The AI Dinner Party
A few weeks ago I sent out invites to a dinner party for entrepreneurial girlfriends who are building with AI. Wine, laptops, and an actual agenda.
Five questions, to be exact:
- What's one thing you've handed off to AI that used to eat your time? Not a pitch, not a flex. Here's what I gave away, here's what it gave me back.
- What's actually in your stack right now? Not what sounds cool. What you genuinely open every week.
- What broke? The honest round, and probably where we learn the most.
- What are you still doing manually that you know you shouldn't be?
- What are you building next, and what's holding you back from starting?
Six women came. Some close friends, some I met that night. Corporate, freelance, a couple of photographers from completely different corners of the industry, all building with AI in their own ways. Some are moving fast. Some are slower and more deliberate. Some use it to get through the admin side of their business, and a few use it as a creative partner for brainstorming and concepting. (That one deserves its own entry.)
Here's what stuck with me. The same pressure we used to put on being busy, we're now putting on AI. As if you're failing at being a business owner unless you're using it constantly, efficiently, cleverly. Busy culture wearing a new outfit.
Sitting at that table, the pressure dissolved. Nobody had anything to prove. We were comparing notes instead of comparing ourselves, proud of each other for trying, failing, and succeeding in small ways with a new tool. The best AI conversations I've had weren't in courses or webinars. They were in someone's kitchen, actually showing each other what we're building.
If you've been wanting an excuse to gather your own group like this, consider this it. And if you feel behind on whatever everyone else seems to be doing with AI, you're probably not behind. You're just on a slightly different road than the person next to you.