Episode 15: Embracing AI Tools to Elevate Creativity with Creative Marketing Director Val Madden

Welcome to season 2 of The Entertainment Business Podcast. I'm your host, Tisha Morris. Join me as we go into the business of entertainment, publishing, music, and all things creative, where you'll get inspirational interviews, informative trends, and practical tips. And with that, let's get on with the show. Welcome to today's podcast. This is your host, Tisha Morris, and today we're taking a deep dive into a topic that I know is on a lot of people's minds these days, and that is artificial intelligence and GenAI and ChatGPT and all of its, all of its friends that come along with it. So my guest today is going to help us unpack all of it. Val Madden is an executive creative director with over 20 years experience in leading marketing campaigns for global brands such as NBC, Amazon MGM Studios, and Prime Video. As a trailblazer in creative innovation, Val blends human-centered storytelling with GenAI to streamline workflows and craft emotionally resonant original content that engages audiences and drives business results. Val champions integration of AI into the creative process, and her unique perspective is shaped by the gifts of dyslexia, which has allowed her to spot patterns, solve problems, and develop fresh, innovative strategies. Through her consultancy, Val is building customized ChatGPTs such as PromptSeer Playground and Magstrata and other AI-powered tools for creative marketing strategy and campaign development. She is passionate about mentorship and helping others embrace AI as a transformational tool. And she is here to share her insights into how AI tools can solve pain points elevate creativity, streamline workflows, and empower us to navigate life purpose with clarity and purpose. Welcome.

Hey, Tisha. I'm so glad to be here. This is going to be a great conversation.

I know I'm really excited and I, you and me have spoken in person about some of these topics and since then, which wasn't that long ago, but it seems like in AI years, it seems like years ago because it's just so rapidly expanding day by day, and I know you're all in it and have your finger on the pulse. So I can't wait to dive in. I first want to introduce you to the audience a little bit through your background. You have been in the entertainment industry for well over 20 years on, uh, as a creative director, and I'd love to get you, for you to give us perspective of where you've been and where you are and where things are going.

Yeah, it's been, I can't even believe it's been that long, to be honest. It's blowing my mind and I've been talking about it a little bit, but it, it's This is the most magical time right now, I have to say, with everything that I have learned over my career so far and being able to really raise the bar. Because in any project I've worked on, I— that's what always my goal is, to create something that's never been seen out in the world, to really innovate, reach creative excellence. And really, my career has always revolved around storytelling through visuals. And since I have a foundation in graphic design and a degree from Art School of Communication Arts, That's what it's all about, is communicating out to the customer, to the audiences, the core essence of any product title or, uh, person or whatever it is that we're, we're marketing to get out and, and trying to get that all succinct and into the world. And so I, to do that, you always start with the customer and work backwards. And so I specialize in emotional resonant creative strategies for like key art, trailers, social content, and more like anything that goes into a 360 marketing campaign. I give context for folks who know what that is. And a key art, for folks who don't know, it's that poster that represents your film, your podcast, your TV show, your special, whatever it might be. And it's even that little chicklet that's on that you're scrolling and trying to figure out what you're gonna watch for a night. That has a whole nother mental exploration to be able to solve those. So that's where my whole world has been for quite a long time, and it's really the whole integrated marketing campaign that represents getting a film or TV show out into the world has been my bread and butter. And working with global teams, like every— people from agencies and our internal teams, but mostly agencies from all the world, whatever they're really great at, and getting that out and completed. Now I've taken all that information, and I know you mentioned it in the intro, and I have now, since I've dove into AI, I have figured out how to get my process that took me weeks, the creative strategy, the creative brief to kick off all the teams to start to ideate, to create down to a day. Wow. It is amazing. That's a 90% efficiency. And, and, and once you get the basic brief down to a day using tools like my favorite ones are ChatGPT and Claude and Perplexity because you're able to get all the data. And insights and audience insights in with this amazing brief. You're, and I use ChatGPT as my base, but then Claude is awesome to go get some fun taglines, more creativity and that kind of thing. So what I then did, and I'm learning every single day, Tisha, you even said it, I, every day I'm like, I go onto a new webinar. A lot of them are free. So anyone who wants to learn about this, there's so much free content. Don't feel like you have to go pay for those big brand name ones that are being thrown at you, say sign up or watch this or. Be part of it, which are thousands of dollars. And really you don't learn anything. It, cuz you really have to find out what you wanna learn for you and then go search for it. And YouTube is your friend for that. And then some of 'em you'll pay, but it's worth it. It's worth it cuz you at least you're learning what it is that you wanna learn for you. So for Max Strata, what I did is once I started to learn how to make a custom GPT, I put in all of my knowledge from all my years, wrote it, trained it. And now I use that to craft my briefs. It is, it's like seriously having a magic wand. It's amazing.

