I'm Not Retired, I'm Regenerating: Rhonda, a Club Jam Member, on Turning Retirement Into an AI-Po...

Hi, and welcome back to another episode of The Human Side of AI. I'm your host, Flora, and today I'm talking with Rhonda, a member of Club Jam who came in knowing nothing about AI and is someone today who is building and selling her own AI tools, and I am so impressed. Rhonda is a retired special education consultant who redefined herself as a creative consultant and along the way built a compliance tool she could charge thousands of dollars for, a custom budget planner for an attorney that she sold and her own accounting software to replace the tools she had been paying for. This is really one of my favorite conversations so far. Hello, Ms. Rhonda. How you doing today?

I'm doing great.

Great. I'm so happy to be here. It's in a way nostalgic talking to you just because I feel like you've been a part of ClubJam for so long now. And I've just been able to see, like, from an outsider's perspective, your, your growth. And it's just been so much fun to watch from, from over here.

Yes, it has been a big growth. Yeah. I knew nothing about AI, and my first experience was meeting Jam on Score. And I attended the workshop, and I was just like, I don't even understand what she's talking about. I sat there the whole time, but they sent it to me, and a couple months I would go back to it because I would hear more about AI.

Yeah.

And then finally I said, you know, maybe this can help my businesses. I don't know what I'm doing anyway. And, um, and so that's how I, um, started. I said, let me join.

Well, let's back up a little bit. What brought you to that SCORE group in the first place?

Well, I was always on SCORE.

Cool.

They would send different things out, and Club Jam was one of them. Even though I live in Michigan, they would send different SCORE webinars for small business to participate in.

Yeah.

And I said, oh, this seems like a unique one. Let me just check this out. And it was way above my understanding.

Rhonda, what is your small business? Tell people what brought you to SCORE in the first place.

Over the years, let's say when I retired, right? I retired from special education teacher consultant.

Amazing.

And I went through not just sitting at home doing nothing, handling my illness of asthma. And my kids was like, Mom, you need to do something with your other things that you do. Okay, like what?

What were they?

Like estate sales, um, helping people to get their house ready for sale, or, you know, just things like that, or giving them advice. Um, and what really helped me to see it was when my husband passed. We had 2 homes, the home that I lived in, and there was the second home he bought of his uncle's. It was a 19— '78 home, ranch, 1,800 square feet. And I had to finish this home that was totally a mess. And so it took me 2 years. But I wanted to make it more allergy-free. And of course, through the process, I had to get rid of people.

Mm-hmm.

OK? Like, fire them because I walked through dust. I would say, please don't put things in the garage that cause dust. Well, after one hospital visit, that was over. But it turned out really nice. The whole process taught me about triad asthma and how I could redo that house and make it dust-free, chemical-free as much as possible.

Cool. And I never knew that part of the story.

Yeah, that's the part I never mentioned to you. So what you see, like— When I'm doing my TikToks, it's the second home.

Cool.

That I use to, you know, do my TikToks with to, you know, basically show them like, this is what—

You can do.

—drove me to it. And kids said, Mom, you have this gift and you're not using it.

Good for you.

And so I said, well, what am I going to call myself? And so they said, Mom, just call yourself a creative consultant.

There you go. I said, that doesn't make sense.

Nobody. And so I went to my first workshop that was with the Entrepreneurship Center at W, at our community college. And they said, why are you here? I said, I'm wanting to start a small business. And what's your title? I said, creative consultant. And I'm like, well, what does that mean?

Right.

I help people with homes. I help them to find things that will be more safe for their homes. I help them to style their homes with things that I've researched over 2 years to make my life a little healthier.

Yeah.

And maybe there's other people out there that need that service. Did I have a name? No. When I walked into the office and the manager of the Entrepreneurship Center Said, why are you here? And I explained it to her. She said, well, you have a background in education, but education plans are just like business plans.

OK.

Oh, OK. You're right. She said, well, I'm just starting a new cohort. Would you like to be a part of it? I said, sure. She said, well, you have to stay in it for 2 years.

OK.

And I'm like, whoa. 2 years, that's a big commitment.

That is.

But it helped me to get a basic foundation, what a business plan, you know, what are you offering? I still didn't know what I was offering, but I went through the process, met a lot of people. They helped me to get my website together. You know, my— I did a couple pitches. You know, they were laughing, you know, like pitches about the business. I even got a grant.

Whoa!

Yeah. And so I took what I knew from the educational standpoint of pitching, even though I went through my— I got to tell you this. This is a funny thing. I think I mentioned it before. My first pitch, and I had to do a 2-minute spiel, it took me an hour.

Oh.

To do it because I was just like, oh, go buy a wig. Look different. I went and bought a wig. My kids said, Mom, you're going through all this and you're just— just be yourself.

