Macpreneur

Your Mac Can Be Your AI Practice Client with Neena Perez

• Damien Schreurs • Season 6 • Episode 132

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In this episode, you'll discover how Neena Perez, a transformational coach and author, uses ChatGPT to role-play difficult client scenarios and enhance her business communication skills.

Links and video at https://macpreneur.com/episode132

Connect with Neena:

Highlights:

  • [00:00] Teaser  
  • [00:31] Introduction to Neena Perez  
  • [01:31] Neena's Mac Setup  
  • [03:10] Favorite Mac Applications  
  • [05:01] Using AI for Business  
  • [11:33] Stage Manager and Mac Tips  
  • [19:49] Neena's Wish List for Mac  
  • [28:43] Connecting with Neena  
  • [29:02] Applying to be a guest too  
  • [29:29] Outro  

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Your Mac Can Be Your AI Practice Client with Neena Perez


Teaser

Neena Perez: So what I do is have ChatGPT act as a potential client, asking me very difficult questions that I need to navigate in a conversation. We were literally having a coach-client conversation. It was phenomenal.

Nova AI: Welcome to Macpreneur, the show for seasoned solopreneurs looking to streamline their business on a Mac. Unlock the secrets to saving time and money with your host and technology mentor, Damien Schreurs.


Introduction to Neena Perez

Damien Schreurs: Hello, hello! Today I have the pleasure of introducing Neena Perez.

Neena is a transformational coach, author, and motivational speaker dedicated to helping women transition into entrepreneurship. Having overcome personal challenges such as abuse, teen pregnancy, domestic violence, divorce, and poverty, as detailed in her autobiography, 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot', Neena has built a life grounded in strength and faith.

Through her Wisdom to Wealth program, she empowers women to shift their mindsets, heal from within, and build profitable businesses aligned with their values. Her three-step process—Inner Healing, Transcending Unwanted Behaviors, and Co-Creation—supports women in turning their vision into reality, ensuring that they are not alone in their entrepreneurial journey.

Neena, welcome to the show.

Neena Perez: Thank you for having me, Damien. I'm glad to be here.


Neena's Mac Setup

Damien Schreurs: What I really like about your background, for those who are watching on YouTube, is the nice 27-inch iMac.

Neena Perez: Of course you would point that out. Yes.

Damien Schreurs: When we had the pre-show, I said, yes, Neena is the perfect guest for Macpreneur.

Neena Perez: That's so funny. Yeah, I do. I love Mac. I think everything I have is Mac. So yeah, it's good.

Damien Schreurs: But obviously, this Mac is behind you. What's the Mac in front of you during this interview?

Neena Perez: I have the MacBook Pro M1, and I have it connected to some external screens, of course. That's the one I've had for—I think it came out in what, 2021 or something? 2022? I got it as soon as it came out because the Mac before that was the MacBook Pro from 2011. That thing was awesome.

I love my 2011 because it had the disc player in it. It had all of the ports on the side. I loved that thing, and it still works. My daughter uses it for college.

Damien Schreurs: Yeah, I think that's one of the biggest complaints I've heard, or the reluctance of some of my clients, when they had to move away from a MacBook with a DVD player. It's another era.

Neena Perez: Yeah, I miss it. I do. I miss it. That was my favorite thing.

Damien Schreurs: Yeah, at the same time, you now have a MacBook Pro with a very fast chip.


Favorite Mac Applications

Damien Schreurs: Which applications are you currently running on your MacBook Pro for your business?

Neena Perez: I'm trying to look at them all because I have so many. That's the problem. I do a podcast, so I use GarageBand to help me edit it sometimes and put it into my podcast platform. I use a bunch of things, but I don't know where to start. Oh, and I love the new Intelligent Siri.

It's been awesome. She's been helping me keep my organization together by putting my reminders in my calendar. I couldn't ask for a better assistant. I'm very excited about that. Mainly, I'm using GarageBand for my podcast. I'm trying to remember what else I use because I have so many apps.

I link everything together. Everything I do, like for my notes, I use Notes a lot. My notes are always with me everywhere I go. When I come home, I can see what I noted about. I like to write down ideas and thoughts, something funny I heard, or whatever.

I write that down, like a good restaurant. Then I come home and organize my notes. Notes is definitely one that goes with me everywhere. I love Notes. Of course, I use email, right? Because you have to use it. I like the way Apple Mail flows because I used to use Outlook.

