053 Get Stuff Done Smarter: Assistive Technology
How can assistive technology boost productivity and ease the daily chaos of running a small business.
Quick Quiz Time 🥳
What’s one benefit of using a text expansion tool in your business?
A) It automates typing long phrases
B) It helps your handwriting
C) It improves your video lighting
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Correct answer: A) It automates typing long phrases - so you can get your message sent quicker with less clickity clack 😉
053 Get Stuff Done Smarter: Assistive Technology
Let’s talk all things assistive tech—what it is, how to use it, and why it's not just for folks with a diagnosis. From text-to-speech tools to clever shortcuts and AI, it's all about working smarter, not harder.
Assistive technology isn’t just for those with disabilities—it’s for any of us trying to juggle a business, a life, and maybe a nap or two. Whether you're dealing with neurodivergence or just end-of-day brain fog, tools like voice-to-text apps, text expansion, and dictation can make a massive difference in your productivity.
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Zoë shares her own story of being told she’d never be able to run a business due to her dyslexia—spoiler alert: she proved them wrong and has run a successful business for over 15 years. Through humour and real talk, we learn that it’s not about fitting into someone else's mould but creating our own workflows using assistive tech as support, not a crutch.
From apps like Otter.ai for transcriptions to scheduling emails ahead of time, there's a tool for every problem—especially the ones we didn’t know we had. If you’re ready to take control of your systems (or lack thereof), now’s the time to chat with Zoë from Video Confidence Coach and explore how assistive tech can become your new business bestie.
👉 Book a session with Zoë at vcc.training and let’s get your brain and biz working in harmony.
What Was Discussed This Episode + Timecodes:
00:00 – What is assistive technology and why it's for everyone
06:00 – Personal story of growing up with dyslexia and navigating business
12:00 – How voice-to-text and transcription tools changed the game
18:00 – Using tools like ChatGPT and text expansion for everyday tasks
24:00 – How scheduling emails and customising tools makes your work easier
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Zoë Wood 0:00
How to make your business more productive, or not exactly your business, but more yourself, how to bring efficiency to your business with the work that you do and how you do that. If you're tired of the old cookie cutter marketing advice and want to take your personal brand to the next level with bold, actionable strategies that truly reflect to you, you're in the right place. Let's untangle your marketing mayhem with Zoe the video confidence coach on the unboring your brand podcast, unboring your brand was recorded on what a rung land?
Usually one of the many answers to this question is tools, utilising tools, both digital and physical, to be able to make things easier for you. And I would like to posit for you, especially for those of us who have any sort of neurodivergency, as it is classed at the moment, to be honest, I think everyone is a little bit neurodivergent. It's just some people can pass as not someone. I had to discuss with someone recently about how what exactly is the different, what is the opposite of neurodivergent, and I came up with neuro straight. That is not true, but I like come with me into today's podcast episode where we're going to be talking about assistive technologies for both productivity and efficiency in your business. I know a referring title as ever I'd come up with, Zo, but essentially, what I want to talk to you about is how utilising assistive technologies, and of course, I'll go into a description of what that is, is more beneficial to you than not and how assistive technologies is not just built for those who are disabled or impaired. And I use very big air quotes around impaired in some way, it's being able to make things more accessible for everyone. So breaking down my notes in front of me. Zo, so there will always to always be tools to help you find your focus and to be able to help you achieve what you want to achieve, both in your business and in your personal life. And finding these tools can be a case of just experience, of going, of looking for ways of being able to sort your problem out or being able to figure things out. But sometimes you just don't have the words for it, and that is okay. That is what we're going to go through today. But the whole arching umbrella of everything that we're going to be talking about today, specifically, my focus for today's podcast episode is going to be assistive technologies. Now the word assistive technologies refers to any device, tool or software that helps people with disabilities or impairments perform tasks they may not have otherwise done found difficult or maybe impossible to do otherwise. And of course, I want to stress as I did just a second ago, assistive tools are not just meant for those of us with disabilities. They're meant to assist everyone, no matter what you know, no matter what impairment you may have, because I doubt that there are any of us who are perfectly at 100% all of the time. And if you are, I would like to meet you, because I don't think you're human. So how I came across this myself, and I'd like to bring you along in a little story that I've come across. And then we'll get down into some tools and some things that you can use to search for in your your own ways of utilising these tools. So for those of you who may not know, I