Smaller Budget = More Headaches

Business Brain, episode 589 for Casual Friday, October 11th National Spread Joy Day 2024. Greetings, folks, and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take a few ideas, we dissect them, we analyze them, sometimes we even rant about them. But it's all in serving the purpose of tuning our business brains every single time we get together. Our sponsor for this week is notion.com businessbrain. That's where you can go to try out Notion for free. It combines project management with all your docs, your knowledge base AI. They've got this beta connector thing that brings in your slack and all this other cool stuff. But we'll talk more about that in a little bit. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And out here in Lafayette, California, I'm still Shannon Jean.

Are you.

How you doing, man?

Yeah. Friday. I am Happy Friday to Happy happy.

Trying to be. Trying to find my notes to see. Oh, we're talking about AI to get started today.

Yeah. We have a new segment that. Well, it's a segment we've been doing for a little while, but now we have a name for it which might need to be workshopped because it's hard to say. We're calling it AI irl, which is AI in real life, because we. Or maybe it's mind your AI business or something. Like, I feel like there's. Yeah, there's a. There's. It's fine. But it's working on it. How we're using AI the in. In our businesses because we're. We're using it on a regular basis. And I came. I think it was me that came across this one. I think it was one of the MacGeekab listeners that turned me on to this engine called Freepik. F R E E P I K. That's right.

Okay.

And they have an AI image generator there. It. You can use it for free. You can also pay. They give you like 20 credits a day, which is 20 images a day. And the images that it generates are so much better than what I've seen from chat GPT.

Especially when it has people in it, right?

It has people in it. Yeah. And you can really describe. I described a band that I play and I didn't put in pictures of us, but I described the people sort of. And it. It like. It looks like people as opposed to.

You with your shirt off there.

It looks like me with my shirt off. That's right. Yeah. That's how I look.

Pretty ripped. Sweaty.

Yes. Sweaty and ripped. That's how I am at the end of every gig. But, like, you know, I. I told it to create, you know, two. Two guys podcasting, dude. And it looks. It doesn't look like you need.

No, no. But look at the shadowing and the.

That's the shine.

Like, it looks like my forehead with the shine on there. That's really cool.

Well, and. And like, yeah, the. The shadow of lights and stuff.

That. Look at that. That's big. That's good.

Yeah. If you're not watching this, if you're listening, really does a good job. And you can. You can try it out for free. In fact, I have not yet and have used it for. I used it for last week's Mac geek gab image. You know, we talked about smashing hard drives, and so I was like, all.

Right, well, that's cool.

You know, let's find some geek smashing hard drives in the kitchen. I don't. I forget. But it was like, combine the kitchen with hard drives and hammers and. And so, like, it just kind of started to come together. It was like, oh, look at this.

Really cool.

Like, it looks like somebody in the kitchen with eggs and a hammer and a hard drive and like, this never happened. And. Yeah, that's very cool. Yeah. So it's kind of cool.

I like it.

I'm stoked about Freepik, so we'll put a link to that in the show notes. We want to know how you're using AI, folks. So tell us first of all at FeedbackusinessBrain show, but also for those of you on Spot Listen on Spotify, Right. Going to attach a poll to this episode. How often are you using AI in your business? And we will make sure that we put an option for never. Because I believe that AI is evil. And I will tell you this. I don't necessarily disagree with you. However, what I currently believe is that if you're not using AI in your business, you have just given your competition.

Yes, exactly.

Leg up. And. And it's, you know, it's. That ship has sailed is kind of my.

Yeah, I. I agree. And so one of the. The AI, you know, services that I use is called Cast Magic.

Okay.

It's. It. It's amazing. It allows you to upload any audio or video, and it then gathers. Gleans all the data out of it and creates. Yeah, creates other things related to that content. It'll create social media posts. It'll create blog posts, LinkedIn stuff. It'll give you facts and allow you to create a little knowledge base from those things, and then it gives you control of that data. You can download it, you can do different things with it, and you can do it with an RSS feed. So I take a link from one of our older podcasts. If I'm trying to put together a concept to build it out, put it up in there. I really like it. They have a free version, which I think is great. It's definitely. I use it almost every day, probably every other day.

