Community members gathered at the link in Nocatee on Wednesday, July 30, for the next session in the Circle of Creation series.
Katy Keene, a marketing strategist, AI educator and founder of Keene Lane Co., led a power-packed session on aligning people, processes and tech for sustainable growth.
Keene is a Canva and HubSpot partner, as well as a SHE IS AI advocate, bringing real-world tools and people-first strategies to the table.
“This is actually my third Circle of Creation event,” Keene said as she began the session. “It’s fun to see some familiar faces.”
Her approach centered on blending emotional intelligence (EI) with AI tools in ways that enhance authentic engagement for small businesses.
She walked attendees through the different parts of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. Each plays an important role in how businesses interact with clients.
“It’s important to have self-awareness around your customers so that your interactions are smooth and you can understand and improvise with them,” Keene said.
The heart of the session was about application, as with each of the Circle of Creation meetings. By combining EI with AI, businesses can create smarter, more personalized customer journeys.
“AI is a tool. It’s a resource that we have the ability to leverage using our emotional intelligence, using it from a human-led inspection,” Keene said, “but at the end of the day, it’s still our responsibility to use it effectively. To interpret the information that’s coming to us and make sure it’s showing up authentically.”
From AI-powered chatbots that book appointments to customized videos and content created using generative tools, attendees discussed real-world ways to apply these strategies.
Keene encouraged attendees to use AI partnered with EI to enhance their small businesses and improve the real emotional connections they build with customers.
The next Circle of Creation session will take place at the link in Nocatee on Wednesday, Aug. 27, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
