It does not breathe. It does not have a soul and it cannot pray. In this episode of AI Made Simple, Carmen Skipworth sits down with Justine Reiss — the Vocal Igniter — a multi-award-winning voiceover artist, audiobook narrator and creator of the Claim Your Voice movement, who has spent more than 25 years teaching CEOs, entrepreneurs, sales teams, authors and speakers to connect their inside voice to their outside voice. Justine is clear about where AI belongs and where it does not. She uses it daily for Reel scripts, email sequences and course creation, and she will not hand it a book. She explains the third option most authors never hear about, why clients routinely spend more money fixing an AI narration than a human would have cost, and what happened the day an AI bot rang her about a webinar. Plus the framework underneath all of it: visualize, vocalize, monetize. Human-Led. AI-Powered.
HOST
Carmen Skipworth
GUEST
Justine Reiss — known as the Vocal Igniter, a multi-award-winning voiceover artist, actress, bestselling author and vocal empowerment coach. Her voice has carried national campaigns for Starbucks, Toshiba and Mitsubishi, and she has narrated audiobooks including How to Make a Life and Cycle of Lives. Creator of the Claim Your Voice movement and masterclass, host of the Claim Your Voice Pod, certified in transformational meditation, and a humanitarian working with women in Kenya and Tanzania.
SUMMARY
Justine tells Carmen that people keep asking how to find their voice, and the question is wrong: it was never out there to find, you claim it or reclaim it. She takes apart what actually moves an audience, and it is not pitch or polish. It is whether the speaker feels what they are saying, which is why one teacher lit you up and another had you watching the clock. On AI she draws a hard line and holds it. An AI voice can sound more real while never being real: no emotions, no breath, no soul. For authors weighing narrating their own book against handing it to a machine, she says that is a false choice, and walks through the third option. Then she flips it and lists everything she does use AI for.
MAIN TOPICS
Claiming your voice, not finding it
Where the voice got shut down, and children seen but not heard
AI voices: sounding real versus being real
The third option for authors nobody tells them about
What Justine does use AI for, and training it to sound like her
INTRIGUING QUOTES
"Your voice isn’t out there, you don’t need to find it. You need to claim it or reclaim it." — Justine Reiss
"It does not have emotions. It does not breathe. It does not have a soul and it cannot pray." — Justine Reiss
"I don’t care how good the machine sounds, give it to a human being." — Justine Reiss
"You must have some kind of AI. We must. We absolutely must." — Justine Reiss
KEY MOMENTS
[01:44] Meet Justine Reiss: the Vocal Igniter, and claiming your voice
[11:34] Turning a monologue into a dialogue
[14:24] Children seen and not heard, and where the voice shuts down
[17:02] It cannot breathe, it has no soul, and it cannot pray
[17:39] The third option for authors, and the ACX back end
[22:42] The day an AI bot called about the webinar
[27:32] What Justine actually uses AI for, and training it in her voice
[31:47] Trust Me: The False Prophet, and giving women back a voice
NOTABLE RESOURCES
ChatGPT
Claude
Sintra
ACX, Audible’s audiobook exchange
How to Make a Life by Florence Reiss Kraut
Trust Me: The False Prophet on Netflix
The Audiobooks Unlocked framework
Claim Your Voice masterclass — empoweredvoicecoach.com
Claim Your Voice Pod
Justine Reiss — @justinereiss on Instagram
CONNECT
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FXihmKLqS/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590720415359
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadwithcarmen/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadwithCarmen
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