EP 21: How AI Can Power Your Side Hustle

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Are search engines and Amazon going to die? Well, that's kind of what Bill Gates is saying. So that's one of the things that we're going to be talking about today on Everyday AI, your daily livestream newsletter podcast. Just information source to help you understand and actually use AI. Very excited for our guest today on the show. So Janice Polk is the founder of Clarity Based Marketing. Janice, thank you for joining us.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to talk with you. This is one of my favorite subjects.

Oh, I love it. And, and Fred, Fred behind you. Thank you, Fred, for joining us.

Yes, yes. He's, he's judgy, but he's, but he's, he's peaceful.

All right, so if you, if you're listening in the podcast, you know, later, Janice has a picture of a alpaca before. And he is judging me. He's, he's looking directly at me. But it's great. It's great eye contact. So I'm here for it, Fred. Cool. Let's, let's get into the show. Let's get into some of the AI news. And just as a reminder, this is a live stream. So if you're joining us on whatever social network you might be watching, probably LinkedIn, please feel free to drop us a comment. If you have a question for Janice or anything that we're talking about, go ahead and put that out there. So let's talk a little bit about what Bill Gates said. Are search engines dead? So he actually, in an article today, said that AI could become so powerful that people would never need to use a search engine again. Janice, what's your take on this?

I agree. I agree 100%. I've been saying that. I started saying that the first of the year and, you know, you cannot deny. You just can't deny it. You can ask a question. What do we do when we go to a search engine? We ask a question. And I hardly use search engines myself anymore.

Oh, I love that. I love that. We're in the same boat then. I've been trying to wean myself off normal search. So you, you, you as well.

Yes, yes. I mean, I have so many different ways to use AI that you. I mean, let's face it, everybody has an AI tool now. Everybody is powering with AI. It's, it's absolutely going to. It. It's going to hurt them. It's going to change the Internet as we know it. Yeah, it's already doing it.

It's. That's, that's a good point. Yeah, I guess, you know, as more and more companies offer AI, it does kind of make it easier to avoid traditional search if you're trying to do so. So another crazy thing happened yesterday in the world of AI. So this was in our newsletter, but it didn't happen until yesterday afternoon. So it was in our afternoon newsletter, so now we have to talk about it. But. So there was a fake image that circulated online, caused a little bit of a stir, showing an explosion at the Pentagon caused so much of a stir on social media and news sites that didn't fully vet this photo and kind of ran with it. So even the markets in the US took, took a pretty deep dive for, you know, about an hour. So, you know, here's another example of AI images just, you know, causing a huge stir. Janice, what's your take on this?

I, you know, it, it makes me a little nervous, to be honest. You know, I wasn't aware that that had happened until you, until you mentioned it. And I had a conversation with somebody just yesterday about deep fakes and, and how they stand to really disrupt things like voting, elections, a lot of things. And that's a great example. There are a lot of people who get triggered very easily by things like that, and the fakes have gotten better and better. You know, there was a time when I would get emails, your virus emails, phishing emails. And I would know, I'd open that email and be like, nope, next, not today, Satan. And now, you know, I've come close. There's been a couple of times that I've come close to getting got. And so even people who feel comfortable in their ability to decipher between what's real and what's. What's been faked, I, I don't think it's. The lines are blurring and it's going to be more and more difficult. So what happens when chaos breaks out over something that's AI generated? What. What happens?

Yeah, yeah, I think, you know, we got a very small taste of it yesterday. But, you know, you do bring up a good point, especially in the political atmosphere. And, you know, to mention this was actually at least initial reporting is saying that this was maybe not perpetuated. Maybe perpetuated, but it was spread by a lot of, you know, Russian state media, Russian state social media. So, you know, even internationally, you know, I do think AI poses a huge risk you know, politically, but also domestically as well. You know, there's, there's already been, you know, political, you know, large political parties that have used at least AI generated images in their, you know, in the, in, in their messaging. So it's, it's going to be tricky. You know, Janice, like you said, like, to, to quote, unquote, fall for these things when, when the quality becomes, you know, it matches real life. Right?

