
Speaker
And so I started working at my sister's spa company and and, and then about a year and a half ago, I opened Hey Beck's creative house where I'm doing branding and ah for, ah for,
00:05:44
Speaker
lots of clients around here. and then, you know, that all kind of led to this whole creative intelligence and using AI to power brands for creatives and disruptors. And so my my business is only a year and a half old, but it's already taken its first major shift.
00:06:05
Speaker
So tell us about the AI creative intelligence and your journey with that. I was one of the very early adopters of ChatGPT. It came out in, I want to say, November of 2022, and I started using it almost immediately.
00:06:22
Speaker
I've been on the paid plan since almost immediately, probably the first day I used it. And I was, i think, one of the reasons why I have been able to like see it differently ah is because I didn't use it for social media. That wasn't my job. I was employed and I was leading the business as a brand and business development manager.
00:06:46
Speaker
And so I immediately started using it for more strategic thinking and as a thought partner for me and not as like a write this email for me or write a caption for me.
00:06:58
Speaker
So I think my introduction to ai was maybe a little bit different than it has been for a lot of people i think a lot of people are still really using it as an operational just kind of write something for me um and then when i started my own business i'm working you know by myself and for myself and i was needing a lot was needing a thought partner there as well actually even more so to create these brands the brand books that I create, they're about 200 pages long and about 40 pages of that would be the visual identity.
00:07:35
Speaker
The rest of 150 pages plus is strategy. And to be honest, I would rather a business had only brand strategy and no visual identity than only visual identity and no brand strategy. So I've always leaned way, way heavy on that.
00:07:52
Speaker
And it was really helping me develop my ideas, think faster, think more creatively, it be more expansive. It certainly wasn't taking any of my creativity away, if anything, it was adding.
00:08:06
Speaker
Then I thought, ah then they came out with custom GPTs. And I started playing around with those. And that's been a game changer because that book, that 200 pages of branding, I would give that to my clients and they're excited and they love it.
00:08:22
Speaker
But now they have a lot of work to do. It's a lot of work to get like, remember all of those things. They have six slogans and eight objectives. You know, it's probably two years, three years worth of things to like slowly unveil.
00:08:37
Speaker
And so I thought to myself, why don't I'm using this GPT to create their strategy? Why don't I use everything that's in it and train a custom GPT and then give them that custom GPT with their brand so that they don't, it's loaded with their brand so that they don't have to remember everything. They just work with their GPT.
00:09:01
Speaker
And that was a very big deal for my clients. It was really, really helpful. ah Then I just kept playing and testing with it. And I really unlocked how to work with voice and skills and conditional logic, really training AI.
00:09:25
Speaker
And this past February, i had a big aha. and kind of dropped what I was doing, went and got a trademark attorney, went and got the domain name, went and got all the things.
00:09:42
Speaker
And I have been ah mad scientist since then, building out this ecosystem of Habex Creative Intelligence. And my entire purpose is I really want to help creative and disruptive brand owners and founders Get all of those ideas, those millions of ideas that are just bouncing around in their head, actually out in the world, functioning, thriving, living, doing all the things. I wanted to help them have that path from here to out there.
00:10:19
Speaker
And AI is helping us do that for sure.
00:10:23
Speaker
So you started when you had this aha moment, you did a beta program.
AI Tools and Branding Success Stories
00:10:29
Speaker
Tell us about that in the thought process and strategy behind that and how it went.
00:10:35
Speaker
It was and insane, actually. it was so insane because I had, it was February. This is a true story. February 25th at like 11 o'clock at night is when I had this aha moment. I'm sitting there with my Chad. I call him Chad.
00:10:49
Speaker
I'm sitting there with my Chad and we were, we came across this and he was the one who said, listen, drop everything, get yourself a trademark attorney, get the domain and do all the things. And he goes, tomorrow, tomorrow,
00:11:01
Speaker
you are going to go on social media and you're going to announce, Hey, Beck's creative intelligence is coming. And I was like, Oh, but I, what?