Amazing. Amazing. I love it. Yeah. I've got another one that we're probably going to start using for this show called Flow Send, but I'll save that for a future AI RL segment. And yeah, but send us what you have. Feedback at BusinessBrain show. All right, folks, listen. Have you ever felt like you're juggling 10 different tools just to keep your business brain organized? Well, drop those digital bowling pins and let me introduce you to our sponsor, Notion. You're in one workspace for total business brilliance. I've been using Notion with one of my businesses and it's fantastic. It's like somebody took a Swiss army knife and said, hey, let's make this digital and give it AI for days. Right? Notion combines notes, docs, projects, and tasks all in one beautifully designed space. And the AI, it's like having a personal assistant who already knows everything you've ever worked on. No more jumping between apps. It's all right. There's Notion. AI can search, generate, analyze, and even chat with you, pulling from GPT4 and Claude, which means you get answers fast, whether it's digging through thousands of docs or pulling insights from Slack discussions, Google Docs and more. And don't worry, your privacy is locked down tight. No data gets used to train the AI models. Right? This is important. So if you're ready to simplify your workflow, save time, and feel like a productivity wizard, try Notion for free. When you go to notion.com businessbrain that's all lowercase letters. Notion.com businessbrain to try the powerful, easy to use Notion AI today. And when you use our link, you're supporting the show. Notion.com BusinessBrain, Fortune 500 companies are using it, and so can you. Trust me, your business brain will thank you. And we thank Notion for sponsoring this episode. You know one thing about AI, Shannon, I, I use AI to craft all of the sponsor reads that we do okay for this show. And I know I'm delaying our second topic here, but this is important.

Okay?

I, I and I started doing it because I found that sponsors will send Us a list of bullet points. Essentially we call them talking points. And they'll say, you know, pick three of these five and include them or, you know, whatever, it's fine. Like all good. I found. And they say, make it your own. Which I would. Except every time I got the same list of talking points, I would do the same thing. Right. Because that's how normal brain your head.

Right?

Yes, exactly. And so it was like, well, they want a fresh spot every time, which is why they're doing this. But I'm not delivering a fresh spot. I mean, technically it's a fresh spot. I'm following the instructions to the letter and my intentions are pure. But my brain is lazy. Right. So that's right. I started using ChatGPT and, and now it mixes it up and it makes it great. And I even tell it so you can go back and listen to the spots and look for these things I tell it make me say something like appropriate but still sort of absurd like in the spot just to keep it interesting for all of us. Right. Which is fine. And I've gotten to the point where I really trust it and I read it cold now I record it ahead of time, so if it's trying to have me say something terrible, I get out of it. But as I was listening to that spot, which I know it sounds like it was just put in the show and it was. But I pre recorded it so that I could like tighten it up and make sure it sounded good and all those things because I don't want to stumble during ad read. It had me say trust me at the end. Oh, I don't like that phrase.

No, I don't like that either.

Yeah. And I just need to tell the, the AI don't use that.

Yeah. Don't use anymore.

Yeah, yeah.

Because don't use trust me or to. If I'm being honest.

Correct.

Any. Yeah, those are, those are not, not the right.

No, because it makes it sound, it makes it sound like, well, wait, should you not have trusted me before?

Correct. Causes the opposite.

Yeah, it causes the opposite. Yeah, exactly.

If you say truthfully to be honest or, you know, trust me, the opposite in your head goes, what? I can't trust you.

I can't trust you. I had a, an M and A advisor years ago who told me, don't say honestly, say candidly. And I was like, oh, I love that. I like that. Yeah, right.

Because that's good. That's really good.

It's really good.

Candidly, that's almost as good as your not Apologizing in the email, but went for a late reply, but saying, I appreciate your patience. Yes, dude, I use that all the time. It is my go to. I will never apologize again for, I.

Mean, two or three.

What's great is unless I really screwed up.

Yeah. I mean, I didn't screw something up, but I, it, it's my fault. It doesn't matter. Right. And so like, there was something we, like our organization screwed up today and I have to own it. And so that's normal. And so I apologize for that. But it meant so much. It felt, felt like it meant so much more because I'm not just throwing out apologies left and right. It's like, nope, I own this. We screwed this up. This messes with you. I'm sorry. And they even wrote me back. They're like, oh my gosh. Really, don't worry about it. It's all fine. It's all good. And it really was like, it was in the grand scheme of things, relatively minor. But it caused somebody a headache here in Q4, which is something that I try to avoid because I know everybody's running at full speed and I have created my own headache here. Shannon.

Oh, yeah, I can't wait to hear about this.

Yeah, I'm not going to share the. I'm going to protect the innocent. But of course, if you're listening, you know who you are on this. And please don't take this the wrong way. It's how things work in our business. But one thing that I have noticed over the years is that the amount someone is spending with us has. No, like the amount. The way we perceive the amount that someone is spending with us does not define how much customer service they are going to need. What defines that is how much that amount means to them. Right. So if somebody has, if somebody has a hundred thousand dollar budget and is spending a thousand dollars with us, they're going to want a level of customer service, but they're literally spending 1% of their budget with us. Right. So yeah, they're, they're spread pretty wide.

