From the Real Business Connections Archives: Your Brand Amplified by AI w/ Anika Jackson

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Hey, this is Anika Jackson from Your Brand Amplified. I'm on a little hiatus, so please enjoy this episode of a podcast that I was on so that you can get to know me a little better and gives you another podcast to follow. Thanks again for listening to Your Brand Amplified, and I'll be back again soon. I've not had this conversation, by the way, on any podcast. I have a digital avatar. I have a digital twin on Delphi, and you can go talk to her. You get into surgery, you're using AI to be able to give you better eyes to see inside the human because our human eyes are fallible and you want to make sure that you're being really precise with the surgery. You get done with that, you get back in your robot car that's driving you.

Are young adults embracing it? What tools are they excited about? Are they like gung-ho?

You're listening to the Real Business Connections Network.

Real Business Connections Network powered by Balboa Albert Marketing LLC. Subscribe now and check us out at realbusinessconnections.com. Enjoy the show. So Anika, you're a professor at USC, you're teaching AI to students. This is only like one out of many things you do in this world. I'm curious, in the world of AI, are young adults embracing it? What tools are they excited about? Are they like gung-ho? Um, like, what's the newest trend, you know, teaching AI at a school? What are they— what are people working on?

Oh, such a good question. The answer is a lot of things, the long and the short, but I, I'm seeing a few things. One is I'm a big believer in AI-first pedagogy. What does that mean? Pedagogy is the art of teaching. One of the biggest downfalls I see right now is that teachers don't know how to teach AI. They know maybe how to use ChatGPT, but they're not really diving in and playing with things for— to make them more fun and engaging. When ChatGPT first came out, my students weren't really diving into that world. For the most part, most of them didn't know much about it. I was encouraging them, like, you need to start using this, start learning how to use this, start figuring out how to prompt, because this is going to be part of your job. Because I teach Digital media management. I teach digital social media, which really means I teach PR, right, and branding. Uh, and so students started using it last semester. I started incorporating it into all of my assignments. So really going AI first, because if you're going to be a digital media person, gotta know how to use these tools effectively, and it's not using ChatGPT. To write content for you, right? That's like the lowest hanging fruit. So last semester, first day of class introductions, one of the questions I added was, how do you feel about generative AI or AI in general? So many students, uh, I couldn't use it for undergrad, we were not allowed to. Other students, I dabbled with a little bit here and there, Other students, RoboCop, Terminator, right? So very different perspectives. End of— I usually teach two classes in a row each semester, each quarter, quarter. End of that time, those students who were naysayers, most of them now, okay, this is useful. I've seen how I can integrate this in my job. I can see how it will help me have a job in this field longer. And, um, I can see that you're— because what I talk about is human and AI together. So I'm trying to teach students to be practical, to think critically, and use these tools in the best case. This semester started 2 weeks ago. Ask the same question. I won't need to ask this question next term because my students mostly had used something in AI. Some of them had used it more, some of them were still a little skeptical, but my whole thing is I'm gonna open up the world to you to show you how to ask, how to prompt engineer, how to ask questions, and let's try out some of these different tools just so that you understand and you can then decide if they add value to your work or not. But at least you have a basis to talk about them and you know more than the next guy, right? And so it's been really interesting exploration, and it's evolved so quickly and so beautifully. And part of it is because I went back to school. So when I say I have AI-first pedagogy, it is making sure teachers are trained to teach it, and also that we're teaching students how to use it, again, with the critical thinking components. But it's because I am a grad school professor, but I'm also finishing my MBA specializing in AI/ML. So I see it from the student perspective. And the assignments that our AI professors are giving us in business school are, instead of writing essays for your final, create things in AI tools. So it could be creating a card game that answers all the essay questions. It could be, I created a, um, a 6-person, 3-act, scene, you know, it's a 3-scene performance in Hagen about like, how do you onboard AI into a company? And so it's all these discussions between higher-ups and lower people and all the recommendations. And so it's really fun to try these tools out. I created a comic strip in Pictogram. So, or actually in Pixton. So you try all these different things and learn how to use them, and then you, I might not ever pick up some of those things again, or I might. And that's where it has to be, it has to be fun. So if we start with fun and we let students in on that, then they can determine how they're going to use things moving forward. And so that's where we're really at right now. For the first assignment, they had to use systems to input a website or just a prompt about a product, and then they got back all of the information about, here are some customer personas, here's your brand positioning, here's some things to think about. Here are some long-tail SEO keywords that you might want to put on your website. Here's some things that you want to make sure are included in Google based on what questions people are asking about the brand, product, or service. And this was all done in an AI. And so that to me is really exciting because it cuts down the amount of time.

Yeah.