Wow. So you've customized your own process so that it can streamline even through AI. Did I say that right?

Yes. Yes. Yeah. So let's say you're, and this could be used for any level. If you're a creative director, if you are just entering the space and you're a graphic designer. Or an art director or a production artist, wherever you are in the food chain of getting content out into the world, or a producer, you can go in with that mindset. And one of the other things that's great about Maxstrata, 'cause I can't even tell you how much money and time has been wasted on campaigns I've worked on where you go through churn and people give subjective feedback or notes because it's based on their personal preference and not based on audience insights and data. To be able to uplevel the content or communicate with one another to really get to that core idea. They'll make a note like, I don't like green, so change the color. The whole campaign is green. We chose green for a certain reason, that kind of thing. So Maxstrata allows you not only to come up with that whole brief, but allows you to incorporate data points into your communication when you're selling it forward or internally, whatever language you use to get your projects through the, the food chain to get 'em approved so you can get 'em out into the world. But it also helps you as an artist, as a communicator, if you're on the marketing strategy side, uh, creative strategy side, or on the design visual side to be able to hone in your concepts before you start to execute. So you're able to think about what, what is the core of that idea and concept that you're gonna do in the key art? What is the strategy be— behind the social strategy you're doing? All of that is within Maxstrata. So all you have to do is say, hey, I need a social campaign here. And I'll, I ask all the questions. It's very clear and succinct so that you're not starting from scratch. Like you're not starting from a blank page and you're able to solve what it is that you need to do. And you can get a full blown 360 campaign. But what if you only focus on social? You just want social ideas. You can do the à la carte version and have that happen.

So let me make sure I understand. So Maxstrata is a. Program, I may not be using the right word, application that you have developed. Is it based on ChatGPT? OpenAI?

Yes, it is based, I created it using OpenAI's ChatGPT and it is a custom ChatGPT. And I'm right now I'm beta testing. So anybody who, if this is like blowing their mind and they wanna test it out, email me. You can do it through my vmcreate.com. I have a dropdown menu in or under the Promptster Playground. Go ahead and fill that out and you'll get more information. You have a deeper dive of really what it's all about. And if it's of interest of you, I will make you a beta tester so you can actually go and experience it and play with it. Right now, it, it, if you have to have, uh, at least the free version of ChatGPT that you are signed up and you're using. And on my website too, I go, I have a, uh, one of my videos on there. It says, it educates you of how to set up your ChatGPT so it's safe. So it learns from you for you, but doesn't learn from you, from everybody else. So it's a lot safer. It's a lot safer than the Deep China one that just released last week. So don't play with that yet, even though it's amazing. But ChatGPT will then— is going to release a new update very soon that will be comparable to that. So, and I'm learning a lot about it.

All right, cool. So I'll have the links in the show notes for folks to link to all of those things that Val just mentioned. I'm going to pan out just a little bit. And would you say, I think a lot of people, some people have played around with ChatGPT and some people haven't, but I think everyone's trying to wrap their minds around what role AI is going to have in our day-to-day lives, but particularly with you being a creative in the entertainment industry, would you characterize your relationship with AI as a co-creative process or, or as I, I don't know. Or is it at some point, is it gonna be teaching you or are you still teaching it? Or how would you characterize this relationship?

