North Bay AI For Small Biz Day

Meet your hosts from the Solano-Napa, Sonoma, and Marin Small Business Development Centers!

Are you curious about all the AI buzz but not sure what it actually means for your business?

In this fast-paced session we’ll cut through the hype and show everyday, budget-friendly ways that small businesses are already putting artificial intelligence to work—saving time, trimming costs, and giving customers an experience that keeps them coming back.

You’ll see live, real-world examples (no complex tech talk!) and leave knowing exactly which first steps make sense for your size, your team, and your goals.

Together we’ll explore the competitive edge that smart, practical AI can give you—whether that’s drafting marketing copy in minutes, forecasting inventory with surprising accuracy, or freeing up your schedule by automating repetitive admin tasks. The Sonoma and Solano-Napa SBDC teams will also share how our no-cost advising and roundtables can help you keep building momentum long after the workshop ends.

You’ll learn how to:

• Spot AI opportunities inside your own operations—from marketing to back-office workflows.
• Choose beginner-friendly tools that fit tight budgets (many start free).
• Evaluate risks & ethics quickly so you can move forward with confidence.
• Draft an “AI-next-steps checklist” tailored to your business in under ten minutes.
• Measure ROI so you know what’s working—and what isn’t—without guesswork.

Join us to find out if your business is truly AI-ready and to see how you can start using AI competitively right now—before your competitors do.

Presenter: Roger Lloyd

Roger is Director of the SBDC Marketing & AI Center in Orange County Inland Empire SBDC.

Roger has led several startups to over $200m in revenue in both retail and artificial intelligence.  He has over 15 years of experience in the franchise industry where he led one of the fastest-growing franchises in the country.

Generic chatbots are nice – but a bot that speaks using your brand language and voice, knows your products, and remembers your preferences is a game-changer.

In this session you’ll learn how to take today’s mainstream AI tools (ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, and Gemini) and make them distinctly yours—without writing a single line of code or spending big on custom development. You’ll watch live demos on building a Custom GPT, feeding it your own content, and setting up accounts so every conversation feels like it was trained by your team.

We’ll explore low-cost ways to give AI the “brains” of your business—uploading FAQs, policies, and style guides—plus smart tricks for guiding tone, restricting answers, and storing helpful memories.

You’ll walk away able to:

• Personalize ChatGPT (and Copilot) accounts with brand-voice instructions and memory settings.
• Build a Custom GPT in minutes—upload docs, set rules, and publish a shareable link.
• Set guardrails & privacy controls to protect proprietary data and keep outputs on-brand.
• Create a “teaching checklist” you can reuse whenever you onboard new AI tools or teammates.

Presenter: Cathy Balach

Cathy is a certified AI Specialist, working throughout Northern California and, as a recognized leader in AI for marketing, she is known for her innovative approach to using artificial intelligence to build marketing strategy and branding.

With nearly 15 years of consulting and mentoring including work for PriceWaterhouseCoopers before coming to SBDC, she has guided countless North Bay startups businesses by leveraging her expertise in both traditional and digital marketing landscapes.

Cathy is currently Lead Business Advisor for Sonoma and Solano-Napa SBDCs and is a former SBDC Director. She blends AI online marketing strategist, specializing in strategic marketing, website design, content development, email communications, and media for business growth.

The way customers find businesses online has changed dramatically. Traditional SEO relied on keywords and rankings, but today AI-driven search and decision-making tools are transforming visibility.

This session explores how the digital funnel has shifted from “search and click” to “ask and act,” and what it means for your website, content, and customer acquisition. You’ll learn how to position your business so AI tools can quote, recommend, and even transact on your behalf, ensuring your business remains discoverable in an AI-first world

Key Takeaways:

• Understand the shift from SEO to GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) and why AI search prioritizes clarity, quotability, and structure.
• Learn practical content strategies that make your business visible in AI overviews and agent-driven decision funnels.
• Discover how to make your website agent-ready with actionable links, structured service data, and clear calls to action.
• Gain tools to audit and adapt your digital presence so AI search and agents work for you, not against you.

