Renia (pronounced R-EE-n-a) Carsillo hates business silos and marketing hacks. So, she spends her days working with mid-size and small companies to integrate their business strategy with their impact strategy, design sustainable marketing frameworks, and find a growth cadence that works for their team and their lives. Renia believes founders are uniquely positioned to create a kinder, more equitable world. She is passionate about bringing C-level strategic support to the small and mid-size companies shaping their communities every day. Renia says, "Sustainable marketing is built on a solid business strategy. A solid business strategy is built on values-driven habits. Values-driven habits are built on healed/healing leaders. We can’t do these things separately. They’re all interconnected. ”
Skills You Can’t Afford to Outsource: Places AI Can't Help Your Business, Part 3 [Two on Tuesdays]
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Happy Tuesday, Reader! We've been exploring where AI shortcuts can actually hurt your business. This week we’re focusing on the hidden cost of making your work too easy. Deep learning and maintaining creative skills require cognitive strain. If we’re not careful, what helps us in the short run (freeing up cognitive load with AI tools) can hurt us in the long run. It's crucial to make thoughtful choices about where the trade-off of short-term ease for long-term skill development is worth it, and where it's best avoided entirely. Realign with the Human Skill of Strengths Building Cal Newport puts it perfectly: "In a learning environment, the feeling of strain is often a by-product of getting smarter. To minimize this strain is like using an electric scooter to make the marches easier in military boot camp; it will accomplish this goal in the short term, but it defeats the long-term conditioning purposes of the marches." The newer you are in your career or the less you know about something, the more hazardous it becomes to rely on AI for support. This is especially true in areas where you need or want expertise. Before integrating an AI tool, ask yourself: How much does your work rely on that particular skill? For example, strategic thinking and storytelling are my most important skills when it comes to making the impact I want to make and earning a decent living. Therefore, it would be extremely hazardous to let those skills atrophy by relying too heavily on AI. On the flip side, I'm finally getting serious about developing my almost nonexistent graphic design skills. I'm using AI tools to help design a learning journey, but I'm doing the early heavy lifting of composition myself. Even though AI can do it faster and better, I can't reach a higher level of understanding without putting in the reps. Natural Ability + Practice = Strength When I am weighing the pros and cons of using AI for a task, I think of it like training in the gym: We only get the gains we work for, and we only keep the gains we practice with. Don Clifton, the founder of Clifton Strengths, offers this formula: Talent + Investment = Strength. Without practice (i.e., deep learning, putting in the reps, etc.), we lose what we've built. The key to deciding whether or not to use AI is being intentional about where you choose struggle over shortcuts. Where are the skills that define your unique value? Where do you need to maintain your competitive edge through human capability rather than artificial assistance? I'm very much in the process of figuring this out myself. We're working on a tool for choosing the best places to use AI versus where to avoid it in your work, and I'd love to know how you're navigating this balance today. Is your organization thinking about this strategic trade-off? Share your experience. When was the last time you developed a brand new skill? Reply to this email and tell me about how it started for you. Until next time,
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Renia Carsillo
Renia (pronounced R-EE-n-a) Carsillo hates business silos and marketing hacks. So, she spends her days working with mid-size and small companies to integrate their business strategy with their impact strategy, design sustainable marketing frameworks, and find a growth cadence that works for their team and their lives. Renia believes founders are uniquely positioned to create a kinder, more equitable world. She is passionate about bringing C-level strategic support to the small and mid-size companies shaping their communities every day. Renia says, "Sustainable marketing is built on a solid business strategy. A solid business strategy is built on values-driven habits. Values-driven habits are built on healed/healing leaders. We can’t do these things separately. They’re all interconnected. ”
Happy Tuesday, Reader! Last week, I told you about The $250K Club for women and why breaking the $250K ceiling matters both for individual founders and for entire communities. This week, let's talk about the biggest mindset shift that makes breaking through that ceiling possible. The Service Trap Most Women Founders Fall Into Data shows that women founders are much more likely to be consultants and work in service industries than to be builders. There are real reasons why this happens:...
Happy Tuesday, Reader! This past spring, we spent some time talking about the $250K ceiling that keeps most women-owned businesses stuck. And, we shared some actionable strategies for breaking through it. Today, I want to explain why that barrier matters and how we are partnering with businesses like yours in 2026 to shatter it. The Numbers That Won't Let Me Go Here's the reality for women-owned businesses in the United States in 2025: 88% generate less than $100K per year Only 6.2% generate...
Happy Tuesday, Reader! For all the "AI will change everything forever" rhetoric dominating the tech news cycle, we've noticed something interesting happening in the business models: a pivot toward making a quick buck. OpenAI and several other AI-oriented companies we're watching are starting to look a lot less like revolutionary disruptors and a lot more like…well, Meta and Alphabet (i.e., Google). What We're Watching About AI (And Why You Should Too) The evidence is piling up: OpenAI is...