If you’ve known me for a while, you might be familiar with the story around my business ‘pivot’. For others, you might be wondering how I got to where I am today – and how I made it all happen so quickly.
Let’s start by saying, for me it was one of those ‘If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’ type of situations. And I’m so glad I jumped onto the opportunity!
The early days
Let me take you back to early 2023 – when my 9-year-old copywriting and content marketing business had started to struggle. Conversions had already started to decline due to the tough economic climate, but then a shiny, new, and FREE competitor entered the scene – ChatGPT!
My initial reaction was to freak out because how could my agency possibly compete with that? How could I possibly charge for our writing services and marketing strategies when AI could do it all for free?
Basically, I had a choice.
I could dig my head in the sand, rock in the corner, pull my hair out, or any of those other stress-related metaphors.
Or, instead of fighting my new competitor and losing, I could just accept that this was my new reality. And accept everyone’s going to start using AI at some point.
However, I was annoyed with the robotic AI-generated content I’d started to see populating my social media feeds. And I was also frustrated by every man and his dog who jumped on the AI bandwagon, selling those massive prompt kits – like 1,000 prompts for $57 – that only focused on the input.
No one was looking at the output and how to ensure it was well-written and personalised – especially if it was going out into the world.
And no one was looking at HOW these prompts could be applied properly or whether they were even relevant to their own businesses.
As a writer and marketer, I know what quality content and strategies look like. So I figured I would be the right person to fill the gap. I could help people create their own prompts that would lead to a higher quality of output.
The catalyst
I was at a ‘Get It Done’ quarterly planning event in April 2023 (with Women with Altitude) when ChatGPT popped up in conversation.
I shared my frustrations over AI-generated content – and others shared their fears around using it.
Then an idea popped into my head. I’d been running content marketing workshops on various topics for 5 years, with topics including webinars, LinkedIn, business blogging, podcasts, and website copy.
Why not make ChatGPT my next workshop focus? I asked around the room and it was unanimous – everyone was keen to learn more.
So I gave myself a month to learn everything I could about the tool – and set a date for a free webinar.
There were literally 3 books on Amazon about ChatGPT at the time. One of them was so poorly written, I stopped reading after 2 pages. The next one was pretty good – and it completely opened my eyes to prompt engineering and how it works. I also listened to a couple of AI podcasts.
When my webinar came around, I had 150 people registered with 70 tuning in live. And the next thing I knew, I was being featured in The Australian – page 3 article and my photo was on the front page!
It was at that point that I realised I was onto something.
Why was I the right person to educate people about AI?
Well, with almost 20 years’ experience and skills in writing and marketing, plus professional speaking and training, I figured I had an opportunity to understand this new piece of accessible technology and prompt engineering – then teach fellow small business owners and leaders how to use it ‘properly’ while maintaining the human touch.
And do it in a non-techy way.
I made my business pivot official by launching HumanEdge AI Training in April 2024.
I barely do any copywriting anymore. AI is my newfound passion. Just TRY to stop me from talking about it!
Getting noticed in my new role
People often ask me how I’ve gotten so many opportunities in a short time to train people via via conferences, online summits, workshops, webinars, networking events, and one-on-one about the effective usage of AI.
Well, honestly, I just started showing up on LinkedIn and other social media platforms more – where I actively shared my message. And I kept up the regular face-to-face networking.
My appearance on the front cover of The Australian (see my LinkedIn profile) was thanks to one of my long-time mentors, Kate Toon, who shared my contacts with a journalist who reached out to her. That exposure was a massive surprise. I’d literally only run my first webinar a month earlier!
Then in early 2024, I was interviewed for ABC News. I’ve been featured in a bunch of podcasts as well. (Getting these uploaded to my new website. Stay tuned…)
A lot of my invitations to speak have come to me via LinkedIn in the form of DMs. And by sharing media and speaking appearances, more and more people have discovered me.
Going Global
In November 2023, I received a random DM about running a 2-day AI workshop for digital marketing from a Malaysian company named MindZallera. They would pay for my airfares, accommodation in a 5 star hotel, AND pay me to speak. It seemed too good to be true – so I did my due diligence and sourced some people in my LinkedIn network who had been contracted by them before.
Everything checked out – so I ran my first 2-day workshop in Kuala Lumpur February 2024. I was officially ‘international’ or ‘global’. Who the hell was I??
Now THAT was an amazing experience! I’d only ever presented for 2 hours before, so I surprised myself with how much AI knowledge I’d accrued over the months. Then I got SUCH great feedback from my students, that MindZallera invited me back to run 4 x 2-day workshops across July and August. They also invited me back for end of September, but October is NSW Small Business Month here (as well as BOTH of our daughters’ birthdays) so I declined.
But another DM popped into my LinkedIn inbox about Dubai in May 2025… Not official yet, but that would be pretty cool too…
How I became a ‘Coach’ versus ‘Trainer’
Up until the July workshop in Kuala Lumpur, I’d been calling myself a ‘Trainer’.
But I had a moment similar to P.T. Barnum’s experience as highlighted in the movie, ‘The Greatest Showman’. In the movie, the local journalist labels Barnum’s show as a ‘circus’. It was meant to be a derogatory term, but Barnum actually liked it and decided to own it.
In one of my July workshops, a student asked me why my prompt output on the screen differed from the output on his own laptop. It was ultimately because I was sharing the responses from my ChatGPT as the result of me training it to understand HumanEdge AI Training. His laptop reflected the training conducted for their mock company.
Of course, it was going to be different. But that was the point.
I want my students to think for themselves and not simply replicate everything I did. Prompts are NOT like maths equations. There are no exactly correct prompts.
He later said in his feedback form that he wanted ‘more training, less coaching.’
I actually loved being referred to as a ‘coach’. Because that’s what I want to do. GUIDE people towards the right responses for them. Not TELL them what to do.
That’s when I started using the label ‘Global AI Coach’.
So that’s my story.
It’s been an crazy adventure for sure – filled with plenty of new challenges and regular visits from Imposter Syndrome. But it’s also been extremely inspiring and rewarding.
As a copywriter, I was part of a massive crowd.
But as a Global AI Coach, I feel I’ve really found my place in the world. And I look forward to sharing my message for many months and years to come as we all try to navigate this new AI-infused world.
Stay tuned for details about my book…. 😉
Until next time, keep it human!
Leanne Shelton
Global AI Coach
HumanEdge AI Training
P.S. If you’re keen to get some AI coaching, feel free to DM me. I still have some availability before 2024 wraps up!
