Teri Holland (00:03.022)
So Courtney, thank you so much for coming back today. I appreciate having you on the show. And I wanna start with why do you think that this conversation is important, this conversation about consciousness, performance and AI technology? Why is this important right now?
Courtney A. Seard (00:19.788)
I believe it is critically important right now because I'm watching some of the smartest minds in the world spin out, looking at this as something that's a tool that's going to take away from them. It's just kind of, I would say, fostering and sparking all of these fears and negative emotions and negative beliefs. And I really think that people need to kind of reassess and understand this moment in time that we're in is incredibly unique.
you know, we had the industrial revolution. think we're in the technology, the technological revolution. And instead of people freaking out and running and saying, I don't want to use it, embrace it and realize that it's an asset to you. We are human and I'm pro human. And I think that the thing that's going to separate us is if we bring our humanity and we realize that we're not machines, we're human. And how do we out, how do we out humanize the computer while utilizing.
all of the great things that a computer can do for us.
Teri Holland (01:21.592)
Amazing. So when you think about AI and you think about human potential, what excites you the most right now?
Courtney A. Seard (01:29.686)
well, realistically, what it cites me the most is the freeing up of human capacity to actually think and create an ID rather than just doing. It allows us to actually become human beings rather than humans doing. Personally, I have been into AI for, I'd say now, probably since 2022. I was in New York listening to a kind of like a
Teri Holland (01:46.838)
it.
Courtney A. Seard (01:59.302)
roundtable with a professor from Wharton School of Business. He was the head of entrepreneurialism and he said, I make all of my students use AI. And this is before chat, GTHTP was super big. And he said that because the reality is, is that it's going to allow you to actually have the time to think of better strategic solutions rather than recreating the hamster wheel. So listening to him, I started to adopt this into my life and
Teri Holland (02:12.674)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (02:27.77)
really began to see that I actually did have a lot more time to ideate, to slow down, to think. I wasn't in this crazy hamster wheel of busy work, which I think a lot of people can misconstrue busy with productive. And to me, the aha moment was realizing that, you know what, Courtney, you weren't as busy as you thought. You weren't as productive as you thought. You were just spinning in circles.
Teri Holland (02:34.86)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (02:45.698)
Yes.
Courtney A. Seard (02:57.252)
And this has allowed me not to spin in circles. And the thing that I love and how I know that it's not going to take away from me is that I utilize this with all of my clients, whether they be, you know, B2C, so my one-on-one coaching customers, or my larger corporate clients. And one of the things that I really want individuals to do is to embrace it, to...
Teri Holland (03:09.163)
Amazing.
Courtney A. Seard (03:22.434)
not wait for your organization if you're in an org or not wait for the rest of the world, but start practicing and adapting and playing and allowing it to be a part of your day-to-day life. It doesn't take over your life. AI does not execute. It ideates. Maybe a couple of bots can execute emails, yet it ideates. It gives you clarity, but you still have to go out there.
Teri Holland (03:35.778)
Yeah. No.
Courtney A. Seard (03:49.368)
and execute, you still have to go out there and make that human connection. And if you're not good with people, you're not good with people. And I firmly believe that this is the time where the human really gets to shine. Because with so much more automation, with so much more AI and the computers running the world, people get frustrated. You hear all the time the memes with a person hitting zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, and they get hung up on, right? So imagine when you do run into someone.
Teri Holland (04:03.246)
I.
Teri Holland (04:14.508)
Yep.
Courtney A. Seard (04:19.312)
who isn't rude, who isn't curt, who can see you, who has the skills to within 10 to 15 seconds build deep rapport and connection and then take you on to the next step. So I really believe that this is the golden age for humans to really shine and to bring out our humanity and how we connect and work with people. And the things that, you know, we wasted our time on, me wasting my time on so many things, I have the assistance.
Teri Holland (04:35.64)
interesting.
Courtney A. Seard (04:49.01)
of what I consider a robust data aggregate of research that can help and support me, which allows me, and I think this is a small amount of time for, you know, small businesses and entrepreneurs to really play with the big boys. Because you in essence have the same data aggregation process. You have the same access to research as a UI, as a McKinsey.
Teri Holland (05:04.706)
Yeah
Courtney A. Seard (05:16.6)
As a Deloitte intuition, know though this for truth, because those are some of my clients and they are actually struggling internally with a lot of the small and medium businesses who have used them for consulting. They're turning to AI. So it is a level set where it allows you to have this barrier to entry is over. If you are open to early adopting.
Teri Holland (05:22.178)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (05:36.685)
Right.
Teri Holland (05:40.716)
Interesting. I want to go back to what you said a little bit earlier, where you mentioned that this is going to free up humans to be able to think more. What about people who are saying that using AI is diminishing our ability to think?
Courtney A. Seard (05:58.604)
If you're using AI as your brain, absolutely. Because then you're in group think. It's the same. And what's different between when someone said Google it? Because let's be realistic. All AI is doing is pulling from all of these robust systems. So it's a faster, more in-depth, more robust Google. Maybe it's a Google, it's a Bing, and it's a Wikipedia, and 10 other things that we didn't know.
Teri Holland (06:09.421)
Right.
Courtney A. Seard (06:23.012)
To me, the thing is, is that it's not going to take away because you still have to have critical thinking. You still have to have the ability to process thought and reason. And it hasn't taken away from individuals who know how to critically think, know how to work with it. If you have a limited way of thinking, if you have a surface level,
Teri Holland (06:31.948)
Right.
Teri Holland (06:35.553)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney A. Seard (06:51.942)
prompt or thought process, you're going to get the generic material. But just like anything, you know, as a coach, the question is the answer. And some of the most profound coaches know how to ask some really profound in-depth answers. And I believe that is the same here, where it has nothing to do with the machine and everything to do with the person who's stepping up to the machine.