Outlook is fine, but I really like Apple Mail because I have an iPhone, a Mac, and an iPad, so everything connects seamlessly with my iCloud. So, yeah, I'm a Mac girl, a hundred percent.


Using AI for Business

Damien Schreurs: If we go back to Intelligent Siri, was it easy to start using Apple's intelligence? I'm curious because I'm in Europe, and it's not available to me. It's only available in the US, Canada, the UK, and basically English-speaking countries at the moment.

Neena Perez: You know what? I'm not as great a techie as you are, but she seems to be seamlessly integrating things for me, which is very helpful. I don't want to say her name because then she'll come on, but when I call her, I say, "Hey, can you do this for me?" or "Can you add this to my reminders before I forget?" And she's like, "Okay," and puts everything together. Now she also takes your messages and summarizes them for you. If there's a long message, she gives me the important pieces, which is kind of neat. Then she'll ask, "Do you want me to reply?" I reply, and the old Siri used to do that, but this one just seems more natural. When she's talking to you, she almost sounds like a person. You can choose the voice you want.

So I've been talking to her, and the other day I was just bantering with her. I forgot what I was talking about, but I mentioned a client and what the client was going through. I asked her what she recommended, and we were just talking. It was so weird. I'm like, "Damien, I don't know. I'm going to start making friends with AI or something. This is not good."

Damien Schreurs: Have you tried, I think the closest thing to what you're describing for me is speaking with ChatGPT because they have an enhanced voice mode now. Have you played with that as well? The voice mode of ChatGPT?

Neena Perez: Yes, I love it! Oh my God, yes! I was on ChatGPT the other day, and I was role-playing with it. I said, "Hey, I love role-playing." For anyone who has an entrepreneurial business or a service-based business, you want to be comfortable when you're talking to the other person on the other side of the screen.

One of the great things to use for either her—I don't want to say her name—or ChatGPT is that you can role-play. I have ChatGPT become a potential client and ask me very difficult questions that I need to navigate in a conversation. We were literally having a coach-client conversation. It was phenomenal! I was like, "Wow, okay." I would give it an answer, and it would say, "Well, I get that," and it was challenging me. I love this thing because now, when I face those challenges, I feel a little more prepared. So why not use all of this intelligence to help you prepare for a job interview or your next discovery call? It's been very helpful. I love it.

Damien Schreurs: Yeah, I've been listening to a few podcasts about the world of AI. I think it was Michael Stelzner from the AI Explored Podcast who explained that he used it in preparation for a pitch or something like that. He would go through his presentation and ask ChatGPT beforehand to notice if there were things that were not clear or if the ideal customer would have objections. I found that really fascinating as a use case.

Neena Perez: Yeah, I'll be doing that too because I do a lot of pitches. That's a really good idea, actually, because you can make it critique your work. It could critique it for you, and then you could just keep practicing. That's a great idea. I love that!

Damien Schreurs: So, are you using ChatGPT from a browser or through the dedicated Mac app?

Neena Perez: I do both. When I'm on my laptop, I usually just go on the browser. I don't know why; I just do. But when I'm on my iPad or my phone, I have the dedicated app for that.

Damien Schreurs: Right. Actually, maybe that's a tip for you and for the listeners. There is a dedicated Mac app for ChatGPT, and in that application, you can give it permission to look at your screen. You can ask it questions about what it sees. I've read that it has direct integration with Apple Notes as well. So you can be in Apple Notes with the ChatGPT app on the side and ask ChatGPT to analyze the content of the note or suggest changes. It works with different apps, but for that, you need to install the native application and also have the ChatGPT Plus subscription. If you visit from the browser, I don't remember if it's in the bottom left or the top right corner, but there is a place where they advertise downloading the Mac app.

Neena Perez: Okay. Listen to you, Damien. Thank you! I will definitely use that. I did not know that at all. Every time I'm on my computer, I just go right to the top bar and access it from the browser, but how much better is that? If it could look at your screen and help you navigate something, or maybe even look at your calendar to see if there's a way to improve performance, that's really interesting. I'm going to do that, 100%.


Stage Manager and Mac Tips

Damien Schreurs: So yeah, apart from that, what tip or trick have you discovered on your Mac recently that you wish you had known before?