00:11:13
Speaker
And I did on February 26th, I did a reel and I was like, creative intelligence is coming. It's going to change branding. i'm using AI and branding differently than anybody else does. This is going to be game changing. Let's go.
00:11:29
Speaker
and I set up an email sequence for a beta test over a period of, I want to say it took me about, you know, a few days to kind of start developing some things. And then I went to Mexico on vacation and on a planned vacation, I was gone for a week.
00:11:45
Speaker
I had hoped I was saying that I wanted like 10 or 15 people in the beta and I knew I wanted to give it to like four of my previous clients or people that I thought would really use it.
00:11:59
Speaker
So I I was counting that four in the 10 to 15. But honestly, I only thought that I would get maybe two or three. I really did. Because who even knows what I'm talking about ever?
00:12:09
Speaker
I even when I'm sitting here talking to you, I'm like, nobody ever knows what I'm talking about. Nobody gets it. I don't blame them because it's all just so new. So I went on my vacation. I came home and I was DMing just a little bit on vacation, but not a lot.
00:12:25
Speaker
I came home and within a few days i had 18 signed up and then over the next few weeks, another 10. And it was freaking wild.
00:12:37
Speaker
It was wild to me that that was... so response And I was so proud of everyone for doing it you know, because every single, they were all women.
00:12:51
Speaker
Every single one of them said, I'm so excited, but like, why am I so scared? Every single one of mentioned a level of fear. And I just thought that was so interesting. And I was so proud of them for being courageous enough to be like, okay, I don't know what this is, but let's do it.
00:13:10
Speaker
Let's go. So so it was a it was a really, really cool experience for sure. I'm lucky enough to be one of those beta testers. And i because I had my baby, I was a little bit behind on getting the opportunity to play with it, but I have been. And when I get a chance to sit at the computer and thinking about how I want to show up um when i want to expand outside of just the podcast and re-launch Grit Study Women,
00:13:44
Speaker
um It has been helping me, especially as a tired, fatigued yeah yeah the newborn. I have a little bit of a hard time tapping into that creativity with my language. And, you know, ah originally chat GPT is a language tool.
00:14:04
Speaker
But combining it with the voice and the two personas that you gave me, um one is a strategist and one is um what ah Walker Rustin. Your brand voice.
00:14:16
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Walker and Rustin. and Rustin Walker. Rustin Walker. Yeah. Rustin Walker is your CEO and um Heidelberg. like What's her? what's yeah make McKinley butkinley Heidelberg.
00:14:30
Speaker
I gave them both very Tacoma names, great city names. Yes. Yes. And it has been helping me get through that initial block of like, i I know what I want to do and and what I want to say, but I can't quite get it right. And then you get stuck on it. And it definitely has helped me through that. And a little bit of early strategy kind of,
00:14:51
Speaker
plotting, I guess, but I didn't want to get too into it until I'm closer to really spending time on it and getting um ready to more launch because I kind of forget what what I do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah i know yeah But it's it is so exciting. I was so excited when you announced it.
00:15:12
Speaker
um I've always been curious about AI.
Ethical Considerations in AI
00:15:14
Speaker
And I think there is i think there's a reasonable fear because there are some unknowns about it. um i I believe that AI gets information that is put into it.
00:15:28
Speaker
So if I put in information, that puts it into the AI process. universe and essentially if it's any sort of private identifying information, anything that can be used to hack or or anything that's dangerous, right, to you, um I believe that if somebody does the right search, they can pull very detailed information about you out.
00:15:58
Speaker
Now, I'm not 100% sure on that. That is just something that I've heard as businesses are navigating that. how they're using chat GPT and what information they're putting into it. So a lot of them will say we you are not allowed to put any of our documents into chat GPT because they are protected or whatever reason. right So I think there's a reasonable fear.
00:16:20
Speaker
um I don't know if you have any insight on that, ah like around security or privacy and walking that line of using it for your business, but also protecting your business.