Yeah.

And then I threw the wig off.

OK.

And I said, oh, I just need to be myself.

Yeah.

And I went through a whole thing about what I look like in front of an audience. But it was nice for me to go through the process of pitching the business because I learned a lot that I need to be able to say in 30 seconds.

Yeah. So then when in this cohort, when did you really start integrating AI into your business, into your new business?

When I left.

Okay.

Because during that process, I was still doing little things like Accounting, them teaching me accounting and learning about finances and, you know, just how to manage a small business.

Awesome.

But the AI component was not a part of that program. SCORE was jam, okay? And I was learning fast-paced, like what to do. And Club Jam was just like, Hmm, maybe that's something I need to learn about.

So I hear about this cohort taught you the staples, the foundation of starting a business.

Yes.

Learned through Club Jam is, is, is basically the fundamentals of running business.

Yes. What I learned from Club Jam was a lot more.

So, so I I was gonna pause. I was gonna ask this at the end, but I just, I can't, I can't hold my tongue. So I've known you for a few years now, and I've, I've heard you talking about your business, and you have been so committed to the, the, the, the live lessons and the classrooms and the calls and the conversations. And then recently on a call, you jumped in and you said, From what you've learned for your business, those skills, you built a whole different thing using AI and you sold that for money. You made money off that. Can you talk about that?

Okay, so I'm building several different things.

Yes.

Okay. The principal, the local school district, He called me, and I used to be the compliance person for IEPs and 504s. I was the go-to person to get the district out of trouble when they didn't meet the needs of the students. So he called me, he said, can you help me? And I'm like, okay, I'm not going back in the classroom to help anyone, but I can make—

Y'all heard it here. Rhonda said she's not going back in the classroom.

Hear that? I can help you on the side. So I said, give me a week or two. I can make a compliance tool for your teachers because they're out of compliance. I'm going to tell you what they're doing now. When he explained it to me, what— so they beta tested it. What it is, is these are the things that you need to follow. The IEPs, you can document within even the goals. And if they I mailed it to 'em like right before summer. If they, they will purchase it for $3,000 to $5,000 that the teachers can use. And I thought, oh, I created something. Not AI. I told 'em what was needed for the state of Michigan. Do the research.

And they, they bought it from you?

Yes.

Robyn, that's amazing.

So that's the part that AI I said, okay, I'm not away from education, but this is how I can help teachers to stay in compliance for students. I'm all about compliance for the kids. I'm the person that was behind the scenes telling the parents, don't tell them I told you, but you need to file a lawsuit because they're not doing what they need to do for your child.

Wow.

Yes, that's the first thing, OK? Now, what I mentioned the other day was I have a friend that lives out of state. She is a power of attorney.

Cool.

Right? And she kept calling me. And I'm like, oh, God, I do need to help her. She's got— she's paying these caregivers, right, thousands of dollars. And now she's in court. Why is she in court? She's not stealing the money. I said, send me the information. I create a tool that the attorney may want to purchase. That's amazing. For caregivers. I call it Estate Budget Planner for Attorneys. You put in all the information. You can— it took me hours to do it. But then she hired— I thought I was just going to sell it and run off. No, I need you to do the data work. I said, I don't even do data entry. How much do I charge? So I went to ChatGPT. How much an hour should I charge her, right? It took me a full week to do it. So I made it easy, like $1,500, right? But in the process, if the attorney likes it, I can sell it to her firm, and I've never met them before.

That's amazing. It's amazing.

Yes.

And I just— so I just— I want to reiterate what I've seen you do because I haven't seen a lot of people actually do this, you know, and you came to ClubJam, you wanted to learn how to use AI for your small business, and then you've taken those skills and you've made money elsewhere with those skills.

Yes. And now, okay, let me say, What I made for myself.

Yes.

I had accounting, OK? I was paying for Xero. You heard of Xero accounting? It's an online— it's X-E-R-O, but they call it Xero.

OK.

It's a software program. I was paying $20 a year for the last 2 years.

OK.

I said, hmm, I can do this myself with AI.

Wow.

I just made one. It's called ClearlyIQ. It can do what I've paid for.

Rhonda, I'm so impressed by you.

And so I think what she's sharing, I just, you know, I get in that mode like, oh, let me try. Oh, let me. And so I thought I heard her say, and I think I heard someone in class say, well, you can do your budget, you can do— I said, well, why not create My own accounting software with the backend. It works. I'm telling you, I can put in— I said, put it where I can scan my receipts and it saves it. And, you know, it went— it was breaking. And so I said, nope, nope, nope, it broke here. I need you to fix it. So now I can scan in my invoices and it does all— it puts in the mileage. All I have to do is put where I go. I was paying $20 a month for something that Claude built.