Neena Perez: That's a good question. I'm not sure. I'm trying to—oh, you know, this is old for you, but new for me. I'm still trying to learn how to get used to it. I think it's called Stage Manager. Is that what it's called? Where it stacks everything up on the side of your screen?

Damien Schreurs: Stage Manager, yeah.

Neena Perez: Stage Manager. Yeah, I've never used that before.

I saw it while I was looking at some settings because every once in a while, I like to check all the settings to see if there's a way for me to enhance my performance or the way I'm doing tasks. So I saw that, and then it moved everything to the side. I was like, "Oh, what did I do?"

What did I do wrong? But here's what I found: it helped me focus on one thing. I thought, "Wait, this might be genius," you know? Because I have a lot of things I do for my business, and I also have ADHD, right? So I get distracted.

I start one project and then move on to the next, which isn't good when you have ADHD and you're trying to finish a task. I found that Stage Manager was helpful with that. I think I just have to get used to it because I'm not accustomed to something like that. It pulls the screen away, and then I'm looking for something and don't know where to look.

So that's the only thing I need to get used to, but it's new to me. I know it's old and has been around for a while, but I discovered it in the last two weeks and have been trying to play around with it.

Damien Schreurs: Well, as a feature, it's not that new. It's actually less than two years old. Yeah, it started, if I recall correctly, I don't know if it was actually introduced together in iPadOS and macOS. Basically, the idea is, rather than putting applications in full-screen mode—which was the default when you have any application on the Mac open—you look in the top left corner, and you have the green button.

If you click on the green button, suddenly it takes the full screen. For some people, it was confusing, and I've seen that because they don't realize that now they have to swipe left and right with a few fingers on the trackpad, or they have to move the mouse to the very top of the screen to make the other desktop reappear. And so—

Neena Perez: That's new though, right? Isn't it?

Damien Schreurs: But that's super old.

Neena Perez: Oh, no, no, not the desktop. Sorry. I'm talking about something that's been happening since I updated it: now, if I pull my screen up too high, it'll open full screen.

Damien Schreurs: Ah, yes, yes. That's new. Yeah, that's new.

Neena Perez: That's new. Okay, 'cause that never happened to me.

Damien Schreurs: That's totally new. 

Neena Perez: But yeah.

Damien Schreurs: If you pull a window to the top of the screen, it goes full screen. If you pull it to the right side, it takes half the screen, and the same for the left.

Neena Perez: Oh, I didn't know that.

Damien Schreurs: They are, they are.

Neena Perez: Okay. I didn't know that part. 

Damien Schreurs: Very old Microsoft Windows feature.

I think they must have received complaints from people migrating from Windows to Mac who were used to these kinds of gestures.

Neena Perez: Okay. Okay.

Damien Schreurs: If you use the mouse, you might end up with this kind of issue. But with Stage Manager, I think the appeal for some people is that it reproduces this one app-at-a-time system, while still allowing you to see all the things you have on the left.

Neena Perez: Yeah.

Damien Schreurs: And like little stacks. The reason I didn't jump into Stage Manager and actually don't use it is that I'm a control freak, and I want my windows to be in certain places and so on.

Neena Perez: So funny. That's—

Damien Schreurs: So Stage Manager is not for me. But I can see the appeal, as long as you are comfortable and want to work with as few windows at a time as possible.

By default, it's one window at a time, and that's what's bothering me: when you open a new app, it will be in its own stack. You have to manually pull a window into an existing stack of windows if you want those windows to appear at the same time.

Neena Perez: Yes.

Damien Schreurs: It's a little bit of gymnastics. So I think that's what will be the most challenging thing for you to get used to.

But if you like the idea of not being crowded with too many windows, I think Stage Manager is a good thing. And for the iPad, if I recall correctly, it requires an M chip, like an M1 or M2 chip.

Neena Perez: Okay, I don't even know which iPad I have. My husband gave it to me, but it's the iPad Pro. I know it's a 12-inch. It was a couple of years ago, but it works great, and I love my Apple Pencil. You know, I love all of that. I just can't get away from Mac. My friends have always tried to pull me away, like, "Hey, you should try..."

Can't do it. Can't do it. Everything is integrated. My whole life is integrated now. I can't do it. I find it so much easier, at least for me. I used to have Windows back in the day, you know, Dell computers and all of that, and they were fine, but I always wanted to throw them out the freaking window. I just wanted to flip them out the window. I can't stand those things.