00:16:33
Speaker
Yeah, um the ethics and the security is definitely a big topic in AI. And I'll just say this as a disclaimer. I am not a tech pro. I am not an AI expert even. I'm a brand strategist and a creative strategist who uses AI and specifically ChatGPT.
00:16:51
Speaker
ah There are... There's a very long and content policy protectiveness that's in AI that's in ChatGPT. So there are certain requests that you can make with ChatGPT that he'll say, week I can't do this, I won't do this.
00:17:08
Speaker
As far as the sharing of information, there are settings in everybody's ChatGPT account where you can choose to have that toggled on or off to train the AI.
00:17:21
Speaker
And that that is the purpose for it, is that it's training AI. And so how you see that in in function is, I'm not sure if you've done this with with ah in your chat, but every once while, I'll give you a thumbs up or thumbs down.
00:17:37
Speaker
dodu Was this chat helpful? And that's you click yes or no. And that is that modeling that you're helping to train. So it takes all of those outputs and looks at what was the prompt and what was the response and why why would they have given that a thumbs up or a thumbs down?
00:17:58
Speaker
ah Those are the types of modeling that it's doing. Now, I would also add that at this point, AI is owned and developed by ah bunch of billionaires whose value systems are questionable at best and so i honestly think when it comes to like the morality of it I would like to have as many of us who feel like we're using it to benefit the world, to do the right thing, shaping it, using it and shaping it so that as we go further, then it hopefully we are having some influence on that.
00:18:40
Speaker
Um, again, not an expert for sure. I'm an expert in the kind of here and now and how I'm using it and not the what in the heck is happening out there world.
00:18:50
Speaker
Yeah. Thank you for that insight. That's very helpful because I'm still learning so much, obviously not an expert yeah either, but yeah excited about the opportunity and i don't think it's going to go away anytime soon. It's not.
00:19:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So we've talked about some of the advantages and you've told us about Habex Creative Intelligence.
Creative Leadership and Design Thinking
00:19:12
Speaker
um Can you tell us about creative leadership?
00:19:16
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, um that is actually a big part of what creative intelligence is, is that I launched it as a GPT shop and the GPT shop is live on my website.
00:19:29
Speaker
And you can get everything from what I call personality hires. They're just fun, you know, little chat GPTs that you can use that they have a sense of humor. They have a great personality. You know, they're fun. They're fun.
00:19:44
Speaker
All the way up to fully commissioned builds. But that actually is not what Haybeck's creative intelligence is. Those GPTs are built with Haybeck's creative intelligence.
00:19:57
Speaker
My way of looking at creative thinking and creative leadership. And I found that I was solving problems differently than a lot of people.
00:20:11
Speaker
And a lot of my business owner friends were coming to me asking me for help, for coaching, for consulting, because I was looking at problems differently than they were and solving them differently than they were.
00:20:25
Speaker
I believe that that's because of my interior design training. that as an interior designer, you start with a problem. you're It's very human based. You're very much about the conditions and the environment. Design thinking is its own you know philosophy and type of intelligence.
00:20:42
Speaker
And i'm very much trained up in that. So I thought, well, okay, this isn't just a gift that I was given at birth. like I was trained to think a certain way and look at problems a certain way.
00:20:54
Speaker
i tried to figure out like what, how could I articulate that so that I could teach it. And I took the creative process, put it in a two by two grid and all the way from like generating ideas, just free floaty white space, allow yourself to go all the way to strategizing, to building and refining, to releasing the idea into the world.
00:21:18
Speaker
And then I layered on top of that, creative codes for leadership, which are each one of us is is particularly gifted, uniquely positioned to help in one of those four boxes.
00:21:33
Speaker
And so I labeled kind of each one of those. It's not a personality test because you need to be a creative. You need to be able to do all of them, but you're uniquely positioned to be really good at one.
00:21:44
Speaker
Right. Probably a secondary one. I've created a quiz now for that, ah for the creative codes, the CI codes for creative leadership. And then then my leaders are like, okay, so now I know who I am and how I can help.