Yes. And, you know, I've thought about it a lot and really, the only thing, there are a lot of people who are saying, stop AI. Stop AI. You can't stop it. It's. The train is out of the station. It cannot be stopped. So what is the solution? And really, the solution is only. There can only be one solution, and that is education. Yeah, yeah, that's, that's, that's it. Right.

Yeah, that's, you know, one of the, one of the small things we're trying to tackle here on the Everyday AI show is just letting the everyday person know these things exist. Because, you know, a lot of times, if you aren't following it as closely as you and I, Janice, you might not know that there's. Yes, these deepfake image generators. Deepfake everything now with AI. So, speaking of image generating, Adobe just announced this morning that they're officially getting ready to add their AI image generator, Firefly, into Photoshop. So if you are a Photoshop user, you're going to have some added functionality soon. So, you know, on the show we've talked a little bit about, you know, software such as Dall E or Mid Journey, that essentially lets you enter a text prompt and, you know, get a beautiful image. You know, doesn't take a lot to get something beautiful. So now this is coming to Adobe and their creative suites. So, Janice, how do you think this is going to, you know, shake the industry? Or will it maybe not?

Oh, I believe it. Absolutely. It's already shaking the industry. All of AI is shaking every industry. And what you're talking about right now directly hits the, you know, the graphic design industry. And it reminds me so much, you know, I ran a photography company in the early 2000s, and when we opened that business, it was an action photography company. And obviously we were using digital cameras. But what I didn't realize when we started the business was that that digital photography had just hit the industry. And so the film photographers were losing their minds, absolutely losing their minds. And a large percentage of them abandoned the industry altogether because they didn't feel comfortable adapting or they had an ethical conflict with Adapting. And it reminds me of that so much because what's happening right now is these graphic designers, people who make their living that way, or are having to decide how they feel about this and whether they're going to incorporate it into their work or whether they're going to stand on the mountain with a flag and say, you know, I say no, and again, the train's out of the station.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. You know, Omar, thank you for your comments. Needing to educate people about tech and AI. Absolutely. You know, Janice, I do want to talk a little bit now because, you know, you brought up a great, I think, parallel, you know, running your, you know, photography company when digital was kind of just breaking in. So with your business, you know, clarity based marketing, I'm sure clients or individuals are asking you about AI, you know, so what's your thoughts? Are there parallels we can draw from the film or, sorry, from the photography industry, going from film to digital, or do you think it's not even going to be comparable to that as the everyday company starts to either embrace or fight off AI?

Well, I think that it is comparable. I think that it does that. There are some good lessons that we can learn by looking at that transition to digital photography. Because it started small and it grew bigger and bigger until it totally transformed that industry. I bet that you could probably stop for just one second and tell me at least three people that you know personally that are either digital photographers or they have a side hustle shooting photos, Right?

Oh, oh, right, yes, right.

It allowed people who had a passion for photography but not an eye with film photography. I was one of them. I have always loved photography and I was a horrible photographer. And until I could look in that little screen and take 500 pictures to get that one that I wanted. And so AI, I see AI is very similar because it allows people who have a passion for something to cut a huge learning curve and jump right in at at least an intermediate level in that particular arena. You know, whether it's copywriting or whether it's any imagery or creating business plans, I mean, I could go on and on and on and on with the things that AI can help you do better.

Yeah.

And it doesn't. I'm sorry, this is a subject that I'm so passionate about. You'll have to be like, okay, Janice, that's enough.

We need it. We need the passion.

It is, it really is incredible. It's so exciting to me because, yes, there are some downfalls. You know, there are some things that you have to be aware of and you have to plan for like Omar said, you know, we have to educate people about technology with AI and how it can be used responsibly. And in my opinion, that's the key is teaching people how to use it responsibly. Because unless you use it responsibly. Okay, so this is a little bit sensitive. So you may have run across someone who is now a digital photographer on the side who is really terrible. Have you ever seen a side hustler who's a photographer and you look at their pictures and they post them all over the Internet and you go, oh, absolutely, absolutely right.

