Episode Transcript
Kyle James (00:00)
Hey, welcome to the AI Chronicles podcast. I'm your host, Kyle James. Today we're going to be diving in headfirst into how a company called LaneLit is using AI inside of their own business. And we'll share the exact steps that you can use in order to implement AI for yourself. Now, before I dive into that, listen closely. Are you looking at implementing AI inside of your own company or just struggling to get your AI to stop hallucinating? Speak to GPT Trainer.
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to hire professionals schedule a consultation today. Once again, that's GPT dash trainer.com. Today I have with me, Alison Lane, who is a book coach, author, branding expert, and podcast host of a company called lane lit Alison lane. helps brilliant people turn their expertise and experience into best selling books that unlock visibility, credibility, and next level level career moves.
So excited to have you on today, Allison. How are you and welcome to the show.
Allison (01:31)
I am super jazzed because I think so many people are tentative when it comes to AI and they kind of feel like, am I cheating? Am I asking too much? Or they get hung up on like, is this prompt right? Or is that prompt right? Like you can't do it wrong unless you're doing nothing at all. In which case, you you guys.
take people by the hand and say, here's, this is how we do it and get comfortable so you can get out of the kiddie pool. And I'm so happy to talk about how AI can be used by everyone to elevate your visibility, like pronto.
Kyle James (02:19)
Yeah. Yeah. I love, I love to just
like, getting into the, like, you don't have to be an expert necessarily. mean, I obviously being experts great to start, but like not everyone start just start swimming, just start, just start experimenting and seeing what it can do just so you know, like what its capability is. anyways, but what was it? Tell me, Alison, like talk to us a little bit about lane lit and like, how did that, how did that company start and what, what, is it doing now?
Allison (02:32)
Yeah.
Well, that company started because two weeks before COVID, I got another new boss. I was leading a national and well, North American PR for a global company again, after 25 years, and I got another new boss. And that dude strolled in and did not learn anyone's last name. And I was like, ⁓ I can't. I just, I couldn't.
Kyle James (03:09)
Wow.
Allison (03:15)
And I had ⁓ already started helping people figure out what their hook was to pitch their book. Because after 25 years of leading PR for Unilever and Burt's Bees and the Body Shop and a ton of others, I was like, you know, at some point you can do what you do, on autopilot. So in my spare time, which I actually had during work hours, shh, don't tell anybody.
Kyle James (03:32)
Sure.
Ha!
Allison (03:45)
I
was, I started a Facebook group and I was just flummoxed, gobsmacked by how many people had a great idea for a book. They had credibility and visibility and they didn't know, number one, what the process was or number two, they undersold themselves or they thought, I know I have to put in my time. No, you don't. ⁓
I really hope they get my book. They don't need to get, they don't need to be a believer, like a disciple of your book. They need to know that it's a product that will sell, you know, and that's about marketing. It's not about how, you know, the merit of your book idea. It's about will this book sell? And that is what people need. Just like contributing to media, you need a hook and...
Kyle James (04:23)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Allison (04:44)
Everyone I met was making the same fundamental mistakes. They were pleading and using diminishing language and they undersold the biggest draw about themselves, which is, you I know we're taught to be humble, but dang, your humility is boring and it is a barrier.
to people understanding how you can contribute to them.
Kyle James (05:16)
Yeah. Yeah. Was that so talking about that, like, uh, you know, there's, seems like there's so many different. Hurdle. mean, starting off, right. They have this idea and they don't know where to begin. And there might be some kind of like, you know, potholes that they might fall into or holes that just waste their time or just derails them from their vision. Like what are some of those like maybe top biggest mistakes people make when they're trying to take that transition from, I've got my book idea.
Now how do I get to actually successfully publishing it and it's making sales?
Allison (05:48)
There are two mistakes people make and one is just ⁓ an urban myth. It's just a legend. And it is that publishing your book means that you have to know somebody or you have to be discovered, which is baloney. And that makes for a great movie. And, you we saw that on, you see it in TV shows, but it's not actually how it works.