Taught by Baqi Kopelman

A nationally certified AI Consultant through SBDC and Google, Baqi Kopelman has been helping businesses thrive for decades, providing expert guidance in marketing, branding, and strategic growth. With over two years of specialized experience in AI adoption, he has worked with businesses across industries to streamline operations, enhance customer engagement, and optimize workflows using cutting-edge AI tools.

Baqi’s deep expertise in AI-powered solutions—combined with his extensive background in business strategy, media production, and technology—makes him a trusted advisor for entrepreneurs looking to integrate AI effectively. His practical, results-driven approach ensures that AI isn’t just a trend but a powerful tool for real-world business success.

Personalization is no longer optional—your customers expect it. But real personalization goes beyond names in subject lines or demographic targeting; it requires understanding the psychological drivers behind every decision your customers make.

Nick Lightner will show you how to design AI-ready persona frameworks that blend behavioral insights with the latest in adaptive AI prompting. You’ll learn how to identify and structure your customers’ values, decision-making patterns, and communication preferences so AI can generate messaging that truly resonates.

By the end, you’ll have a repeatable framework for building buyer profiles that power persuasive, scalable, and conversion-focused communications across your business.

Key Takeaways:

• How to translate behavioral science into actionable, AI-ready persona frameworks.
• Methods to identify and structure the values, decision triggers, and communication styles of your audience.
• Practical techniques for designing AI prompts that adapt to individual decision-making patterns.
• A repeatable process for scaling personalized, persuasive messaging across multiple channels.
• How to measure the impact of adaptive AI communications on engagement and conversion outcomes.

Presenter: Nick Lightner

Nick Lightner is a behavioral strategist and AI systems architect specializing in the integration of persuasion science into adaptive AI communication frameworks. With a background in psychology from Arizona State University, Nick studied under Dr. Gregory Neidert, a long-time collaborator of Dr. Robert Cialdini, one of the world’s foremost authorities on influence.

Drawing from decades of research in human motivation and decision-making, Nick builds AI-driven messaging systems that adapt to audience values, priorities, and behavioral cues. His work spans industries, helping organizations scale personalized outreach, optimize engagement strategies, and achieve measurable results through human-centered AI design.

Ever stare at a blank screen wondering what to post, design, or write next? We’ll show you how today’s AI tools can jump-start your creative process—turning half-formed ideas into polished copy, scroll-stopping images, and even short-form videos in minutes.

We’ll keep the tech talk light and the demos practical, spotlighting free or low-cost helpers like Canva’s Magic Studio, ChatGPT, Adobe Express, and Google Docs so you can produce professional-looking marketing assets on a shoestring budget.

You’ll see real-time examples of brainstorming brand-new concepts, repurposing existing content into multiple formats, and tightening your brand voice so every post feels consistent—even if you’re a one-person team.

We’ll also cover quick guardrails for copyright, tone, and disclosure, ensuring your shiny new AI creations fit your brand and stay on the right side of the rules. You’ll have a grab-and-go playbook that slashes creative time without sacrificing quality.

You’ll walk away able to:

• Brainstorm headlines, captions, and campaign ideas with prompt templates that spark fresh angles in seconds.
• Generate on-brand visuals—from social graphics to product mock-ups—using Canva Magic Media, DALL-E, or Adobe Express.
• Repurpose long-form content (blogs, webinars, PDFs) into short posts, reels, or email snippets automatically.
• Build a reusable brand-voice guide so AI outputs sound like you, not a robot.
• Apply quick legal and ethical checks for image licensing, copyright, and AI-generated disclosures.

Get started with more marketing with less stress.

Presenter: Ed Troxell

Ed Troxell is a Strategic Marketing Advisor & Personal Brand Coach who helps growth-minded solopreneurs, CEOs, and executives simplify marketing and show up confidently online in just 15 minutes a day with the Just 15™ GPS Method.

He also serves as a Business Advisor for SBA-funded Small Business Development Centers, blending expertise in social media, digital marketing, and entrepreneurial mindset coaching.

Recognized as a top coach, Ed emphasizes simple, strategic systems that make online visibility and video marketing effective for attracting clients and positioning his clients as industry leaders.

When he’s not advising or creating content for TikTok and LinkedIn, you’ll find him walking his dog through Sonoma wine country or sharing practical marketing tips in his weekly newsletter, The Entrepreneur Edit.