I have a whole list of names that I call it depending on what I wanna solve it. So I'll just, I'll just spew 'em out. These are the ones I've come up with. I use it as my brainstorm buddy. I use it as my thought partner. I use it as my copilot, sounding board, a thought starter, collaborator, uh, problem solver, sidekick, uh, curiosity catalyst. An insight alchemist, an idea illuminator or eliminator, uh, creative concierge, and innovation navigator. So those are some of the ones I'm playing around with. And on that note, I actually created another custom ChatGPT. I think you got a, a preview of, and this is bringing in my humor and this is bringing in the fun because I'm trying to, I'll probably release with this one for free just 'cause I want people to get a sense of how amazing it is. But it's called Pain Point Potty. So basically it's from pain to gain, one flush at a time. And it is fun and a practical tool for life's tackling life's sticky situations with ease. So literally you reframe challenges with humor and creativity. You're already frustrated. You need a solution. You can't sleep at night because you're dealing with something at work or you're dealing with something in a relationship. You literally just brain dump your idea, your thoughts into it, whether you want to voice it in or type it in, whatever works for you. And it literally will give you some insights of how you can problem solve through it. So you can just clear your mind and get clarity and move forward. So it's, and you're feeling refreshed and empowered. So it's pretty awesome.

That's very cool. I love you, the humor you bring to it and some of that light playfulness. I followed your, was it 12 Days of Before Christmas or, uh, 30 Days of—

was it? It was the, uh, Countdown to 2025. I did it all of the month of December. Yes. And I released, and this is before I knew about custom ChatGPT. So all I was doing was releasing, 'cause this is what I'm learning. As I'm learning, I'm sharing because it is so amazing and it's so powerful and it's blowing my mind every day that I want others to be blown. Like, I'm not a person who keeps it all in me for me. I really wanna share it forward to empower anyone that's around me, 'cause it is so great. And there's so much fear, Tisha Morris. Yeah. There's so much fear around it. And creatives need to get their hands on these tools now because If they don't, they are gonna be left behind. Jobs will be lost. I, I think we're gonna talk about that a little bit too. And I want them to be empowered to see the power of what this can do to elevate their creativity. And again, it's a partner. AI can't do it all. It needs us humans to be able to use it, to leverage it, to, to achieve the goals we achieve. Like all these ideas that I've come up with are outta my brain. They're outta my dreams. They're outta my life experiences. And I'm using this as a tool to be able to bring them to fruition. I could have never have done any of this. I would've needed a whole team, tons of team, a big team, lots of money to be able to execute what I've been doing in a couple months.

Wow. Yeah, there is a lot of fear around of replacing jobs. I've, I've been saying it's, you're most likely to be not replaced by AI, but by someone who knows how to use AI. Is my kind of my theory. But there are, in the entertainment industry, obviously it's a big topic. It was a big, big part of the, the strikes that happened last summer. I do see it really helping though, independent filmmakers create films on a higher level. Are you seeing a glimpse of that?

Yes, I, and if I look into my crystal ball, I can absolutely see how it can help it. And I have context too, cuz not only have I launched, my primary space is launching the content outta the world. I haven't created my own film. But I was, uh, in partnership with somebody who did 3 short films. So I was with them from the start, from the ideation to the script, to pre-production, post-production, in-production, the whole thing. So I get it and I have, I understand it and I have compassion for it. It is like having a baby. It is, it's a whole process. And I believe that AI will now allow a filmmaker to finally be able to hone in their idea, their thoughts, And most independent films are very personal. They're personal stories and they wanna get 'em out. And a lot of times they don't have legs. In other words, they don't really, it's hard to find an audience because it isn't, it's so specific that it just falls in the, through the cracks. But so much energy, so much money, so much time and effort goes into these. ChatGPT or any of the other tools of choice that you wanna use to get to your core essence of your story. You can still tell your story, but you can define your audience and put, plug that in and say, here's the story I have. This is the audience I wanna reach. Help me craft my story so that it can really get that audience excited about watching it. So then you hit both those checks off in that box and you're able to then hone it in because that's one of the things a lot of independent films, they learn the hard way. They spend a lot of money. A lot of time to get where they want to go, and it fails. And you learn from failing for sure, but I think you're gonna see less of that. And I, so I believe AI won't make films better. It will make better tools, and it's up to the human creators to bring them to life.

