From Lab Bench to Mars: How Charlotte Habegger Rebuilt Everything Using AI, Grit, and the Science...

Hey, and welcome back to The Human Side of AI with Flora from jamout.ai. I'm your host Flora, and today is another Friday, which means that we're sitting down with a real human who is using AI to get more time back in their day to actually live. And today's guest, she gave us a lot to think about. Charlotte is a biochemist by training, a serial entrepreneur by necessity, and one of the most quietly remarkable people I've had on the show. She left a domestic violence situation at the beginning of her career, went into a women's shelter, and from there built 9 businesses, projects, and nonprofits, raised and homeschooled 3 kids, became a top performer in direct sales, and is now working at the intersection of AI research and advocacy. She also wants to go to Mars. Genuinely. We talk about her scientific mind becoming her greatest business asset, how she structures her days to actually get things done, and why she doesn't believe in competition. We talk about how AI is opening up research possibilities, and she says that have never— they've never existed in her lifetime before. This is exactly the kind of conversation this show exists for. So let's get into it.

Great, Charlotte. Well, thanks so much for being here. How are you today?

I'm doing well. I'm glad to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

Yeah, of course. Thank you. And your story is fascinating. And I'm really— I mean, I know this much about it, right? Very little. So I'm excited to dig in. You know, what I have seen is you are a trained biochemist and you are very vocal and proud that you left a domestic violence situation, which is incredible. And then somewhere in between all that, you kind of became this serial entrepreneur. And I'm missing a few steps For sure. So go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got to where you are now.

Yes, you got it. Wow, that's quite impressive. Great summary, actually. I like the word serial entrepreneur. I also like true crime, so the word serial is kind of a good word, although I'm not at all, you know, involved in those types of situations, but I am—

Didn't think so. Didn't think so.

No, no, exactly. But I'm a fan, but not actively involved. I just love the word serial because I usually say multi entrepreneur, but I do like the, the word serial entrepreneur because I think some people would understand it better. And originally I was trained as a scientist because when I was 5 years old, I decided I wanted to go to space and be an astronaut. And so for that reason, I knew I couldn't be a pilot because as a woman I had less chance at the time of being selected, and also because I have poor eyesight. And so I went into science, and that's how I became a biochemist, at the beginning of my career. Yeah.

So, and I want to get to where you are now in your, your, your career, but, you know, I love, I love these conversations because I really get, you know, the, the full map on how you got to where you are, right? So I feel like biochemist, and maybe it's just me, and pardon my ignorance if so, I feel like biochemist is like a word that you hear but like nobody really knows what it is. So can you tell us like what that actually looked like for you?

I agree. So biochemist is that I was working at the beginning of my career and that's where I was interrupted as well. So I only had a beginning of a career in research, but that means I went up into a PhD because you have to have a graduate experience in science. So you could pick, for example, I could have picked physics or biology, but I picked biochemistry, which is studying, specifically I studied the interaction between RNA and protein. And also that speaks to people more now. Than it did at the time. But we study how the molecules interact, which is what causes a lot of, you know, the diseases. And also it's what explains, for example, how, you know, protein, how we have energy in ourselves and all of that. So that is what a biochemist does technically. Honestly, we're just, a lot of us are nerds. We just want to find out things and—

Well, well, thanks. Yeah.

So I'm like, for example, I'm fascinated by the origin of life. I have multiple different, you know, personal beliefs. I also have scientific theories And what we study in the lab is mostly around that. One of the reasons I'm super interested in science other than wanting to, I want to be an astronaut, and this might be outside the scope of the call, but I lost my twin sister at birth, right before birth actually. And from what I found out is that we were one cell, well, because we were, you know, what is it called? Two of this from the same egg, you know? From the same first cell. But now on top of that, we were in, we had a specific condition that means that we divided after 13 days. Can you imagine you were what for those first 13 days? And so I've always been fascinated by science for that reason.