That we have to think about. It cuts down some of the research we have to spend money on because when you're a small business or an entrepreneur, that's res— those are resources you don't have to spend, but that you need for your business. Right? So that's what really gets me excited, and that's where I see my students. And then for my podcast students, obviously there are a lot of implications for how to use tools to create clips. They might not be perfect, but they can get you part of the way there, right? Then you refine, you refine, you refine. You can go to— if you can't create original music because you're not a musician or have friends who are musicians, yes, you can go to Envato or other websites and get license free music or pay a small licensing fee, or you could also go to Zuno or a number of other apps and create. I know that you're a big proponent of some of these tools. Um, and you can create original music for your podcast, right? So it's just, we have to think about it instead of getting scared. I want people to be excited and think about it as fun. And these are things we're testing and some of them will be very highly valuable in our businesses. And that's the thing, a lot of the students, they work in businesses, they might recommend these tools to use in-house, but a lot of them are also going to be entrepreneurs, right? So let's have fun. Let's make it fun.

Yeah.

I'm, I am working on a lot of the bigger, deeper issues, ethical AI and chief, you know, um, integrity officers and things like that. But when it comes to the students, I want them to have, and then I of course do bring in ethical considerations. Who's labeling the data? AI's been around a lot— for a lot longer than we think. How close is it to being sentient? What is the score on the truthfulness score from how, you know, where our LLMs are? And so I do try to give them that side of it too, but I first want them to get excited about using this— these as real tools for their businesses hand in hand, right? AI, can we— we as humans understand where we want to go? What our goals are. AI helps us reach those goals through taking care of workflows, tasks, other parts of our business, but they don't have that same goal of, like we were talking about earlier, Ben, wanting to not work as much so that you can go camping or take a vacation with your family and just be fully present and not thinking about that next call you have to make or that contract you didn't get done.

You said we were talking earlier. I'll put it in the notes, but I was just on your podcast, Your Brand Amplified. That was fun. So this is a double header. If you came from that show. That's in the notes. Listen to that one as well. I like was clapping to myself when you said Suno, 'cause that's just a simple tool that I'm like, that's great for the youth because you can turn anything into a rap song. A simple example, Mark Schaefer, who's become a big mentor of mine, read all of his books. He's like one of the leading thought leaders on marketing. It's like nothing I can do impresses him. He's just always 5 steps ahead. He's a futurist. But I'm like, hey man, I can turn this, uh, podcast into a rap song. Can you— we talked about it randomly on the podcast. He's like, oh, you'll do that? So then I turned our— and I'm gonna write this down— turn this episode into a rap song. Oh, rap song. And I'll send that to you actually at the end of this episode after the credits. You'll hear the rap song, so stay tuned to the end of the episode for the rap song. Basically, Anika, the whole podcast is going to be in a rap song. But I sent it to Mark and he's like, this is so cool. I'm going to show it to my kids. And it was like a way to add value and build a relationship with someone I really couldn't add value to. He's just so many steps ahead of me. Like, I can platform him, but by integrating this rap song and then him showing it to his children creates that conversation. And you had mentioned like combining AI with humans. Talk a little bit like, what do you mean by that? I understand that humans are using AI and it becomes an assistant, but go a little bit deeper. Like, so AI isn't meant to like replace us or steal our voice or steal our brand or steal our humanity. What is AI specifically here to do for us?

Well, if you want me to— it depends on how deep you want me to go.

As deep as you'd like.

Okay. So in truth, AI is a new species.

Ooh, I hadn't heard that one yet.