It's so easy to spot. So I haven't talked about this on the show, but I was a former photographer. I've taken probably about half a million, about half a million photos in my life and you can instantly spot them. You know, it's, it's, it's the wrong camp, like the wrong lens for the wrong situation. It's like, oh, you have the on camera flash up when you don't need it. It's easy to spot, right?

Yes. And it's going to be the same way with AI. It's going to be the same way.

You know, this is actually a great question from Hamza here in the comments. So, you know, saying, hoping that AI will be accessible by all of us. The latest one, not needing any kind of subscription. AI is totally emerging in all industries so it should be in everyone's hand. Hamza, that's, that's a great comment. And actually Janice, I'd like to, you know, play off that because you also, you know, you have a lot of things going on. So we talked about the photography company. You have your, you know, your full service marketing agency, but you also have a community of side hustlers. So two Hams has point. How can the everyday person use, you know, get that AI technology in their hand and start to, you know, grow maybe a side hustle or even a small little business out of it? Like what are your recommendations?

Well, that's actually something. That's exactly why we created the Hustle Hive Cooperative. So it's in its infancy. We have a handful of people who are collaborating right now to, to build it. And it is designed to support people who want to create a side hustle or have a side hustle and provide them with tools that they can use, training and actual resources. There are some AI systems we all know, chat, GPT. You can use that without a, without a subscription. It's slower but you can. And there are so Many. Have you seen the new plugins in Chat GPT? The plus, I was.

I was up until about midnight last night making. Making a list of them.

Yeah, It's. It's insane. It's overwhelming. So for. For me, in my opinion, the challenge is going to. Is not going to be access as much as it's going to be overwhelmed. Just like anything else that's digital, there's so much noise and there's so much chaos and, and trying to figure out which tools are the best. I can't tell you how many tools I have used already that I've abandoned.

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. And because it's also so easy to make them from. From the developer side that there's hundreds or thousands of new ones a day, right? Yeah. Like, sometimes it's just you try it and you're like, no, no good. You know, on to the next. You know, Janice, one other question I had is so in the same way you talked about, you know, digital photography, open it up for anyone to be able to instantly be able to see what they're creating and improve upon it. Right. And I do think that there's obviously a lot of parallels you can draw with that to something like a Chat GPT. Right. Whereas before, it might take a long time to, you know, write a long paragraph or to write a little essay, and now you can get it almost instantly. So with that, you know, what maybe advice might you have? You know, if someone's listening to this on the podcast or maybe watching right now and is a little too. Too shy to leave a comment, you know, how can someone, if they have that passion, you know, what are some, you know, actionable steps that you might have for someone to take that passion and say, all right, let's turn this passion into a side hustle with blank AI.

Well, I'll be honest. The. To me, the most efficient path to that is actually to find a good mentor. That's because it is so overwhelming out there. It's overwhelming for me, and I feel very confident in my ability to sort through solutions to find the right one. It's kind of my magic, and it's overwhelming for me. So my advice to someone who is looking to start a side hustle wants to use AI to power it, is looking at all these reels on TikTok and Instagram about, you know, how you can make $10,000 a month in 30 minutes with AI. That's not true, by the way, but find a good mentor. Find someone who is in the space that you're interested in. And there are, there are mentors all over. I mean, LinkedIn, most people want to give back. Most people who are, you know, using something successfully enjoy sharing it. So look for a mentor and, and find out what the people in that industry are using successfully.

Yeah, that's, that's a great point because, yeah, there, there are people, you know, that are very new to this and they're just finding out about it, you know, for the first time. Then there's other people that have been using artificial intelligence for decades because, you know, even though ChatGPT has, you know, only been out for five, six months, AI technology has been out for decades. So that's, that's a great point you bring up. Janice, one other question I had for you. So even in your own personal journey, whether, whether it's through, you know, clarity based marketing or your side hustle group, maybe what's one or two practical experiences that you've had so far with AI that you can share with others? You know, things that, whether it's failures or successes, you know, what are some things that you've gone through? And you're like, hey, this is worth sharing, man.

