ENDNOTE by Lorin Beller ntp.stocker / Shutterstock.com My secret tool is an AI named Claude How I use AI to run a ranch, write a book, create powerful proposals, run a vacation rental business — and still have time to live my life. Let me be honest with you: I resisted it. The idea of an AI assistant felt clinical, cold — the opposite of the values-driven, heart-led work I do every day in my professional coaching practice and at Magic Circle Ranch. But somewhere between writing a participant agreement for my daughter’s equine-human partnership workshop and trying to draft a Facebook post before sunrise, something shifted. I gave Claude a real shot. And I haven’t looked back. I’ve run a professional coaching practice the past 25 years alongside a working ranch in Valley Center, California, sit on boards, host Young Enterprising Women events— all while writing a book, supporting my daughter’s equine-human connection business, and managing a vacation rental in the Adirondacks. The operational load is real. And like most women business owners I know, I was the one carrying most of it, alone, in the margins of my day. I’ve been working on Magic Circle: Manifesting Secrets and Inspiration for longer than I care to admit. My challenge wasn’t vision — it was translating raw, personal, sometimes fragmented spiritual experiences into polished, publishable prose. Now I upload my handwritten notes and voice memos to Claude, and it helps me shape them into chapters that actually sound like me, elevated. We’ve built over 18,000 words together across 14 chapters. The book is moving. Finally. I have been hosting women’s retreats since 2012, and now expanding it to Magic Circle Ranch, there was a mountain of operational work to do — participant agreements, intake forms, welcome emails, promotional posts for Nextdoor and Facebook, and certification research. Claude produced first drafts of all of it within hours. I shaped and approved; Claude did the heavy lifting. That work would have taken me a week of scattered evenings. It took one focused afternoon. Correspondence that used to sit in my drafts folder — a follow-up proposal after a corporate team book club session, a response to a billing dispute with a contractor, a LinkedIn article tying a documentary launch to our ranch’s mission — I summarize what I need for Claude and it handles the first draft, I add my touch, and it goes out. Fast, professional, and still completely in my voice. I’ve also used Claude to think through pricing strategy, shoulderseason marketing for our Airbnb/VRBO, and even how to structure a proposal celebration dinner for twenty guests at the barn. Here’s what surprised me most: Claude doesn’t flatten my perspective — it helps me express it more fully. When I bring my real experiences, my ranch, the horses, my spiritual framework, my clients, my ideas, my curiosity — Claude meets me there. It adapts. It learns what matters to me. And it never gets tired, never judges, and never makes me feel like my questions are too small or too big. And it’s complimentary and acknowledging. If you’re running a business, a creative practice, a household, or all three at once — and you’re spending too many hours on the work behind the work — I want to invite you to try this. Not as a replacement for your wisdom, your relationships, or your instincts or your intuition. But as the most capable, tireless thinking partner you’ve never had. The ideas don’t build themselves. But it develops a lot faster when you stop doing everything alone. LORIN BELLER is a transformational executive coach, founder of Magic Circle Ranch in Valley Center, CA, and author of the forthcoming book Magic Circle: Manifesting Secrets and Inspiration. She is a longtime member of the Enterprising Women Advisory Board and chair of the San Diego Young Enterprising Women Mentoring Forum Program. “Claude doesn’t replace my voice. It amplifies it — and hands me back hours I didn’t know I was losing.” “The question isn’t whether AI will change how we work. It’s whether you’ll be the one steering it.” 98 enterprising Women
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