Teri Holland (07:19.976)
Okay, so how do we begin to rewire our thinking in the age of AI? And why is that critical for us to do right now?
Courtney A. Seard (07:31.71)
it's so critical because again, I right now everyone is just freaking out. And when you are in a fear mindset, you have no way to think ideation. go into fight or flight, all of those things that happen to your system, you shut down and it becomes the worst case scenario. But I fundamentally believe that when you shift your view from thinking that AI is a threat rather than a collaborator with you, it
Teri Holland (07:38.339)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (07:46.786)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney A. Seard (07:57.87)
allows you to have like a deeper, more profound understanding of how you can show up as a leader. And I tell a lot of the leaders that I work with, is not going to replace you. What is going to replace you is a person who is comfortable using AI as a partner. However, it really is going to allow you to sit there and think and come up with a lot more.
Teri Holland (08:14.946)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (08:25.094)
How do I put this? A lot of times in business strategy is created based on need and it's incredibly reactionary rather than it being proactive. And this allows you to actually sit and think 10 steps ahead because you're not responding to 15 things. You're not deep diving on research. You're not doing all of these repetitive tasks. So for me, I think that
Teri Holland (08:34.392)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney A. Seard (08:51.918)
It's exposing truly what I call, I mentioned before, the difference between the person who said, I'm getting so much done, but they were just busy because they didn't have good focus versus that person who's being more strategic. It is going to make you have to really think about, are you creating tangible results that move the needle? And I think that's what's making people a little bit nervous because we've lived in a world of fluff.
Teri Holland (08:59.896)
Mm-hmm.
Teri Holland (09:13.294)
Right.
Teri Holland (09:18.924)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney A. Seard (09:21.294)
A world of jargon and ideation. A world of, here's this report, but no one really thinks about the outcome. Rarely do people get to the outcome. This is going to force us looking at the ROI consistently. And I think for a lot of people who, you know, like to just pontificate, and as I like to tell people all the time, everyone has a great idea, but can you actualize it?
Teri Holland (09:32.707)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (09:49.368)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (09:50.054)
Everyone has a great idea, but can you actually take the steps to execute that idea? And for me, I think that AI, if you're using it properly, all of the time that you spend with the spinning wheels of thinking, thinking, thinking, you have something else that can help you think. You have to obviously go in, reiterate, add your own, you know, feel to it, cut, paste, edit.
I don't use AI and it just does everything for me. I still am heavily involved in my voicing and my messaging, but guess what? That involvement allows me to train my dragon. So my response is better the next time. But then what it does do is for me, it's execution. I have an assistant and we meet once a week. And because he is managing a lot of the AI employees that I have within my organization, just the amount of
Teri Holland (10:29.816)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (10:47.334)
completion and execution and bandwidth and the things that we're thinking about now, I never would have had that ability two years ago. And I say the same thing for a lot of the clients that I work with now where I'm telling the team leaders, do not wait for your organization. Create systems inside your teams and your groups to ensure that your teams are AI efficient. They have this proficiency. Start integrating these things inside because you as a
Teri Holland (11:06.318)
Mm-hmm.
Teri Holland (11:12.802)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (11:16.408)
senior vice president, you as the director, you own your org and you know you do and you have budget. So all of that L and D budget, I love it. All about emotional intelligence. Get them a book, have them watch a masterclass, but take that money and get them trained in a skill that's gonna upskill them so that you and your team are isolated from whatever changes come in because they know that you're the people to go to.
Teri Holland (11:21.294)
Hmm?
Teri Holland (11:37.422)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (11:45.936)
who understand and you know what these pieces of technology are and you're using them. Because I firmly believe that blockchain and AI, they are only technological platforms. They're operating systems. They're not people. They're not robots. And I think if people are really, if you want to be afraid, and I say, why would you even dive into fear? It makes no sense.
Teri Holland (12:02.327)
Okay.
Teri Holland (12:14.477)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (12:14.714)
You should actually look at robotics way more than you should look at AI because, you know, at the end of the day, again, AI does not execute.
Teri Holland (12:20.237)
Right.
Teri Holland (12:27.254)
Mm-hmm. But robotics could, is that what you're?
Courtney A. Seard (12:32.068)
Robotics can execute, you know, and I'm not either or. I firmly believe that, and this is my thought process, so this is an interesting point of view. I have this point of view, but I don't think that anything on this planet wasn't granted to us by the creator. So I believe that this is something that is for us to use. And like anything, a hammer can be used to build a house or it can be used to
Teri Holland (12:33.43)
Yeah. Yeah.
Teri Holland (12:38.136)
Okay.
Teri Holland (12:48.578)
Yeah, I agree.
Courtney A. Seard (13:00.72)
break a person down or take a house down. It's all in how you look at it. And that's why I think that our consciousness collectively as a human society needs to be geared towards how this is an add on rather than as this dystopian fear that it's gonna take our lives away from us. Because you, like me, we have a training in something called NLP. You know, you get what you focus on. So why not focus on what you want rather than focus on your fears?
Teri Holland (13:15.81)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (13:26.253)
Yep.
Courtney A. Seard (13:30.534)
and knowing that this isn't, you know, woo woo, it's actually quantum physics, why would you attract that to you? I think that, you know, so many people have asked for free time. Well, this is going to allow you to have the free time. I'm painting again. This painting behind me is brought to you by AI. It's not AI did it, I did it, but I actually had time instead of me being up all night.
Teri Holland (13:46.978)
Right. Yeah. Amazing.
Teri Holland (13:55.075)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (13:58.958)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney A. Seard (13:59.044)
writing, reviewing, looking at SEO numbers for my next newsletter, I was able to actually change. How great is that?