00:22:02
Speaker
But how do I move this problem? How do how do I, if I'm number three, but how am I getting number one and number two? And how are we all lining up? How am I moving a problem? So I took the exact same structure and I built what is called the idea track.
00:22:18
Speaker
and i built a gpt for this and this is actually the best gpt i've ever built it's not launched yet but it is so exciting and so i have it testing right now with some uh with people who have teams and they are obsessed with it and you have a problem if you have a problem to solve a product to develop or a process that you want to create You pop it into this GPT and it walks you through the creative process. my but How my brain looked at a problem, allowed myself the space you know to say, no sacred cows.
00:22:54
Speaker
what if What if the sky was the limit? All the things. So many times when we're solving problems, we start with what the constraints are. And we do have to look at constraints. We do.
00:23:07
Speaker
But we should never start there because then you can only ever solve the problem that's immediately obvious to you and never the real problem. So this process allows you to dig and dig until you get onto the real thing. And then it helps you all the way through It will literally create a table for you of the action steps, the tasks, the sub tasks, put it into a Google sheet while you copy and paste it into a Google sheet or whatever, whatever way you want to solve. If you want it in your notes app, you can do that.
00:23:43
Speaker
If you want some major, you know, big complex system, you could do that. But I think creative leadership is so underutilized. We have been led to believe that there are creatives and there are analytical people.
00:24:00
Speaker
Creative intelligence uses both. I have always used both. I have been an artist. I'm very artistic. I have always relied on my analytical, very logical, very common sense structured side.
00:24:13
Speaker
I'm a Capricorn. I can't get away from it. I have always blended the two. And so I want business owners to to feel like you you don't have to be one or the other. You don't have to be logical and analytical.
00:24:30
Speaker
You don't have to be super creative, but you do have to understand where those belong in this process and how you can like learn the skills it would take to be one or the other.
00:24:43
Speaker
and And I think it's the best way to solve problems. It's certainly the most fun way to solve problems. It's the most and sustainable, like long-term way to solve problems because again, you're genuinely genuinely getting to the root of a problem.
00:25:01
Speaker
And I just think that not near enough people are talking about it, know about it, using it. I'm on a mission to get everybody in a CI first, creative intelligence first mindset for sure.
00:25:19
Speaker
I love it. How do you see AI enhancing the human element of branding and how can entrepreneurs ensure that their brand still feels authentic while using these tools? I know you and I have talked about this during some of the beta testing.
00:25:36
Speaker
So the it's funny because I have several data sets, several dimensions that I train on. And training on personality, easy. Training skills, knowledge, easy.
00:25:48
Speaker
Even learning the logic and conditioning steps, um even the more advanced ones, it's challenging, but it's it's pretty it works pretty easily.
00:26:00
Speaker
The thing that has been the hardest is brand voice. That is the hardest thing to train. And the reason for that, I get really frustrated with people who maybe are in, um not to pick on copywriters at all, because i I think copywriters are like amazing, but people who are picking on people for using ChatGPT.
00:26:23
Speaker
I think it comes from a place of privilege, honestly. And i think that it is offensive to tell very busy business owners that there here's this tool out here and you you don't know how to do it right and it's icky and whatever.
00:26:39
Speaker
Okay, so let's train it. Let's figure it out. let's let's let Let's let the tool work for us. But brand voice is the hardest one to learn because... You, those thumbs up and thumbs down.
00:26:51
Speaker
That's what it's being modeled on. It's what is ironic is that chat GPT, it didn't make up how chat GPT talks. When everybody says you sound like chat GPT, guess what that is.
00:27:06
Speaker
Those are proven models for copywriting and sales copy proven models. ah Product, promise, purpose, problem, purpose, like all the, there's these actual frameworks that ChatGPT has been, they're human frameworks.
00:27:23
Speaker
And here we have a bunch of, you know, a lot of Instagram experts who are like, you have to keep your reel within 35 to 37 seconds. And you have to use these five hooks and you have to do this. And they're all everybody.