That's one of the things I was drawn to your approach to AI because you do come to the creative process for, with storytelling in mind and it's— I've been on the fence on whether AI, how well it can help with the human-centric storytelling. And so I'd love to hear your thoughts on, is it possible, number one, in this, in to, to blend this more human, like you, which is very independent filmmaking, and, or in your case with the, with the creative, the marketing side of really reaching that audience. Because I think some of the early commercials that we've seen come out are like, oh, that doesn't feel real. Or there's like kind of a disconnect. Are you seeing that, that disconnect less becoming less and less because of the technology advancements?

Yeah, it will absolutely become less and less because of the advancements. But here's what I'll, the other thing that I'm seeing and what I know what will happen. So we're humans. We want authenticity. We want connection. We want to enjoy our life in a way to where We have our autonomy and we're not gonna be controlled by these, uh, machines. It's definitely one of the fears. So that is why we, again, all of us as creatives or humans need to be leveraging and using these tools because they've already been trained since the '70s. This really started in the '70s. They just opened it up for everyone to be able to use recently. So they've been trained for decades and with that, we can tap into that knowledge base to be able then to take our ideas that we want to see in the world or, and be able to make them come to, to life because of using these as tools. So I see it as a way to make you better, to be able to, here's a visual metaphor I thought of the other day. It's AI is like a rehearsal stage. You have with seasoned professionals, not amateurs, and you are the writer, director, and producer. And it allows you to perfect the performance without burning other people out and paying crazy amounts of money to hone in your vision because you need to see it before you know it, right? This then allows for the magic to flow freely. So when the curtain rises for shoot day or a live audience, you've got it down. You know exactly what you wanna do. You know it's gonna hit every single point. You're excited. You've already sifted it through AI. You've sifted it through your circle group and you're like, does this make sense? So all of that stuff can be done so it isn't when you're getting on set, you're testing, you're seeing if the lighting is gonna be right, when you're losing daylight or you're losing time or whatever it might be, you're able to now get it to a really great point so that when you get on set, you can actually just enjoy the process of bringing it in the most authentic way as possible. And I, the other part of all of this that I see is you are gonna see ads, folks who in other industries, I have been on podcast or not on podcasts, I've been on webinars. And learning all this stuff, right? The last few months, 6 months or so, Tisha, there's been 2,000 people on some of these webinars.

Mm-hmm.

Learning these basic tools. Everyone in the other industries outside of entertainment are already going headfirst. They're already using it.

Mm-hmm.

The plumbers, the realtors, the people who do— it doesn't matter that their content is getting out. They're all about trying to do business and doing it more efficiently and effectively.

Yep.

And they are just going leaps and bounds. So we're gonna see that. So when it starts to get into marketing, we are gonna see some fails. Like the Coca-Cola commercial that came out during the holidays was pretty remarkable, and that took a long time to be able to get. And it wasn't great. It wasn't like, uh, bar— it was bar-raising for what it was, and it did what it needed to do. But yeah, that's just one step in what we're gonna be able to see.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

I've been, I've, attorneys, entertainment attorneys, all kinds of attorneys, every, really every sector. And this is a reminder for myself to, we really have to embrace this technology or we will be left behind. And I think that's inevitable. It's an acceptance that I'm at now. And one of the reasons I wanted to have you on as a guest for the entertainment sector, but also all sectors. And I think there's been a lot of, as far as the entertainment industry, with the big studios using AI and of course replacing people, but really how the smaller filmmaker is really, can really take advantage of using these tools. So for folks like me, or like where I, we know a little bit, but how, I, for some reason I just don't think about using it. And I need to think more about, I need to get outside my head in order to actually allow my, what's one of your words, your productivity partner. Yes. To make my processes more efficient. So. For the average person, what are some of the like entry points into AI that you would recommend?