Teri Holland (14:04.78)
Yeah.
Yeah, amazing. it's, you know, because the way that I see it is I see this as an opportunity for humans. We're entering a new Renaissance period where art is going to flourish and ideas. Because we're like you're saying, we're going to have the space to do these things. But no one's I don't I don't see a future where we're going to want to watch robots dancing, or listen to a robot sing a beautiful song.
That's always gonna be human. And so I see this opening up the arts for us and putting an emphasis on human creation now that before we were just so busy doing these things that weren't as important to us, but got to pay the bills. Now we'll have time and space to do it.
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (14:57.926)
I 100 % agree. And a lot of people are like, well, let's talk about all of the AI actors and all of these things that are taking away from Hollywood. OK, so that's an interesting case study. People, the actual end user, they don't feel the same heart and soul. And they're the actual client and customer. They're going to be the ones consuming this and allowing a business to grow, right?
Teri Holland (15:09.058)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (15:24.614)
People still want to see humans and you like me know, I know when something CGI or not. As much as the brain doesn't know the difference between real remembered and you know, imagined, we still do. That's just something that's innately what we have that like this distinction system inside of us. So I don't want to watch a bunch of AI developed content. It's not that smart. And it doesn't bring me.
Teri Holland (15:24.962)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (15:30.586)
for sure.
Teri Holland (15:49.58)
No.
Courtney A. Seard (15:51.983)
as much joy as hearing the story of a human being. And I think that a lot of these takes on AI are from people who are kind of click baiting. Right now, fear is a huge driver. I did a little bit of research.
Teri Holland (16:07.458)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney A. Seard (16:14.202)
The most clicked articles on AI are not the ones that are all about optimism and how it's going to save your job and allow you to your job better and teaching you how to write better prompts. all about, it's going to take my job. It's ruining the environment. It's going to do this. And it's like, okay, so if you want to be in the doom and gloom, it's true. You know, you're correct.
Teri Holland (16:26.254)
Yes.
Teri Holland (16:32.952)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yep.
Courtney A. Seard (16:37.284)
A lot of machinery did take away from manual labor, but guess what also the industrial revolution did? It stopped child labor. Right? There are so many things that, you know, nothing is perfect. However, I don't look at this as being the doom and gloom and all be all. But what I can say is we're in a very unique inflection point.
Teri Holland (16:47.982)
Yeah. Yep.
Courtney A. Seard (17:06.576)
where things are exponentially changing and the ability of these systems are growing and growing. So your barrier to entry and being able to catch up is shrinking. Get involved now. There are so many free courses that you can take from MIT to Harvard to University of London, Cambridge, a numerous amount of where do you want to be in the AI world? You need to upscale yourself.
Teri Holland (17:23.586)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (17:36.343)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (17:36.964)
Because a lot of companies are not companies. lot of countries right now are reinvesting in upskilling around AI because they realize it's coming and it's happening. So instead of them pushing it away, they're reinvesting in how do we ensure that our workforce is apt and adjust to deal with these changes? It's no different than coding. I sit on the board of a computer science college in Utah.
Teri Holland (17:59.937)
Okay.
Teri Holland (18:05.506)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (18:06.046)
And, I had a friend who, when I made the announcement, they're like, well, you're also on the board of this AI, HR software company. So it isn't that like, you know, counterintuitive since the coders aren't going to have a job since AI. And I'm like, you just don't get it. Like they still are going to need humans to code, but there's also your cybersecurity aspect and
Teri Holland (18:25.731)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (18:29.42)
If the model is only receiving the same things over and over again, it's only going to be as basic as it can possibly be. We are human beings and no one creates like us. And I stand on this firmly. There is nothing that anyone can do that can dissuade me from it. Do I have concerns around AI? Yes. But a lot of it has to do a little bit more around the environmental aspect.
Teri Holland (18:41.379)
Yes.
Courtney A. Seard (18:57.734)
and less to do around the aspect of how it's going to take from humans. Human beings are incredibly resilient as a species. This may seem a little bit curt, but Darwinism exists for a reason. If you can't figure out a way to adapt,
Teri Holland (18:58.008)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (19:08.567)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (19:15.362)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney A. Seard (19:20.166)
but our earth is millions of years old. Adaptation is a part of that survival. And I really believe that, you know, what you resist, persist, this isn't going anywhere. Adapt, have fun with it, play with it. And some of my most stringent anti-AI friends, coaching clients, training clients, the more and more I'm
Teri Holland (19:20.365)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (19:38.882)
God.
Courtney A. Seard (19:50.342)
talking about it, the more and more they see. And I did a great training this summer for two organizations, one around retail, one around travel and hospitality. And it was about high performing teams in dynamic times. And every single portion of those modules, every single section, I had something around AI and them allowing themselves to be more comfortable with it and them training their teams and allowing their teams to explore and creating an environment of
basically just testing and ideating and realizing that this is all about feedback because you don't quite understand the more you allow yourself the comfortability with it. It just takes you to a whole nother level. And I delivered that training in the end of June and just the feedback that I'm getting from the teams, from the fact that, you know,
They're accomplishing goals that they didn't think that they could accomplish. They're actually having more harmony because what creates friction in teams, misalignment, miscommunication and deadlines. So a lot of this is kind of streamlining that and they're just seeing a lot more freedom.
Teri Holland (20:51.724)
Nice.
Teri Holland (21:06.252)
Nice, nice. And I've heard you say that AI can act as a mirror. So what does that look like for leaders or for entrepreneurs?