Their expectations maybe are lower or not. Not. Yeah.

Or they're more efficient or they're more savvy or they. Right. Like all of those things can be simultaneously true or interchangeably true. If someone's spending a thousand dollars with you of their thousand dollar budget, then it becomes that thousand dollars takes far more to service. And I will say that if the first person with the $100,000 budget is spending $15,000 with you, they're still going to be really easy compared to the one. And it's like, and it's Q4 and I've got this one client and I really want to get them across the finish line. I want, don't get me wrong, I value the sale and this particular sale, of course, actually important to me. But it, what's even more important is helping these people promote this product that they have come to market with and it's the first time they're advertising. Yeah.

They probably put their lifeblood into this thing.

Right? Yeah, absolutely have. And what they've built is amazing and I love it and I can't wait to tell the world about it. And so I hope all of this stuff comes to fruition. But. Oh man, like the text messages and the phone calls and I, we, you know, we, we spent an hour on the phone and now I need to go spend another hour on the phone. It's like, okay, well that's, that's if those two hours are approximately two hours more than I spent to. With for the $15,000 client. Right. Like, yeah, sure. And I think so disproportionate. And this is not a complaint, it's just an observation. Yeah. It is a frustration, but it's one that I create constantly. So. Yeah.

And I think as they're speaking of like customers, because there's that saying, of course, that, you know, a customer spends less, takes more time.

Yeah.

Easier. You know, they get maybe upset or requires more customer service. Customers that spend a lot of money tend to just blow it off or not, not blow it off, but just kind of easier to work with.

But, but it's about the percentage of their budget, I think.

Yeah. And that's, that's very true. And I also think it's the, the maybe it's an education or an more a better word for it is an experience thing. Maybe this is their first ad campaign for this brand new product.

Yes.

And they're stressed about it. They don't know how it's going to happen, but five products down the road, they'll probably be like, oh, you know what, we just do this. It ha. This is the way it works and it's going to be great. So it's, you have to build that experience level up.

Yes, yes, it's the experience level. It is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's. And both of those things can be a factor. Right. The percentage of the budget and, or the experience with what they're doing. I mean they might have a huge budget, but this is the first time say they're Sponsoring podcasts. And so yeah, this is a new thing. They can't just put it on autopilot yet. You know, they, they need to be in the system and all those things. And so it's like, yeah, yeah.

So how do you, how do you, how do you bring them along to where the next time they're more comfortable? Do you have to just educate them? Educate them about the process? Yeah, like, oh, we are going to play it. We're going to play what you want us to say. This is how it's going to work. These are the results you can expect. I mean, it's just that continually just, you know, sharing that process.

In fact, there was one moment they, you know, I sent them a. The campaign, like standard order, here's what we're going to do. And they came back with like these 10 things. We also want to make sure you, you know, mention it this way and this way and this way and this way and this way. Yeah, and, and most of it was like, yeah, that's going to kind of happen automatically. That's fine. One of the things was like a non starter for me and I understood what, what they wanted was. You know, they're going to by like a six month campaign. So one ad per month, right. In an episode. So okay, great, no problem. They're like, we want you to just like mention that we are an ongoing sponsor in every episode during that six month period. And I'm like, I get that. And candidly, I actually kind of like that. We used to do that on macgeek Gab where we had the people who were just on auto renewal. We mentioned them at the end of every episode. It was like, you got a little.

A little, another little nudge.

Another little nudge.

Yeah, yeah, that's cool.

And it was like, okay, you know, I like this idea. I'm not currently doing it. I might find a way to reincorporate it. This might be the catalyst to us reincorporating it. I like it. It's something we used to do. It kind of went away. No reason it can't come back. We didn't intentionally do away with it because it was bad. I think it just sort of. The market changed, right? And now the market has changed again. So it's like, okay, I like this idea. I said, but I can't. I'm not going to put it in the contract because I don't want to commit to it. Because if I just did it without it being a new thing that we're doing for everyone that's in this boat, it's going to seem ham fisted. My listeners know who I am. They want.

It's got to be natural. It's got to be natural. I struggle with the ads too. Like, that's why I love it. Like when we have notion, Shopify all the, I mean they're just like, boom, man. This is a text expander. Those are so useful for our, especially our entrepreneurs and, you know, small business owners. It's, it's terrific.

So I did use the phrase trust me in an email to them, but what I said was I'm not going to include this and here's why. It, you know, all the reasons I just said, I said, but I want you to get promotion. So you're going to have to trust me that I'm gonna make that happen.

Yes.

Yeah.

And, and it's. You want it to be natural because.

Yes.

That you're, that gives your message and the advertiser's product or service more credibility.