I would— Pain Point Potty is a good example. Like you have a, you're a challenge, you're in the midst of a challenge, you're trying to find a solution, you've hit roadblocks, Google isn't delivering you results, you need to be able to— and YouTube, you're not finding the video to help walk you through something. Just ask ChatGPT. And I haven't released Pain Point Potty yet, but if you have a real big problem and you wanna try it again, I'll let you be an early adopter and just email me and I'll give you access to it. But also you can also just ask ChatGPT. Here's the magic of it, and this is what I learned, and this is when I came up with promptster and promptateur. Those words have never existed. I came up with those two because I make up words all the time. And I'm like, that's what it feels like. I'm a puppeteer, right?

Mm-hmm.

That's writing and prompting an AI to do what I want it to do, to come to life. And then being a promptster, you're becoming an expert at it. So you're able to then, it's all about the prompt and there's a song. It's all about the prompt.

Go.

And if you know how to do that really well, and there's so many YouTube videos on how to be a great prompter. They don't use prompter, but, and I'll probably do one eventually, but as, and it's the way you ask questions. So starting with curiosity, start asking the questions and see what comes back. And the more you go back and forth, it's going to make you a better communicator too, because. Then you're able to say, push it. You can like, I've already, if you're trying to, I'm, give me an example and maybe we'll go through it real quick of something that you might ask generative AI.

I did recently use it for, to come up with a tagline for my business. And it was some back and forth. It gave me, yeah, it was a, an interesting co-creative process that I enjoyed and was very productive. I think I ended up with something. That wasn't what they gave me or whoever, but it jogged my thought processes enough for me to get outside my brain.

Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what it does. Anything that ChatGPT gives me actually, or Claude or Perplexity or any of those, I never use it as is. I always make it my own. I just want a list because that's how I've worked my entire career. I've used and just to, oh, I want to step back to this because I should have mentioned this before just to help with the. Legalities of it all. Me as a creator, visual creator, I've been using stock photography and stock images my entire career, and I will pay for those stock images and that stock photography, but I will ne— whatever I buy, it never shows up in the art that I create as it is that I bought. I only use one part of it, this and this, and then I create my own. I've done that my entire career. And most seasoned professionals or people who are, this is their life. That's how they do it. The ones who aren't in trying to create originality and do it being that space, they'll use it verbatim. Oh, you had this. And so now that's the way I look at AI is the same. I will ask for parts like through Midjourney or some of the other image text-to-image tools. I'll text in what I want now. Oh my gosh, I've already paid for Midjourney. I'm paying for the access to all this. Uh, even if it gives me something, I will only take part of that. And then use that, bring it into Photoshop, 'cause I've been using Photoshop since that was invented. Bring it into Photoshop and now they have AI tools integrated into all of their applications. And then I'm able to hone it in, craft it, make it what I want it to be. And the same goes for a tagline. A lot of times they'll say, share a list of taglines. Here is my, here's what I think. I'll do a brain dump of what my core essence of my business is, and this is what I wanna achieve. Help me find this or ask me questions. Ask me questions about how I can make this better to reach a specific audience or help me stand out from all the others. And then you, when you start to have that banter back and forth, you'll be able to hone in what your line is and be able to get to where you need it to be. So again, it's about communicating with it and not just taking the first thing out. And that's, this is why I went to the paid version. I'm not doing the free version because I kept getting kicked out. Oh, and then I have to go over to Claude. I have to go to another platform, but it was fun to see what they each did and learn 'em. But now I'm with ChatGPT and paying for it.

Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, you're right. Like it's about ask, it's about asking questions and, and that really is key for communication in general with everybody. So maybe it can also teach us how to be better communicators and be curious and asking questions. And maybe that's what I need to do more is ask more questions. Yeah. So thank you for reframing that or framing that.

Yeah. And to add a little fun anecdote, I was talking to my mom and dad cause they've been listening to the podcast I've been on and some of the other stuff and They're like, Val, your whole life, you asked so many questions throughout your whole life. It exhausted us. So they're like, you've always been curious.

Yeah. The eternal 3-year-old.

I am. And so now I don't have anyone to shame me for asking too many questions because, and I just, I'm literally, I've been up, I'm getting like 4 hours of sleep because I can't get enough. It is just, it is truly, I'm just obsessed in a great way over all of this. That's why I've been able to do what I've been doing so far in such a short amount of time.