Courtney A. Seard (21:18.982)
AI is only as strong as your mindset. So whatever thinking patterns you have, whatever biases, whatever blind spots that you have in real time, it's going to show up in your A. So when you prompt, it's really important that you are thinking outside of your current box. So that's why I say it can create this entire way of being that you're not just allowing yourself to kind of be in your comfort zone and kind of be lazy around the same thing over and over again. So
Teri Holland (21:44.216)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (21:46.958)
I think when leaders give like these vague reactive prompts, how do I do this? How do I do that? Especially around strategic work, they're literally going to get nothing. Nothing. And the mirror is showing them that they haven't done the work. They're not a true strategic partner. And a lot of times they're completely stressed out. So what I think that when I say it's a mirror, it lets you know, where are you? Are you forward thinking?
Teri Holland (21:58.669)
Right.
Teri Holland (22:14.658)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (22:16.548)
Are you thinking about solution? Are you thinking about ideating? Are you thinking about creating? Or are you actually stuck in your problem, stuck in the past and doing the same thing over and over again? And I love this because I had a, a very successful VP, a tech, a tech VP who I do one-on-one coaching with. And he was telling me, know, chatty every week he like, well, we'd meet once a month and he'd send me kind of like how he was building his.
Teri Holland (22:28.396)
Right.
Teri Holland (22:38.531)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (22:47.622)
And every month I was like, oh yeah, AI's not gonna take my job. At all. I'm reading these things, and he's having him spiral and what's he doing? He's focusing on the P. It's getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And every week he's like, Courtney, this is terrible. This is terrible. So I let him do it for two months, because my job, you know, I believe that everyone... And then I said, hey, I have some feedback. How about you and I work together and look at your mindset? How about I write these next 15 prompts for you?
Teri Holland (22:51.822)
Mm. Yeah.
Teri Holland (23:00.962)
Right.
Courtney A. Seard (23:18.636)
You can take the time to put these up for the next month and let's just see how your results are. And what's the one thing that I told you, instead of you having your away froms, make everything toward. And if you need to kind of send this to me and have me do a quick check, I'll check it for you. And that switch for him, I have not, I mean, he's a completely different person.
Teri Holland (23:40.3)
Nice.
Teri Holland (23:47.448)
Wow.
Courtney A. Seard (23:47.504)
Cause he's engaging with it. He's put his values in. He's kind of done all of his like intake in, and now he's like, my good, this is great. This is great. Some things I'm like, okay, let's change your thinking. I can't be there with him 24 seven. However, he now has created something with the right thinking, with the right mindset, with someone who, you know, is trained in that. And it's giving him a benefit that
Teri Holland (23:59.448)
Yeah. Yep.
Courtney A. Seard (24:17.808)
he would have never had if he just searched online and did his self-help books. So I think it's an incredible partner, even for coaches. There are some coaches that I talk to who are like, well, I would never, I would never. I'm like, why? don't have, there's only so much time in the day that you have. And at the end of the day, if our goal is that we truly wanna see results and change so that people are living their best life, why do you care how they get there? This isn't a benefited tool that allows them
Teri Holland (24:23.81)
Right.
Teri Holland (24:30.998)
Hahaha
Courtney A. Seard (24:46.862)
If they need that 2 a.m. support because something's coming up in their life, it can be there for them. And you help them build that support. And to me, that's so empowering. I don't know, I get excited about it.
Teri Holland (24:52.643)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (24:59.352)
That is exciting. However, I'm curious how you're implementing it into your business. What are some of the things that you've been able to let go of or change in how you work?
Courtney A. Seard (25:11.068)
my gosh, so much. Well, I mean, I let go of the idea that I had to be involved in every single piece as much as I, you know, what's really funny, you you become a trainer, a coach or a leader because sometimes you like to help people get out of your blind spots, but they're your blind spots. So a lot of my blind spots were around control that I had to be involved in every single aspect of my business. And this has allowed me to let go of the vine.
Teri Holland (25:13.101)
Nice.
Teri Holland (25:17.454)
Mm-hmm.
Teri Holland (25:29.517)
Yep.
Teri Holland (25:33.237)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney A. Seard (25:39.878)
I resisted for years bringing on an assistant and you know, with the aid of assistant and AI, my email response time is a lot quicker before emails would get lost. Now, sometimes I do miss some things, some human being. Just my data. I've been able to create some incredible benchmark platforms that can help me in real time with some of my new clients. They are beta testing it with me, provide
Teri Holland (25:40.152)
Thanks.
Teri Holland (25:51.383)
Nice.
Teri Holland (25:55.362)
Yeah, yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (26:10.01)
really sound data on their ROIs rather than just saying, we did a survey and this seems that we have 30 % difference. It's like literal actual real time data. one of the things that actually allowed me to do is, you know, get outside of, out of my own way and allow me to add more automation into my business where hence I can, or I can go to Pilates rather than spending.
Teri Holland (26:20.162)
Wow.
Teri Holland (26:31.181)
Nice.
Courtney A. Seard (26:36.998)
exorbitant amount of time researching leads or global conferences or things that I can do outreach for. Cause you know, marketing should be an ongoing thing, right? Not just when you have the time. Now it is ongoing for me because I don't just wait until my last project's over. So it's allowed me to be more receptive. Another thing it's done for me is again, like I'll tell you very clearly, all of my social is generated through.
and scheduled through AI. It's taken time and I had a conversation with someone and they were like, yeah, you you're social, you're uptaking it. And I go, hey, can I give you a little piece of advice? Cause I'm on their board and they're like, what? I'm like, it's me, but it's not. What do you mean? I'm like, no, for the last three months, the posts that you see with the frequency, I'm using an AI platform and a bot and it's married to my LinkedIn and my Instagram and da da da. And she was like, what?
Teri Holland (27:08.012)
Wow.
Teri Holland (27:34.84)
Wow.
