About Lisa
The same person who made Facebook make sense is now making AI make sense.
I'm Lisa Monks - social media strategist, consultant and practical AI educator, based in Cairns, and working with small businesses locally and across Australia.
Marketer first. That's what makes this different.
I founded ChipMonk Media in 2011 to help local businesses make sense of social media. That was back when getting a business onto Facebook felt almost as overwhelming as AI feels now.
The pattern hasn't changed much.
A powerful new tool arrives. The jargon piles up around it. And busy business owners are left feeling like it was built for everyone except them.
My job has always been to cut through that.
Over the years, I've helped business owners work out what to say, where to say it, and how to show up online without social media taking over their life.
Now I'm doing the same with AI - helping people understand what it can do, where it fits, and how to use it without handing over their voice, judgement or customer relationships.
And here's the part that makes the AI shift feel natural to me.
I was putting automation to work for small businesses years before ChatGPT arrived - building Messenger bots, simple marketing systems and practical workflows back when that was the frontier.
So when AI tools became available to everyone, it didn't feel like a complete pivot.
It felt like the next chapter of the same work: helping small businesses use clever digital tools without getting lost in the jargon.
In 2025, Mari Smith invited me to co-present an AI tools training session for her VIP clients in San Diego. I watched experienced professionals light up as tools like NotebookLM and ChatGPT finally clicked for them.
That confirmed what I'd already started to see with small businesses here in Australia: people don't need more hype. They need practical examples, clear guidance and someone who understands how marketing, communication and customer trust actually work.
Since then, I've shared my approach on Social Media Examiner's AI Explored podcast with Michael Stelzner and have been invited to train inside their private AI Business Society group on using NotebookLM in marketing.
I don't teach AI as a technologist.
I teach it the way I've always taught social media - hands-on, in plain English, and through the lens of what actually helps a small business.
My KISSS motto still fits.
For social media, it means keeping it Simple, Social and Strategic.
For AI, it means keeping it Simple, Structured and Strategic.
And my rule for this next era is simple: AI should support the person, not replace them. Human at heart, tech in hand.
The natural evolution
From social media strategist to practical AI educator
- 2005
After seven and a half years living in Japan and three years in New York City, I moved home to Cairns and joined Tourism Tropical North Queensland, the region's tourism organisation. Over the years, I represented the Japan, US, Guam and New Zealand markets.
- 2011
Founded ChipMonk Media and started helping local businesses make sense of social media - back when a business Facebook page still felt new, confusing and a little bit scary.
- 2013
First attended Social Media Marketing World in San Diego, bringing fresh ideas and global social media thinking home to small businesses in Australia.
- 2016–2019
Deep in the automation years - building Messenger bots, integrating them with Facebook marketing systems and practical workflows for clients before most people had heard the word 'chatbot'.
- 2022
Became a regular weekly guest on Triple M Cairns' breakfast show on their Tech Tuesday segment, covering tech, scams, social media and AI, through to 2024.
- 2023
ChatGPT brought AI to the mainstream, and the same pattern appeared all over again: powerful technology, terrible jargon, and small business owners feeling left behind.
- 2024
Part of James Cook University/QLD AI Hub's Cairns AI Literacy Series, and hosted an AI session in the JCU Ideas Lab as part of JCU's Founders-in-Residence Portfolio AI Literacy Series.
- 2025
Invited by Mari Smith to co-present on AI tools for her VIP clients in San Diego. Guest on Social Media Examiner's AI Explored podcast with Michael Stelzner. Speaker at the CityLife Annual Business Retreat and presented AI Adoption in the Workforce at the Cairns Chamber of Commerce Business Luncheon.
- 2026
Invited to train Social Media Examiner's private AI Business Society group in the US on using NotebookLM in marketing. Now developing beginner-friendly AI training, workshops and 1:1 sessions for small businesses in Cairns and across Australia.
Where you'll find me
Proudly Far North Queensland, happily Australia-wide
Home is Cairns in tropical Far North Queensland.
I work in person across Cairns and Far North Queensland, speak at events around Australia, and work with businesses everywhere else online.
What you see is what you get.
I'm genuinely, unreasonably curious about this stuff. I test the tools in my own business, use them in real client work where appropriate, and then teach what actually holds up in practice.
If something is overhyped, I'll tell you.
If something can genuinely save you time, make your work easier, or help you think more clearly, I'll show you how.
Off the clock, you're most likely to find me online as one of the admins of the Cairns Notice Board and Cairns Animals Lost & Found Facebook groups. Reuniting lost dogs with their very relieved owners is one of my favourite unpaid jobs.
I also seem to like a proper challenge.
I've completed two Cairns Ironman 70.3 races, walked the full Kokoda Trail, and ridden a bike from the Sunshine Coast to Cairns, each one to raise money for local charities.
Maybe that's why I enjoy making scary things feel doable - whether that's a multi-day hike, your first business Facebook page, or your first proper conversation with ChatGPT.
Not ready to book anything? No dramas.
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Book a free 30-minute discovery call - a relaxed chat about your business, no obligation and no hard sell. We'll work out whether social media, AI, or a bit of both will move the needle for you.