And you being, so you're dyslexic. And so I know this tool has been, or AI as a tool has been really, tell us more how that's been helpful for in that way.

Yeah, it is. That's another thing is I feel like it is a way to level out the playing fields. And I've always had these ideas in my head. I've always had the concepts. I've always had the, the thoughts, but I've always challenge to be able to hone them in. I can hone them in and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but communicating it succinctly with a team that doesn't think the way I do. They'll either, I, I can't even, and I did a, a blog about this too, that you can go and see it on my website. It's about zigging and zagging. And I am a zagger. I'm not a zigger. And a zigger is somebody who pretty much does the status quo, does what everybody else does, what's safe, does what's, what's expected or what is seen in front of them. But I've always taken the zag route because I can see another way through it that will help something stand out. So that's the way my brain works. Then I take all of that and then I'm also a great dot connector. So I love the fact that ChatGPT will just give me tons of information and I can absorb it all. I can either listen to it because my reading has gotten better. As a dyslexic, reading is super painful, but it's becoming stronger. And Amazon helped with that too, because everything is based on one sheets and one pagers and six pagers to be able to get through the strategy. Through, so that was really great. But it's also helped me be able to organize my thoughts, organize my ideas, and really hone them in because I can see how to, it's like watching the patterns in front of me and then be able to collect them into that core essence. It is awesome for someone with dyslexia or ADHD too. I've seen, been on quite a few webinars where they full on say, I'm ADHD, and you can tell by the way they're presenting, cuz they're all over the place, right? But I love people with ADHD cuz we work really well together because I'm helping them get succinct and aligned, but then they throw out all this stuff and I can follow their patterns and get to the core essence of what we need to do. These tools help us be able to do that and be able to communicate with all the other folks who don't think like we do, right? Mm-hmm. So that I'm able to get those insights, I'm able to get those Zach lines is what I call 'em, to be able to succinctly communicate what it is that I see. So they don't look at me with those wide eyes going, is she crazy or is this a brilliant idea? So that's how I see it.

So some of your platforms you've mentioned that you use is obviously ChatGPT, Claude, you mentioned Midjourney. Do you have any other platforms you like or that you think good for people to experiment with?

Yeah, there are, there are so many. I would say if you want to start with those because they're easy ins. And then if there is something you wanna solve, then that's go ask ChatGPT, you know what, I wanna solve, uh, an image for this, or I wanna solve a video for that. They will then give you a list of the top ones that are out there. Perplexity is actually good for this too, because Perplexity is all about, uh, scouring the internet right now for everything that is created and you get true data, like, and you, and it's up to date, right up to date. And ChatGPT can do that as well, but sometimes it's not quite up to date. Perplexity is right up on the date. Perplexity you don't use to write or to create and that kind of thing. It's all about the getting articles or content or data to be able to then apply to whatever you're creating in Claude and ChatGPT. So honing that in, but then the image tools, I love Midjourney, Halo, Runway, Suno for music. If I want to do some music for one of my videos that I'm doing, I will tap into that. And it's, there's free versions of all of these. And then there are paid versions of them too. To be able to do all the visuals of me on my website, I took a webinar that was quite a process to learn how to do it, but I picked it up right away because I've been doing all this. And it's a combination of 5 different tools to be able to have that come to fruition. But it, it is truly magical. So depending on where your level is, don't get overwhelmed. Just start whatever. With whatever you need to do. And again, if anyone has any questions and they want to solve something, really not sure where to start, feel free to email me. I will absolutely respond and give you some suggestions.

How would you compare those type, those tools that are specifically AI with, you mentioned Photoshop has the integrated, has integrations of AI in them, Photoshop being an example, even Word, even now our Apple, our phones. How have you seen these integrations and kind of these old school, more old school platforms?