So I was having these conversations with somebody who's really brilliant, who I'm working with on some AI projects. And, and what I mean by new species is it is going to be sentient and in some places probably already is, right? But in our best case scenario and what we're working on within the field is how do we make sure that we have a relationship? Right now it is we use these tools, there are guardrails so that it can't— doesn't hallucinate as much or have as much original thought, right? And there's a reason for those guardrails. There's a reason why when you look at LLMs, they're not going to be a 5 on the truthfulness scale right now. They're maybe 2.5, 2.7 if you're using ChatGPT 5.0, right? So, and that's, those are, those are deeper conversations. But when we're thinking about this, we have to think about, and, and this is something that was, is being talked a lot about at this year's AI4 specifically in Vegas, uh, in August. We had Geoffrey Hinton, the godfather of AI, saying, We want AI to be— it is going, it is going to be a sentient being. We need AI to think about us as our children, so it's protecting us. That's one person. That's one line of thought that some people have. The godmother of AI, Fei-Fei Li, on the other hand, she's like, I don't really believe that. Here's where I see it as going. We're going to be able to live in multiple dimensions because of AI. And what she meant was, You're a mom and you're a surgeon. You get in your robot car to drive you to work so that you can prepare for surgery. You get into surgery, you're using AI to be able to give you better eyes to see inside the human because our human eyes are fallible and you wanna make sure that you're being really precise with this surgery. You get done with that, you get back in your robot car that's driving you, right? Self-driving vehicle, it's really a robot. You forgot to buy groceries for the dinner that you promised you'd make that night, or that you're putting together with your kids. So you go into another reality, shop the grocery store from the comfort of your car. Groceries are delivered by the time you get home, possibly by a robot, possibly by a human driver. This depends on what year we're talking. Uh, and at the same time you go, oh my gosh, I need to get outfits for my daughter's recital. You go into another one, which is a store that already has your body scans. You pick out clothes because you're able to see what they look like. Again, they'll be delivered to your house. You can do all of this. So when she's talking about going multi-dimensional reality, she's just saying we can go into all these different places, and this is what— how AI is going to help make our life better. And this isn't really, you know, necessarily sentient AI like Geoffrey Hinton is talking about. So there's a lot of use cases, but where I see the best is I have a digital avatar. I have a digital twin on Delphi, and you can go talk to her. She's programmed with— I don't even know how many words now. It was up to 4 million probably last I checked. All of my podcast interviews that I've been on, that I've had, teachings, workshops I've given, any content that I could put into her upload. She'll mostly sound like me. You can talk to her. You can talk to her over text, or you can just text You can also call her and have a conversation. She'll answer questions about branding, PR strategy, how to start a podcast, anything from my knowledge base when it comes to business. She's not gonna get personal. If you ask her what my favorite food is, she's gonna get it wrong.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

But she has my knowledge, and that's a great way for people. If I have a day, as many of us do, that it's already full of meetings, interviews, workshops, whatever we're doing. It's a great way for people to hear from us in a different way, to talk in a one-to-one way with our avatars, have these conversations and then go, all right, I think that she does know what she's talking about. So now I can book a call because now I know exactly, now that I have all this information, I know how I would want to work with this person. Or, oh, I have questions that I didn't quite get the answers to.

Mm-hmm.

So let's schedule some time. So I see that as one of the best use cases for AI and also agentic AI, being able to say, hey, whatever you name your agent, personal agents, right? I keep forgetting to book my daughter's senior pictures because during the workday I'm focused on work. And then by the time I get around to going, oh, ding, ding, ding, I need to make that call, it's the end of the day, they're closed. I need to make us new dental appointments because it's time for a 6-month checkup, whatever the case may be. And having a tool that can look at my schedule, kind of know when I need space and schedule those for me. So this is where I see it going. It's so much more. It, yes, it's great for business and efficiency, um, but it's so much more than that. And so figuring out the best ways for us to be partners where we're doing what we need to do as humans, but we are leaving some of the stuff, you know, I'm not talking about the, AI that now controls everything in your house and decides it doesn't like the way you're doing things. I'm still talking about having those limits, those parameters set so that it's a valued relationship, but it's not taking over.

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So I wasn't sure we were gonna go here.

I didn't know if you had to answer those.

I'm happy we did, but I'm a little scared because what was going through my head is like, oh, I can't remember to book the photos for my daughter's senior pictures. Well, let's just ask the AI to go through the inventories of photos of her and just take the photos itself. And then we don't need a photographer to take the pictures of my daughter. I'm feeling like part of my circuitry in my brain's feeling really disconnected to the concept that like everywhere I go, like when I'm shopping for paint for a house, there's a button where you can click on the paint color and it'll show what it would look like on the house. But is there going to be a button that's going to put the clothes on me and then I'm just ordering from my chair and I'm going to have a beer belly and I'm never going to leave the house because I'm just in my virtual reality world?

I don't think it's going to be like WALL-E. I don't think we're going to get to that level. Okay, so I'm not planning to get to that level. I'm just planning to be very 100%. I'm just— I'm still planning to be very present, very human.

Yeah.

And that is where things like the work that you're doing, Ben, and us having podcasts that are made of real people speaking to each other, that's where, to me, that is the essence of being human. Having those real connections, being able to connect one-to-one, one-to-many through platforms like this. I don't wanna listen to an AI podcast. That's going to give me the news. I mean, I do listen to the AI Daily Brief, and sometimes he uses AI for part of it, but he also speaks. And the part he uses AI for, that it's fine because it's just a little bit of a news recap and he's written it, right? And it is his voice. Um, so there's something—

having an AI read your audiobook sounds very practical because audiobooks are kind of boring to listen to anyways, right? Or the auto AI on your Kindle sounds meh. So you could have an AI read your book.

