AI, Motherhood & the Art of Honoring What’s Real with Krista Ripma

Written By Catherine Roten

In this episode, I talk about:

  • Why AI should support your energy, not replace your creativity

  • The shift from "using AI" to training AI to work for you

  • How motherhood teaches surrender, trust, and presence

  • The power of honoring what's real in your current season instead of fighting it

At the end of the day, life isn't asking us to have everything figured out. It's asking us to stay present enough to learn from what's right in front of us.

Maybe the season you're in isn't something to rush through. Maybe it's something to trust.

I have been wanting to have this conversation on the podcast for a while. And honestly? It was worth the wait.

Krista Ripma is the founder and CEO of Authentic Audience, a full-service digital marketing agency specializing in paid social, and the Authentic Business Club, a community for women in business having the real conversations about growth, AI, money, and everything in between. 

She is also a Reiki master, a microdosing practitioner, a yoga-certified facilitator, a Gemini, and a mom of two. She is one of those people who brings so much depth to everything she touches.

We first met at Soulward Summit in 2025. She was keynoting while pregnant with her second child, and I was coordinating the event. We clicked instantly. Stayed connected and I got deeper into her world. And now as I step into motherhood myself, I have gotten to work with her more closely, which has made me feel more seen than ever.

This episode covers a lot of ground. AI, motherhood, business seasons, honoring what is real for you right now, etc. Below is what stayed with me most.

Let's Talk About AI (For Real)

Krista has been at the forefront of this conversation for a while now, and her perspective shifted something in me.

She started by drawing a line that I think so many of us need to hear:

"If you are still chatting with AI like a friend, you are behind. It has shifted from chatting with your agents to training your agents to work for you. And I would say that is the difference." — Krista

She is not talking about AI as some scary, overwhelming thing. She is talking about it as an energy management tool. And she frames it in the most grounding way…. think of it like electricity.

"People thought the internet was the end of the world. I think people aren’t looking at AI like the light bulb or like electricity. And I think if you zoom out and start to think about it like electricity — like how can I put this into the foundation of my house — I think that's really how things are going to transform." — Krista

Her own morning now starts with an AI-built summary of her inbox, her to-do list, her financial snapshot, all pulled before she even comes online. She created an AI agent called MAE (her morning AI executive) and has been training her for months. She has also built KJ AI, an agent trained on literally 2,000 hours of her coaching, strategies, and frameworks, so her brain is available even when she is not.

For women especially, Krista frames it this way: if your mission is to help more people, AI gives you the capacity to do exactly that.

"If I use this tool and teach myself this tool, I'm going to be able to help so many more people. That's your path to success." — Krista

She and her co-host Dina Finta put together a workshop where they walk you through setting up your own AI agents, including MAE and Constance, a networking-focused agent that can pull every touchpoint you have had with a person in seconds. The replay is linked below & she has gifted it to YOU for reading this blog or listening to the podcast!

What Motherhood and Business Have in Common

This part of the conversation surprised me in the best way.

Krista has two kids, three and just turned one! And the way she talks about parenting sounds a lot like the way she talks about business. Intentional, curious, and unattached to outcome.

"My business was my first baby. I still treat it as such. You think you know what you're getting into, and it becomes something else. It has an energy of its own, and it really talks to you. I think with my children I feel the same way." — Krista

One of the biggest reframes she shared was this: stop trying to control, and start letting them teach you. Her daughter teaches her how to parent. Her business has done the same. And she believes the more you can take your ego out of it, whether it is a child or a company, the easier and more freeing it actually becomes.

That landed for me hard. Because I have been asking myself a lot lately: how are Dylan and I going to raise this baby girl? And Krista's answer was essentially, let her show you.

She also shared something beautiful about intuition as a mother:

"There's nothing like your intuition and a trusted pediatrician. Like those are the things."— Krista 

The same is true in business. You know your business, you know your clients. Quiet the noise and go inward.

Honoring the Season You Are In

This is where the conversation got really real for both of us because Krista and I are in completely different seasons right now. She is postpartum, coming out of an inward period, launching new things. I am pregnant, in a famine season in business, and honestly? For the first time, not fighting it.

Krista put words to something I have been feeling:

"If you are an entrepreneur and you are having a month of feast or a month of famine — welcome to the seasons of entrepreneurship. As women, we are having hormonal fluctuations all the time where we feel so amazing in ourselves and then we are crawling in our skin the next day. Allowing ourselves to move with learning, with input, with output, with creativity, with relationship — it's all related." — Krista

She talked about seasons of input versus output and how honoring which one you are in changes everything. There are weeks where you cannot read fast enough and weeks where you need to create, integrate, and take action (not consuming). Neither is wrong. Both need to be honored.

She also brought up something we do not talk about nearly enough: hormones.

Whether you are pregnant, postpartum, mid-cycle, or in perimenopause, your hormones are shaping your capacity, your energy, and your emotional landscape every single day. Pretending otherwise is not just unrealistic, it is exhausting. Krista's invitation is to start paying attention and stop expecting yourself to perform the same way no matter what is happening in your body.

Just for Today

This is the part I keep coming back to. Krista shared the Reiki prayer and while she paraphrased it, the essence of it is this: just for today.

"We try to make such lofty goals and promises. And I really sort of start to think of things like — just for today. The more you zoom out, the more stressful it is. The more you zoom in, the more beautiful it is. And you get to choose that perspective." — Krista

She also shared a reminder from her friend Katie that made me laugh out loud:

"We're pretty competent and not heroin addicts. I think we're going to be okay." — Krista Ripma

And sometimes? That is genuinely what we need to hear. We put so much pressure on ourselves, whether that be in business, motherhood, or in this season of figuring it all out. And the permission to just zoom in, just for today, is something I am holding onto.

Connect with Krista

If this conversation resonated with you, I highly recommend getting into Krista's world. She is one of those people who makes you feel smarter, more grounded, and more excited about what is possible, all at the same time. (mixed with a little tough love!)

Cat Roten

Intuitive Leader & Mentor

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Catherine Roten
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