How cool. So then, so when, when was the pivot from science to, you know, the, the journey that you're in now?

Exactly. So I had picked science for practical, for I guess reasons of interest because I wanted to be an astronaut, I was fascinated. But then at the beginning of my career in science is when I also left to go to a women's shelter after years of domestic violence in a relationship. So I have the right to talk about my experience as a victim of crime because I went to court to win the right to talk about it because usually it's anonymous. You can't share your name because it's protection of victims, but then you can't talk about your story. And I still can't identify the abuser because there's reasons for that, but I can talk about my story of domestic violence. So I left to a shelter and I never went back to science after that. So that's how it happened. It wasn't planned. It wasn't desired on my part at all. And it was not, it was, I experienced it as a terrible catastrophe to not be able to continue in my field.

Wow. So thank you for being so vulnerable and sharing that. So, so when you left that situation and, and it sounds like you kind of started all over, what was the first thing you, you built and what did, what did building that teach you?

Well, originally I thought it would be for a short amount of time, so I was looking for, for quick income, but also I also want to be of service. I'm, I've always been someone who believes in social change, so I did start, I was with a direct selling company, which I actually was one of the top in Canada with that direct selling company that closed a year ago. That was my main income for a while, while I was building other projects and businesses, which didn't happen on purpose, happen on purpose. But for example, along with that, I also started a network for women in business. Because what if they didn't want to join the direct selling company? How was I going to connect with them? Or so I started a network for women in business that still exists today.

Where is that network? Is that on social media or?

It was in person for until the right before COVID period happened. And we do have virtual events as well, but it's in Quebec where I live in Quebec, Canada. And we have, we've had them at in other locations around Canada and even in the US. And though there are virtual events as well.

Super cool. Okay. So you start, you start this network, you're doing incredible in sales, talk us through what that looks like.

Yes, I was among the top in sales in the direct selling company I was with for 17 years. Not at the beginning though. At the beginning, I wanted to do things part-time. I wanted to do things my way. And I guess it's a little bit like that in anything in business. There has to be a time where you actually go into doing it, not necessarily full-time, but doing what it takes to make it work. So once I started doing that is when things started to grow for me. And I had not meant to be an entrepreneur. Remember, I wanted to go to space and be a scientist. So I thought I was doing all of this you know, for a while, just for a short amount of time, but it's been 17 years now. So that is what grew into the different projects and companies, and I also have a nonprofit. So I lead or co-lead 9 businesses, projects, and nonprofits that have grown from that time, not on purpose originally, but on purpose now. It's very intentional today, as I call myself a connector. Because I learned.

And I mean, I can't imagine, you know, in this pivot in your life, this, this significant pivot, you at that point in your life, had you ever pictured yourself in sales?

No, and specifically not in direct sales. Not at all. No.

So with this biochemistry background, I imagine you're kind of trained to think in systems, right? And evidence and, and patterns. And so how has that scientific lens helped you as an entrepreneur and, you know, in your other positions?

Well, that's exactly what led me to develop the businesses I have today in the way I have done it is because of my scientific mind and the way I look at things and because I enjoy compiling information and sharing it. So I try different systems, techniques, and different business models, and then I share with other people. So I can do mentoring or I can create free or paid digital tools that I can share with other women in business. So that's exactly what happened is my scientific mind is what makes me unique in business, uh, in the way that I approach things.

No, I love that. So I typically wait and ask this question more towards the end of a call, but you know, Charlotte, talking to you, you're one of those people that just like seems to have more time in a day than anyone else, right? So, um, talk to us a little bit about like what your day-to-day looks like and how, you know, what, what tech stack you're using, um, to get you to, you know, do all the things you're doing?