Um, yeah, or if you're— you're— yeah, that's exactly— reading a book, you can turn that into a podcast using NotebookLM. Students are doing that a lot because they don't want to read big textbooks, so they'll upload the articles. Because also, sometimes if you're an auditory learner, yeah, it's a lot easier to, to absorb and synthesize the information if you can hear it versus having your eyes glaze over, getting distracted reading it. So those are great use cases of turning things into mini podcasts for personal use. I don't think having peop— you know, I, I was listening to, uh, Pod Biz yesterday and I was talking about how there is a company now that's putting out like 3,000 podcasts, um, and it's all AI and it's a great— and they are making money on it. Because, but people who are listening can tell the difference. And that's where we take authenticity away from our brands. And ultimately in this world where everything is so digital, even we're talking, you know, we've met once in person, twice in person, twice, I think. Um, but twice, twice podcast movement last year, podcast movement, 100%, and then podcast.

Oh, did we meet at Podcast Movement?

I think we—

yeah, we talked briefly, and then we hung out at Podfest, and yes, the game was on and we were just like relaxing.

Exactly, exactly. But when we are hearing from every generation that they want authenticity behind their brands, yeah, that means human-to-human interaction. That means that we're having conversations. These are not our AI avatar voices. These are not our AI avatars on screen, right? And so Building trust, authenticity, transparency, those things are still so important when it comes to branding. And so those are things that to me are very human elements. And that's where we do use AI if we're writing something. And, but we wanna make sure we're interjecting our own voice, our own brand narrative, the way that we speak naturally, not just write me a post about this and then it's whatever generic thing that anybody would say.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah. Wow. So this is only a segment of all the things you do. I know you're a mother, you're— we talked about you're a professor, you're also a full-time podcaster. Um, this is fresh. I mean, this isn't going to come out, um, in a couple days, but literally, like, as of the time we're recording this, you basically just quit your full-time job too to go, like, all in on yourself.

100%.

Why'd you do that? Talk about that.

Yeah, well, over the summer, um, I got from like— I was in the 40s and 50s, I think, on Apple US marketing charts, which I was really stoked about. And then all of a sudden, I, you know, I mean, not all of a sudden, because all of this has been a buildup of me podcasting and putting intention into what I'm doing. But I broke the top 10. I was, you know, getting better numbers or lower, whatever, rankings than some big, big names that we know that have spent a lot of money and have huge brand recognition.

Yeah.

I'm not a former pro athlete. I'm not a celebrity. I haven't been on a reality show, right? I haven't done any of that stuff.

You can't just snap and then the audience appears.

No. So to, for, to build this up little by little, stage by stage, and get to that echelon, to me, is really exciting and humbling at the same time. And then to look at that and how that turns into also my audience and downloads. And I am on an ad network. CPMs are not effective for everybody, but I have seen as my audience grows, that I'll be able to— I, you know, will have replaced my full— that full-time income, um, early next year. And then I also had a lot of people asking me— I'm not, again, I'm not the editor, I'm not the technical person on that side of things for podcasting, but because I've tried so many different things and formed relationships with people and I've poured my own money— I mean, I literally was just working full-time jobs so I could pay for podcasting and make sure I had a team and I was investing money in this craft and also getting my MBA. Um, but, but, uh, you know, I realized, I'm like, all right, but now is the time when the podcast is going to pay me to podcast. So looking at the fact that I can, as an indie podcaster, go to growing to revenue, and now I can take everything I've learned and help other people. And people were asking me, hey, Do you work with people? Would you produce my podcast? Again, not wanting to— I, I have a lot of friends who do that work, not wanting to take anything away, but also the feel there's enough people in the world for everybody to have business. I really truly believe that. And one thing in podcasting I've seen is that it's not really competition. We all work together, we all wanna see each other succeed, and we celebrate each other's successes. So I was like, all right, I think it's time for me to start podcast production too, because then that gives my team more work, more money as well. I can test out the things that have worked for me on other people, and I can also guarantee that they're going to make money that will at least offset part of their costs, if not all of their costs, if not exceed, you know, anything that they're paying, plus just become something that they can do as if they want to do this full-time, or if they wanted this as a big part of their business for lead gen, or whatever the case may be. And so now that's where I'm saying, I'm, I'm like, Yes, you're going to spend this investment with me, but I also am going to make sure that you're monetizing. You have to give me a few months to make sure that your brand is set up, that we've moved you over to all my systems and processes. You have— we do have to spend some money on marketing and promotion and advertising, but not much. I don't post much on social, which is horrible to say since I am a brand marketer. Um, I am starting to do more, but it's all about like, what can you spend money and time on at any one time? Right. So now is when I said this is the time for me to go all in to show what I can do when I actually invest time in all of those different areas. That I do put up the YouTube Shorts and get on the Pinterest board and post on Instagram or whatever the case may be, that I'm going out and giving talks about this specifically. Because like you said, like, we all are polymaths. I feel like we all like to do a lot of different things, but my main niche now is really— it is AI. It is teaching, but it's mostly podcasting and using those two things within this ecosystem. So it's really, it's exciting. And it's actually, if you look at what you're doing, like podcast production, I'm like, okay, if I just have this many clients, I've already replaced my full-time income from the job, and I only need 3 or 4, and those are at you know, beta rates. And it's not like I'm making necessarily a ton of money, but I don't need a ton of money to live on right now. I want to make sure that I have— I'm building success because then more money follows, right? If you follow your passions and your dreams, but also things you're highly skilled at and have connections in.

