Everybody's Tech Starts Somewhere Local — Marie Doce on Bringing AI Home to Humboldt

Everybody's Tech Starts Somewhere Local — Marie Doce on Bringing AI Home to Humboldt

Here's your show description for the Marie episode: Marie Doce spent 15 years in big tech. Then she came home, to Humboldt County, California, 300 miles north of San Francisco, where Google Maps is still wrong half the time and Amazon takes five to seven days. And instead of leaving her tech career behind, she built something new. Grounded AI is an AI consulting and learning firm helping rural businesses implement AI where it actually makes sense for them. In this episode Katie and Dr. Ericka sit down with Marie for an honest conversation about the rural tech gap, who AI actually belongs to, and why the people shouting loudest about it online are probably the least qualified to define it for the rest of us. What's Inside: The Rural Tech Gap — 20% of Americans live in rural areas but you'd never know it from the AI conversation. What the gap looks like on the ground and why it's about to get wider Grounded AI — How a coffee shop flyer, a local venture fund, and one conversation changed the trajectory of Marie's career and brought her expertise home where it was needed most Random Acts of AI — Why most small business owners are already using AI but saving zero time doing it, and what the next step actually looks like Human Enablement, Not Human Replacement — The framing that changed how Marie thinks about her work and why it should change how you think about yours Totally Different Worlds — Why a business owner and an artist hear the word "AI" and think of completely different things, and why that gap matters more than the tech itself Everybody's Tech — The case for local, grounded, community-rooted AI literacy before the big tech companies come in and define it for all of us Want to Learn More About Marie's Work? Marie Doce is the founder of Grounded AI, bringing practical, community-rooted AI consulting and training to businesses on California's North Coast, and showing the rest of us what it looks like when somebody who belongs to a place brings their expertise home. Find her at groundedai.co [https://groundedai.co/] Want to Work With Us? If you are ready to bring AI into your work or your organization in a way that actually makes sense, we would love to talk. Visit us at empoweredailearning.com to learn more about our courses, workshops, and consulting. Subscribe to our Substack for weekly AI insights between episodes. Website: empoweredailearning.com [https://www.empoweredailearning.com/] Substack: empoweredai.substack.com [https://empoweredai.substack.com/] Connect With Us: Have a question, a topic you want us to cover, or an AI win you want to share? Reach out — we want to hear from you. Contact: hello@empoweredailearning.com [hello@empoweredailearning.com] AI Mixtape — where you understand the AI, and you stay human.

AI Mixtape | Text READY to 20202: How to Actually Learn AI

Earlier this year the federal government released a free 7-day AI course delivered straight to your phone, and 92 million Americans have never touched an AI tool. Sounds like a fix. But is it? In this episode Katie Branley and Dr. Ericka Pitman put the Make AI Ready program to the test, break down what it actually delivers, and give you the three rules for going from "I took a course once" to genuinely fluent. Because knowing what AI is and knowing how to use it are two very different things. What's Inside: Make AI Ready — Text READY to 20202, the free 7-day course the federal government dropped earlier this year and what you actually get out of it The 92 Million Gap — Why most Americans have never opened an AI tool and what that means for the workforce right now Google AI Essentials vs. Anthropic Academy — Which course is right for where you are and what each one actually teaches you The On-Ramp Rule — A course is where you start, not where you stop. Theory without application is just a simulator The Role Swap Rule — Don't learn AI in general. Pick one task you do every week and learn AI for exactly that task The Audit Rule — Most people ask if AI is saving them time. The better question is whether it's making the work better This Week's Mixtape Rules: 1. The On-Ramp Rule — finish a course and then get out on the road. Apply it to something real before you move on 2. The Role Swap Rule — start with the problem you want solved, not the tool you want to try 3. The Audit Rule — make AI earn its place. Go back and look honestly at the output, not just the speed Want to Work With Us? If you are ready to bring AI into your work or your organization in a way that actually makes sense, we would love to talk. Visit us at empoweredailearning.com to learn more about our courses, workshops, and consulting. Subscribe to our Substack for weekly AI insights between episodes. Website: empoweredailearning.com [https://www.empoweredailearning.com/] Substack: empoweredai.substack.com  [https://empoweredai.substack.com/] Connect With Us: Have a question, a topic you want us to cover, or an AI win you want to share? Reach out — we want to hear from you. Contact: hello@empoweredailearning.com [hello@empoweredailearning.com] AI Mixtape — where you understand the AI, and you stay human.

AI Mixtape | Stop Collecting Tools. Start Building Systems.