00:27:35
Speaker
Everyone is telling us to fit into a certain mold. So here comes this tool. that's fitting into the mold it was trained on because y'all are out there in the world on the internets in the data sets telling all of us to do this so that's what chat gpt is trained on but now it's to scale so before a handful of people were using those rules now everyone is using those rules so that's why what you're looking at looks like chat gpt
00:28:09
Speaker
I want to figure out, and that's the thing that I've been on the most right now is linguistics. understanding syntax, understanding all ah composition in conversation.
00:28:23
Speaker
and I'm doing all these A, B tests. I'm taking two statements that look almost exactly alike, but one I like and one I don't. and I can't say why. And I pop them into chat GPT and I say, what's the difference between these two?
00:28:36
Speaker
And I want you to guess. I always say, I want you to guess which one I like and which one I don't. And then it will say, well, this one has this, this, this is a little more formal. It uses this one uses a little more active conversational tone.
00:28:50
Speaker
I think you like this. Yep. You're right. You're right. So tell me how to train on that. Tell me the words, because I don't have the language for language that you do.
00:29:02
Speaker
So that would, my advice would be when you're using chat GPT, do Do exactly what I just said. take Take one little statement that you don't like and one statement that you do that you can't say why you like it.
00:29:17
Speaker
Put them both in chat GPT. Say, what is the difference linguistically? Say specifically, I want to understand the linguistic or language difference between these two.
00:29:29
Speaker
And then I want you to guess which one I like. And it will tell you. And it's mind-blowing. And you can use that to feed back into your ChatGPT to train it to sound more and more like you.
00:29:41
Speaker
Another hack that I would give people, especially when it comes to writing content, the second you use the word caption or post, ChatGPT has been trained to now go into caption writing format.
00:29:59
Speaker
It's just trained to do that, right? Like ah it's it's going to go to its sales, copywriting sales copy data sets, and it's going to write exactly like those frameworks want you to.
00:30:11
Speaker
So instead, say this, say, listen, i have a friend who is really struggling to make a decision about doing a rebrand.
Challenges and Hacks in AI Branding
00:30:24
Speaker
and I'm not really sure what to say to her. I know she wants it, she deserves it. it's I feel like it's the right time for her, but I know that there's things holding her back. What do you think I should tell her?
00:30:35
Speaker
I'm about to send her a voice note or we're about to go to coffee. What should I say to her? Say that. Do not say a thing about caption or post. Don't say a thing.
00:30:47
Speaker
Say, I want to talk to my friend. And the difference And then don't say, okay, now put that in the caption. Don't say that. Just take take that output and you put it into a caption or you know, I mean, edit it up a little bit for yourself, put it, copy and paste it right as it is.
00:31:06
Speaker
Right. and But avoid, just and understand that ChatGPT has been trained on frameworks. So don't give it the cues to jump into a framework when you mean, i just want to have a conversation.
00:31:19
Speaker
Oh, that is such good advice. I'm going to try it. I'm excited to try that because I never would have thought of how it's trained and the limitations around it. Me being an innovator and outside of the box thinker, w risk taker, if I'm using it as a tool to help expand sort of my vision and my brand, I don't want those limitations.
00:31:43
Speaker
I want that sky is the limit. Feedback and mentality, because that's how I that's how I roll. That's the reality. So I yeah love that information that you just gave us. And another thing that we had talked about before, too, that I want to mention is differentiation.
00:32:01
Speaker
yeah Can you talk a little bit about that and why it's important? Yes. Yes. But before I do, I will do want it to your point. If you're an idea generator, I am an an idea generator too.
00:32:11
Speaker
I just have one more quick tip. Go into your settings. Immediately on the first page, general, there will be a toggle down at the bottom that says um allow responses, something about responses.
00:32:23
Speaker
and Toggle that off because you know how when you... give Chad an idea and then he gives you his output. And then at the end he says, do you want me to put that into a thing?
00:32:34
Speaker
Or do you want me to da da da? He gives you like three options. Do you want me to do all of these other things? Yeah, Chad, I do want you to do all those things, but now because I have idea FOMO and I, I want to do all the things all the time.