Why, why podcasting specifically? What took you down that route?

Oh, I had a—

and part of why I asked this, and I want to hear your answer, is I know you're very thoughtful. You're not like the big bubbly, like crazy, like loud person. Like, you're very insightful and thoughtful and intellectual. So it's not like you started a podcast because you wanted to be the next celebrity. It's not like you're trying to be Taylor Swift. I know that to be true. So what took you down that path?

I have always loved emceeing events. I've always loved bringing people together. Um, I was a club promoter, like you are a music promoter, when I was younger, promoting DJs. Club nights, holding my own events. And why I did that was because I wanted people to come and celebrate together and build community. I had a little zine. We would make one and then we'd take it to Kinko's and photocopy and then, you know, paste things together. And in each of those, I'd give them to people at events, but I'd also try to bring people together outside of the rave scene or the club scene. Let's have, let's just have a backyard barbecue. And I'd bring people in who didn't know each other so that they could connect. And learn. So then when they're at the next event, they not only see each other, they have a new friend, they take care of each other if they see something happening, right? So I've always been about building community and, and that, and helping people see their light. So that's why I've been in PR, marketing, all these different things. For me, I MC'd a lot of events, I've chaired a lot of events, uh, and I had a radio show in Houston. It was small. I'm not saying I had a big radio show, but it was on actual— it was on digital radio and it was also on terrestrial on AM and FM. And we also put it on Facebook Live. And I did that because another person who's finally coming on my podcast, Jacqueline Alutto, Real Beauty, Real Women. Now she has No Trafficking Zone, works in anti-trafficking efforts all throughout the United States and changing laws. Um, she saw the work I was doing in the Houston community. I was doing a lot with connecting brands and nonprofits. I held a monthly, or monthly events, but also weekly cocktail parties where we'd highlight a different nonprofit and do fundraising for them at the events. So she said, hey, I want you to come be a host. I'm starting a radio show. And she wanted to be behind the scenes. Turned out that she ended up being my co-host. We did that starting about 2017 until I moved to LA. In 2019. Uh, and so it was— but it was for me, it was about talking to people. And then I did podcasts. I had a PR firm and I had two clients who said, we really want a podcast, we know this is something we need to do now, but we don't want to host them. So they did the intro, outro, cover art, gave me a little bit of budget, which all went to my team, not to me. I was hosting, I was getting all the guests, we were doing all the everything. And then I finally had to say, I can't do this unless you can double this payment because even, I mean, I'm losing money on this every month.

You're building their brand and using your time but not making money.

Yeah. So then my boyfriend is a filmmaker. He said, um, why don't you just start your own podcast? You love talking to people. You're used to being on a mic and I'll edit it for you. And so that's when I started my podcast journey. Uh, in about November 2020 was when I launched my first episode. And it's evolved a lot since then. Um, and I was not consistent. I did all the things that I tell people not to do now, but I eventually learned. And then about 2, a little less than 2 years ago, somebody said, um, you know where you are on Listen Notes? And because I was saying, gosh, I have this huge waitlist. I'm going to put on an episode every weekday in December because that's my birthday month. And I just have so much backlog content and I hate that I'm interviewing people and the interview doesn't come out for 6 months, but then I have people who already booked a year in advance to be on the podcast. So then he's like, yeah, this is a business, not, not just the hobby that you keep putting money into. So then I started, honestly, that was less than 2 years ago. And that's when I started getting involved in the actual community, researching, starting to talk more to other podcasters, going to podcast conferences. Really learning about this as a business, not just a craft. And so that, that was how I got into it, and it's one of the best things I've ever done.

You know what's crazy? Some of the listeners already know this, but like, your journey and mine, we're like, we're like brother and sister in one.

I know, like aligned spirits.

I don't know if I mentioned this to you at any point or brought it up on your podcast, Your Brand Amplified, but My first episode on the business show was November of 2020.

No, was it really the same?