Well, that's the thing. Like, for example, even the Expression Text Stack, I didn't even know what that was when I started working with AI like a year ago. I'm so, I guess, unconventional in a sense that I learned a lot about business on my own, but I work with a lot of people, but I've never been in the corporate world either. So one of the things I learned is I really needed the boundaries and the structures. So for example, in the morning, I don't usually have events or meetings, so I have time to work on whatever I call my to-do list, which is because I use the app Todoist to put my main stuff on. And then obviously AI tools and other tools I've always looked into because as a scientist, they always interested me. So, um, I have, if I have calls, they're usually between 1 and 4 every day. And if I have, you know, they kind of like time blocks, time blocks makes a huge difference. It's something I learned in direct sales. What can I do in 5 minutes? What can I do in a 3-hour focus time, power hours? All those things are things I use. Also, I did raise my children through all of that, 3 children. So it taught me how to become effective.

And yeah, you know, one of my favorite quotes is, um, if you want something done, give it to a busy person.

Exactly. And I know this myself, but I know most of the people that I work with who become collaborators or take on a new business or project with me, they have crazy amounts of things going on. I think a lot of people are multi-entrepreneurs, a lot, mostly women have, are multi-passionate. So I think what makes it more difficult is the structures in place right now to like deposit a business, or to— you kind of have to follow the structures in place, and they're quite rigid. Um, they're not made for people who are multi-passionate. So that's what makes it complicated and take a lot of time.

Yeah, no, so, so you've mentioned this, you know, that you kind of went into this in an unconventional pathway. So talk to us a little bit about your journey to using AI and like where you are with it now?

Yes, well, unconventional because I started my first business when I was 16. I also opened my own translation agency when I was 20, and this was way before everything I shared about earlier, and I never saw myself as an entrepreneur. It never was something I wanted to do. It was just projects. So when I started hearing about AI, and of course I'm actually a science fiction fan, so I mean, I've read everything, read it, heard about everything, I know all the fiction, Yeah. So, like, either, I guess, excited or worried about it showing up someday. I don't know. Well, nothing else of us knew how it was going to show up. So I think, I mean, to me, AI has been around for a very long time because I feel like most of the tools we use online use a form of AI. But I understand there's a difference with what we're using now. So about 2 years ago, 3 years ago, I think is when I started using it. But I was thinking like a lot of people, I'll do it later. I'll use it later. I'll learn later. I don't have time. This will be another thing to learn. I was completely mistaken. I was completely like left field or whatever it's called in English, like not at the right spot in my mind about it originally, but I quickly learned about it. And you know how I learned about it? Because I'm almost, I'm going to be 50 this year. So I'm a dinosaur in business. And I feel like a lot of the things I learned, I learned on my own. So I'm like, I'm kind of not up to date on what people talk about. So I went on Upwork. To get some freelancing contracts. And what is all up with 99% of people all around the world learning way more about AI than I am and getting all these contracts? And there's so much to do in AI. So I was thinking, do I want to contribute? Do I want to participate? Well, I want to learn about it. So I took a lot of contracts about a year and a half ago, and that is how I learned about AI more.

By just doing it.

And I've been building, and then I discovered the group, like the Women in AI, and then of course I love that. It's like, Like I, like it was for me 20 years ago when I first had a networking group for women. It's like so fun and exciting and we're chatting and we're doing these things. However, most of the business owners I know around me are not excited or into it or even looking at the risks that are real. It's just the not wanting to know about it at all. So, yeah.

So you, you mentioned 9, 9 organizations, 9 companies, 9, what would you call them? What did you reference them as?

Well, I, I don't always mention them. Like, for example, if I'm going to a networking event, I will pick the one that's— because it's hard for people to understand that to me, it's all one thing. It's the flywheel effect. So I'd say 9. I usually say that I create and lead or co-create and co-lead communities, collective projects, businesses, and nonprofits.

Cool. Cool. And I mean, 9. Businesses.

I am the official agency.

So, so how do you, how do you split your time up amongst each?