Courtney A. Seard (27:35.024)
Now again, it doesn't mean that I'm not not doing anything. Yet. The amount of time that it would take me to think of one post and write it and edit it and copy it and find the right pictures. That's why I wasn't posting with frequency. Now I am because that entire ordeal is out and I now I spend one day a week, two hours a day planning post.
Teri Holland (27:38.19)
Mm-hmm.
Teri Holland (27:47.137)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (28:03.031)
Nice.
Courtney A. Seard (28:04.25)
for an entire month. How's it get any better than that?
Teri Holland (28:06.456)
Amazing. Yeah. Yeah. It's... Yeah. Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (28:10.724)
I mean, proposals. I was able to create like a consistent kind of like proposal template where before I was pulling from other things and moving from this and moving from there. And now it's just kind of like, put it in, get what I need. Obviously again, it's not a rinse, wash and repeat. There is time that you have to go in and look at it, pull, tighten it up. But it's allowed me to do so much more with my business. The things that I wanted to do.
but I didn't have the necessary salary to pay someone. know, still a solo entrepreneur here. It's allowing me to explore things at such a quicker rate and I'm having a lot of fun. I'm learning a lot more rather than just thinking about getting that one thing started over.
Teri Holland (28:40.876)
Nice.
Teri Holland (28:45.774)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (28:55.587)
Mm-hmm.
Teri Holland (28:59.926)
Yeah. Yeah. Do you think that there's, do you find, I guess for yourself, that you have another layer of trust with AI? Because I'm noticing, like that's what I'm finding. I'm, as you're talking about having control in your business and that need for control and that AI has helped you shift from that, I'm in the same place. I get that. But I find that I'm more likely to trust AI in assisting me than hiring someone who maybe, I don't know if they're going to be able to deliver what I want.
Courtney A. Seard (29:29.958)
Yeah. So that's where I'm at, right? Like I have hired AI platform system where I have AI humans and my assistant manages them and then I manage all of them. So it's this kind of like idea of you're doing this day to day piece because you know, you're not just an assistant. You're like a director. You're a director of six employees. Me being the CEO, it's still my vision. So we're still going to have these add on meetings. However, you're going to go here and execute here. It's changed my business so much.
Teri Holland (29:37.345)
Mm-hmm.
Teri Holland (29:41.464)
Huh.
Teri Holland (29:50.606)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (29:59.97)
And I do have trust, but I also, grew up, you know, in the day where I used to write my own research papers. So I actually check my sources and facts. It's not just what AI says, because I also realize that there is a ghost rate. the more people are using it, the more it's pulling it's less and less, but I've seen some crazy stuff out there. And I also like to double, triple check my faxes because you know, I'm bossy. I want to be right.
Teri Holland (30:00.739)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (30:10.542)
Nice.
Teri Holland (30:16.302)
Mm-hmm.
Teri Holland (30:22.552)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (30:28.044)
And what makes me right is having three or four confirmed sources rather than just one. So best believe if I'm coming to you with something, I've done my homework. It's just, instead of it taking me going to the library and using microfiche and doing the Dewey Decimal system and having like all of these lifetime magazines and encyclopedias and books scrung on a table, I can do it in a concise manner. I'm dating myself with that rundown of getting information.
Teri Holland (30:28.302)
Hahaha
Teri Holland (30:37.549)
Nice.
Teri Holland (30:45.326)
Mm-hmm.
Teri Holland (30:53.73)
Yeah. I was just thinking, I'm like, I'm feeling old. Just even hearing these words right now is like you're aging me on the spot. Yeah. It's, I'm with you. I'm with you. What do you mean when you talk about having AI humans and AI employees? Like, what do you mean by that?
Courtney A. Seard (31:00.814)
Hahaha!
I was like, I'm aging myself.
Courtney A. Seard (31:17.552)
So I'm a big fan of the things that you can automate and the things that do rely on your basic research. I am using a company and I'm not getting paid. So this is just me saying it's called use motion. I did a lot of research around organizations that have AI employees. And what you do is you pay a certain fee and this employee has a set amount of, would say, perfunctory basic ability to copy.
Teri Holland (31:34.318)
Cool.
Courtney A. Seard (31:47.544)
per se. They understand the basis of copywriting and what great copywriting is. And then now it's your turn to talk to it, upload it, prompt it, give it what you need. However, I have a great copywriter now where I still do use a human editor because have you seen some of the ABCDEFGs that come in? And again, I'm not against humans. I'm employing a person in my business that I wasn't two years ago.
Teri Holland (32:10.53)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (32:13.976)
If it hadn't had AI, I wouldn't because now I can trust the efficiency and I can trust that I'm getting all that I need. So I use use motion. knew the two functions that I were the most time consuming that I didn't care about. it wasn't my unique ability. I wasn't going to learn it. So why am even trying? And I paid for it. So I actually had to come and sit down and think about like the strategy that I wanted, especially when I'm dealing with my human who has their list of to do's.
Teri Holland (32:14.147)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (32:35.118)
you
Courtney A. Seard (32:43.822)
And, you know, the first month was learning, but each month, each week, it just gets better and better and better. So they have their own names. named them and I let them know kind of like, this is where I want you to search. these are the conferences that I want. This is the amount of people that I want. These are the industries that I want. Please pull up all of the applications, the people who are on the contacts, do the search around LinkedIn.
Teri Holland (32:51.074)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (32:55.246)
Thanks.
Teri Holland (33:15.008)
Nice.
Courtney A. Seard (33:15.182)
Okay, right assistant, outreach.
Teri Holland (33:18.978)
Very cool. Yeah, that's amazing.
