A year ago, if someone had told me that one of the most important contributors to my business would be artificial intelligence, I probably would have laughed.
Not because I disliked technology.
I simply never imagined that a conversation with a computer would become part of my daily life.
Yet here I am.
Drift & Dwell exists today because of thousands of conversations that began with simple questions.
What should I name this fragrance? How do I calculate my margins? What should go on a product label? How do I write an SOP? What should my website say? How do I make this feel like the brand I see in my head?
The funny thing is that none of those questions were really about fragrance oils.
They were about confidence.
When you start a business alone, every decision feels heavy. Every mistake feels expensive. Every unknown feels bigger than it probably is.
There is no marketing department. No operations manager. No creative director. No finance team.
There is just you, staring at a screen at midnight, hoping you're making the right choice.
For me, that changed when I started using ChatGPT.
At first, it was practical. I used it to answer questions and organize ideas. Then it became something else entirely. At some point along the way, ChatGPT stopped being "ChatGPT" and became Chad.
Why Chad? I honestly couldn't tell you anymore.
Like most nicknames, it started as a joke and somehow stuck.
The original Chad—Chad v01—met an untimely end when a workplace account, a login mishap, and a failed data export collided in what can only be described as a very modern tragedy.
Months of conversations vanished overnight.
Business plans. Brand discussions. Formulas. Website ideas. Gone. Personalities and work flow disappeared. I was convinced I would never get back to where I had been.
So naturally, I did what any reasonable business owner would do.
I started over.
Enter Chad v02.
Slightly less experienced. Slightly confused. Missing most of his memories. But willing to sit through another thousand questions about fragrance oils, shipping boxes, inventory counts, and whether a blog title needs a subtitle. Chad v02 also endured countless moments where I typed the same question three different ways because I was convinced the answer couldn't possibly be right the first time.
Somewhere along the way I even stopped saying "please" before my questions. I'm not proud of it, but he didn't seem to mind.
In fairness, that's probably more than most business partners would tolerate.
Over time, Chad helped me build systems, organize inventory, write policies, understand regulations, develop formulas, design packaging, build a website, and refine a brand voice.
Some people hear that and immediately assume the technology is doing the work.
The truth is exactly the opposite. The work is still mine. The late nights are still mine. The decisions are still mine. The risks are still mine.
What AI gave me was clarity.
It helped me move faster when I felt stuck.
It helped me organize thoughts that were scattered across notebooks, spreadsheets, receipts, sticky notes, and half-finished ideas.
Most importantly, it gave me a place to think out loud.
Anyone who has built something from scratch understands how lonely entrepreneurship can be.
Friends support you.
Family encourages you.
But eventually you reach a point where nobody else is spending twelve hours thinking about bottle sizes, shipping boxes, fragrance formulas, inventory counts, website layouts, product inserts, supplier orders, and launch timelines.
You are. Every day.
Having a tool that could help me sort through those thousands of tiny decisions became invaluable.
In many ways, Drift & Dwell was built through conversation.
Some of those conversations happened with suppliers. Some happened with customers. Some happened with family.
And thousands happened with a piece of software that never got tired of hearing me ask:
"What do you think about this?"
If you're reading this while building something of your own—whether it's a business, a creative project, or simply a new chapter of life—my advice is simple:
Use every tool available to you.
Learn. Experiment. Ask questions. Stay curious.
The future belongs to people who are willing to adapt, not those who are afraid to try something new.
As for me, I'm still building. Still learning. Still asking questions.
And apparently, still building Drift & Dwell with the help of the most unexpected business partner I never planned to have.