Yeah, well, we talked about, so that when we talked about how I lead my day, I don't do them necessarily separate businesses at a time. One thing I've learned is if you do time blocks, you can do multiple things at a time. Multiple, I guess, multiple businesses, but the same task, for example. A lot of delegation. I have collaborations or associates with some businesses. Some businesses have a whole team, like a web developer. Other ones I'm doing it myself. It depends on where we're at. Nonprofit, we try to have as few expenses as possible, so it would be different. But I think really time blocks is, and also working with other people, collaborations, delegating, and of course making it automatic and AI tools is one thing that allows me to do way more. Yeah, there's time for sure.

So, so you mentioned you use Todoist. I love that. That was the first time I've had a guest on the show mention that. Talk to us a little bit about What else is in your tech stack? Like what other, I mean, are you, are you on Cloud? Exactly. ChatGPT, are you using Gemini, Notebook? Talk to us, talk to us a little bit about what that looks like for you.

I use so many online tools. One of the things that people often ask is what is the one, you know, one platform to put their course and all the different things. I don't think that exists anymore because I don't know of anyone who's found it and then everybody's leaving Kajabi to go to Skool. So I prefer to use a whole bunch of tools also because I like to recommend, um, them to entrepreneurs. That I like to recommend free tools. So I use a lot of Google, a lot of Google tools. I used to think that that was cheap in a way of working that way. People used to criticize me, but I went to a really big AI international, what is it, some kind of congress online, and they were using a Google Doc for their list of investors, you know. So Google Docs, you can do a lot of things. I use Todoist. I use all the different types of AI agents because I want to Um, well, the AI, I guess, um, like, uh, like you just asked for Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude. I try to use different ones because since I mentor entrepreneurs as well to know how they work.

Yeah.

Um, and then I also use, uh, Lovable to create, uh, we've created an app and, um, I found out recently, what was it called? Relevance AI. And you can find, you can have it study your competitors, even though I don't believe in competition. But you can have it study, look up things for you like articles or compare people. I don't know, women's networks, for example. I don't even have to research them online anymore. I just say, "Robyn Anderson AI goes out and finds them." And, you know, for example, I can program it to let me know what's going on in those different women's networks. How have they pivoted and things like that?

Why don't you believe in competition? Tell us a little bit about that.

It's, that's one thing that's been a little bit weird for me since I was a child. I still haven't solved that is I, I guess it's why I think I'm a connector is I don't I have trouble seeing that views are really different. So for example, I'll listen to two people that seem to think two different things, and to me it just makes sense that it could be, um, I don't know, uh, different views on the same— yeah, I don't— I see it could be the same thing. So it can be frustrating sometimes because some people really don't believe the same thing amongst them, you know? Like right now there's a lot of division going on, and I've obviously— of course, again, I'm in both groups. Like, not that I believe necessarily, but I have people who, uh, welcome me and tolerate me in any group. It can be social groups. It can be, well, all kinds. So I've always been blended into different groups. So that's one reason that that's the way I, yeah, I see things in a different way, I guess. And that helps me connect people too.

Yeah, I love that. So at Jamf AI, we know that using AI allows you to, you know, gives you more time in your life to be more human, right? So I want to touch a little bit, you mentioned 3 kids. You have 3 kids throughout the midst of this. And I believe I read that Your kids are homeschooled, correct?

Well, they are now adults, young adults, and they were homeschooled for 10 years. Yes, I homeschooled for 10 years. So my, my daughters did not go to school at all, and my son went to first grade. Well, yes, my daughters went to school after they did their last years of high school. So for 10 years, we homeschooled. They're now 19. Yeah, they're older than 18, all 3 of them now.

Yeah. Yeah. So you did that. You got that part out of the way. In the best way. And how— I mean, you did all of that without AI and you did it while juggling everything else you have. I mean, talk to us a little bit about that and talk to the person that says, man, I don't have enough time in my day, right? Like, really talk with that person right now.

