142: AI-pocalypse: Navigating the Brave New World of Artificial Intelligence with Elizabeth Ruth

Foreign.

Welcome to the Course Creators MBA podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Destiny Kopp and I help business owners increase the revenue with digital products and evergreen sales funnels. In this podcast, we go deep into product and marketing strategies for digital product creators. We cover everything from digital product creation, how to market and sell your digital products, and just as important, how to find your ideal customer. Let's jump right into our show.

And my special guest today is Elizabeth Ruth. Elizabeth is a marketing strategist and content writer with ER Marketing Services, which is founded by Elizabeth her and she offers marketing strategy, design and content writing for online businesses. We recent she recently launched her marketing with AI Academy and in this her goal is to help businesses establish themselves as experts in their industry and build strong relationships with their audience. And today I'm going to be talking with Elizabeth all about AI. It is absolutely exploding in our industry. I'm using it every single day, all day long. And I'm sure that you are too, or you want to if you're not using it now. So we're going to be diving into this. And Elizabeth, before we jump into all the questions I have for you, can you tell the good audience a little bit more about you and how you got started and how you got started in AI and really focusing on that? Yeah.

Well, thanks so much for having me, Destiny, and for everyone who's listening. I started my marketing agency officially in 2018 because I love research and you know, starting from my education, I have an English degree and there's a lot of research in reading and processing and then outputting your thoughts. So critical thinking is what I really like. And marketing seemed to be the way that I could marry my love for reading and communication and writing as well as researching. Because marketing, even pre AI, it's an ever evolving beast that is happening. So when I saw that AI was coming out, I knew it was going to be a trend and I just, I got really excited about it because it's a tool that will use my existing skills and you know, 20 plus years experience my writing. I still get to do that, but as a solopreneur, I am no longer in my office by myself trying to have a brainstorming session with just me, myself and I. Now I have a partner who I can use to help me generate ideas and just get the ball writing. So there's no, there's, well, I won't say no more, but there's less of a fear of the blinking cursor or the blank page to get me started now that I have tools available to me.

And I like what you said. You have a partner that's kind of sitting next to you that's kind of, you know, helping you along if you would. And you're not sitting there just looking at that blank screen. And you know, that is so very true. I, this morning I was putting together a broadcast email for my list and I was looking, I opened up ConvertKit because that's what I use and I was looking at the screen I like, you know what, I need to go get my AI writer to help me with this. I know what I want to say, but I just need some prompts to help me get started here.

Absolutely.

For those of you, for those of them out there who may not be very familiar with what we're talking about, you know, I don't know where they've been because it's been absolutely exploding in this industry. Can you tell us a little bit more about what AI is and how is how it's being used by online business owners like us, people who have online courses or memberships or maybe group coaching programs? How are we using it?

Absolutely. Well, essentially I feel that AI is leveling the playing field. It's enabling businesses of all sizes with all budgets to effectively reach and engage with their target audience. And I think the term AI is it has been in existence for a while, but we haven't called it that. So when you think about Google search or any search engine that is using AI powered search algorithm to analyze billions of web pages and provide the user with the most relevant results and it has become an essential tool for businesses to improve their online visibility. Right when we're updating our Google My business page and sharing our blog posts, trying to get them ranked using the SEO, this is all AI delivered. Now I do want to add a caution that although this is available to everyone, you still need to understand the foundations of marketing and what your goal is. Because if you want to give an effective prompt to get AI to give you the most informed output, you really have to understand your goal or why it is what you're trying, you know, what it is that you're trying to do and why you want that specific result and how you're going to implement it. So I'll talk a little bit more about how it's being used in the marketing world. Personalized content creation. So blog posting, social media posts, it can actually generate ads as well. Task automation in your email marketing and customer service. I use an add on for my Gmail. It's called Ellie E L L I. E. And it will write a response in, you know, do I want a casual tone? Do I want a professional tone? Like, what kind of, you know, respectful do I want? Am I interested in this offer? Am I not interested? And it's taking the place of what I would have had a VA do. And it's helping me really get through my email inbox. Because business, we need to talk to people and get back to them. Even chatbots on our websites, where we can answer responses instantly to customer questions and product recommendations based on preferences of past behavior. And then there's the analyzing customer data. What's their purchase history? What's their browsing behavior? Google Analytics is fabulous for this. If you want to know, someone comes in on this page, where do they drop off? So we can really see what the journey is, where we need to improve our websites, targeted marketing campaigns with higher conversion rates, how can we get them again? Where are people dropping off? If we're doing AB testing for ads, we can use that AI power to really see what people are liking and turn off the ones or stop creating ads or what have you that are not converting. So there's a lot of ways that we are using it, from content generation to interacting with the customer and then analyzing it.

