productivity Archives - Don't Stop Us Now

Levelling Up Your AI Skills – Claire and Greta

October 28, 2025October 28, 2025
by Claire

Ever wondered if you’re missing out on some easy AI hacks?

We were both surprised recently to read the results of some research we’d conducted with senior executives about their AI usage to see that most people are barely scratching the surface of what these tools can do. That’s prompted us to create this episode bringing you a practical guide to the techniques that actually make a big difference.

We’re sharing the most powerful techniques and hacks we’ve discovered after constant AI use and refinement. These aren’t theoretical concepts or beginner basics, they’re the strategies and simple steps that can transform how effectively you work with tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Co Pilot.

In this episode, we reveal four separate and easy approaches that will upgrade your AI outputs immediately. Don’t worry, you won’t need to spend hours learning or implementing any of these hacks.

For example, you’ll discover how to get AI to do the heavy lifting on prompts themselves (yes, really), and learn a great way to tackle repetitive tasks with ease, avoiding re-inventing the wheel time and time again.

Some of the techniques you’ll hear about include:

The metaprompting technique that can save hours of prompt refinement
How Projects, Gems, GPTs and Custom Co Pilots may turbo-charge your productivity
A step by step explanation of how you can set up these tools, and
Exactly how AI was used to help generate some of the copy you’re reading now.

Whether you’re already comfortable with AI or still finding your feet, we’re confident that at least one of these techniques will help you level up your own AI skills and outcomes.

Listen now for practical and real examples of how these techniques work in action to help you work smarter with AI.

Interview

Life Inside an AI-Native Success Story – Donna Thomas

August 20, 2025
by Claire

Ever wondered what it’s really like inside one of the world’s fastest-growing AI companies? This week we get unprecedented access to the inner workings of Leonardo AI through their Chief Commercial Officer, Donna Thomas.

Leonardo AI is a Gen AI-powered image and video generator and it’s one of Australia’s AI success stories. It scaled from zero to 19 million users in just two years before being acquired by Canva last year.

At ‘Leo’ as they call it, Donna plays a central role overseeing customer, marketing, sales and enterprise adoption, as Leo charts its evolution from a fast-growing creative AI platform to an enterprise-scale solution.

Donna takes us behind the scenes and shares what hypergrowth feels like from the inside. She says Leo has redefined her understanding of speed itself.

In such a fast moving environment, the challenges of managing and sustaining teams through constant change become critical and Donna shares the specific structures and rituals Leo uses to maintain team stability while moving faster than she’s ever experienced.

In this conversation, you’ll also discover:

The key differences between working at a traditional tech giant versus an AI-native startup and what skills become essential
The “listening muscle” required to synthesise signals from customers, competitors, and tech developments in real-time
Practical strategies for managing and sustaining teams through hypergrowth and hyper-fast work rhythms
Why Leonardo embeds AI across everything from customer service to engineering and HR, and how they manage the complexity of using multiple different AI tools internally; and . . .
Donna’s advice for professionals wanting to become more AI-fluent and free up time for deep work.

Whether you’re curious about life inside a cutting-edge AI company or looking for practical insights on adapting and leading in our rapidly changing work environment, this conversation offers a rare glimpse into how a world-leading AI-native organisation is managing these challenges and opportunities.

Enjoy this episode!

Useful Links

Leonardo AI

Interview

Women, AI Needs YOU! – Dr Nici Sweaney

May 20, 2025May 21, 2025
by Claire

In this week’s episode, we speak with Dr Nici Sweaney, founder of AI Her Way, who brings a powerful perspective on why women urgently need to engage with artificial intelligence – not just for their own personal productivity, but for the future quality of AI itself.

Nici’s journey into AI consulting and training began with a moment of clarity while rocking her toddler to sleep. As an academic, data scientist, and mother of four, she realised women, especially those juggling multiple responsibilities, stand to benefit enormously from AI assistance. More importantly, she recognised a concerning gender gap in AI adoption that could have far-reaching consequences.

In our fascinating conversation, Nici shares:

Why the current gender imbalance in who is using AI presents both a personal productivity loss AND a broader societal challenge
How AI tools are actively learning from us and re-presenting our world back to us – making women’s voices critical in these formative stages of the tech
Practical strategies for moving beyond ‘tinkering’ with AI to integrating it throughout your work and personal life
A revealing look inside Nici’s own business, where AI ‘staff members work alongside humans in every function, and
Nici’s vision for how AI could transform our future – from solving global challenges to enabling more entrepreneurial thinking.

We were particularly struck by Nici’s perspective that women have a “moral obligation” to engage with AI. As she explains, these systems are currently being shaped predominantly by male users, and without diverse input they risk perpetuating bias for generations to come.