00:32:48
Speaker
And, but now I'm so overwhelmed with all the things that I have to do. So turn that off and he will stop or he will only give you responses that are directly relevant to what you had asked for.
00:33:02
Speaker
He's not going to go on tangents. So turn that off. Okay. I think it is ironic. Differentiation has always been my point of differentiation. I harp and harp and harp on this.
00:33:14
Speaker
I think I hate being, trying to be better. i find that when people are starting their businesses, they are They get their LLC, they get their logo, they do their color palette, they open their Instagram.
00:33:28
Speaker
That's usually the first four steps, right? Sometimes they get a website. The younger ones, nope. The younger ones aren't getting a website until way later. My generation is definitely starting with a website, but you're getting that.
00:33:42
Speaker
They are more thinking, will everyone like it? Will everyone like this website? Logo. Like they're getting good feedback from their friend. They want everybody to just be happy for that. They're they're so nervous.
00:33:55
Speaker
They want everybody to like everything. And it's in about three years that they ask themselves, do I like it? Actually, do I, am I pulling the right people? Am I having, am making the right money?
00:34:07
Speaker
Am I, do I even like it? And that's differentiation. That's because you were chasing better rather than chasing different. We as women have been raised to fit in.
00:34:22
Speaker
And then you go and get an LLC and everybody says, be different, be different, be different. You're like, uh, hello, I've been programmed my entire life to fit in. So how am I all of a sudden supposed to have the confidence to stand out and be different and be weird or be like all of these things that are unique about me.
00:34:46
Speaker
I probably have some insecurities about now you're telling me to leverage them, but I am, I am telling you to leverage them. I'm telling you that those are the things that people love about you.
00:34:57
Speaker
Those are the things that your dream client loves about you. Your best friends love about you are those weird, quirky parts of you.
00:35:10
Speaker
That is the only way to be different is to be 100% accepting and loving and kind to yourself and be her. Be that bitch, get out there and be the weirdest part of you that you can be because nobody can copy that. They might be able to copy the logo. They might be able to copy the background. They might be able to copy the tagline. They can't copy you, your unique personality DNA and differentiation on a very practical monetary level.
00:35:42
Speaker
Differentiation is the entry to the three powers, demand power, meaning pet You have, there is demand for your brand. You're out there. People want you. They just automatically are drawn to you.
00:35:56
Speaker
They're telling people about you. When you do a new offer, they want to know what it is. Demand power. The second one is pricing power. Pricing power means you can mark your prices where you need them to be for the value that they are without pissing people off.
00:36:11
Speaker
If you're pissing people off, you don't have the right, you don't have pricing power. You don't have it. And the last is future power. Future power means I get to pivot and grow and add and change and keep this business growing with me.
00:36:27
Speaker
And my people are coming with me. They want to know what the next thing is. They're not saying stay small, safe stay the same. Please don't change. If they are, you don't have future power. Differentiation is the only door that gets you into those three powers.
00:36:42
Speaker
You might be able to get one of the powers by being better. You're not going to get all three. Differentiation hat is the only key that unlocks all three of those doors.
00:36:56
Speaker
That's really powerful stuff. I am so excited to dive into it more. And thank you for sharing the insight on just being yourself and focusing on your brand, because I think it is really hard when you are inundated with social media and you're seeing things and you're kind of like, everything is starting to seem very similar and very the same. And they're doing well, or they're not doing well, or, and it's like, well, just focus on you and what makes you different and celebrate that because that is what your clients or your community is drawn to is you and you are your own superpower.
00:37:42
Speaker
Yeah. And I would say um if you do have that worry, that concern, or you are curious about AI, but you don't want to look like a robot or feel like a robot, go to my Instagram because I'll tell you right now, I'm using ChatGPT more than probably anyone I know.
00:38:00
Speaker
It's all day, every day. I'm using it for literally every square inch of my business. And there is nothing about my brand that is the same nothing about it as anyone else. I am so differentiated.