Amazing. Well, you built it. Give yourself credit. So, OK.

Yeah, I understand. With my following the process— now, I did— I'm going to just tell you, I do make mistakes along the way. Like, I literally did something so— I thought— I had my personal email attached to Claude. And I freaked out. And I'm still trying to get it off of there. It's still there.

Why'd you freak out?

Because I'm like, I wanted to be on the business email because it's reading all my stuff. And I'm like, OK, well, I'll get to that. Let's just keep moving. I don't have much in there anyway.

So where are you? I mean, you've got all these awesome projects happening. What are you most excited about right now? Or is it just generally just using AI?

It's twofold. I'm excited that I can use that as a partner.

Cool.

As creativity of things I thought about, like an idea, and that it'll help me to carry it out. And then I'm constantly, you know, I have things over here that I'm doing that stops me from moving a little faster in my home life. But that's okay, right?

Yeah.

I find opportunities, and I thought, okay, maybe I need to redefine myself because I'm a consultant here, right?

Creative consultant, right?

Right. A small business consultant. Not much, but, you know, I see problems with things which I never saw before.

Like what?

I thought with children, But I see it in a business aspect. Like, a friend of mine invited me— let me give you an example. A friend of mine called me, can you show up to the pop-up shop?

OK.

It's beautiful. This young 16-year-old is selling cookies and making $600 at a pop-up shop, right? And I go, OK, you need to put this in a store. You need to make it bigger. The cookies are great. She has— she does her own, uh, logo and the whole setup is cute. She even has her little stand, you know, with the Zelle, and she— her parents are working with it. I said, okay. I said, but I looked at your Instagram page and it's lacking. And I said, do you have an LLC? You know, I went through this, the whole And I talked to the mom. I said, OK, I need to help you guys to make this bigger and better because I see the issue. And so the mom said, thank you. Can you help us? I said, there's money out there for teenagers to get grants for small business. And so it's things like that that I never would have seen before without Club Jam.

That's amazing.

I want to take her cookie. Okay. This is what I saw the other day from—

Yeah, let's hear it.

From Wonderworld.

Yeah. Wonder Wheel.

Wonder Wheel.

I know it's funny that you say that because Jam and I on our last podcast, we were like, Wonder Wheel, Real Wheel, but Wonder Wheel.

Wonder Wheel.

Shout out to Downey.

And how they had the product shooting through the air went viral. I want to take her cookie.

Do it.

And make it do something.

Awesome.

And it's just like all the things that people are sharing, I'm learning. And I go, my kids like, Mom, you're just— what? Because see, my kids are from that point of AI, you know, the biblical thing. AI was the— in the Bible was the person that was destroyed. Right? And I said, you know what? Your mom is a digital minister, okay? So I'm not caring about that. It's enough stuff out in the world that we don't need to care about. Let's get it done. I said, furthermore, and I explained to people, we've been learning, and which I've learned from you guys, there was the small language model we've all been introduced to in the past. Now it's large language model. And what can you do to help make your business flow easier, better, on autopilot without you, you know?

So Rhonda, I mean, I'm really, really impressed by you. I'm impressed by you for several reasons. I'm impressed by you for your, your grit and for, for, for finding something and, and really sticking to it. I'm impressed by you for being so flexible and willing to, to, to pivot and use what you've learned in other ways. Um, because at that point, you are your brand, right?

Yes.

It's not, it's not your small business, it's not this project, but it's you. And, and it's, and I just, I think that's so cool. And I would love for you to speak directly to, let's say, another woman similar to your age who is also retired and, and speak to that woman for a second, if you don't mind, just based on your experience and, and, you know.

I mean, looking at my age, I used to say, I was retired. And I thought about it. I am not retired. I'm redefining life.

I love that.

I am not stopping until I'm dead, period. I have— I'll say it's regeneration. I have something to offer. And if I can continue to offer it, I'm going to do it. Because retirement means you stop. I'm not stopping.

Yeah, I don't—

I have enough grit. I have enough strength. I have enough knowledge base where learning doesn't stop with me. It continues. So if I can apply and I can help someone and I can continue to build, My brand, wherever it goes, I'm following it. No, if I can bring people along, that's what I will do.

So talk to me about let's say you have a friend and you you guys are like y'all are cool but y'all aren't you know y'all aren't close enough friends where you can be like hey I think you're just really you know wasting your life right now you know I have some friends that I could just tell them hey. What are you doing with your life right now? I, from an outside perspective, like, looks like a big waste. And then I have other friends that I couldn't say that to because I would lose their friendship, right? So, so talk to the friend that you couldn't say that to, that you're really looking to like re-motivate them and, and tell them how capable, you know, they are and how, how much life still has to offer them.