have dyslexia. Dyslexia is where it is very hard to read because the letters of the words move around, or in some aspects of dyslexia, when you look at a word, the letters aren't in the right way. So you have to look at a word, dissect where these letters are in a word to be able to read it out comprehensively, usually in front of people. And for a very long time, I struggled with this. I was always just constantly told that I was dumb, that I was stupid, that I did not know how to read the basic word, like cat that was right in front of me. And when I was able to do that, then I was stupid because I didn't know how to read house. And then it just progressively got as soon as I was able to grow and learn and find my own formulas or ways of breaking these words down to make it suit me better and my learning style, the goal posts were always shifted and moved. But I digress. So I was always told throughout my life that I would need support, no matter what I would do, no matter what I needed to do. In my life, I would constantly need support. I was told that I wouldn't be able to do reception jobs or do any admin or do any word process, word process, heavy jobs throughout my life because of the way that my brain happens to work. I was told, keeping in mind, I was told this when I was 16, despite the fact that I had started my business when I was 14, that I. Wouldn't be able to successfully run a business, because how are you going to be able to do that? Zo, well, I'll tell you how, because I was able to use these tools, and I was able to work on ways of going around the problem, the way that I've liked to explain this to educational teachers that I have worked with and also been on panels to discuss my dyslexia and how I've been able to overcome my dyslexia. I for those who are listening, I'm using air quotes there, mainly because it's not something that I overcome. It's just something that I work on, and I work very heavily on, to be able to work around these issues. To a lesser extent, I like to use the little analogy called the Mona Lisa analogy. So essentially, what you can do, and how I like to explain this to people, is imagine the Mona Lisa in your head, just how it looks alright. So you can picture that in your head. Now, draw it exactly. Picture Perfect. You know, every line, every brush broke every detail perfectly. Do that? No, you're not. You're not Leonardo da Vinci. You're not a classically trained artist. And oil paints, I say that it's sceptically because I can't even remember if it's oil paints or not. Probably is unlike. You're not, you're not that. Oh, really. Oh, that's a surprise, isn't it, but the way that I have learnt to remember words is being able to see them in context. So say, for example, when to remember the word house, I visually remember the say, for example, when you were maybe in school or in primary school, they would have the alphabet on the wall, and they would have a physical like, say, for example, cat. They would have a big C that may or may not have been like the letter cat in the letter C with the A, T. And I remember being able to see those words and then be able to remember cognitively, going back and forth when reading a word, to be able to switch back and forth, to be able to understand these longer words or even bigger words, because I've seen them in context, for example, spaghetti, I can now see them in my mind on a packet of spaghetti, and I can just remember what that looks like and get the letters in the right order at the end of the day, I'm not really writing letters. I'm more just like copying what the squiggles look like in my head when it comes to writing, when it comes to reading. However, I usually find a quicker format to be able to do that. Again, that pattern recognition, again, like using the Mona Lisa to be able to have those back and forthness. Essentially, all I am to say is that I have found a very complicated way of doing something that people usually find very simple to do, and that is okay. It usually means that I am unable to read large swarms of text, because my brain initially, as soon as they see, realistically, anything more than say five sentences, my brain initially goes, Okay, we are not doing this. That is so much. And I have to be a I have to, you know, push myself a little bit and start utilising my tools that I'm about to go in for you how I break that down to make it easier on myself and be able to process the information that I'm being given. Now, of course, this can work great at the start of the day or at the start after a nice weekend or a break, but when I'm run down or when I'm tired, these tools that I'm about to describe to you, I use even more. And does that make me less than does that make me, you know, worse at my job? No, I think the only issues that I've had, to be perfectly honest, is when there's been a couple of spelling mistakes every now and again, which is the reason that I use WordPress, is I use little. I use tools very much, like Word or, you know, your basic Google email to be able to tell me, Hey, is this word spelled right? Is there a red line under this word? No, cool, I've spelled it right, and then I will be picked up on it later, but that is why most of my messages that I work with, specifically my clients, are pre approved. I make sure that they're checked over by more than just one set of eyes, and I do my best to make sure that I have the assistive technology working with me. Now, of course, this doesn't work 100% of the time, but I doubt people that have that do not have dyslexia are able to ace everything 100% of the time. And again, if you do, I do not think you're human, and I would like to have a chat.