So whether you’re AI-curious but hesitant, already experimenting with these tools, or looking to take your AI skills to the next level, this episode offers valuable insights on claiming your place in the AI revolution – not just for your benefit, but for all the women who follow.

Enjoy this episode with this forward thinking champion of women, Dr Nici Sweaney.

Useful Links

AI Her Way website
Nici on LinkedIn
Nici on Instagram

Special Offer for Listeners
Dr Nici has generously offered our listeners free 14 day trial access to her AI for Impact Hub, which includes comprehensive education on the five levels of AI integration, from basic prompting to agentic AI.

Access it here: https://aiherway.short.gy/DontStop

How To Episode

Practical AI Use Cases You Can Try Today

March 11, 2025March 11, 2025
by Claire

This week’s episode of Don’t Stop Us Now AI Edition brings you something a little different as we share behind the scenes insights into the different ways we’re currently using and experimenting with AI to improve our productivity.

AI tools are evolving so fast and we know how hard it is to try and keep up with it all. This is exactly why we’re sharing specific use case examples with you in this week’s episode. These practical use cases are all things you can try out for yourself today if you’re curious about easy ways to incorporate AI into your work and life but aren’t sure where to start.

As you’ll hear, we’ll share some useful and fun ways to test Perplexity’s Deep Research, Open AI’s image generation capabilities, and Google’s Notebook LM.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

How we transformed some everyday tasks using Perplexity’s new Deep Research
How AI-generated images have become dramatically more useful and accurate in recent months and what we’re using these images for
How to easily digest lengthy business reports by turning them into interactive audio conversations you can listen to while commuting or exercising, and
Practical advice for navigating privacy considerations while experimenting with AI

You’ll also get to listen in on a live conversation we have showcasing a new feature on Notebook LM that really ups the ante for quickly and easily finding the information you want in a dense and lengthy document.

There’s something for everyone to try here so enjoy this practical episode sharing real-world AI use cases and tips…

Useful Links

Perplexity AI

Google’s Notebook LM

ChatGPT (includes image generation capabilities)

Greta’s LinkedIn article on data poisoning

If you haven’t already, subscribe to Don’t Stop Us Now – AI Edition to stay in the know

Why not connect with Claire and Greta on LinkedIn to share your own AI use cases and experiences

Future Proof Me Mini Episode

Future Proof Me – Manage Energy Not Time

December 7, 2021December 7, 2021
by Claire

Our mini episode this week is a cracker… we revisit the advice of high achieving changemaker, speaker and author, Holly Ransom, who’s thoughts on managing her energy not her time really struck a chord with us and many of you.

Not only that, in this episode we’re sharing some valuable advice from Holly that you haven’t heard before.

So if you’ve been thinking you want next year to be different to this year, then get ready to be inspired and provoked by hearing how Holly’s approach to managing her energy has been an absolute game changer for her in terms of her schedule, her mindset and her productivity.

It all began when she made some big changes as part of her recovery from depression.

Enjoy this mini Future Proof Me episode with the inspiring Holly Ransom.

Useful Links

Holly’s website

Holly’s new book – The Leading Edge

Holly’s podcast – Coffee Pods

How To End this Crazy Year on a Positive…

December 1, 2020
by Claire

Brought to you by Microsoft’s The New Next

Welcome to our latest How To episode, the last one for 2020!

This week we’re exploring how to end this year on a positive note. It’s been such a crazy year! From Australia and California’s shocking bushfires to the global COVID pandemic, which has led to so much disruption to all our lives.

We like to think of the end of the calendar year as a great opportunity to be a circuit breaker. With so many people right now feeling exhausted, this is a great chance for us all to start the process of recharging our batteries and freshening our outlook over the Holiday season.

In this episode we share 4 great tips that you can choose from to help you reset, clear your head and generally position yourself in the best possible way to enjoy December and start 2021 feeling much more positive.

We explore everything from humour, to reflecting on your 2020 actions, to telling someone how much you appreciate them.

So if you want to end 2020 in the best possible way then this is the episode for you. Enjoy!

Future Proof Me Mini Episode

Future Proof Me – Taking Control of your Calendar

November 24, 2020
by Claire

Brought to you by Microsoft’s The New Next

With the crazy year that 2020 has been and many people feeling exhausted as we come into the Holiday season, this week’s mini episode may be exactly what you need.

In ‘Taking Control of Your Calendar’ we revisit some great advice from drone expert and Associate Professor, Dr Cath Ball on optimising your time and calendar. As she puts it so adroitly, she now thinks of emails simply as other people telling you how to use your time.

Cath is something of a dynamo – you can hear it in the way she speaks – so many fantastic thoughts, all at a million miles per hour.