So let's talk about the, you know, analyzing, analyzing it. So walk us through what that looks like. What are the steps? What would you do? What prompts would you use? What data would you input into the AI? And let's, let's just use ChatGPT as an example that we're using here. So walk us through how exactly that works.

Well, there are a couple different ways. Whether you're product based or if you have a specific package that you're selling, if you're service based, you can use it to analyze your own business or to compare to a competitor. And that's where it gets really powerful and how you really need to know your goals. What is it that you're trying to analyze? So if I'm trying to look at a competitor, I have a marketing with AI Academy, as Destiny mentioned, and maybe someone else is doing a similar course. I think what I did was I did it with Marie Forleo's B School and I gave the AI both of the URLs to the landing pages and I said compare and contrast the benefits, the pros and cons for joining this type of a program, put it in a table format and so I can see direct correlation of how you know you're understanding it. This is not exactly how the prompt Was but essentially the essence of it I laid out that I want to know how does it compare for. For benefits, for information that is on the page and for what value the potential member is going to get. And it did a beautiful job. Now some of it, this is where the key is. It's still a new technology to use in that sense. And ChatGPT, depending on if you have the free or the pro, the. The free one is using GPT3. The Pro one bumps you up to GPT4. So those are different levels of where the AI has evolved. Obviously four is more advanced, so be aware of that. But as I was looking I thought, oh, I don't have a guarantee. It's telling me that I do. So it made it up. But maybe I should. So where there were holes in it and I knew that that was a non truth, I was able to think, ooh, maybe I need to consider this and actually input it. And I like what it's suggesting. So that's how you can use it to analyze. That's just one example of many.

I love that one. And we know that. And I've promoted B school in the past, actually this year. And I know that Marie does a fabulous job with all of her marketing copy. So that was a really good example to show us. And I had never used it to do something like that. So thank you for walking us through. Are there any other kind of unique ways that we can use AI that we may not have thought about it? I think a lot of people listening, they know they can use it for email, they know they can use it for, you know, doing like social media captions or helping them with their sales page. What are some other unique ways I.

Have been playing around with having it write HTML code for website landing pages? It's. It's not great yet, but it's coming. And so I was doing a landing page and I wanted it to not only write the text but to lay it out in a feminine, you know, and clear. I think, I think I used the word minimal with, with feminine accent colors. And I wanted it to lay it out in a visually pleasing way that would give the customer an effective journey. You know, like the buyer experience from problem aware, agitate the problem and then give the solution. And it was okay, but it was a. Again using it as a starting point. I didn't end up using the code, but I did use a lot of the layout in terms of the, the content that they gave me that was really powerful. So that's one way. Another way you can use it again on analyzing your customers past purchases or their browsing behavior to create and then use that information to create new products or new services that you know and then they can recommend. I'm just trying to think using it as a partner. Let's go back to the partner theme. When you're, you're starting with brainstorming and say okay, these are my top selling products and products if you're a service based business, it could be a package. Okay, so just I'll say product but it's interchangeable whether it's a physical product or a service. You know, analyze my best sellers or, or give them specifically these are my top two sellers. I would like to create an evergreen product or a digital download version of this product or maybe an entry level product. So it could be perhaps you know, a 1999 access to a series of videos. It's like a mini module or a mini course. And then at the end you can make the invitation to, to your bigger offer. So that's how you can use it to help you get started. There are so many possibilities. I could talk about different options all day.

There's definitely a lot of different ways that we can use AI, no doubt about it in our business. I'm going to switch gears just a little bit with you and you know, something that keeps coming up and questions that I've had quite a bit in the past are, you know, what do I need to be concerned with from an ethical standpoint when using AI? We all know that the person at Google who kind of started all the AI quit recently and he's kind of raising his hand saying there's definitely some ethical concerns here. From your perspective, what should we be concerned with as online business owners? Owners as we're using AI in their business, in our business.