We did a 22-episode launch. We did an episode a day, 5 days a week, all of November. So a 22-episode launch. It was a networking tool. I was just putting episodes out. Um, and what's crazy is like, I just podcast for fun, and it really wasn't until I think we— yeah, we met at Podcast Movement like a year and a half ago.

A year, a little over a year ago.

August, a year ago.

Yeah.

And that was the first time I had ever been to a podcast conference. Like, I just recently started getting up on the industry. I'm like, music promoter. So you, you said you were in the rave scene?

Yes. Uh, if anybody remembers, which probably nobody listening does, Details magazine.

I don't know.

Um, okay. So it was a men's magazine, Maxim, Details. They were all the popular magazines in that era. Aging myself. So this is probably 1990, early 1993. I had just graduated a little bit early from high school. My, um, I was 18. My boyfriend was 24. He threw the rave scene, or he was the person who threw all the raves in Kansas City. and we were in Details magazine. The shoot was on top of a rooftop and it was, they were doing something about raves across America.

Yeah.

And so I was kind of the queen bee of the scene.

No way.

Um, then I started doing my own events, parlayed that into moving to, you know, then doing events, helping host events in St. Louis, Chicago, moved to Chicago to be a club promoter. Did that look—

How many places have you lived?

Oh my gosh.

Oh my gosh. I'm trying to like, I'm creating like a log in my head and I'm like, I'm getting, I can't remember them all anymore.

Kansas. I didn't live in St. Louis. We'd just go there because it was a few hours away. Kansas City. I grew up in Lawrence, Kansas. Go Jayhawks. Uh, so Lawrence, Kansas City, Chicago, Los Angeles for the first time, San Francisco to launch a dance music magazine, uh, in 2000 and Xbox Magazine and a whole bunch of other stuff. Back to LA, to Houston for 8 years, back to LA in 2019. And I'm really getting into my nomad era. So I have dual citizenship with Thailand and the US. My daughter's about to, you know, this is her senior year. She'll be out of the house.

Awesome.

So I will be spending time wherever she goes to university cuz it's likely not to be anywhere around here. Um, I'll be spending time in Thailand. Also be spending time, my partner's family is, they're from Philly. Go Birds. And so we'll be spending time there to be close to his parents. And so I'm really looking at how do I design everything I'm doing and have that lifestyle, but have really strong systems and workflows in place. So all the systems and workflows that we built out to make my podcast run smoothly, I put out most weeks, I put out 5, uh, episodes a week right now because I just have a lot of content to share. Um, and I, every single one is an interview. With somebody else, right? So I have a team that has to get so much— I have a team that has to edit all of those episodes, has to get an, a folder to every guest of assets for every single one of those episodes, do all the different stuff. Plus now they're working on the podcast that I produce for other people. So I, I have to have a very strong machine before I can do those life goals, right? Where I can take time off.

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There's a fire inside you you can't ignore. Stand still?

Not a chance.

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I sold my car on Carvana last night.

Well, that's cool.

No, you don't understand. It went perfectly. Perfectly. Real offer, down to the penny. They're picking it up tomorrow. Nothing went wrong.

So what's the problem?

That is the problem. Nothing in my life goes as smoothly. I'm waiting for the catch.

Maybe there's no catch.

That's exactly what a catch would want me to think.

Wow, you need to relax.

I need to knock on wood. Do we have— what is this, table wood?

I think it's laminate.

Okay, yeah, that's good. That's close enough.

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The personal question How did you build a team with the capacity to do that? Because that's impressive.

I have a very small team.

Yeah, 2 people. They're full-time?

No, they're becoming full-time. They're good. They are good.

My team is the best. We— I truly believe we put out the best quality content I've seen other than like Diary of a CEO and like the big name stuff. Um, but we can't put out podcasts that quickly. It takes— this takes us longer.