The average knowledge worker spends nine hours every week just searching for stuff — documents, emails, information scattered across every app in their life. Nine hours. And 60% of workers say they feel burned out. AI is supposed to fix this. In this episode Katie Branley and Dr. Ericka Pitman break down the roadmap from toy to tool to system — and give you the three rules to actually claw back your time. What's Inside: The Burnout Gap — Why 85% of AI users say it saves them hours but most people still can't feel it yet Toy to Tool to System — The three stages every AI user goes through and why most people get stuck between one and two The Meeting Minutes Example — How one repetitive task becomes a full workflow that runs your week for you AI Has a Brain. Give It Hands. — Why ChatGPT alone can't move the needle and what Google Apps Scripts changes The 409 Principle — Why your messy, imperfect first system is exactly what this moment needs The Tool Trap — Why adding more apps is the red herring of this AI era and what to do instead This Week's Mixtape Rules: 1. Find the nine hours — start with the problem you want solved, not the tool you want to try 2. Build a system, not a collection of tools — stay in the messy middle, that's where the real work happens 3. Stay in the loop — AI drafts, you decide, always Want to Work With Us? If you are ready to bring AI into your work or your organization in a way that actually makes sense, we would love to talk. Visit us at empoweredailearning.com to learn more about our courses, workshops, and consulting. Subscribe to our Substack for weekly AI insights between episodes. Website: empoweredailearning.com [https://www.empoweredailearning.com/]  Substack: empoweredai.substack.com [https://empoweredai.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips] Connect With Us: Have a question, a topic you want us to cover, or an AI win you want to share? Reach out — we want to hear from you. Contact: hello@empoweredailearning.com [hello@empoweredailearning.com] AI Mixtape — where you understand the AI, and you stay human.

AI Mixtape | You're the Boss: 8 Ways to Stay in the Driver's Seat with AI

Women's jobs are three times more likely to be automated by AI — yet women are using AI 25% less than men. In this episode Katie Branley and Dr. Ericka Pitman dig into the gap, why even experienced AI users feel like the tool is running the show, and eight no-skip rules to make sure you stay the authority in every conversation you have with AI. What's Inside: The Reese Effect — Why Reese Witherspoon's Instagram post hit a nerve and what the stats behind it actually mean for your career Your Brain vs. AI — The Caltech research that explains why AI feels so overwhelming (it's biology, not a personal failure) Rule 1: Your Ideas First — Why going straight to AI is killing your best thinking, and the reverse prompting flip that fixes it Rule 2: Context is Everything — AI is a prediction machine. Without your context it's just filling in blanks. Rule 3: Own Your Voice — How to stop getting generic outputs by defining what words like "professional" actually mean before you prompt Rule 4: Push Back — You are allowed to tell AI it is wrong. Here is how. Rule 5: The Goldilocks Check — Your professional reputation is on the line. Always be the last set of eyes. Rule 6: Protect Your Data — The postcard rule, free vs. pro vs. enterprise, and what AI is actually doing with what you type Rule 7: Right Tool for the Job — More AI output is not always better. Your expertise is the filter. This Week's Mixtape Rules: 1. Brain dump your own ideas before you open AI — you are the creative one 2. Give AI your context: who you are, what you want, what you don't want 3. Define your terms before you prompt — don't let AI decide what professional means for your brand 4. Push back. Tell it when it's wrong. Ask where it got its information. 5. Always do a final human check before anything goes out 6. Think postcard — never type anything into AI you wouldn't want everyone to read 7. Ask yourself if AI is actually the right tool before you open it Want to Work With Us? If you are ready to bring AI into your work or your organization in a way that actually makes sense, we would love to talk. Visit us at empoweredailearning.com to learn more about our courses, workshops, and consulting. Subscribe to our Substack for weekly AI insights between episodes. Website: empoweredailearning.com Substack: empoweredai.substack.com Connect With Us: Have a question, a topic you want us to cover, or an AI win you want to share? Reach out — we want to hear from you. Contact: hello@empoweredailearning.com [hello@empoweredailearning.com] AI Mixtape — where you understand the AI, and you stay human.

AI Mixtape | The Token Economy: Why Your AI Gets Dumb at 3pm

You're paying $20 a month and suddenly your AI is cutting you off mid-afternoon. You're not imagining it. In March 2026, Anthropic and Google quietly changed how many tokens you get — no press release, no announcement. In this episode Katie Branley and Dr. Ericka Pitman break down what a token actually is, why the era of unlimited AI is ending, and four rules you can use right now to make your plan go further. What's Inside: What Is a Token — The unit of AI computation explained in plain language, and why your $20 plan is not as unlimited as you thought Why Limits Changed — How usage shifted from simple chat to multi-page documents, agents, and workflows — and why the big AI companies quietly hit the brakes in March 2026 Track Your Usage — How to find Claude's gas gauge in your settings and what Gemini is suspiciously not showing you The Off-Peak Advantage — Why your tokens burn faster between 8am and 2pm Eastern and how to schedule your heavy AI work around it Right Model for the Job — Opus vs. Sonnet vs. Haiku, and why you don't need a sports car to pick up groceries Start Fresh — Why that giant running chat is costing you thousands of tokens every time you ask a new question, and the smarter way to work This Week's Mixtape Rules: 1. Check your usage gauge in Claude settings — know your tank level 2. Schedule heavy AI work outside peak hours, after 2pm or before 8am Eastern 3. Match the model to the task — save Opus for the hard stuff 4. Start a new chat instead of letting one conversation run forever Want to Work With Us? If you are ready to bring AI into your work or your organization in a way that actually makes sense, we would love to talk. Visit us at empoweredailearning.com to learn more about our courses, workshops, and consulting. Subscribe to our Substack for weekly AI insights between episodes. Website: empoweredailearning.com Substack: empoweredai.substack.com Connect With Us: Have a question, a topic you want us to cover, or an AI win you want to share? Reach out — we want to hear from you. Contact: hello@empoweredailearning.com AI Mixtape — where you understand the AI, and you stay human.