Cath had to learn some important lessons when she left corporate life and started working for herself. Particularly once she had her first baby, she realised just how priceless her time was and how easy it was to let other people control her time.

So if you’re feeling like your diary is out of your control then you’ll love Cath’s thoughts and advice on ensuring how you spend your time works for you. Whether you work for yourself or for others there’s plenty of great advice here.

Enjoy!

Links

Link to full episode with Dr Cath Ball – Flying High with Drones & More

Dr Cath Ball’s website

World of Drones Congress

Dr Cath Ball Linkedin

Interview

Ellen Broad – Her Surprising Path to Big Data…

November 3, 2020November 13, 2020
by Claire

Brought to you by Microsoft’s The New Next

This week’s episode features a woman who never dreamt she’d end up working in a high tech environment. In fact, Ellen Broad imagined she would be a lawyer or librarian when she was younger.

However this tech exec and academic is now a Senior Fellow at the 3A Institute at the Australian National University. The Institute is a multi-disciplinary department created to help humans prepare for, and navigate, a world that will be forever altered by AI-powered ‘cyber-physical systems’.

A little bit more about Ellen, she trained as a lawyer (more about that in our conversation) and she’s worked in data-related roles in the Hague and in the UK, including being an expert adviser to the UK Secretary of State on Data, and head of Policy for the UK’s Open Data Institute.

Not only that, but Ellen has also written an award winning book on AI and its impact on humans called ‘Made By Humans’.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How Ellen navigated moving countries, and finding work, without having any network in her new home-base
How she’s found her voice to speak up against gender bias
What it’s like working in a truly diverse team – hint it’s not always easy
Why she’s using social media a lot less these days, and
Where she thinks technology will go in the next five years.

Enjoy this episode with the unassuming and very smart Ellen Broad.

Links

3A Institute website

Ellen Broad’s website

Ellen’s Book – Made by Humans

Griffith Review Article – Computer Says No

Resources Recommended by Ellen

Coded Bias Documentary

Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Noble

Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil

PAIR Program with Google

The Coding Train – Daniel Shiffman

How To Episode

How to Have a Great Year

January 28, 2020
by Claire

Our first ‘How To’ episode of 2020 brings you super useful tips and advice to set yourself up for an awesome 2020!

To put this episode together, we scoured the latest research and we drew upon the content and expertise we’ve developed delivering leadership programs around the world for major companies such as Google, Salesforce and Pinterest.

And, as usual, you also get to hear thoughts from some of our amazing guests on the topic as well.

You may well have thought about some New Year’s resolutions or goals recently, but whatever your situation, we’re confident that this episode will turbocharge your prospects for the rest of the year.

Here’s a taste of some of the many invaluable things you’ll learn from this episode:

The somewhat surprising first step we advise you take when planning a great year ahead
The huge benefits you can reap from cultivating a more positive outlook and mindset, plus easy tips to help you do just that
How to avoid being over-ambitious with all the goals you want to set for yourself and spare yourself from feeling you’ve failed when you don’t achieve them all
And, the one thing you can easily do to increase the chance of you achieving your goals by more than 30%.

Improve your chances by more than 30% – that’s insane isn’t it?

So don’t delay, make sure you listen now to give yourself the best chance for a fantastic 2020.

Enjoy!

Useful links

How to Breathe Easy About your Purpose episode

Tim Ferriss’s Reflection Process

Achieving your goals: An evidence-based approach, Michigan State University

Why a Happy Brain Performs Better – HBR

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How To Episode

How to Make Time Your Friend

March 25, 2019
by admin

“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.”

William Penn, Founder of Pennsylvania

We know you’re probably a very busy person but you won’t want to miss this episode all about maximising your time.

It’s precisely because we all are so busy that pausing to think about how we’re using our time can be so worthwhile. William Penn may have lived in the late 1600’s and early 1700’s but he was spot on with his quote above about how we humans can use our time.

In this latest episode in our ‘How To’ series, we share a whole host of useful tools and approaches used by a variety of amazing leaders that will help you ensure you maximise your own precious time and reduce any frustration you feel about time racing by too fast or tasks taking you too long to achieve.

In this episode you’ll hear:

4 different ways to think about your time over the longer term and how being clear about your longer term priorities really makes a difference with your day to day work
4 approaches to tackle your day to day priorities and ‘To Do’ lists
Plus, one unique way one of our podcast guests has figured out to maximise her energy and productivity every week enabling her to get so much more done

Do yourself a favour and invest 30 minutes listening to this episode . . . it may well change your relationship with time.

Plus, we’d love to hear what works for you. Share your own time-saving or time-valuing tips and hacks with us at hello@dontstopusnow.co

The Covey Time Prioritisation Matrix mentioned in the episode:

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