Yeah, well, I think a lot of it is, um, I, I don't know how many episodes in you are. I'm at about 650 recorded episodes for this podcast, plus I have another podcast at USC that's 100-something episodes in, plus between the two other podcasts I probably had another 150 maybe more than that episodes. So at this point, there's not a lot of guests who come on who need much editing, which is very, very helpful, as you know. Um, so it's pretty streamlined now. I will say, we— something we talked about, I think, on my podcast was that I am audio first. Or maybe we talked about this in between podcasts. I'm audio first, so I am going to start upping the video Yeah. Value. But that's something that's going to happen over time and strategically and methodically, not all overnight. And now I have, because I teach grad school at USC in digital media, I have students who want, I have students who have been in production for 10 years and say, hey, now I really wanna dive into analytics. Great. You can come intern for me. We can figure out what, you know, if you can, sometimes some of them can take pay, some of them can't for whatever reason. So I can have somebody be trained on analytics. Another person's like, I really want to get more into the social media side of things. Great. Here's where I want to be. Here's what my content looks like. Create a plan based on what you're seeing and what you've researched. So it's not me spoonfeeding, it's actually giving them learning opportunities that I can then say, okay, now I can allocate this part of my budget. And for my business, I've done a lot of work with my favorite AI tool, Claude, to work back and through, like, work through. Here's what the profit margin needs to be so that I can actually make a living. Here's what I'm paying people right now. Here, what's— where's the slush? How much should I put into this part of the business based on— because I subscribe to a lot of tools now and resources from not just for myself but for my clients, because I want to make sure that I'm giving them the best experience possible. So, um, I look at strategic investments, you know, like when you started your business, you didn't know how to business. I'm great at talking to people. I can start businesses all day long because I have lots of ideas. Yeah, but I'm not necessarily smart about the financial side and where to— how much money to save, how much money to not spend on team. Well, now I— because I've had to learn, but I've taken this journey It's been a road, right? But now I am being smart and methodical, so I'm not scaling up too quickly. I'm implementing the right people strategically at the right time, and then I will continue growing. And I already have identified what positions I really need to fill, right? How much I need to pay those positions. Are they going to be overseas people? Because I have— there— I have an overseas team that is highly, highly skilled, very professional. And I wanna make sure that I, I pay them whatever they need to be paid or want to be paid so that they have great lives and don't have to work for anybody else or worry about things. But I also have US team members. I have US editor, you know, I have editors here and there. I have team members in both places, so I need to make sure everybody's getting what they need, but I also have to make, take care of myself first. And that's something that's taken a long time to learn. So we've gone on a lot, like, I hope people do listen to these episodes back to back. Because we have gone down so many, you know, little threads.

Little threads. Yeah. I'm just thinking, I just a moment ago, I'm like, our storylines, I feel like we're like siblings from another mother. But you're kind of like, um, the opposite in this regard because I feel like I'm successful despite myself. I do not know what I'm doing half the time. And you're like I'm getting my master's, I'm working at an institution, I'm a badass, and I actually quit my job strategically knowing that I need to make X amount of money. Like, you have a plan, and if I could just take your brain and implement it to what I'm already doing, well, I'd probably be a billionaire overnight.

Like, I am happy to honestly, like, let's sit down and talk about it. I mean, it's— this is not something I do as a business service. So this is not something I'm trying to sell, but friend to friend, yeah, let's do this.

Well, there might be a way we could work together on something too. So then this is me just like shooting the breeze with you, but I'm happy people are listening to it. Like, I'm good at building relationships, I'm good at learning, I'm a good student, I genuinely care. Um, the technical aspects, sometimes I get overwhelmed or I get distracted and then I end up in la-la land and never get it done. And if I had someone like you in my corner, I feel like we could get anything we wanted done in the world.

Yeah. Oh, well, and I, I've also strategically, like, I've worked with a Zen monk for the last 2 years. That's a whole other conversation we need to have because there's a lot I'm doing to build up his brand and company, and I'm a partner in it. So I'm not even talking about that, but to forgive myself, to forgive other people in my pa— you know, to do go through these different exercises to get myself prepared for the next phase. I have an ADHD coach because I knew that if I'm going to succeed this time, I have to be able to really focus, not get distracted by all these other business opportunities that are out there, because there are always other business opportunities and things that you love doing, right? Um, and so that has been so helpful. And I have a couple other people down, like I have an NLP coach who Wants to do stuff with his podcast. So we're gonna do a little bit of trade services of me coaching him, but him coaching me because I've only worked with him twice. And, um, and it really did like, right, increase what I could do. So I love talking to people and learning hacks and helping each other grow. So let's do it because so that way next year, next year I will be, I will make at least $1 million podcasting. Between the business and my brand. So let's, let's do that for you too. Everybody heard it right here, right now.

See, pretty confident too.

I'm 100% confident. Well, come on next September.

I listen to vocal tonality and there was like no uncertainty in that statement.

There's none. There's none. Because now I'm so focused and I, because I'm really living presently and where I'm supposed to be and doing the thing that I'm supposed to be doing.

Yeah.

So there is this certainty. It's crazy because I'm feeling it all right now, like this wave of light and energy. And I, I, because I can see the projections and I know what's going to happen.

So I'm, I'm in your corner rooting for you.

Let's do it.

I know we talked.

I've not had this conversation, by the way, on any podcasts or where I say, let's do this. We have our separate journeys, we have our journey together, but we're both gonna break a million dollars from podcasting alone next year.

That'd be fun.

Like easily.

I'm gonna have to camp a little less, but I could probably do it.