I think Adobe is doing a decent job and they're growing. They're also advancing more and more every single day. So that, that's good news because I will always use Adobe. I am a huge fan since I've been using it since I can remember, and that is gonna be my place that I can actually create and hone in on where I wanna do. Canva is doing a good job too, integrating a lot of the stuff is for a free version of, for those who don't wanna pay the crazy prices of Adobe. I think I read somewhere that Adobe might be going to reduce their prices. I hope. Because I know people are leaving a lot and, but there are tools in there and you, they have videos to show you how to do it. And again, that's the other thing. YouTube is your fan, is your friend. Go on and do a quick, uh, I'm a, I also learn by watching, seeing, and hearing versus reading and reading is becoming more a part of it, but it's a lot easier for me to pick it up and just go. So that's what I would say.

So you've been creating tools. You have, as you mentioned, MaxStrata and the, I will again have the links in the show notes for folks. Tell us a little bit about some of these that you've created and how they work.

Sure. I've talked a little bit about Pain Point Potty and MaxStrata, so I won't go into those because you can see those on the website. We already talked about the one that I haven't mentioned is called Path Lumina. It's called Illuminate Your Path to Purpose. How many people in this world, including me over the last year, you're trying to figure out what your pivot is gonna be, what your life's purpose is gonna be, what you are as a human in this world, how you're gonna show up in a relationship, how you're going to, um, uh, show up at your workplace, whatever the situation might be. So basically it's a human-guided AI-powered tool for reflection, journaling, and dynamic conversations that foster clarity, confidence, and alignment with your core self. And when you're navigating personal growth or personal challenges, Path Lumina helps you uncover insights, make meaningful progress, and connect with your purpose. And this is the cool part. You ready? You're gonna love this, Tisha. It combines public domain personality assessment tools, psychological theories, spiritual intuition practices, and astro— astrological— astro— astrology birth chart insights. I programmed it with all of that. So you have to just put in your birth chart stuff and if you, you know, tell it, it walks you through all of that and it will literally, it's incredible. It has helped me. I was doing this on my own, right? Without my own custom ChatGPT and to help me figure out what my pivot, what I was gonna do to figure out where I'm gonna go, which is what I'm doing right now. And, and I'm like, I'm gonna make a custom ChatGPT cuz this is gonna help a lot of people.

Oh my gosh. That's awesome.

So that's where this came from and it is. I was starting to play with it and it is powerful. One key that I would say for anyone who works in a custom ChatGPT, and then if you are an early adopter and you want to test and learn these, be a beta tester for me. Once you start the conversation within these tools, stay within them. Don't like start a new one every time because it gets to know you and it could reference what you have put in there from before. And that's really key because if you're starting from scratch every single time, you just go to the Path Lumen on you. Again, if you're working with another client, you want to do it with them, then yes, start over. But for you yourself, and you want to use this, the more it gets to know you, you're going to be able to get solutions a lot faster. And also what I recommend is anyone who works in these, and I, anything that's incredibly insightful, and I've been journaling since I can remember. Now I'm doing it on my computer versus, or on my phone, versus it being in a paper, unless I'm on a retreat, then I'll write stuff out, but I keep, I copy and paste whatever insights come out of this and I put it on my local drive just so I can have that in case something disappears with ChatGPT, right? That way I have that and I can always plug it into whatever next tool is going to come along and I can have that to reference. Great, great tip.

Yeah. Um, I want to bring listeners' attention to your website, vmcre8.com. I'll have it in the show notes. And that's your landing page for all of these tools, each one having their own, their own email list, I think, for people to sign up. Also connect with Val on LinkedIn. So I want to circle back to wrap up about your, as a creative director, like where you are now with AI. Would you, so it sounds like you not necessarily, would you say you're a better creative director or just a more efficient creative director? Both. Okay.