Well, I have some friends that are My age and older, what I would say to them is, you have potential to do more than just watch your grandkids. You have potential to do better than just get a paycheck in the mail. You can expand your horizons and whatever you want to do in life, Whether it be business, start a new business like me, and I can help you and support you in that.

You probably will.

And I can even be your consultant.

Yeah, hire her.

If that's what you want. And don't stop your vision. Whatever you wanted to do, or maybe you haven't thought about it, there's things out there to support your vision. That's what I would tell that person who's sitting there that I really don't talk to a lot. But when I encounter them— and my sister's one. OK. Shout out to my sister.

Happy Sunday, Star. Hey, sister.

Well, no, she's not going to do anything. She said, I'll meet her. But anyway, there are friends around me who are impressed And some of them are like, no, that's not for me. That's OK. That's not for you, but I'm not going to stop pushing. This one friend who's my age, who even worked in education, like, you can do something other than paint your nails and just sit back. Because life goes by, and it doesn't stop at retirement. That's what I believe.

Totally. Totally.

And so come on, join the party. Let's get this AI thing going.

So, so, and to kind of go full circle here, Where are you with your, your clean staging company?

OK. I had to stop that because there was some things I had to put in place before I moved forward.

OK.

And that's just a personal thing.

OK.

But I'm going to start it back.

Awesome.

I just had to stop doing that because I needed to stay home for a minute because some crisis happened. So that's why— You don't see my videos in— but it's coming soon.

Yeah.

And the next one is supposed to be, um, the, uh, pantry.

Oh.

The pantry cleanup. Okay. And so I have a rollout. It's just I had to stop and process because everybody's got me doing everything and I can't, you know, prioritize.

Rhonda, huh? It's because you're so damn capable.

And so I, I find myself like running a thin line here. And so I had to prioritize, but they're still waiting on my videos. My friends are like, okay, when's the next one coming? Right?

Well, and in the meantime, you've knocked out these other AI tools that you've been able to sell. So— Yeah.

And the other one is budget. Okay. I just made one because I was used to doing everything on paper. No, Rhonda, stop it. Make yourself a tool. You hear Club Jam saying you can make this, you can make that. Okay, so I named it Budget Tail.

Okay, cute.

Because my sister, who taught me how to budget for years, I used to call her— that's her nickname, Budget Tail. So it's called Budget Tail. You can put it in there. It calculates. You can— it has like whatever. You can put whatever you want in there, your credit cards, your mortgages, anything you want. And it calculates it. And it saves it for the next month. But you can export it and download it on your computer.

How do people access this?

Oh, I just sign in.

Okay, but what if someone else wants to access it?

I would have to give them permission.

Well, how do they find you? They can't because I haven't thought about selling it yet.

But if they want it, I haven't— I just made it the other day.

You're amazing.

It's like I said, Rhonda, you need to stop with all this paperwork. Like, think about an accounting when you— like, the one thing with the, uh, Clearly AI I can take that to an accountant at the end of the year and it's done. It literally is— I was just like, wow. And I even— I mean, clearly IQ, not AI, clearly IQ.

Yeah.

Because it's, you know, the brain. And Budgetelle is one. And so I'm excited about the creativity. And where I think my blockers come in is How do I sell it if I want to sell it? Right. And I haven't thought about that part yet.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know where people can access you. They can find you in Club Jam and School.

Yeah, they can.

Cool. Rhonda, honestly, I'm like hesitant to say this because I've had, I, you know, I've had so many cool guests. This might be one of my favorite calls. I honestly, It's so cool to see what you're doing, and it's so cool to see the power of education and grit, right? And—

Yes.

And you are just— I'll say it again, you have really inspired me. And I don't— I'm not just saying that to like fluff you up. Um, what you're doing is uncommon and Really incredible. And I'm just like so proud to know you and, and I'm so grateful to have learned more of your story and I'm excited to continue following your journey.

Well, you know what, Flora, I thank you because I remember talking to you at first and you was like, okay, Rhonda, sum it up. Sum up your business.

Did I say it nicely?

You was nice. I would, in my words. Okay.

Okay.

Well, sometimes, you know, and I was like, oh. What you did was just like make me think about it. Like, how can I tell my story shortly? Like, tell it. And then I was like— it was like, yes, Rhonda, that's it. So by you encouraging me, it was helping me to think outside the box because education is totally different from business.

Yeah.

The mindset. So I had to even create a business mindset, not a— I mean, it's hand in hand. I'm still teaching. But not really. I'm selling.

Oh, you're doing awesome. You're doing awesome. You're selling. I love it. All right, Rhonda, I'll see you on our next Club Jam call.

Okay. Well, thank you.

Thank you so much. Talk soon.

Have a great day. Bye.