00:38:12
Speaker
It has not made me the same. I am using my creative mind to make it work for me. You can too. You can too. And I'm very happy to teach people. what That's what I'm you know out here to do is to teach people how to do that.
00:38:26
Speaker
I'm here for creatives and disruptors. For sure. I definitely encourage anyone listening to check out your website or your
Purchasing AI Models and Brand Experiences
00:38:34
Speaker
social media. i mean, it's fire. Like I get lost in it. I look at it and I'm just like, this is such a cool website, such a cool brand. Everything that you've done is just so unique and i love it. So ah what is your Instagram and website so people can find you?
00:38:52
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. um The Instagram is heybex.creativehouse. And then also I have CraveyCI.co. ah It's craveyci.co.
00:39:03
Speaker
And that's where I have my GPT shop. It's a new one. It's just a new little baby one because my new my new little babies are out there now. And then my website is heybex.com.
00:39:14
Speaker
H-E-Y-B-E-X. Perfect. And people can purchase these AI models on your website, correct? Yeah. Yep. I have just one right now that is um ready to go for sale on my website. It's $47. It's the jam.
00:39:34
Speaker
And then the I have like 10 that are free. And then I have the custom semi-custom and I'm adding more to the just like ready to rock ones and all the time now. So ah keep an eye on that page for sure.
00:39:48
Speaker
If you, you do have to have a chat GPT account to use them. You do not have to have a chat GPT account to, or a paid one um to use them, but it does help because you'll run out of tokens and you'll be having fun and then you'll be bummed out.
00:40:03
Speaker
i And you don't have to do, you don't have to really know how to do anything other than text. you You literally click the little link. It's going to open in your chat GPT account.
00:40:15
Speaker
It's going to live right there. You don't have to do anything, nothing. My brand promise is built for busy. And so everything that I build is meant to be like the easiest, fastest onboarding ever.
00:40:33
Speaker
And you use ChatGPT for not just your business, but you use it for recipes and even planning dinners like the Crave Supper Club, which is an awesome experience that you provide um women, business owners and leaders in the community.
00:40:53
Speaker
Tell us about how you use ChatGPT and tell us about the Supper Club because I'm a huge fan and I can't wait to go again. I know Crystal, I loved having you Crave Supper Club. And so Crave Supper Club is a speakeasy style supper club. It's a brand immersion experience.
00:41:11
Speaker
And I wanted to host like a branding workshop, but I didn't want to like, I didn't want it to feel corporate-y. And i was really trying, what I wanted to teach was brand immersion, like visceral, sensory, ah so obsessive branding.
00:41:28
Speaker
And so I thought to myself, well, what better way than to bring people, immerse them in my own brand? My brand is about branding. decadence and spoiling yourself and being spoiled and being like, like I said, being that bitch, being the queen, being just like music and vibes and the whole thing. So I host the supper club. I invite six women.
00:41:54
Speaker
The only way in is through my DMs. You don't get any information about it until two days before. You know that it is at 6 PM. It's always on a Thursday, you know, the date and the time and that I live downtown Tacoma and that's it.
00:42:06
Speaker
and you don't know who's coming. You don't know what you're eating. Honestly, it's my nightmare. I would never go to it.
00:42:15
Speaker
But unless I was like, you want to go with me? Like I bring a friend. Um, But it has sold out. I almost always only do one post or one story and I will post three dates at a time. It sells out within a couple hours every single time. There's that demand power.
00:42:31
Speaker
There's that pricing power. There's that future power, the whole thing. and And I bring women in to I think if I can get you to a point of inspiration, your brain is going to do the rest.
00:42:46
Speaker
Your brain is going to tell you how to do this for you, how to do this for your clients. You know way more about your clients than I do, way more. And all you have to do is sit around this table and visit with these ladies and eat this food and have this cocktail.
00:43:03
Speaker
And before you know it, you leave here like, I can take on the world right now. Like I feel like a million bucks right now. Like I'm connected, I'm connected to myself.