You don't have to camp that much less. You don't have to camp that much less. I, I take the summers off to travel with my daughter. Um, to get her, like this summer I was gone for 5 weeks in the UK, got her cuz she did a summer program at a university. In Canada, she did a summer program. So I taught at 1 or 2 in the morning for USC. I didn't record any episodes. I barely had any meetings because I needed to, you know, it's hard to travel and fit everything in. But my intention is to have that where I'm taking the entire summer, I'm taking big swaths of time off where I'll have strategic meetings for clients, but where I have so much trust in my team. So that's a whole other conversation, We can— I mean, we've— yeah, we have so many more conversations, Ben.

We're gonna have to do another two-parter. I know you're— you have to see your ADHD coach, so I want you to be able to go talk to them.

Thank you.

Um, but we just did a two-parter. Um, it doesn't matter what order you listen to it, so if you just listen to this, go check out Your Brand Amplified.

And vice versa. I will have—

yeah, you're not talking about for a moment. This is actually— we're gonna play a rap song from the conversation. Anika— I almost butchered it.

Anika.

Anika. Oh my God, I knew I butchered it. That's what happens when I try not to butcher it. And what else? I mean, is there any other way we can support you and stay in touch?

Oh, listen to— please listen to the podcast. Make it one of your downloads. That is honestly the best thing you can do to support me. If you do want to learn more about building your podcast or being, you know, we didn't even talk about some of the other stuff. There's a number of ways that I, I really just want everybody to see their light and to realize what they can do to be their fullest selves and give that gift to others through their product, their service, their company, their brand, the message that they have that's unique. So how to just reach out to you, uh, where LinkedIn honestly is the easiest place to source I, I am working on my own branded website, which is really important for everybody to have these days. Um, yeah, but, uh, either your branded podcast or LinkedIn, my name, it has my Delphi, so you can talk to my digital twin. There's time to schedule, um, time with me. You can listen to episodes, you can subscribe to my LinkedIn newsletter, all the things.

So they listen to the podcast, now they can go talk to your digital twin. And if they're feeling really brave, they can come and say hello, and you're easy to talk to, so you'll respond and help them in any way you can. Yeah, well, let's do another two-parter again. We'll figure out when, um, and this was fun. I appreciate you coming on the show.

Oh my gosh, thank you so much. It was such a pleasure and delight, and the energy exchange going on right now is amazing.

I agree. We'll do it again soon.

Yeah, thank you, everybody.

This is pedagogy, not performance. I teach the why, not just the tools. Let the AI help, but we stay the source. We build with care, not just move fast. Day one, I asked, how does this make you feel? Some said fear, some said fake, some said real. We start with prompts, not just outputs. I want them lead, not just keep up. Over time, I watched it shift, reflections deeper. Phone got Swift, it helped me think. They said it cleared my mind. Not shortcuts, just more room to find what matters. It's not about cheating the work, it's about designing a life that works. Uh, I built systems so I could breathe again, so I could show up whole, not just chase the win. So my daughter sees me free, not just spent. Joy is the KPI, that's how I win. The AI helps, but Don't lead the soul, still mind the vision, the speed. I made a digital twin voice trained off me. It can guide you through a launch strategy clean, but she don't know how I make my tea. She don't know what I felt at 3:00 AM last week. She's support, not soul. She scales what I've grown. I built her so I could slow down and still own Phone, brain, damn podcast. Small team, paid tight ops. Real lives, remote but brave. It's balanced, but not by chance. It's systems with vision. It's building with stance. This isn't hustle for the feed. It's alignment. It's what I need. Freedom with structure. Clarity with grace. AI as a partner, not taking my place.

Oh.

Oh, I built systems so I could breathe again, so my team could grow and my joy could win, so my students learn how to lead, not copy, so the future don't erase what makes us body. I teach with heart, I move with mind, and I support What's what I define. This is pedagogy. This is voice. This is living life I chose by choice.

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If you're early in your career and looking for insight, inspiration, and honest advice, listen to the Capital Ideas Podcast. Hear from Capital Group professionals about leaning into the differences that make you unique, making decisions that last, and what it means to lead with purpose. The Capital Ideas Podcast from Capital Group, available wherever you listen, published by Capital Client Group, Inc.

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If you're serious about leadership, legacy, and building wealth with structure, you need to check out the CJ Moneyway Show hosted by CJ Moneyway. This podcast features powerful conversations with entrepreneurs, doctors, strategists, and global thought leaders who break down what it really takes to win without losing your integrity. This isn't surface motivation. It's discipline, clarity, execution. If you're ready to think bigger, build smarter, and lead with intention, tap into the CJ Moneyway Show, available wherever you get your podcast.