Leslie Barreto Tate went from corporate layoffs — one of them while pregnant — to founding Everyday Digital, a business built on helping other leaders and small business owners show up online with intention. In this episode of Empowered by AI, she breaks down how she uses AI as a brainstorming partner and a self-care guardrail, without ever letting it dictate her direction.

In this conversation, we get into:

• Why "no one is coming to save you" was the mindset shift that made her a founder, not just an employee running her own thing
• How she uses AI to brain-dump ideas, spot her own blind spots, and figure out who to model her business after
• Why she reframed perfectionism as insecurity, and how she prices and launches offers "ugly early" instead of waiting to feel ready
• How she built guardrails into her own AI tools, including reminders to protect her sleep and stay aligned with her goals
• Why not having a traditional business education became an advantage, not a gap, in the AI era

Key Moments

Intro From corporate operations to founder: the layoffs that changed everything

What to shed (and what to keep) from a corporate career

Using AI as a creative brainstorming partner

Launching messy: reframing perfectionism as insecurity

Training AI instead of letting it train you

Fail vs. fall: reframing failure as data

About Leslie Barreto Tate Leslie Barreto Tate is the founder of Everyday Digital, helping small business owners and leaders build strategic, authentic online visibility. She's the author of Power in the Pivot: How to Reinvent Your Career, Build Your Brand, and Use AI to Scale on Your Own Terms.

🌐 everydaydigital.ai 📖 Power in the Pivot — available on Amazon 📱 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-barreto/

🔔 New episodes of Empowered by AI every week. 🎧Connect with Michelle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-muncy-silva-70388914a/