00:43:14
Speaker
So it's it's a blast. But in order to do this every single month, because I do the entire thing myself, all the shopping, the prep, the cooking. I cook while you were here. I'm cooking while you're here and I'm still part of the party.
00:43:26
Speaker
um It looks effortless. And i did I built a GPT that it helps me plan the menu. And then once we decided on the menu, it prince it gives me the menu. I copy paste everything either into my um iPhone Notes app or Google Doc.
00:43:45
Speaker
It gives me the menu, and then it gives me the shopping list by department. It will give me an estimated cost if I ask for it. It gives me the um the recipes for each thing, and then it gives me my prep list.
00:44:00
Speaker
And I've trained it that I do my knife work and all my marinades and all of that first, and I want to do that on Wednesday evening. It's usually about 4 p.m. until about 10 p.m. that I do that.
00:44:14
Speaker
I'm a closer. And so it tells me what to do Wednesday night. And then it knows that by Thursday, i want to be done, like dishwasher emptied, trash taken out, kitchen's clean, everything's perfect by 3.30.
00:44:29
Speaker
I take an hour to get ready and then I come back out at 4.30 and I start setting up. I start setting up the appetizers, the water bar, the cocktails, all of those things for that 90 minutes. So that the minute my cut my guests walk in the door, there's cocktails waiting by the front door for them.
00:44:46
Speaker
every Nothing is being chopped, cooked, washed, nothing. Everything is prepped out here and ready to rock. And it knows how I like to do things and it gives me that prep list exactly that way.
00:44:57
Speaker
And it's... Freaking phenomenal. And there's a playlist that goes to every Crave Supper Club. I love it. So getting a lot done. I'm getting a lot done as a creative and I'm doing weird, crazy things.
00:45:12
Speaker
And I'm telling you, ChatGPT is the one helping me do it all. So if you feel like Chad is making you a robot, well, you better start changing your damn mind. You better start changing your damn mind because it is freaking fun.
00:45:29
Speaker
Awesome. I love it. What is your biggest piece of advice that you would offer Grit City Women?
Empowering Women's Creativity and Podcast Support
00:45:38
Speaker
Okay, so Grit City Women, here's the thing. It's it's a trying time for all of us, right? I mean, there's so many things happening in the world that are kind of probably making all of us feel a little unsettled, unsure what
00:45:57
Speaker
what we should Where should we be putting our eggs? What basket should we be putting our eggs in? What should I be focused on and what should I be growing? Here's my advice to you. About two years ago, i said to myself, I am going to go all in on being a creative.
00:46:13
Speaker
I'm going to stop with the operational roles that I have always put myself in because I've been really good at it. And I'm going to go all in on being a creative. And I did.
00:46:24
Speaker
And I didn't know when I said that two years ago, where, what doors that was going to open for me. So my advice is what, what, how are you uniquely positioned to help the world?
00:46:38
Speaker
What is your, what lights you the brick up? And is helpful to people. What is that thing that you know you do better than everybody?
00:46:50
Speaker
Claim it. Say to yourself, i don't care. The external stuff I have no control over. Because when I said that two years ago, i was actually, I said it because I was in a position that a lot of shit was out of control.
00:47:03
Speaker
And I needed, i needed me. I just needed me. Do that. Just figure out what that thing is for you. And go all in. Bet on yourself.
00:47:16
Speaker
Bet on yourself. Go all in. That's my advice. Great. Thank you so much for the wonderful advice and great information. it was a pleasure having you.
00:47:28
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, for sure. i loved it, loved it, loved it. Let's do it again sometime. Yes, and thank you for sponsoring Gritty is the New Pretty. Yeah, very happy too. Born from the spirit of Grit City Women, Gritty is the New Pretty carries the torch, amplifying the voices, stories, and power of women who lead with resilience, purpose, and unapologetic grit.
00:47:51
Speaker
To support Gritty is the New Pretty, follow us on Instagram at Grit City Women or shop our online store at gritcitywomen.com.