So some tools that I'd like to break down for you that you could use in your own business if, for example, you have any struggles or any hurdles that you're coming across. And again, you don't have to use these tools all the time. Maybe it's just at the end of the day you're getting tired, you want to be able to have something like the. Next tool that I'm going to describe for you that can make processing the information easier. So for example, I use voice to text tools, which is known as dictation, to be able to save time and energy when I'm working what I mean is that I have honed my skills of being able to speak publicly, be able to speak on camera, and I have worked on this over time to the point where the connection between my brain and my mouth doesn't always work, but it's relatively succinct, to the point where when I get asked a question, or, for example, if any of you have come to my workshops, you will have noticed that I do the workshop, I answer the questions. And if there are any questions afterwards that maybe I didn't get a chance to answer, to answer, or maybe it was a little bit overwhelming, what I like to do is I like to reply, if I have your email or open it up to the floor and reply in both a video format, very much like what I'm doing now in in the live stream, if you're watching on the live stream, or I essentially use these voice to text tools to be able to distil all my information that's coming out of my mouth to be recorded almost transcribed instantly, and then from there, depending on how much energy I have, I either edit what I have said in text form To be able to send to this person via email, or I run it through an app like chatgpt or a ml, MML, a multi, multi language processor. I forgot what it's called a an AI, essentially an app that works with text. Specifically, most of them do, pretty much all of them do at this point, but I use an app to be able to distil my ramblings, my words and my thoughts into something a lot more focused and cohesive for the person who's wanting to get their question answered, because I don't want you to come to my workshops and not have your questions answered. Now, of course, we don't always have the time, but I, as the instructor, have the time to make sure that your answers are answered. So when, especially after a workshop, especially a very long workshop, to be able to just dictate my words into say a paragraph, Max, to be honest, and then run it through chat, GPT, or run it through, or maybe just, if I have a bit of time and energy to be able to edit it, send it through an email that is more useful than just leaving it hanging or just not doing anything about it, because having people answer your questions means The world, and I want to be able, not necessarily to form them as leads and then maybe get them as clients, but more. Because you've come to me for ants, you come to me for answers. I'm going to do the best to be able to give you the best answer that I can with the knowledge that I have and the experience that I have. It's not always going to be the same answer, because, of course, I will grow with more experience, as you will too, but I don't want to leave you hanging. So the tools that I use are a very expensive tool that I pay for called otter, a, i, so A, O, T, T, E, R, dot, a, I is a tool that I pay a lot of money for each year, but it essentially takes my transcriptions, just transcripts them, transcribes them as the most efficiently that I've honestly come across. And it provides AI outputs. So then I can have these, you know, long ramblings, or 45 minutes to into something that I can actually action into these AI summaries, and I can also use this transcript very much like in for example, be able to use it for my podcast, for my live streams, to be able to break down my information into different formats so it is better consumed by people, depending on how they learn. Some people don't like watching a video, some people don't like listening to a podcast, and that is okay, I can easily and with these assistive technologies, turn that content into something that's more palatable to them. It may not be my cup of tea, but I'm not doing it for me. I'm doing it for my customers. And when it comes to the work that you're doing and the way and the reason that you're doing for something in your business, it should be to benefit them, then it should be to benefit you. I digress. Other tools that I use are basic dictation apps. I think I've just got an app on my computer that just is called the dictation app, and essentially it transcribes my voice using my microphone. And if you're watching on the podcast or on the live stream. You can see it right here. I essentially just talk into it or talk across it, as you should with microphones, and it streams lined my work in process, because I don't need to constantly keep going over my words, because I have to use multiple different processes in my brain to just. I get the words on the page I can just speak, and because I'm comfortable with that, I can then use that knowledge later on. I then also use the opposite the text to voice tools, essentially read aloud text so that it is a in a method that is easier for me to hear and be able to consume the large swath of information or research that I am reading and to be able to have something being spoken to me in my headphones compared to seeing a large swath of text. Whew, it is so much easier just to spend the 30 seconds to actually listen to what's going on and then be able to action what I'm actually reading into something useful, for example, to be able to distil my thoughts into again, I listen to something being read out from, say, a report or a survey that I read. I read an awful lot of those, I must say, and then I read, say three or four paragraphs, and then I switch to my transcribing service, and I just transcribe my thoughts into a way that is easier for me to then utilise, into an educational piece, into a blog, into a live stream, into a podcast, into something that is useful for you. And that's how I find I best learn things. And when you are someone who is growing a personal brand, to be able to form a habit of educating your customers, your leads, your potential leads on what you're passionate about is the best way for you to learn and reinstate that learning over time. So another tool that I like to use is what is called as a text expansion tool. So utilising really quick shortcuts on a keyboard, essentially, I am able to expand these, say three different what seemed like random keyboard strokes to be able to expand into a much larger, multi sentence piece of text. So say, for example, a good example of this is i, a term that I like to use is thank you for your patience. Is a nice it's not me apologising for being late because I'm not doing I'm not being late, but I'm doing my best to make sure that I get the information to you as soon as possible. So instead of me typing out thank you for your patience every time I go semi colon, T, U, and bam, it automatically expands that text out into that, you know, sentence, and then I can just keep typing. Of course, this takes a bit of learning, and I've had to get a couple of of my clients and a couple of my business associates on board who have just side eyed me a little bit, but to be able to use this for templates, say, for example, if you write a lot of emails, which honestly, I think a lot of us do, to be able to have some sort of templates that you can just again. The most easiest way for you to do that is press a couple of different keystrokes together. And of course, you would use stuff that is not a word my recommendation. So say, for example, what I like to do is I like to use the semi colon and then the a letter, and then another letter, and then the programme that I like to use called a text. But there are plenty of options out there, both free and paid. So again, depending on how you're using this tool, then expands that knowledge, because it's very unlikely that you are going to be typing a word that starts with a semi colon and then a letter immediately after that. I don't know I don't know you, but however you do things, and of course, this tool has been able to save me time and also allows me to be very accurate, because there are plenty of words that I just do not get that because they're English or they're French, they've got ease for some reason, or they've got like, weird vowels in various places. And I can never really no matter how much I try and skew that little squiggly red line, I never seem to get it right. But I use the Text Expander tool to be able to get to be able to just not have to think about how to spell this word, and I can just get my message out there cleanly, easily and repeatedly because it is spelled correctly.
