Why Ignoring AI Could Make You Unemployable Long Term

0:00You enjoy podcasts. We know because you're listening to one. Hi, I'm Jason Falls, the executive producer of the Marketing Podcast Network. We love podcasts too, so much so that in addition to providing you with the great episode you're listening to, we also help businesses, brands, and even individuals produce their podcasts. MPN Studios offers podcasts consulting and production services to help you get you or your business its very own podcast. We've helped dozens of smart people, advertising agencies, and brands develop podcasts. All you do is record your content or interview. We take that and deliver a professionally produced audio or video episode complete with show notes, transcriptions, and even promotional clips to use on social media. And our monthly subscription prices are hard to beat. If you or your company are jonesing to have your own podcast to establish stock leadership, drive business leads, or just have fun talking about your business or topic of choice, we'd love to help. Learn more at marketingpodcasts.net slash studio. That's marketingpodcasts.net slash studio.

1:00Music You're listening to Entrepreneurs Enigma, a podcast about the ups and downs of the entrepreneurial journey. Every week your host Seth Goldstein interviews entrepreneurs from all walks of life about their entrepreneurial journeys. From store owners to Fortune 500 CEOs, we all have stories to tell. So sit back and join us for the next 20 or so minutes while we explore the entrepreneurial world. Hey everybody, welcome to another edition of Entrepreneurs Enigma podcast. I'm your host as always Seth with podcast mastering Goldstein media. Today I have a good buddy of mine, Jeff Livingston,

2:01of the generative buzz of the buzz on sub stack. He is an AI guy, but he's also a marker by training by heart. He's also a kick ass, amazing photographer who really knows how to take a good picture. He also is an avid runner. And almost to the point of being insanely crazy with that. I would say I'm not smart. Yes for sure. And he's the recent author now is gone. The second version, because the first one was about digital marketing and stuff. This is more about thinking liquid to navigate through never ending change. Ever that backwards. So that's pretty good for me. There you go. Great book easy read. I mean, it was it. It's like a 141 pages with all the with the glossary in the back. Quick read, read it in two days.

3:02I could read them one day, but you know, I had to get other stuff done. The way if it's looking at me like what the heck is going on here? Yes. Very good book. Jeff, I go way back. I think we met back in like 2012 or something like that way back. Yeah, one of those social media conferences. I appreciate it. I read Tendermur when you talk about shiny objects in Jerome. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember that. I remember you're talking about shiny objects in Jerome and red Tendermur on broad street and Philadelphia. Yeah, yeah. And here we are still talking about it, right? Yeah, exactly. Shiny objects in trouble. Go ahead. If you look at it on my office right now, all the shiny objects. My God. Oh, we, but you created a shiny object too. I did it. Right. Right. FedExPrettyWild. Yeah. You've been created a running app that you didn't find. You didn't know an app that you wanted. That right. What you wanted it to do. See, built it. Exactly. Same thing. That's what AI helps us with. But you know, you keep a human in the loop at all times. But now is gone because now is now in the past.

4:05Now is now in the past. Now is now in the past. It's crazy. You can get that joke. Yep. Yes. Everything stated at the moment it happens. It's kind of very woo. Yeah. And then you regularly on your on the buzz. Yeah. Sounds like a radio station. You know, that's the legacy name too from the old days. The buzz bin and all that stuff. But I always think, hey, you gotta keep using this stuff. It's your brand, buddy. It's who I am. You know, what can you say? You know, gendered buzz, the buzz bin, the buzz blah. I like buzz. Absolutely. I guess it's the marketer. Exactly. And then listen to the first episode. We did an episode back when Jeff was, we did an episode two or three years ago, three years ago, three years ago. Three years ago. And a lot of changes then because entrepreneurship is always changing. Yep. You're one podcast with Greg and did the business changed.