Courtney A. Seard (33:22.32)
I'm telling everyone, listen, get a one or two. I'm not talking about big business. So like, let's just kind of reframe this here. If you are a multi-billion dollar corporation, I mean, I'm not here to tell you to like create an instance where you have a staff from a hundred and you cut it down to two. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about that sweet spot for that solopreneur, that sweet spot for the small business owner who, you know, is somewhat limited.
by time is someone limited by ego and the ability of thinking they have to do it all by themselves, which is typically your small business owner, your entrepreneur, and just experiment and taste the, taste the rainbow of freedom. It's better than a Skittle. Like just try it. And to me, that's where, you know, I know for a fact that if it hadn't been for the ability for me to be able to
Teri Holland (34:00.61)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (34:05.324)
Nice.
Courtney A. Seard (34:17.21)
have someone manage AI, probably would just still be doing my own work on my own. But with this, I gave me the confidence to know that I had them really moving the needle specifically in areas that I knew I needed in my business. I wouldn't say just get AI and think it's gonna solve your problems. You really do need to know what you want out of your business. You really need to know where you wanna go. And you need to know like ethically how you wanna get there before
Teri Holland (34:33.676)
Nice.
Courtney A. Seard (34:46.99)
you utilize these things because there has been some suggestions, excuse me, some feedback, some strategy suggestions, or I'm like, God, go kick rocks. Never. But on top of that, I can say, how about we do this, this and this and this and, know, well, one of my little bots names is Patricia. She'll go, wow, Courtney, I never thought about that. And then add onto it in such a way that I didn't think about it.
Teri Holland (35:00.984)
Right.
Courtney A. Seard (35:18.18)
and then I have my human execute it, it's great.
Teri Holland (35:21.312)
Nice. That's amazing. And what are some practical ways that people can use AI today to be improving self-awareness or performance?
Courtney A. Seard (35:33.168)
I think first and foremost, one of my biggest ways for people to improve their self-awareness is to legitimately create your own AI coach. Create your own coach. Train it. Like if you don't have a coach, that's fine. Everyone needs a coach. I'm not going to say on its own it's going to be better, especially if you realize that your thinking isn't as toward where you want to be. But train AI with your values, your affirmations, your goals, and keep adding onto it.
Teri Holland (35:43.0)
Okay.
Teri Holland (35:48.098)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney A. Seard (36:01.938)
I would also suggest creating an AI journal. ask your prompts, your AI prompt, like what limiting belief is holding you back today? Now, the more you add things in, so you create your personal coach, you add in your values, your affirmations, the things that you kind of like you're using it daily, the things that kind of hold you back. You're coming in and saying, I'm struggling with this, I'm struggling with that. Ask your AI, what are my limiting beliefs? You'd be amazed at how quickly they can pull those patterns. It's pattern recognition.
Teri Holland (36:05.87)
Wow.
Teri Holland (36:19.373)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (36:30.886)
so for me, I like to say that it is, that is one of the most practical ways. Another thing that you can do, it's not necessarily AI. think that automation is a form of AI. It's all artificial working together, but like people say vision boards. That's great. Amazing. We also know that the energy flows where your attention goes. I tell people, create a private Instagram page.
Teri Holland (36:32.525)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (36:45.72)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (36:56.982)
Hmm. Nice. Yep.
Courtney A. Seard (36:58.124)
or Pinterest. But I mean, how many apps are going in and out? So many people are on Instagram. Go to your private page. Look at all the things that you have uploaded in the imagery that helps you visualize your goals of your future success, your future leadership style, what you want to have happen. And you're in that actual Instagram page consistently. Create your mindfulness nudges. Set your AI to create pauses for you, pauses to breathe, pauses for you to take a walk.
Teri Holland (37:14.093)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (37:27.181)
Nice.
Courtney A. Seard (37:27.504)
to reflect throughout your work day. Because those are the things that we say all the time, Every, your brain only works well for 90 minutes, then it's kind of like diminishing return. Well, I now I have my clients set your AI prompt where it comes up and it's like, it shuts your computer down. You have to go for a walk, right? Like to me, again, it's just also the modeling piece. So you want to combine your AI planning with your own goals, your own visions for the year, and then ask it,
Teri Holland (37:42.988)
Nice. Nice.
Courtney A. Seard (37:57.478)
How can it actually to create a schedule for you?
Teri Holland (38:02.156)
Nice.
Courtney A. Seard (38:03.056)
and it will optimize. What are the seven to 10 things that I need to do in the next month that will allow me to get to here? And it breaks it down for you. Bite-sized goals. So for me, it's just a really good partner. For some of the things that I couldn't do in breakthroughs where I realized like the time was short or I could just send them this list and I tell them now, put this in here. Now, if you want to ensure that you're doing it correctly, I'll come review it for you.
Teri Holland (38:16.942)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (38:31.844)
It's just allowed me to have so much more bandwidth with my clients and they actually trust me more because they don't think that I am gatekeeping. That I'm saying, well that chat thing is terrible. I'm like, no, it's great. Add that in. So I think those are some of the practical things that people can do to really begin to kind of just use AI in their day-to-day to help them with their mindset outside of work. And then I think another thing that would be helpful is if you are, if you are thinking about using this for your work.
Teri Holland (38:40.504)
bright.
Teri Holland (38:56.035)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (39:02.648)
start to integrate it, not to take away, but to add.
Think about how you're showing up. Think about your efficiency and just do a little bit of research. Am I doing double work? Am I using two apps for something that I could use one for? Or is there an aggregator that I can use that they can all start to talk together? Right? Like, notion. Again, I'm not getting paid from any of these people. These are just the things that I'm using.
Teri Holland (39:15.618)
Right.
Teri Holland (39:28.386)
Nice.
Courtney A. Seard (39:36.218)
they bridge the gap and they link with this and they link with that. And it allows you to have so much. I would, the biggest thing that I would say to people when they're really thinking about this is, is that.