I am so glad you asked that question. I was really hoping you would. I was looking for an opening to share this story and you just laid it out for me, George, what I'm here for. You're amazing. You're incredible. Okay, so I have to tell you this great story, and if this is not inspiring for someone to try AI, I don't know what is. So I was meeting with my business partner who is a personal safety instructor. She's fantastic. She runs an organization called Empower the Girls. Just a little plug for Ellen there. She's wonderful.

Plugged.

So we were talking and, and you know, we're, we're doing some things to move her forward. She used to do in person training and she's moving to more virtual training, workplace safety training, that sort of thing. And so we were meeting, we had a retreat a couple weeks ago and we were talking about managing her social media and pulling a side hustler in to help her manage her social media because it's become too much with all her other responsibilities. So we're at the table and I said, yep, we'll, we'll look at that. You know, here's a couple of side hustlers we could slide, slide into that. And she got up to go in the other room for something and I thought, you know what, let me just try something here real quick. And I pulled Up Chat, GPT Plus. I have a subscription and I have AIPRM installed. Just the free version. I haven't upgraded yet. I probably will. Aiprm. Do you use it?

Yep, it's the third party chrome extension. Just.

Yep.

The capabilities. And before the plugins, that extension was.

Oh, my gosh. Like, yeah. So yesterday I sat down, I was like, do I want to just stay with AIPRM or do I want to. And I might just stay with aiprm, but that's another discussion. So, so I jump on there and I look through, you know, all the options, and one of them was create 30 social media posts. And I said, let's try this. I had not done that, just simply because that's not what my daily responsibility is. And so I hadn't tried it. So I, I typed in there, you know, a decent prompt. Prompt engineering, that's another whole subject. And I typed in, I think, give me 30 social media posts for a personal safety instructor who helps women, young women in the workplace feel more secure and safe in 30 seconds. I kid you not, Jordan, in 30 seconds, I had 30 very appropriate captions with hashtags and suggestions for imagery, like, you know, two women giving a high five, a woman hiking up a mountain. And it was all appropriate. Now I would tweak it, you know, and that goes back to using AI responsibly, you know, but I would pull that out. I did pull it out. Pulled it out, dropped it in a spreadsheet, gave it to Ellen and said, here you go, sister. And in less than. Okay, I'm going to stretch it and I'm going to say, two minutes.

There we go.

Two minutes. She had that, and then I could show her how to go find the images that you want to connect to it, put it in a spreadsheet, and then upload it to a social media management platform so it plugs it right in to the calendar to schedule your social media and what, in less than three hours you have a month's worth of social media post.

Yeah, yeah. Such a, such a good example.

Come on. That was when I really sat up and said, okay, okay, okay. I can show people how to do this and how to make a living responsibly using AI as, as a tool.

Yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely a new frontier, so. I know, I know, Janice, we went a little bit over.

I know. Oh, my goodness, we did.

We could probably talk for another, like, three hours, but if you're still watching on the live stream. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Janice, thank you for joining us.

Yes, so much. I enjoyed it.

Fred, thank you as well.

Fred's yeah, he'll be okay. He'll come around.

All right. So just as a reminder, if you're still watching or listening, Please go to youreverydayai.com we're going to be sharing a lot of the things that Janice talked about, some more information that AIPRM extension for ChatGPT and also the fact that we are giving away a year long subscription to ChatGPT Plus. So please go to your everydayai.com check all of that out and we hope to see you tomorrow and every day on the Everyday AI Show. Thank you.

Thanks.

And that's a wrap for today's edition of Everyday AI. Thanks for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a rating. It helps keep us going for a little more AI magic. Visit your everydayai.com and sign up to our daily newsletter so you don't get left behind. Go break some barriers and we'll see you next time.