Stop Treating AI Like a Search Engine: How to Build With It Instead
AI Queens: Smart AF AI Tools, Automation, & Business Tips with Erika StanleyShow Notes
Queens, if you're still using AI to check the weather or rephrase an email, you're leaving the good stuff on the table. Sarah K. Heeter of PodFox Media is back for round two, and this time we're pulling back the curtain on what we actually text each other about: the apps, dashboards, and tools we're building for ourselves instead of paying for someone else's almost-right software.
Sarah built her own session scheduler for her podcast after a $15/month tool kept letting guests miss their slots. I rebuilt my whole client management system and ditched Dubsado. And yes, we both built spinny-wheel book recommendation apps, because reading is expensive and we have priorities.
What we cover:
Why "solve a problem" beats "answer a question" every time, and how that one shift changes what you build
Fable 5 vs. everything else: when the big model is worth the credits and when it isn't
The skateboard-to-car rule for minimum viable products (start with the skateboard, not the wheels)
Research first, then build: how Sarah used Claude to shop the market before deciding to DIY
The real downsides of building it yourself, including the fact that you are now customer support
The best part? You don't need a dev team or a market of thousands. You're a market viability of one, and that's all it takes to build something that fits your business exactly.
Want to solve a problem on the show? Season three is open for guests. If you've got a challenge in your business or your day-to-day that AI might be able to fix, apply at aiqueens.com/apply or DM me on Instagram or LinkedIn.
Connect with Sarah:
Podfox Media: podfoxmedia.com
Big Brave Business podcast: bigbravebusiness.com
Mentioned in this episode:
Brand-to-Bot Blueprint: aiqueens.com/blueprint
Claude (Chat, Cowork, Code, Design)
Dubsado, TidyCal, Breeze Docs, Sendbox (AppSumo)
Supabase, Vercel, Railway, GitHub
Google Apps Script
Libby, Kindle Unlimited, Audible
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
Ready to build something of your own? Join the list for the next AI Queens Buildathon — a live, hands-on workshop where you walk away with a working tool built for your business: aiqueens.com/build
Connect with Erika!
https://www.instagram.com/erikatheaiqueen/
Erika's AI Consultancy: https://www.aiqueens.com/
Erika's Branding & Web Agency: https://www.mileenddigital.com/
Join the AI Queens Society: https://aiqueens.substack.com/
More from AI Queens: Smart AF AI Tools, Automation, & Business Tips with Erika Stanley
Queens, if you have been telling yourself that Claude Code is for developers and not for you, this one is going to change your mind. Hope Norton spent over 20 years in telecom sales at companies like Verizon and T-Mobile before founding Norton Mobility to help small and mid-sized fleets make smarter technology decisions. She had never coded a thing. Then a former sales engineer sat her down at a Starbucks and told her to open Claude Code and brain dump her idea. One weekend later, she had built Compliance Hub, a tool that is now live on her website and helping trucking companies manage drivers, trucks, and DOT compliance in one place.
Queens, if your AI agrees with every idea you bring it, you have a problem.
Queens, running a business can feel like living on an island. The fastest way I have found to learn AI is to get in a room with other women who are learning, building, and staying curious.
Queens, what would it take for your business to keep running without you in the room?
Rebecca Liao has been building AI companies since 2014, back when getting a computer to understand plain language was still a struggle. Today she is the co-founder and CEO of Saga AI Labs, which turns well-known characters from games, sports, and consumer brands into AI agents that talk with fans around the clock. Before Saga, she led growth at a SoftBank-backed unicorn and co-founded a crypto company that grew to about $5 billion in annual volume.