One day, I told my husband, it was probably my first one, a 2011 model, when I said, "I'm trying Mac." My husband was like, "Are you sure? They're pretty pricey." I said, "Yeah, but I've bought like three Dells for the price of one Mac." So I went and bought it, and I've never turned back. 

It's been the best decision ever, and my M1 chip is so good. I don't feel the need to upgrade anytime soon. I don't really need it for much. Sometimes I'll edit a few things, but now you have Descript, Gling, and all these different tools that edit so well. And you know, when you're not a professional editor, you might as well, right? So I'll never go back. I can't at this point. I think they did that on purpose; my whole life is just completely owned by Apple.

Damien Schreurs: Yeah, some people refer to it as the "walled garden." But if it's a nice garden, with a nice swimming pool—

Neena Perez: Exactly. That is so funny. It's true though. I mean, everything is really user-friendly, and I need that in my life because I'm not a big tech person. I will say there was a learning curve when I first got it; it was kind of weird the way the buttons were laid out. I didn't understand it, but it didn't take me long at all.

I think within the first week, I was getting pretty comfortable, and now when I go to a Windows computer, I feel like a foreigner, like, "Ah, how do you do that?" My husband still has a Windows computer, but his job gave him a Mac, and he was like, "I can't figure this out!"

He was so frustrated! Then I showed him, and now he's a whiz at it, saying, "Oh, this is easy." I told you! I might have him on the Mac train soon enough. Soon enough. I love it.

Damien Schreurs: Very good.


Neena's Wish List for Mac

Damien Schreurs: So, if you were in charge of the Mac division at Apple, what would be your first priority?

Neena Perez: That wouldn't be good, Damien. Not good.

Damien Schreurs: If you had a magic wand, what would be your first priority?

Neena Perez: Really good question. I'm trying to think of maybe some things that frustrate me or things that I wish it could do. I'm not sure because I'm not really tech-savvy; I kind of just go with whatever's presented to me, right? So I'm not too sure. I will say I don't know how to use the presenter.

I think we talked about this when we met. What's it called? Oh, Keynote. I know that it's supposed to be fairly easy, but I find it to be a little complicated, so I haven't been able to use it. I guess the only other thing I wish is that Mac or Apple would come out with tools that were a little easier. For instance, do they own Numbers? Are they the owners? Okay. I find Numbers very challenging, so I use Excel. I wish they would make their Word, Excel, and all of that PowerPoint just a little simpler for me, I think.

Maybe it's because I've been using Microsoft products for so long that they just seem simpler. I don't know. Those kinds of things I wish just came with your Mac, you know? That Excel and Word and all that were just included with your Mac already and were super simple to use, almost copying, if you will, the Microsoft way to do it. I find that to be something universal that I can use on my Mac or my husband's Windows computer, and I would know how to use it.

Does that make sense?

Damien Schreurs: Yeah, so they do have Numbers, which is the equivalent of Excel, Pages, which is the equivalent of Word, and Keynote, which is the equivalent of PowerPoint. The same way that these three Microsoft Office applications have a similar user interface, the interface for Numbers, Keynote, and Pages follows the same philosophy. In the sense that if you know how to use one, you will be comfortable with the others.

The big difference is that with Microsoft Office, everything is at the top in a big horizontal bar with different tabs on the ribbon, right? So you have a ribbon, and when you click on a new tab, you get new buttons, but it's all at the top. For Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, the interface is on the right side, and you have a few buttons at the top, but most of the interface is on the right side. Again, you might have one tab, two tabs, or three tabs, and what's confusing, even for me after so many years of using them, is that it's not uniform in terms of interface.

I might be in a three-tab situation, and inside one of the tabs, I will get another four tabs.

Neena Perez: Right.

Damien Schreurs: And for the graphs in Numbers, I think it's super confusing. Where do I change the minimum value for the x-axis? Where do I change the maximum value?

Neena Perez: Yeah. Yeah.

Damien Schreurs: It's all over the place. And that's what I think, unfortunately, is a bit confusing with those applications.