Yes.

You want it to be natural, you know, for sure.

Yeah.

So, yeah, it's fascinating. I, I, you know, I love customers that don't spend a lot of money too. Especially when you're starting out. It's a new venture, new business.

Yeah.

I mean those people help you learn, you know, the ones that you're going to make 50 bucks or whatever it is. I really value them and I think it's just over time as you get busier with other stuff your, your customer service department gets, it's easy to. This is one of the things that I don't like about being in business. It's easy to get cynical.

I was just going to say jaded customers.

Yes, it's jaded and cynical. And I would, I really went out of my way to walk. And when we were doing customer service training or even in our warehouse, it's like, hey, you have to talk about the customers with respect because it, it kind of permeates your whole culture. And if you're ripping on your customers because of, there's only a small percentage that usually drive you crazy.

Right.

But if you, if that becomes the tone, it can really damage the way you interact. And some people don't know how to turn it off. And they may say things a little snarky to a customer and that's the last thing you want. So excuse me, you can have your, your jokes or whatever, but you also have to recognize the great customers, you know, and talk about how, man, 98% of them are just awesome, you know.

Because you can damage, take A minute. Like you're talking about internally with your staff. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Not. Yeah, just internally.

Yeah.

Because if, if you're complaining about a customer all the time or it's natural, we're humans, you're going to gripe about certain things.

Yeah. But be aware if, yeah.

If the tone is negative, it's going to come across in the copy. You write your website.

No, this has been terms and conditions. This has been good therapy for me. No, this is good because I needed this. I knew all of this. But it's like today they've been peppering me with all kinds of things and.

It'S like, yeah, you have to love them, man.

Because I do. That's the thing is, it's like, I do love them. I'm super stoked about this.

But it drives, they drive you nuts.

But what I don't have is extra bandwidth to just give them, you know, I have to remember that the size of this campaign is what it is. I've already spent more time on it than I will any. Every other dollar that we have made this year.

Yeah.

But I, I need to be. What I'm balancing is I, I'm not upset with them.

Sure.

What I. Where my frustration comes from is I cannot carve out the time that they are requesting. And maybe that's what I need to tell them. Like, hey, like, I really want to make this work.

Yeah.

And I know you're excited. I have to maybe not saying I cannot. That's because that's negative. I. Because of all the things I do, I must compare or I do. I compartmentalize my time. And so now I'm be able to spend time looking at this where I wasn't earlier today. And that's simply true.

Yeah, that's okay. And also, maybe in like, I, I find I have a similar thing where, you know, posting on X and trying to give away information and be valuable. You get certain people that like other people, like, hey, I want to pay you. Can we jump on a call right now? Like, yeah, here. It's for an hour. Okay, great. Well, if I have, you know, here's my calendar. But you have other folks that are awesome, but they just hammer you in the comments into DMs. And I don't want to get to the point where I'm like, oh, I can't even pay attention to those DMs.

Right.

So I'll give them a little information and they'll say, hey, you know, if you want to hire me to assist you, here's the next step. And so maybe laying it out in your. Here's what you get with this ad campaign. We anticipate spending X amount of time helping you set up this and doing this so they get a better idea of how it works. You know, maybe you have to maybe do a loom video or something where they could watch it and go. Especially for a new person that needs their handheld a little bit more. And there's, like you said, they're super valuable. You want them to succeed. That's your business.

It is.

But educating them how this is going to work and to, you know, we got this. Maybe more than, trust me is we got this.

Yeah, I think. I think this is going to have to be an I appreciate your patience moment.

I got it, dude. I got it.

Well, I mean it. Because it's true. I do appreciate their patience.

Of course.

You know, of course I want to create scenario that's not frustrating for anyone. And so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep.

Yeah, I do, too. And I just want to recognize how I'm stoked that there are 425 streamers.

Oh, we almost made it through an episode without you talking about X. I was gonna.

No, I didn't say. I just know people watching the streamers. I wasn't gonna say it. I talked about x like 5 times.

I can't help it.

It's fine. That's my. That's, you know, I'm building on one platform or another. But. But yeah, we appreciate you, you know, following along. If you have questions for us, hit us up on X or feedback at businessbrain show. We. We love talking about things you want to hear. You know, we do this show because we love getting together and talking about small business, entrepreneurship, AI deals, whatever. It's awesome. So let us know what you want to hear so we can talk about it.

Yeah. Feedback at BusinessBrain show like he said. Or follow him on X. Shannon Jean or me. Dave Hamilton at. We have at Shannon Jean at Dave Hill. I think they know what we mean. But if not now, you do. Have a great weekend. Keep living that charmed life. We'll see you next week.