It's, you don't have to toil and you don't have to wait until you earn your spot. You can, you're a grownup and you can just take the action that needs to be taken, but you have to know what it is. And that's the thing is that when people think that there's, that it's this big process, that's just make believe. It's not.
It's so simple. ⁓ It's so simple. And the other mistake is that they don't know how to market themselves. And I don't mean develop a marketing plan for themselves. I mean, they don't know how to complete the sentence. I am a... Fill in the freaking blank, people. I am a... You can't say retired social studies teacher.
because that's not relevant to what you are. That's a job title, but it's not, am a storyteller for elementary school children. That helps me understand what you're doing. Or I am a globally renowned speaker coach. Thank you, I understand that. Or I'm a... ⁓
Kyle James (07:17)
Right. That was past, right?
Allison (07:45)
frequent media contributor about parenting and relationships. Thank you. But we don't need to know your job title, or I'm a freelance writer, or I'm a psychologist. Your one liner needs to be a mic drop moment. It needs to be a power statement. And it's not usually something that would come out naturally from someone.
Kyle James (08:14)
So it's almost like you have like getting that first, like that one liner is almost like the core foundation where if you don't have it down, like that, that, that helps, it'll knock you off the trajectory, even if it's just a few degrees. So getting that almost like that core belief of yourself first, and then like relaying that to people who are like, okay, what do you do or who are you? It's paramount. It sounds like it.
Allison (08:42)
It's the first step to knowing how you fit and how you can stand out, is nailing your one-liner, nailing how you present the headline of you, of not the job you're in, you know, I'm an executive chef, thank you. That's different than I am a master of
Kyle James (09:02)
Mm-hmm.
Allison (09:12)
fusion techniques and melding cultures. Like, really? How do you do that? well, I'm an executive chef. Well, that's interesting. I could have gone anywhere with that. But the one liner is the umbrella statement. And that's whether you're writing fiction or you want to write nonfiction. If you're an academic and you've already published a book, the publishing with a university press,
Kyle James (09:23)
Right.
Allison (09:42)
has a much different ⁓ standard moving forward because they're looking at essentially like turning your thesis into a book. But a book that's gonna be sold at Barnes and Noble, you need to be able to say, here's why I'm the right person to write this book and make it super clear that you know and where you fit in.
Kyle James (09:52)
Sure.
you
Yeah. Yeah. Cause like getting that clarity, like for yourself, cause then the people who are asking that question to you, like, okay, well, what is, what is the book? Who are you? What are you talking about? Like if they don't have a clear vision, then like, that means you don't have a clear vision. Like there has to be like almost both sides of it. Cause when you, especially when you scale it to, and you're selling millions of copies, ⁓ thousands of copies, right? Like there has to be, there has to be the ultimate clarity to it.
And speaking of, know, talking a little bit about lane lit, you know, I think I definitely think it's fantastic what you're doing. I'm sure you've helped hundreds of different authors out there. Um, but before we dive more into that, like what, what talking on the AI side, what did you decide to start when and where, you know, why did you start using AI in the first place within lane lit? And ideally what challenges were you trying to solve when implementing AI for, for your business and especially for your clients?
Allison (11:03)
My first foray into AI was to figure out whether ChatGPT or Claude was going to be my virtual intern. Like I needed to be able to rely on something and I wanted a repeatable process because time is energy and I don't have energy to waste.
So I wanted to create a repeatable process for content repurposing. I am a podcast host and I also offer online courses and even one-on-one sessions with clients and the transcripts of those are pure gold. Every word out of your mouth is content that can be repurposed, but I don't want to have to go old school.
read through and highlight, which is what everyone used to do. Go through, read the transcript, and it would look like it was written on a dot matrix printer, because you're probably too young for that. But in the olden days, when God was a boy, that's what we used, was a dot matrix printer. And you'd highlight, like, here's a phrase that maybe I can use, and you'd pull that.