Yeah, for sure. Something that just came up that I read in the news of a problem that happened to, I believe it was Samsung and they had input some proprietary code, some information that was just for them and because they were using a, an open AI. And what that means is it's not secured, it's open to the public. And because of the way AI is a learning tool now that proprietary code was out there. So the first caution I would say is be aware of where you're inputting, what you're inputting into the AI. Is it secured? Because they could have easily, now this is on the edges of my knowledge just so that I can say, but they could have easily had an in house closed kind of like wi fi. How you could have a secured WI fi or an unsecured WI fi. There are different versions of having in house versus open chat. So that would be the first thing that you know. How is the data that you're inputting being used and is it being seen by other people if it's an open source? Another one would be data transparency and the privacy to how your customers data is being used and how their privacy is being protected. On many of our websites it's best practice to have terms and conditions that does include a privacy policy. So you should be aware of what you're inputting. Where is that going, how is that being used? And this is new territory. Again, this is on the edges of my understanding, but I know for myself I have business insurance that includes errors and omissions online. So as we're learning how AI is learning, taking it in, outputting it, how do we protect both our business information and our customers? And then I'll also give you another example of let's say we have a business owner who's launching a new clothing line or it doesn't really matter, you're doing AI targeted ads. You should be mindful of privacy concerns and avoid over personalization. I know back in the day when the, you know, the chats, the little chat bots were hi, how can I help you? When you go to a website and I was on there and it was creepy, I think someone was real time following my movements and they hopped in and said I see that you're real, you're interested in this page and you clicked away and if freaked me out. That's definitely an example of over personalization where it becomes stalkerish.

So what I'm hearing is we need to be very careful about the data that we upload into the AI. We definitely want, don't want to include any, for any of our customer data. Right. Because we're not, we're not supposed to be, you know, we shouldn't be sharing that. But even data from our company where we want to analyze it and maybe compare and you know, use AI to help us make decisions, we need to be very, very careful about what we share there.

For sure. It's still unknown territory.

So can you tell walk us through some challenges that you're seeing people have when they're you kind of getting started with AI or you know, maybe not getting started but trying to figure out how to use it effectively in their business and in their marketing.

Sure. I feel that what's happening is every day something new is being delivered. Bing has chat, Google Has a chat. You go into Canva, they have an AI I was using Grammarly, they have a beta version of AI which is cool, but it can be very overwhelming because what tool do I use? And I would say do your research, seek guidance from the experts, sign up for different newsletters or you know, join some kind of community where you have like minded people on Discord. I joined the OpenAI thread, so I'm part of that and I can chat with other people who are going through it because although we're saying yes, AI is your partner in brainstorming, we still need the human, the human side of it. So find communities where other people are trying to figure it out with you. It's not us versus the robots, but it's us understanding them because a lot of us are not the developers. We, we only see the interface to input. We're not seeing all the behind the scenes. And you know, what, what is it actually scraping? How is it actually going to use it? So when you understand how to use the technology effectively, that will really empower you to use it. And what I've decided to do is I have my chat of, of choice, I'm always in copy AI, that is what I use. They have a chat, they also have templates, they have a lot of tutorials on how to use it. And yes, I am aware of the other things because as a professional marketer who is teaching this in an academy, I need to know what else is out there.

However.

You still, you know, I'm just trying to stay in one lane, really become a master at it. And you probably heard this when you started with social media. We could be on all the platforms but the general recommendation is start with one or two master that be build a community there and then if you feel you need or want to, then you can branch out and play with the other ones. But if you, if you only have certain hours in the day, I know I'm present everywhere again because of my business. I need to understand all the different ones. But I have my preferred places that I go to once a day. I'm not on everything all day. I, I have my preferred platform. So that's what I would say to do is try not to get overwhelmed really master one and then wherever there are holes in what you're needing, then explore other options.

So Elizabeth, I know a lot of people out there are worried about AI taking away jobs. Do you see? I actually look at it a little bit different. I'm just curious as to what your, your thoughts on this are do you see AI actually opening up job opportunities? And if it, if, if that's the case, or maybe even, you know, new skill sets, if you would. What, what are those?

Yes, this is definitely something that I'm on a roller coaster. Some days I'm like, this is amazing. I'm gonna be such a better marketer. And then the next day I'm like, what am I doing? Just let AI take over the world. So this is something that I, I have, I have a lot of thoughts on a lot of feelings, and I do think that there's going to be a lot of people who, you know, it's just like marketing and social media, as I was mentioning it, and I'm trying to go back to this because it's something people understand. There's still a lot of, you know, it's ethereal, this AI thing still, because there's. The changes are happening so rapidly. But just like when you're marketing and doing social media, you do start doing it on your own, but the goal is that you become so successful at it, then you can outsource it to someone who has figured it out, who has the workflows, and you can just take it over for you, but still keep your momentum. That's what I think is going to happen with AI is it's a great tool. You should, you know, if you're working in a large corporation like McDonald's, if you're the president of the company, you should still know how to flip a burger, you should still know how to talk to a customer on the floor, or, you know, what's needed for opening and closing a shift. If you don't have that, there's a disconnect between the decisions you're going to make at a higher level. So understanding AI, playing around with it, getting the gist of it, but then being confident to go to someone. And this is the type of job who is an excellent prompt engineer. Because I know at the beginning it took me a whole day just to figure out what is the right prompt to get the right output. Well, now I've been saving ones that give me effective. And I have a bank of prompts based on what I'm trying to do so that I'm more effective. Not everyone is going to want to have the time to figure that out. I think also there is going to be, as I mentioned before, holes that you're probably going to see as a business owner that you need, and we can have an app to solve that. Maybe you be, you know, there's. There's people who are going to have to develop those apps and there's going to have to be, I think, ethicists, you know, ethical. What's ethical? How far do we take this? I think that's going to be a new industry. A lot of governments are really scrambling right now. I know Italy had blocked ChatGPT for a while. Now it's open again because so much learning of potential ethical, you know, based on different morals and values. How far do we take this technology? Elon Musk was for a moment saying, hey, hey guys. It's happening so fast. Let's everyone pause, you know, or like be mindful before you release it. Don't worry about being first to the gate. Do it, you know, because that is the thing. When something new is released, a new discovery, everyone wants to just release it. But have they tested the bugs? So there's going to be a lot of bug testers and I think that's where it's going to go. What do you think, Destiny? Do you have any others that.