Another tool that I mentioned just briefly before is utilising text based AI tools like Chachi PT, mainly because there are other tools out there. And again, depending on what you actually want to achieve, there are always more accessible tools. Now, of course, there are a lot of caveats, especially when it comes to AI and the information that it's using and taking of your information, but to be perfectly honest, when it comes to a. Um, not exactly answering someone's email, but when it comes to say, for example, applying for a grant, there is a lot of information that you really just need to shove in there. And for some reason, I'm not sure about yourself, but whenever I apply to grants, and I might even have a podcast episode about this in the future, it's always on, like, a Friday afternoon for some reason, and there's like, due on like 5pm that Friday, and I get told, I get told about on like midday. So by the time I'm applying to the grant, I'm already tired. I'm already exhausted. And to be able to use apps like this again, to be able to distil, to be able to use a dictation app and just distil all this information that it wants in a synced fashion. Cool, done. We're doing it. Woo. And again, this is like, I'm not doing this to sell anyone on anything. I'm doing this to tick the boxes. So to do that makes sense, to use something like a tool like that, and other tools that are useful are that I haven't written down because I'm smart like that is essentially, I can't think of them right now, but what I would recommend is just spending time thinking about Your processes, like taking a breath and realising, okay, what am I doing, or what am I spending all my time on that I could make more efficient for myself. Are you spending a lot of time in your emails? Okay, well, then you can look up, you know, assistive technology that can help you with the typing, that can help you with the sending, maybe working on how to schedule your emails. That is something that is an assistive technology tool that a lot of people don't really realise is an assistive technology tech tool, I should say, that allows you to be able to schedule emails to be sent later on. So for example, you may be working on something, and I do this a lot with my clients in both my CRM and my email technology, where I think, Oh, I have to remind them about this. Oh, I don't have to remind them about this for another couple of days. I will just schedule an email to be sent off, and then they'll get back to me when they can. You've taken a lot of the stress and work out for yourself to make things easier for you, and you're going to be on top of things more than you both in the past. So I know I've given you a couple of examples, but if you have any examples of assistive technology that you use, for example, on my phone, I use a simple tool that enables me to highlight an area and it reads the text out to me. I am able to use screenshots and other tools like that to be able to save what I'm reading, and then again, use that technology where it can read the text on screen. There is going to be more options out there, and as things progress, hopefully there will be more tools for you to use and to make things easier for you, for both your brain power, but also just the amount of energy that you have. Because, hey, I was told that I wouldn't be able to run the business, even though I'd already been running a business for two years by that point, and I continue to do for continue to do for the past 15 years. Wait 15 years. They can't tell me what to do. I'm going to finish up this podcast today. Thank you so much for listening, and thank you so much for your time. I really hope that you have been enjoying today's podcast. Today was a little bit of a rambly one, but that is okay. If you have any assistive technologies that you recommend, feel free to comment or reach out to me and let me know, and then we'll have a nice little Kiki about everything that we do with our assistive technologies. And if you are interested in mentoring or coaching by me, feel free to reach out on my podcast. No my website. Zo at Vcc dot training, thank you for listening or watching unloring your brand. You can find detailed show notes with tools offers and episode transcriptions. Just click the first link in the description or go to Vcc dot training slash podcast, get involved and ask me anything about personal branding, video strategy, or just a friendly Small Business chat via my email, g'day at Vcc dot training, that is G, D, A, y at V cc, dot training, the video confidence coach, would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the wadawurrung people of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians of the land on which I record my podcast. I pay my respects to their elders, past and present. I stand with the traditional custodians of these lands and working towards a more equal future. Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land. Look forward to me chatting at you next week. Superstars.
The above livestream episode description and transcript were generated together human knowledge + ai.
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Feeling stuck trying to build a personal brand that actually turns heads? Women and non-binary super-stars deserve more than just a cookie-cutter approach to their worries. Zoë Wood the Video Confidence Coach untangles your marketing mayhem, helping you own the camera, craft killer video strategies, and connect with your audience like never before. You’ll leave with the tools to show up, stand out, and smash your goals.
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