Kyle James (12:14)
that probably
Mm, okay.
Allison (12:28)
but now you can feed the transcript into Chatch-EBT or Claude and say, give me my power statements. And it's.
Kyle James (12:35)
Wow. So it's like going
back through that, that transcript almost like instead of it taking hours to do it's
Allison (12:38)
saves hours, hours.
I mean, it used to take at least a day and a half to repurpose one hour of a conversation or a ⁓ class or a workshop, at least a day and a half between the downloading and the uploading and the look in the wordsmithing. I'm already a wordsmith. So
I of course have done that forever and ever, but to be able to train my custom GBT now, Belinda, who I like to yell at her because I feel like being, the whole thing of like, I like to say please, like screw please, do your job.
Kyle James (13:25)
gives you satisfaction.
Yeah, that's funny. ⁓
Allison (13:33)
Do not talk back to me. Talk faster.
Yeah, she knows her place. She delivers.
Kyle James (13:40)
Yeah.
That's so funny. Yeah. That's, ⁓ I have to like be mindful. I keep, you know, using open AI and different it's like, still have to try and say please. Cause otherwise like I talk to my wife. I'm like, Hey, do this for me. She's like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. Hey, how about a please? It's like, ⁓ please baby. you go do this for me? But it is right. It's just like getting to that, like that first, almost like the use case or whatever it is that's saving you that time. And for you, it sounds like it was like the podcast.
Allison (13:58)
Yeah.
Kyle James (14:10)
Was there anything else that you like specifically that you've been using outside of like the podcast that you feel like, Hey, this has been helpful for, you know, especially like when helping authors like get to their next, their one liner or building out their book, right. Getting that vision. Like, has, have you been using that too for any content generally? Like walk me through what kind of step by step, that's, what that's looks like.
Allison (14:32)
Aside from my own marketing and the podcast, but even before the podcast, it was, what should I be putting on my website? Is my language as powerful as it needs to be? Because the SEO scrubbing, we needed the headlines to be right. And I used to use a Chrome extension called Harpa.
which had baked in ⁓ prompts, which I really liked. And then ChatGBT kind of outpaced them. And so that was super helpful to get my language right and to be super specific because you know, if you're too broad, nobody knows what you're doing. And I think that it helped me. And then... ⁓
Kyle James (15:25)
Right.
Allison (15:31)
Every time I meet a new client or someone says, you know, I'm getting rejections from agents, literary agents and publishers, but I know I'm the right person. Like, yeah, because you're your pitch is like, milk toast, it's vanilla. It's just all the words are in the wrong order. You like everything's there, but you're underselling and you're using diminishing language, like
I helped spark this campaign. You can just say, sparked this campaign. You don't have to say helped or words like had, or ⁓ I'm on a mission to, nobody cares what your mission is. Just tell me what you do, you know? And tightening all that language, and I used to do it by hand for people, but I just trained.
Kyle James (16:18)
Mm-hmm
Allison (16:28)
AI, I gave it a bunch of good examples. And now when someone gives me their draft of something, I kick it into my custom GBT, Belinda, and she knows what I'm looking for.
Kyle James (16:43)
Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. So like almost like, because you knew what you, you were doing, right. Going through, mean, initially with the printing example, you, that's one example, right. But with the podcast, but even still with your clients is like, as they're giving you that all of their details of the book and you know, Hey, I'm going to go through it line by line, but you've actually created this almost like this AI bot as agent to where you just kind of plug in and it fine tunes it for you.
And I'm sure afterwards you make a couple of adjustments like, Hey, actually, I don't like this word that they, said, like, I, let me change this because, because of your experience in it. You know what mean?