Loan applications, cash-flow confusion, and endless number crunching don’t have to keep you up at night. Today’s AI-powered finance tools can streamline your bookkeeping, sharpen your financial health, and help you walk into the bank (or hit “submit” online) with confidence.

From real-time expense categorization to automated cash flow projections, AI now works alongside you on platforms you already use to eliminate the guesswork and give you investor or lender ready numbers.

We’ll show you how QuickBooks’ Intuit Assist can reconcile accounts while you sleep, how LivePlan or Brixx can build a bank-friendly forecast in minutes, and how Excel Copilot or Google Sheets with Gemini can model multiple loan scenarios—instantly answering “what happens if interest rates change?”

You’ll walk away able to:

• Automate expense categorization, account reconciliation, and invoice chasing in QuickBooks with AI.
• Build a professional 12–36 month financial forecast in minutes that lenders will respect.
• Ask AI in plain language (“How much can I afford to borrow if I want payments under $1,000/month?”) and get instant calculations and charts.
• Compare loan terms, interest rates, and repayment timelines with automatic scenario modeling.
• Set up real-time alerts for when revenue dips, expenses spike, or loan covenant thresholds approach—so you can act before there’s a problem.
• BONUS: A plug-and-play AI Loan Readiness Checklist you can use with any lender, ensuring you have every document, ratio, and projection ready before you apply.

Presenter: Margaret Jackson

Margaret Jackson is a highly sought-after leader in the Silicon Valley Bay Area, uniquely positioned as both a Small Business Radio Personality and the Publisher of Small Business Concierge Magazine. With a distinctive perspective and a wealth of experience, Margaret has earned recognition as Silicon Valley’s #1 small business radio personality on AM 1220 KDOW Business & Finance Radio. Her show, Business on the Edge, reaches over 7.75+ million listeners across the nine Bay Area counties and streams live on iHeart Radio—broadcasting from the fourth-largest radio market in the country and rebroadcasts on iTunes, and Podbean.

In 2011, Margaret made history as the first African American woman to host a weekday show on the Salem Media Group network. She later launched her spin-off show, Faith & Business on the Edge, which aired from 2015 to 2018. As an ordained Christian minister, Margaret brings a powerful blend of faith, business insight, and inspiration—empowering others to live out their full potential and activate their purpose with confidence.

Margaret is also the CEO/President of the Small Business Concierge Communications & Digital Media corporation. She has more than 34 years as a business professional. Margaret Jackson is a Bay Area/Silicon Valley, sought-after public figure, and speaker. She publishes the Small Business Concierge Digital Magazine (global reach). Jackson has over 28 years of experience in the audio/video, television production arena as a program producer, senior producer, and director. Jackson is the winner of two international media industry awards, the Silver Davey Award and the Communicators Award of Distinction.

As CEO and President of Small Business Concierge Corporation, Margaret Jackson brings over 35 years of professional and leadership experience to small business ecosystem. Her dedication to economic equity is further reflected in her role as a Regional Advisor for the NorCal SBDC Finance, AIU Special Programs, and Regional Training where she focuses on advancing the health and wellness of small businesses.

As a thriving entrepreneur herself, she champions equitable commerce between small businesses and the global economy. Margaret is especially committed to leveling the playing field helping small businesses, gain a competitive edge. Her unique blend of business acumen, strategic development, public relations, marketing, and media production gives her a powerful advantage as a visionary leader and businesswoman.

Scroll-stopping visuals no longer require pro-level design chops or pricey software.

You’ll see how today’s AI tools—Canva’s Magic Media text-to-image & video engine, Adobe Express’s Generative Fill, and the new Meta AI creative features baked into Instagram—can turn your ideas into polished graphics, reels, and stories in minutes, even if all you have is a prompt and a logo.

We’ll walk through live, step-by-step demos that start with a single sentence (“Spring sale starts Friday!”) and end with a full asset pack sized for every platform, complete with built-in brand colors, fonts, and captions. You’ll also learn the new rules for labeling AI-generated images on social channels and quick checks to stay on the safe side of copyright.