Both, both now. Because I've always been one of those creative directors, agencies who have worked with me any, at any time, love working with me because I worked on the agency side for quite a few years before I, I went to NBC and to Amazon. So I understand what it's like to be in the trenches. I was one of those trench workers. I was churning out comps. I was getting the ideas. I was pitching 'em at the last minute. And I have so much respect for that process. That I respect them and I wanna set anyone up that I work with for success. And I'm also super mindful of budgets and I'm super mindful of communication so that I can give them at least thought starters and guardrails to go play within. So you're literally not putting, I can't even tell you how many years, and this happened both on the agency side and at NBC where it was like spaghetti on the wall. You just throw it up there. Mm-hmm. You see what sticks. You go through meeting after meeting, you get everyone's personal opinions. And it is so much churn, crazy town churn. Mm-hmm. So now, and I've always been this way, so now they always thank me to work with them because there is a lot of abuse because people are in fear or in stress that are on the client side asking agencies to turn something around really quickly. And they are staying up late or not getting sleep. They're burned out. And they're, and then they say, sorry, we can't pay you what you're worth to do this. 'Cause then there's, because we're, we've already lost our budget. So. It works both ways. So everybody still gets paid, everybody's still set up for success to be able to get that amazing creative excellence. But now this is on steroids. It is on steroids. I am now able to do this, like I said in the beginning, down to a day versus weeks. It's gonna help through the, for the whole process from A to Z. And I see that so clearly. And so part of what I, my vision, like I'm okay not being in the trenches of launching a show or a film anymore. I am more passionate about setting all the folks up for success to be able to do that in their own space. If I were to go in full-time again somewhere, I would wanna be like the chief creative officer or design lead or whatever of AI integration for all the teams. Yeah. So that I can set them all up and empower them to be able then use them to be able to get through this more efficiently. It's gonna make the whole world better. Yeah. And it's gonna open up more jobs too. It's gonna allow more jobs, more content to be created, which means they need more people to try and get that out. 'Cause you still need that small team to focus on a title to be done right. And so it will open up the rise. So I see that happening too within the next year or so.

I love that perspective and really appreciate you bringing a pos— the, the positivity to, to AI in a very concrete, realistic way. So I really appreciate you being on the show and, and spreading all of that you've learned with us. And, and like I said, we'll have the links in for people to go to. And any last words you want to share, or I think you've really, I already, I'm walking away with a much more positive outlook on all of this. So I really appreciate it.

There's some visual metaphors I think I'd like to leave because that's the other thing I've come up with. The, my zag lines are all integrated into all three of my products. So a couple of them that I wanted to leave just as food for thought. So AI is like a trusted guide on a hike. It offers you multiple trails to explore, helps you navigate the terrain, and lets you choose the path that feels most aligned with your journey. So that's one which I thought was pretty powerful. And then AI doesn't just change how you work, it amplifies it. So you're allowed to show up in bigger ways, which is pretty great. And AI isn't here to replace your creativity. It's here to make you unstoppable.

I love it. Oh my gosh. I feel like we need those new posters that was in the old school corporate hallways, the motivation posters. We need to have those.

Oh, I have, I can make a whole room of them with all the lines that I have right now.

Yeah.

Oh, one, one little thing I want to add to this, because I don't know if we talked about this, is that ethics isn't about rules. It's about responsibility and respect for the craft. So I believe that. AI is about all of us being responsible and using it and leveraging it in good ways. And we, I think you had mentioned at one point, but there, you know, the characters or the people who are trying to use it in a bad way.

Mm-hmm.

We can now combat that and use AI to just shut them down so fast. And I know there are mechanisms within each of the tools to make sure it's not used for bad. They'll shut them down or they can go after 'em 'cause they can go find them, search for them, and know if they're starting to use it in that way. But I think it's up to all of us to be able to have that sift through our light and our goodness in the world and make sure they come from that perspective. And then I think that is going to be valuable. I think that's the responsibility. That's the same with all the rules around social media, right? You have to come from a place that you're giving.

I just saw a quote recently. I think it was in relation, regard, relate, in relating to the, the LA fires. Forgot who it was, so I'll maybe find it and put in the show notes, but she said creativity will always be louder than destruction. So when we're using it for creative good, that's always going to outweigh the bad actors trying to use it for not good.

I love that. That's so true though. So that's why us creatives start using these tools.

Okay. All right.

We'll overpower all the bad actors.

There we go. I love it. Thank you so much, Val.

Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you like the podcast, please like, subscribe, maybe even share to your friends. And for more information about my services, visit my website at tishamorris.com. That's T-I-S-H-A-M-O-R-R-I-S.com. Tisha Morris. Well, that concludes today's episode, and I wish you all the best. Until next time, keep creating, and please take care.