Yeah, I mean, I definitely think some of the things that you mentioned, like the prompt engineers, you know, people are looking and I was thinking about for our audience here, you know, they have online courses, they have memberships, they have coaching programs. You know, there's a lot you can create around AI if you really wanted to dig into it and start learning. I know that you've done it with your, with your academy. But it could be as simple as creating a low cost digital product that has the prompts in there that people can take and use in their daily life. And you know, somebody who works in like the fitness industry or they help, you know, the fitness coaches, they could create some prompts that are very specific for that industry. So I think there's a lot of opportunity here for all of us who are listening here to think about and kind of strategize and think into the future. You know, how, how can we be not only be using this in our business, but are there things that we could be doing and maybe offering our customers where we can, you know, monetize it for sure. So Elizabeth, before we wrap it up here, do you have any last minute tips and comments for the audience?

I would say just keep your ear to the ground. Don't make it something that's. Well, because I've been playing with it. To be honest, it took me a week of six hours at a time trying to write five emails because I was playing with the prompting and I think that's important to do. But it was not a long term thing that I could have upheld where I could have written them in a day, you know, or half a day if I had just gone to my old tools. So, so in that I'd say don't be afraid to play with it, but realize when it's becoming a time suck versus a benefit because it's a new game, it's something shiny to play with and it can easily take you through a lot of rabbit holes.

And I, I will definitely raise my hand there and say I've been down those rabbit holes. Unfortunately, sometimes I just have to like stop and say, you know what, I'll come, I'll come back to that later. Yes, Elizabeth, can you let folks know where they can find you? And I believe you have a free gift for them also.

Yes. So you can find me on my website, er, marketingservices.com and in the top right corner in the footer I have all my socials. I am going to be creating the prompt type videos on TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, so dealer's choice if you want to follow me there. I'd love to share more as I figure them out. I'm going to be showing and I do have a guide for you. It's called AI Powered Blog SEO Secret. So basically, if you want to turbocharge your blog's success and discover how AI can help you increase your SEO and really write informed blog posts, you can go to Bit Ly Blog SEO Secrets and I know Destiny's going to drop the link below, but that can support your blog writing and see how you can up your SEO game until Google changes all the rules and says that they don't want it that way. But in the meantime it will help you based on best practices today.

And that's something I definitely want to check out and see how I can use AI more to help me with my blog in SEO. And Elizabeth, you know what I was thinking? I was thinking that you and I should put something on our calendar and circle back this time next year and talk about how much AI has changed.

I would love that. That would be amazing because we're like at the baby phases. I was talking to people just a couple weeks ago and they're like, what is AI? I was like, whoa. So you know, we have extreme levels of understanding. And I'm like, really? I live and breathe this.

Yeah. I mean some people are just hearing about it, some people have been using it for a few months. I know it really kind of exploded on the scene last year around in November when ChatGPT came out. That's really when a lot of people heard about it and started using it and started to playing around with it. But I do think we're going to see a lot of changes over the next year. So you and I, when we stop recording here, we need to jump off and schedule that and talk about it.

Definitely.

And Elizabeth, thank you so much for joining me and sharing all of your AI knowledge with us today.

Thanks for having me. I didn't realize I had this much to say about it.

Yeah, we could talk all day about it for sure.

Yeah, once you get into it, takes the right question, right?

Thank you.

Thanks for listening all the way to the end. If you found value in this episode, I'd love a quick review on whatever podcast platform you're listening on.

If you don't know what to say.

In the review, just say Destiny. I loved your episode on whatever topic you're listening to. This will help us get our content out to more people just like you. Have a great rest of your day and bye for now.