Allison (17:19)
I mean you start to see like
please stop using the word delve No one delves no one empowers That's not the way people talk and I'll zhuzh it because AI really likes a complete sentence So we're not so formal around here But it does that draft that I would give to an intern But my intern doesn't take lunch breaks or breathe so I like her a lot
Kyle James (17:26)
Mm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Allison (17:48)
⁓ and she's, you know, she delivers every time. The other thing I really like to do is when people are struggling with, I don't know what to write or content creation. It's so hard. So I'll, I have two hacks and I'll give them to you because you probably know them already. But when I am putting on makeup or walking the dog, I will.
Kyle James (17:48)
Yeah.
Yeah, please share.
Allison (18:18)
tuck my phone somewhere close to my face or sometimes in my bra, because I'm not proud, I will do it. And I will just rant. I'll rant into my, you know, Otter or into chat, chibiti, and I'll say take notes, because I'm having this thought. And then, so I'm, you know, they say, go do something mindless. And that's when your ideas come to you. But if you don't have a piece of paper and a pencil right then,
Kyle James (18:24)
Yeah.
Sure. Yeah, yeah.
Allison (18:47)
Those ideas are like, I did have an idea, but now I can't remember an idea. But now I capture those and I use that transcript and I feed it to Belinda. And I just say, pull out my power quotes, or I had that idea for a podcast episode, create an outline for me. Because time is energy and everyone has a finite amount. The other hack is that
Kyle James (19:05)
Right, right.
Mmm.
Allison (19:16)
People create the best content in reaction to someone else's question. So rather than face the blank page when you are commenting on someone else's social post, when someone has a question and you share something or offer a different perspective, you'll often find that you've created something that other people are.
commenting on like, wow, that was really helpful. I can't believe I never thought of that. Copy, paste, use. Do not let those super helpful comments that oftentimes happen in LinkedIn groups or Facebook groups or in Discord channels, that's your content. You're pouring your expertise into something, but don't leave it out there like breadcrumbs.
It's gold, take it with you.
Kyle James (20:15)
Yeah. Yeah. That's incredible. I like it's a new, these are new perspectives that I think a lot of people listening just haven't thought about that. Like, ⁓ you know, looking at, especially on the AI side, like taking notes when the idea hits you, cause it could hit you in the movie theater. can hit you at two o'clock in the morning, like pulling out a note. And sometimes they go so fast. Like it's going so fast. You're like, I can't keep up in this case. You're using like almost like the AI is like, ⁓
Allison (20:32)
Carpool, sitting in carpool, yep.
Kyle James (20:42)
Not like a coach or anything, but I guess I kind of like it. The blend is like a coach where it's like, Hey, you're you've got these ideas. Hey, let me start recording here and just start feeding these different ideas or writing down the type of the ideas and then taking that later and go, okay, here's what I'm going do with the podcast or here's what I do with content creation, which just it's a new way of doing it. And then even still like, I mean, there's so many different, I think avenues you can take here. Um, that, that go back to like the time saving.
initiatives and like, where can I make sure that I'm capitalizing on every single comment that I make that way? I'm taking that content and I'm re almost like thinking like recycling, like I'm recycling it, right? Or not even recycle, but taking it and actually creating a new element, ⁓ for your business or for other people. Like I think that's, that's like, that's game changing. You know what mean?
Allison (21:34)
It's game changing, yes, but it also means that you can create less. When you know what your core power content is, you don't feel like you're on a hamster wheel to create more. People don't need more. They need consistency, they need to see it again and again. So maybe they see that same power quote in a quote card, but they also see the video.
Kyle James (21:50)
Right.
Allison (22:04)
of me walking the dog and I'm taking a selfie video while I'm walking because then I have the transcript, I have the audio, so I can make an audio ⁓ social, I can do just a screenshot. So anything you're doing, if you have five minutes, you've got probably 10 pieces of content. that's, we're just trying to make it easier.
Kyle James (22:32)
Yeah, absolutely. I think for sure that perspective, Allison is definitely, it's definitely new for me. And I know probably new for a lot of people who are listening. And as far as like, you know, you're working in the AI, you're using AI for your business. What are some of those like upcoming initiatives that LaneLit is, is for seeing? ⁓ and where do you see AI kind of playing a role in your operations? ⁓ next.