Yes. And I sometimes worry that people will think you have to do a lot of stuff. But I mean, if you had seen me when I was 5 years old, I was doing a ton of stuff too. So, I mean, it depends on what you want to do in life. If you want more time off to do Whatever sport you enjoy, that's good. I love creating concepts. I've been doing that since I was little. My room was full of drawings and I wanted to make a machine to stop time when I was little. So one of the things is to know what you want. If you don't know what you want, then you won't be able to use your time. And then you also have to be disciplined. There's things you can't do if you want to have time to do the things you want to do. So there's commitment, commitment and knowing what you want. But also I think having a mentor, having coaches, asking other people. I talked to single moms 'cause I was a single mom during all that time. So I talked to other single moms, how did you make it in direct sales? How am I going to go to the event to be able to meet people? So I think checking with people who do what you're wanting to do, and that's awesome right now that you can be in the group Women in AI and you could talk to Sabrina Rahmanov, who you would never meet in real life, you know, and you can just talk to her and she'll just get back to you. And she's like one of the top women in AI, I think anyway, to me. So talk to someone and ask them how they did it and they'll probably let you know. For me, it actually was easier, and I also don't want people to think you have to homeschool. I was never against school. It was for other reasons that I homeschooled, um, the needs of my children and all of that following, uh, anyway, I won't go into that, but, um, it was actually easier because if you homeschool, you can pick your, you can pick everything. You pick the schedule that works for your children, for yourself. Um, it's hard because I never had time off, but at the same time, I mean, I, yeah, it really worked well for us because I could, I could set everything around what my children needed. So that was why it was actually easier that way.

No, I love that. So, so obviously anyone who has a phone or a TV knows there's a lot going on in the space world right now. And one of the first things I noticed was your email address, right? First Woman to Mars. And I understand that you also run a blog called First Woman to Mars. Will you tell us a little bit about that?

Yes. Well, I still want to go to space. So the way I've seen— Yes, I'm going to space. I'm going to space. And I know it's a waste of, you know, money. It's a waste on the environment. I mean, it doesn't work with my life because I actually am very minimalistic. Like I have hardly any technical items at home except my computers. Computers. So first off, in tomorrow's is still a goal. Um, I'll probably just pay for a ticket though, because that's what I was thinking. I can earn money to pay for a ticket someday when I'm 80 or whatever. Hopefully before I die, we'll go to, we'll have tickets to go to space. Um, so I decided to, I used that email long ago because I believe in you know, manifesting and visualizing and all the things they teach you in Direct Sales. So I, First Woman to Mars. Ironically, I wanted to do First Woman on Mars because who wants to be going to somewhere and not make it there? But it was already taken. I don't know who that person is and I can never find that person.

Who wants to— So you gotta email them.

I try, but it doesn't, I don't think it exists anymore. So First Woman to Mars has been my email for, I don't know, 30 years maybe. And then my blog, it's the first time I ever actually, other than my businesses, which are separate, they each have a brand. It's the first time I I have my own brand of me, who I am and all that I do, and that's firstwomentomars.substack.com. So that's where it came from. It's, it's recent. I started, um, this blog. I've had a blog for a long, long time, but the Substack blog is from December and it's been going on.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Very cool. So you talked a little bit about, you know, you talk to the person who says, hey, I don't have enough time in my day. And you, you say, well, these are some things I recommend. If someone in this audience is sitting on an idea of a community or a network or a collaborative project, but they haven't started yet, what is, what is something you would tell that person?

I really believe that that's the solution for today, for any kind of challenge in life is to have a network. So I think that, and I've said this since we had, like since 2020, is that what we need is intimate, meetings between mostly women. I mean, there could be other types of events as well, but if women got together, 12 to 25 people, and they shared about their challenges, hopefully in business, it gets more structured that way. There's nothing you can't make through in your life personally or professionally if you have a network. So what I would say is you probably have to try different things. I mean, we do have a model that we have is duplicatable in the network that we have, and you can actually become a host anywhere in the world. But I mean, I really do think people can do it without us too. So it's it's really, you have to do a lot of personal invitation. That's one thing I have, uh, I have a free starter guide about how to do that. It's connection marketing. Actually, what's best is to do all the invitations personally. People think that's crazy, but before the event even happens, everything is already settled. You have them in your CRM, it's transparent. You can be in theirs, you can be selling and having contracts. So to make the event not the thing, it's part of a continuous conversation is what matters.