Neena Perez: Yeah, because if those things were more streamlined and simpler, I would use them because I like Mac. I would just use them. But I've tried; I've opened them. I've tried to use them, and I get so frustrated. I'm just like, forget it. I go right back to Microsoft. Wouldn't it be great if, since I already purchased the computer and spent a lot of money on it, those things were streamlined in there? Beautiful. I wouldn't have to pay anybody else. I wouldn't have to have a subscription. I wouldn't have to do any of that, right? So I think that's the only thing—if I had a magic wand, that would probably be the first thing I would want to make super simple because I think that's why you buy a Mac, right?

You buy a computer because you have to work on it. Sometimes I think those little things can get frustrating because you then have to pay this subscription every month, and yet you just paid close to four grand for your computer. So, yeah, I think that's one of the things I would tackle for sure.

Damien Schreurs: Yeah, they have implemented support for Microsoft Office files, meaning that if you are in Pages, you can open a Word document and start a Pages file and save it as a Word document. So technically, it's possible, but I find that it's hit or miss in terms of compatibility and the look of the final document.

I think Google actually made the best compatibility layer. So, I don't know, are you using Google Drive?

Neena Perez: I do. I use Google Drive. Yeah, because everybody has a Google Drive, so it makes it easier for me to transfer all of my files and stuff to my team and to other people.

Damien Schreurs: Well, a few years ago, Google implemented full compatibility with Microsoft Office. If you have a .docx file, a Microsoft Word file that you store in Google Drive, if you double-click on it, it will open in Google Docs, and you will have the Google Docs interface, but actually, it has done no conversion.

You're still working on the .docx file. They made it in such a way that you cannot screw it up. You will make modifications, save it, and send it again, and on the other side, if the other person only has Microsoft Office, it will open in Microsoft Word as if you didn't touch it, or as if you touched it, but with Microsoft Word rather than Google Docs.

Neena Perez: I've noticed that. Yeah, it makes it easy.

Damien Schreurs: And I think that's the direction Apple should take if they really want to appeal to professionals—helping them use the platform more effectively. They should make it so that if I double-click on a .docx file, it opens in Pages, but it's still a .docx file. Whatever I do will not mess it up. But I’m not sure that is their priority.

Neena Perez: Yeah, I don't think it is either. Right. It seems like they're really focused— and I might be wrong on this— but it seems like they're into a lot of editors and creators, you know, things like that, right? Because they have fast processing and great graphics cards and stuff in the computer.

So I know my computer can do way more than I use it for, but I don't know enough. I only use it for the apps that I need and for the things that I need, but I'm sure it can do a heck of a lot more. Yeah, I know I have a powerhouse because the M1 chip is pretty powerful, and I'm sure it can do a lot of things, but I’m just barely scratching the surface.

I'm not you. Heh heh.

Damien Schreurs: But I think the more Apple integrates intelligent features, the more you will really use the power of the M1 chip.

Neena Perez: Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. It's been kind of cool. Oh, another cool thing is when you talk to her now, she lights up your screen around the edges in this beautiful color. So now I like to talk to her.

Damien Schreurs: The rainbow.

Neena Perez: The rainbow. It's so pretty. I'm like, Ooh, you're sexy now. Okay. Yeah. It's really fun.

I know I'm a girl, but it's fun. It's really fun.

Damien Schreurs: Well, thank you very much, Neena. It was a pleasure to discover how you're using your Mac.


Connecting with Neena

Damien Schreurs: Where can people find you online?

Neena Perez: I think you can find me anywhere, honestly. If you look up "Straight Talk, No Sugar Added," or you search for Neena Perez—spelled N-E-E-N-A P-E-R-E-Z—you'll find me everywhere. I'm omnipresent. Thank you for having me.

Damien Schreurs: Yeah, thank you. Thank you for being on the show. 


Applying to be a guest too

Damien Schreurs: For the listeners, if, like Neena, you would like to share how you are using your Mac to run your solopreneur business, it's simple. Just visit macpreneur.com/apply. If you are already on Podmatch, just click the button, and you will land on the show profile.

Otherwise, fill out the application form, and I will get back to you within a few days. Once again, it's macpreneur.com/apply.


Outro

Damien Schreurs: If you found this episode helpful, please share it with a fellow solopreneur and tag both Neena and me on Instagram. I will put Neena's profile link in the show notes.

And until next time, I'm Damien Schreurs, wishing you a great day. 

Nova AI: Thank you for listening to the Macpreneur Podcast. If you've enjoyed the show, please leave a review and share it with a friend right now.