How Dorine Uses AI Every Day and Keeps Her Human Touch | SOMBA® Advantage+ Review
In this video Dorine Holman shares her review of SOMBA® Advantage+.
Where Dorine Started
Dorine is a literary agent based in Amsterdam. She works for well over 150 authors in the Netherlands and Belgium and helps them with their personal brand, so that more people know them and they sell more books. She has run her business for 25 years.
She had not heard of me until 3 or 4 years ago. Someone whose online workshops she followed told her about my 12 days of free workshops around Christmas. She joined, and then she thought she could do the rest on her own:
“After that I thought, well, I know it all, I understand it, I can do it myself. Well, that was quite a misunderstanding.”
She started her workshops and did well, but not well enough. She had a lot of energy in the first weeks, and then it went out of her:
“You know, a lot of energy in the first weeks and then […] you like a balloon.”
The year after, she joined the 12 days again:
“And then I thought, well, yeah, you know, I can’t do it myself. I need something. Well, a stick to hit me perhaps. Go on. Go on.”
So she joined SOMBA® Kickstart. After that she came to one of my live sessions, heard other women talk about how they built their businesses, and joined Momentum. She had been in Momentum for 1 or 2 months when I turned the program into Advantage:
“First I was, woo woo, what’s going on? But I really understood her decision and […] in hindsight […] I’m really glad she did it.”
What Happened in SOMBA® Advantage+
At first Dorine was afraid that AI would make her sound like everyone else. She had seen people, famous people too, post the same kind of messages and the same kind of reels.
“One of my main assets is that I’m really human […] I’m working with authors who are human too.”
Once she started, she saw where AI fits in her business:
“When we did it I realized, no, it’s more like behind the scenes and not in my contact with the authors.”
In the beginning it took her a lot of time, because she wanted to understand every step:
“I don’t want to be a circus dog who’s just pushing and deleting and so on. […] I want to really know […] the agent I’m building is doing what I want.”
Now it works well most of the time, and she saves time:
“So yes, I save time and I use it more and more and more and more. There’s no day that I don’t use Claude or chat.”
Where She Is Now
When we recorded her review, Dorine felt the change went deeper than saving time. After 25 years, part of her work ran on automatic pilot. Now she thinks more about the best processes, the best outcome and the input she gives:
“I think I’m more […] like an entrepreneur or something. […] I feel more in control. I feel more mature even, I have my business already for 25 years.”
She also feels ahead. In the Netherlands everybody has an opinion about AI, and she hears journalists on television and radio who do not know what is going on.
Would She Recommend It?
“If you do this program, you fully understand what you’re doing, use it. […] You are sure you are ahead. […] If I would be an entrepreneur, whatever business, do it. Do it because otherwise you lose.”