I'm dating myself again, but I had a, I had a computer at home and I would go to everyone's kind of like apartment complexes in Chicago. And I get these little discs that had 10 free hours of wifi from AOL. And I would, you know, and either you played with it you didn't and you got on the internet and you learned about the internet or you didn't, right? You became an earlier adopter. didn't. And, Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote the book Outliers, maybe like 15 years ago.
Teri Holland (39:51.266)
Hahaha.
Teri Holland (40:03.128)
Mm-hmm.
Teri Holland (40:10.595)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (40:17.326)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (40:18.17)
He has a re-imagined new version of Outliers that just was released. And, you know, a lot of what he's talking about is where we are right now. And I do firmly believe that if you're allowing yourself to just kind of dive in, slow and steady wins the race, you'd be amazed at how much it's going to help you. And I'm not talking about making cat videos. I don't need to see another cat video. I also love those AI baby videos where the babies are like talking to the...
Teri Holland (40:21.742)
nice.
Teri Holland (40:40.494)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (40:47.382)
Those are fun, ask how can this be applied to my day to day? Please provide me five to six tangible. These are the things that you can say. Please provide me five to six tangible ways where I can carve out, carve back two hours of my day. Upload your calendar. What are ways that I can optimize my time? And it will give you, use it as a partner, not a replacement, not as your brain, but a partner.
Teri Holland (40:47.448)
Mm-hmm.
Teri Holland (41:02.766)
guys.
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (41:15.599)
And when you do that, you'll have a relationship that's more collaborative. You won't be afraid of it. Because the only thing that you are afraid of is you don't know it.
Teri Holland (41:25.592)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (41:26.704)
The only thing that you're afraid of is that you don't quite understand it. Cause I'll be honest, I used to be afraid of AI. I did think that it was going to take away from the human beings and all of these things until I really started playing with it and realized guess who's coding AI? Humans. And it's just as limited as those 15 typically young guys. There are other people coding in a room.
Teri Holland (41:44.172)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (41:50.156)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney A. Seard (41:52.816)
who are just like everything else are only coming from their own perspective. So to the degree that I bring in my perspective, my lived experience, what I wanna see in my future, it's gonna support me to get there a lot quicker.
Teri Holland (41:59.212)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (42:04.802)
Yeah. Yeah. What do you think the future of human performance looks like?
Courtney A. Seard (42:13.862)
I think the future of human performance is going to move away from people just kind of like getting things done, just cracking off a list like I did the 17 things done. And I really think that the future is going to be people are going to have a stronger sense of their self identity. I think the belief of future performance is people are going to get a lot more tangible, sizable things done rather than having 12 spinning plates. I think that the
Teri Holland (42:30.732)
Nice.
Teri Holland (42:41.667)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (42:42.852)
future leadership is people will actually be more fulfilled because they'll be able to identify and track what are the metrics? How do I change behavior? Constantly what I would hear when I would come in to do trainings is that, you know, we had this trainer come in, we had this coach come in and nothing stuck. Well, this will help you actually figure out what sticks for your group and you can constantly rinse, wash and repeat it. That's how I'm using it.
Teri Holland (43:02.466)
Right.
Courtney A. Seard (43:10.8)
So can you imagine if you have the understanding of language, if you have the understanding of mindset, and you bring all of that to this big, beautiful computer, and you bring that to the, with the aspect of that you want to help elevate others, it's only going to give you what you need in that aspect.
Teri Holland (43:11.211)
Nice.
Teri Holland (43:25.891)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (43:31.022)
Okay, great. And you'd mentioned, way back earlier in the conversation, you mentioned that this is an opportunity for us to become more human. And I'd love for you to speak more of that. Like how is AI gonna bring out more of our humanness?
Courtney A. Seard (43:49.562)
Well, first off, people will have time to actually relax, right? So just from the standpoint of where your brain is at, you're not going to be in your reticular activating system consistently trying to get things done and being spun out. You're going to be able to allow yourself to breathe and open up your vagus nerve, which is the seat of creativity, the seat of possibilities, the seat of imagination and ideation.
Teri Holland (43:54.904)
Mm-hmm.
Teri Holland (44:04.172)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (44:14.18)
And I firmly believe that that is going to allow us to be more human because we can see things and actually imagine our future greater than the same future that's been replicated to us. I tell my friends all the time, I'm really sick of reading the same books, going to the same movie, even though it's literally not the same. Because it is. People have been so tied up and so busy, we can't imagine anything new. This is going to be one of those moments where a lot of new
Thought processes will be downloaded and a lot of new ways of thinking will be explored. A lot of new stories will be created rather than the same thing over and over again. I don't need a reboot of Charlie's Angels. I don't need the 11th iteration of Mission Impossible. I need new material. And I think truly that this is going to allow individuals to think differently. People will have the time and the space to imagine.
Teri Holland (45:09.582)
Nice.
Courtney A. Seard (45:13.52)
hopefully something greater. You I grew up and the future was bright. I remember when I grew up that it had a lot of pretty colors and we were flying and going to different galaxies. And then at some point in time, everything became like this like gray desert post-apocalyptic society. That's boring to me.
Teri Holland (45:22.413)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (45:34.018)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (45:35.62)
I'm ready for new sounds in music. I'm ready for people to explore new forms of meditation and new forms of hypnosis and, know, like, how can we create a...
kind of, I would say, remedies that take a person from letting go of a negative emotion in two minutes to 30 seconds. I think that that's where humans will be able to have the time to think about it. Because if you think about the Renaissance, which is the type of period that we're in, and you said it yourself, a lot of those switches to free up time from people having to do all this work allow people to become poets and allow them to become painters.