You’ll walk away able to:

• Brainstorm and generate on-brand images with Canva Magic Media and Adobe Express—no design experience needed.
• Create 8-second promo videos directly from text prompts, ready for Reels, TikTok, or YouTube Shorts.
• Resize and remix a single design into platform-perfect formats (post, story, carousel, ad) in seconds.
• Use Meta AI inside Instagram to add AI backgrounds, stickers, and captions that match current trends.
• Apply quick compliance checks for disclosure, copyright, and platform labeling so your content stays safe and professional.

Leave with a playbook for producing eye-catching visual content—fast, affordable, and ready to post today.

Presenter: Luis Quiroz

Luis is a passionate marketing consultant and founder of Trending Socials, a social media marketing agency based in San Francisco. Luis grew up in a family of entrepreneurs—his mother was a Tupperware saleswoman, and his father a jeweler. These early influences shaped his understanding of hard work and the spirit of entrepreneurship.

After earning a Business Marketing degree from San Francisco State University, he leaned into his entrepreneurial roots and launched Trending Socials. Inspired by his parents and driven by a vision to help others, he designed his agency to empower small businesses to thrive online.

At Trending Socials, Luis and his team specialize in creating viral moments for small businesses, helping them leverage the power of social media to connect with their communities and grow their brands.

A recent highlight in Luis’s career is his partnership with the City of San Francisco. Through this collaboration, he is bringing fresh marketing strategies where he works with local artists and businesses on a “shop local” campaign. This initiative aims to increase awareness, drive traffic, and boost the recovery of local businesses post-pandemic.

Luis is also committed to giving back and supporting talented creatives.

Creating a blog, webinar or long-form video is hard work—letting it die after one post is wasted effort. New generative-AI tools now slice, resize and re-brand that single asset into a week (or month) of fresh material for every channel.

We’ll show you how best-in-class platforms such as OpusClip 3.0 (auto-clips long videos into TikTok-ready highlights) Opus, Kapwing’s Repurpose Studio (one-click vertical and square crops) Kapwing, and the workflow-driven Repurpose.io automation hub Repurpose.io combine with editors like Descript to turn spoken words into text, captions and audiograms Descript.

In this fast, jargon-free session you’ll watch us transform a single five-minute clip into a dozen on-brand posts—graphics, reels, quote cards, blog summaries—ready to schedule.

Alongside the live demos we’ll cover practical guardrails: how to keep brand voice intact, avoid copyright headaches, and measure which repurposed formats actually drive clicks. You’ll leave with a “Content-to-Channels” checklist you can hand to staff (or an intern) and start implementing the very same day.

You’ll walk away able to:

• Deconstruct one long asset into multiple formats (video, audio, text, graphics) with minimal manual editing.
• Use OpusClip, Kapwing & Repurpose.io to auto-clip, resize and publish across TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Reels, LinkedIn and more.
• Convert spoken words to clean copy in Descript, then spin that transcript into newsletters, blog posts and captions.
• Set up an automated workflow that routes every new video or podcast to the right social channels—no extra uploads.
• Track ROI of each fragment so you double-down on the formats and platforms that perform best.

You’ll know how to squeeze every drop of value out of your content—week after week, on every platform.

Presenter: Ramin Ramhormozi

Ramin Ramhormozi is an ecommerce and digital marketing strategist with over 25 years of experience helping entrepreneurs launch, operate, and grow successful online businesses. His background includes managing online retail operations, developing innovative ecommerce software solutions, and providing strategic consulting to companies across a wide range of industries.

A certified AI instructor and dedicated mentor, Ramin is deeply committed to empowering emerging ecommerce entrepreneurs. He’s passionate about helping them turn ideas into thriving businesses—and showing them how to harness the power of AI to accelerate growth, streamline operations, and compete more effectively in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

In addition to leading The Ecommerce Revolution—a vibrant community built to help entrepreneurs grow smarter and faster—Ramin hosts The Ecommerce Revolution Podcast, where he shares expert insights and conversations with leaders across ecommerce, tech, and AI. He also serves as an advisor to several Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), guiding new business owners in building practical, scalable ecommerce, digital marketing and AI strategies.Learn more, join the community, and tune into the podcast at ecomrevolution.co.