Yeah. So, so Charlotte, if someone's listening to this and they feel, they feel like they really want to reach out to you and connect with you, what are, what are some of the, you know, what are some of the reasons people would reach out to you and what are some of the things that people could collaborate with you on?

There's quite a few things. So one of the best ways is to do a connection call. It's a 15-minute call that's free. I don't, I really don't have anything to sell during those calls. And the person leaves with an action plan of how to find key resources and people for their project. So it can be on, on any of the topics we talked about. I have a calendar, a Calendly link to plan that call. So if they want to, they can reach out to me through Messenger or like we said, my email address, firstwentomars@gmail.com, though most likely through social media or my Substack as well. You can message people. So I'm sure you can find me with my name. There's only one other woman on the planet, I think, that it's called that way.

Wow.

Okay. And yes, and she, yeah. So, um, you can find me on social media and we can plan a call together. Because it could be a couple different things. It could be to become a collaborator, it could be to be a host for our networking, it could be to participate, it could be to invite me to an event. So there's multiple different ways. We also have a nonprofit for women to find, women who are homeless to find menstrual products. That's the app that we created is an app to help them find free menstrual products. And I also have a social enterprise for victims of post-separation violence, which is the first in the world to offer that. Resources for victims of post-separation violence. So when you've left domestic violence but it continues, that is a, I guess, a new field in the world. So not a new problem, but a new field. So we also have a social enterprise and people who have a business like can come and present their resource, which could be paid or free or professional, to our virtual summit for the victims. So that's what we can also have people as speakers. For that summit.

That's incredible. So I don't know how you can add any more to your plate. So I'm even skeptical to ask what's next for you in your, you know, your AI journey, you know, where AI is in the world today. You know, what's next for you? What are you— what are you hoping to learn and tackle? What's next? What's this look like for you?

Well, as far as AI, I'm learning about building. The last 6 months, I'd say I'm building more actively myself and with other people, some actual products and actual services that are not just AI-based, but with AI itself. So that's one thing I want to continue. And I do have a lot of other projects as well. I do want to, I would like to continue in research at some point. And as a free candidate, at some point, I'd like to use my research skills to work on certain topics. And I have a feeling that everything that I've worked on for the last 30 years and more, and other people were working on, adding in AI, we can create databases, for example, which means that there's some things that were never possible before. You could never do that kind of research, or of course databases existed, but with AI, even respecting confidentiality, there's research and things that can be done that have never been done before in my lifetime. And that's what I would like to contribute to or work with. I'd really like to be in the ethics or research frontier of AI, and you don't have to be in an institution anymore to do that, like a research institution. So that, I would love that.

I love that goal. It's so full circle.

Exactly. It's real full circle. My goal will be maybe at some point I'd like to live in a house near an ocean and not have anything or anybody around me for a while, but maybe I can still do AI during that time. So.

I bet you're going to make it happen.

Thank you.

Keep us posted on your trip to Mars too.

Exactly. Well, maybe it'll be on Mars, you know, so.

The ocean. Oh, an ocean on Mars, huh?

Yeah, maybe not the ocean, but they might. They've talked about, you know, water in some ways or another because that's what was— that's what's missing there. So yeah, why not?

Well, Charlotte, thank you so much for your time today. And I look forward to, you know, following your journey and sharing your resources with our audience. And I just really appreciate you connecting with me today.

Thank you. I really enjoyed the invitation, the discussion, and I hope to connect with others as well and with you. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Talk soon. Have a good one.

Thank you.

Bye.