Teri Holland (45:58.092)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (46:17.079)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (46:19.03)
And think about it. A lot of those contributions we're still looking at today. We're still impacting on them today. And that's not good, bad, right or wrong. But what else is possible? How does it get any better than this? And I think that like just the time of like you not having to get up and first thing in the morning, answer 18,000 emails and come up with this, like this proposal. You have something that's automated that did that while you were asleep. And then maybe you can wake up and
Teri Holland (46:24.142)
Absolutely. Yeah.
Teri Holland (46:30.318)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney A. Seard (46:49.018)
meditate and go for a walk and do some sketching and some drawing and ask your creator or ask the universe to give you something, a new way of thinking, because it does provide. That is what I think we're going to get. Yet we're not there yet because people are still on this hamster wheel. I've got to go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. And even for me, like I woke up this morning and I had this like, and I'm like, no, like everything, what program am I running that says I have to be on this like,
Teri Holland (46:52.632)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (47:17.549)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (47:18.756)
go, go, go, go, go. And then I sat and I got to visualize and a whole new idea came to me that I ran through a couple of people and they're like, yeah, you should start working on that. If I had been in my business answering emails, thinking about like my next sales funnel of my next email outreach to my re-engage my corporates, I would not have been able to have the time to open that up.
Teri Holland (47:19.981)
Yep.
Teri Holland (47:32.266)
Nice.
Teri Holland (47:38.542)
Hmm?
Teri Holland (47:43.032)
Yeah.
Courtney A. Seard (47:45.028)
And I firmly believe that that's the magic that's waiting for all of us when we let go of the fear, embrace this technology and just move on.
Teri Holland (47:54.092)
I love that. I love it. I have a couple rapid fire questions for you if you're game for it. All AI based. We're gonna stick with the AI theme. Finish this sentence. AI will never replace blank.
Courtney A. Seard (48:01.765)
Of course.
Courtney A. Seard (48:11.226)
people.
Teri Holland (48:12.716)
Nice. If AI could take one task off your plate forever, what would it be?
Courtney A. Seard (48:20.802)
emails.
Teri Holland (48:22.639)
yes, yes agreed. And what's one thing you wish AI could fix but you know it never will?
Courtney A. Seard (48:32.634)
The lack of compassion in humans.
Teri Holland (48:36.394)
Excellent answer. And now I had the last guest on the show was Tiana Mamelik and she passed along this question for you without knowing who you were. She passed along this question. If you could take one business decision back, what would it be?
Courtney A. Seard (48:53.52)
So my biggest business decision that I would take back, and this goes to why I don't think a person should reject technology, is I rejected social media and social platforms wholeheartedly. And I firmly believe that if I'd started off right when I got out of my NLP training and really doubled in on doing it, I would probably have a, not probably, I'd be able to have like that mailbox money where they talk about you being able to go to sleep at night.
If I'd done more automation, I'd embrace that form of technology a lot quicker, my business would be in a different place. I would be working smarter, less harder. Now I have the memo. Now I got the memo.
Teri Holland (49:23.808)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (49:34.336)
Mm-hmm. Nice, nice, perfect. What's question you would like to pass along to the next guest without knowing who they are?
Courtney A. Seard (49:51.364)
What excites you the most about the next 18 months? And what is the first action you're gonna take to accomplish it?
Teri Holland (50:03.16)
Great question. Now, you have a free gift for the audience, your vision mapping guide. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Courtney A. Seard (50:12.866)
Yes. So six years ago, I created something called the Rise Vision Action Planner, which kind of encompassed you being able to have journal prompts that were created for you. Then there was a 90 day section four times a year. So you could quarterly reset your goals and then your consistent planner to plan things out. This is kind of, I would say, a more of a quick fast.
Teri Holland (50:34.178)
Nice.
Courtney A. Seard (50:39.022)
version of that. It's just a vision mapping goal. It allows you to kind of look at what you'd like to get in your life. How do you create some actionable steps to accomplish that? And then you track it. So it's almost like a really small 14 day condensed version of the Rise Vision Action Planner. And for me, I'm excited about it because it leads into what I am.
going to be releasing in the next month or two, which is a workbook around the basically, or it's called the workbook. It's called The Rise, 28 Days to Resilience. It's your roadmap to resilience, which is all about allowing and giving people the how to add resilience into your life. Because I firmly believe right now that one, you need to know where you want to go. You need to know how to map out your vision.
Teri Holland (51:10.104)
Yeah.
Teri Holland (51:20.555)
Amazing.
Teri Holland (51:33.059)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney A. Seard (51:35.322)
because if you go with the flow, you'll go where the flow gets you. And then the second piece is that we are in very interesting times and those who know how to develop resilience and resilience doesn't mean pushing through, it's showing how do you pivot, they're going to be successful.
Teri Holland (51:58.7)
Nice. And final thoughts you'd like to leave the audience with today.
Courtney A. Seard (52:06.692)
My final thoughts are at any point in time, you can shift your mindset. If you were like me, maybe three or four years ago, you didn't believe in technology, you thought it was going to be the end all be all of humanity. You can shift and change. I think what you have to do first off is breathe, do some research and then realize that we are human beings or not machines and nothing is going to replace us.
we run the machines, they don't run us. And as long as we remember that and remember that they're our partner and they will be a dutiful servant, just like your unconscious mind, if you program it to be, you will be successful and you'll be happy and you'll be able to spend more time with your family and your friends and doing the hobbies and the things that you love.
Teri Holland (52:58.552)
Yeah.
Great. And I will make sure that all of your links are in the show notes, including how they get the vision mapping guide that will all be there. Thank you so much Courtney for coming on today.
Courtney A. Seard (53:13.424)
Thank you so much for having me again, Terry. I really appreciate you and how you service your community. They're lucky to have you.
Teri Holland (53:18.296)
Thanks.
Teri Holland (53:23.384)
Thank you. Thanks, I appreciate that.