Allison (22:59)
Well, one, everyone I work with is honing their pitch, whether they're going in to meet with a publisher and the publisher says, you know, tell us what you're thinking about your marketing. You've got to really nail that. And it starts with you because you are the brand and your book is a product, just like you're speaking.
gigs are a product. It's one way that people can connect with you, right? So knowing how you are the like the master brand of these other engagement opportunities is key. ⁓ I should mention that this is so universal of a need that I actually I created a template for myself so that I have a
I keep my bio and all my details in one document so that I never have to waste time trying to find the last version of the bio that I had. And I keep that, and then I started providing it to all my clients, but now I just provide it to everybody for free. So it's on my website. You can go to lanelit, like literary.com, backslash package, and just grab it. It comes with a video walkthrough.
and it's the simplest document, but everything about the AI tools is just to simplify and focus. So definitely I encourage people to do that. The way that I'm using AI now to plot and plan my strategy for the next two years is by asking it
what I need to stop doing, and what I need to start doing, and what I need to continue doing. When I was running PR for Unilever, those were the only three questions that were ever asked to give feedback on someone. What should I start doing, stop doing, continue doing? That's it. So in order to get to
Kyle James (24:57)
Mmm.
really good.
Allison (25:23)
you know, my financial goal and my time goal. I don't want to work weekends. I've got kids that do all the sports, you know, all the constant practices ⁓ and working from the parking lot is no fun.
Kyle James (25:41)
Yeah.
Allison (25:42)
So, you know, I need to be able to feed that into AI to say, my business plan needs to change. And not just scaling, but in time management. Here's what I'm doing. And because of that, it said, you know what? You need to close your Facebook community. Because you have a podcast now and you reach more people than you do in the community. And the podcast is public in the...
community somebody has to learn about and then want to go and I was like yeah okay done the next day sorry folks we're closing the doors you don't have to go home but you can't stay here
Kyle James (26:13)
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I think it's so paramount to, have like, to have a, almost like a, it seems like I almost like a coach like, what should I be doing more of? And like, what should I just totally? think that's probably the most important one is which one should I stop doing? Because that's where most of the time is being wasted, but taking that time from the stopped items and then putting it in, like say the podcast is an example. Like that's going to give you almost like a higher return on your investment of your time and probably even your money. I'd imagine.
Allison (26:53)
for sure. mean, just being on your podcast and meeting you and having seeking out guests who can provide value and real eye opening moments on my podcast, which is the author's edge. It's the only marketing podcast for publishing. And like people don't
know how to get a book published or roll that into their career. They often say, I'll get to it when things aren't so busy or when I retire or when I take a sabbatical. But when you retire, it's too late because if you are not doing the thing that makes you an expert anymore, then nobody wants your book because you're out of the game. So don't wait. Just know that
Kyle James (27:45)
Yeah.
Allison (27:51)
there's a much easier path.
Kyle James (27:53)
Awesome. Allison, thank you so much for your time today. Certainly I've definitely enjoyed this conversation we've had and I'm sure everyone else who's listening in has absolutely enjoyed it as well. Where can people learn a little bit more about lane lit and maybe learn more about you and kind of what you do?
Allison (28:10)
Well, I'm at lane lit.com for sure. Always there. That's my home base. And on social LinkedIn is where I like to play. So it's Allison Lane lit. And that's my tag on all the socials, but LinkedIn is my jam.
Kyle James (28:29)
Awesome. Awesome. We're great having you on Alison. And remember for everyone who listening in today, if you're looking to implement AI into your business, don't try and do it yourself. The time and stress that the AI will cause just isn't worth it. Schedule a call with GPT trainer and let them build out and manage your AI agent for you. Again, that's GPT-trainer.com. Thanks again, Alison. Signing off for now, everyone.
Have a wonderful rest of your day and looking forward to seeing you on the next episode of AI Chronicles.