5:06Yes. Everything's different. You know, and it's the way entrepreneurship is really. How does this start off? How did you get started? First, then listen to the previous episode. How did it get started in AI consulting? Yeah, it started there. Because I mean, if people want to know about the very beginning, he's born in Philadelphia. Yeah. It was kind of like how I started with social media. I was born in Pasadena, by the way. It was raised in Philadelphia. Raised to be still fully boy threw in through it. All the way. And excited to see the buzz, the fillings made too. And we'll see by the time this comes out, maybe they'll actually be in the playoffs. We'll see. We'll see. It's questionable. So, so I started because when Chatshipy T came out, I really thought that this was the moment that democratization was going to occur. And I wanted to help people adapt AI. At the time, I was thinking I was going to help marketers adapt AI. But what's ended up happening is although marketers do make about like 40, 30, 40 percent of my business, I've helped a larger organization.

6:07And enterprises as well. So, that's great. Yeah. And so then, yeah. And so, I mean, we talked about the rough and tumble thing about entrepreneurship. I mean, did something with Greg for a little while there? Yeah. Didn't kind of, it didn't work out. Yeah. Well, it was crazy. I mean, and I think this is really the truth of business these days was we were doing really well. But our targeted audience was associations. And civilian government. And when the administration changed, everybody knows we have to tell the civilian agencies here at DC. And on top of that, a lot of the businesses business. I've been here for about a year. Yeah, yeah. The market was depressed here at DC. And a lot of the business of federal government has been shifting out of DC into the states. And that's part of this administration's policy. I'm not saying one way. For better or for worse, we don't want to get it. We don't want to get into that. But from a business perspective, that killed us long and short.

7:12Exactly. So it's called pivoting. Right. Imagine that. So you pivot. And that's what you got to do. You got to pivot. You got to change things up. It's not your first rodeo. You know, and you just got to go with it. Yeah. And so I felt like the business model generally was solid. I needed some tweaks and some other solutions. This is much more training focused. It's much more team specific focused. It's much more small enterprise focus. Although I do have one very large global 500 company. But you know, that needed to happen. I also needed to create some thought leadership again, which is why I wrote. Now it's gone. I did have a book in me. Yeah. One of many they've done already. So you know, yeah, yeah. But it's been a, it's been a while. And people don't know who I am. And I think that those, I really dislike writing books solely for marketing purposes. They need to have something to say. I think this one did have something to say. And you had something to say in 141 pages. You had some to say.

8:14And I like how it was concise. I like the lot. Yeah. I think people don't have the patience anymore for long books. You know, like I read for Nate Brown's most recent book. I forget the name of it. But it was, it was decent. But it just, it meandered so much of a 400 pages. It was really painful to read. Yeah, unfortunately, because Nate Brown is a fascinating person. You know, really those are stuff. But I feel like she had a quota. She had a word quota she had to get to. Yeah. And she's also become so well known that she may not be getting edited as well as she may have been in the past. Yeah. Well, whereas you, the like, who is this Jeff character? I have to edit him down. So he's like, but that's the key. It's also to make sure you have a professional editor. Edit it yourself, have your wife edit it, and then have a professional editor, editor edit it. Definitely not. Definitely not. And editor for us. And it's self published, right? It is. But I've been published by other publishers. I've been through the Rigamore role. And I basically, because you've done that, you know, you need to have an editor who was

9:18separated from the process, who's not married to you. Right. And can be critical and get it down to 141 pages. And as an entrepreneur, I'll actually make some money off the book. Exactly. Imagine that, you know, pay at least break even, right? Break even, you know, even more than that, you know, it's fantastic. And so now you are helping people use AI to the best of their ability. And they're mostly enterprise. They're not small business. They're enterprise. That's correct. There's some enterprise. There are some very large entities, but there are also some small service oriented companies as well. And, you know, for those guys, the smaller companies, I feel like this technology is a great equalizer. I think you and I have talked about that on my podcast on AI Hope. Yeah. Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. Well, how's that in the show? It's still, yeah. Yeah. But, you know, effectively without that, it's just, you know, they're kind of going against

10:20massive resources. So suddenly now that they can code, they can develop, they can build apps like you and I have, they can suddenly stream my processes and compete a lot more effectively on sales. It's pretty wild. People are very up in arms about AI. Yeah. And I mean, I get why I love art with good reason. But I also see that like, let's not, I mean, I put out an article in here's a plug for me, Mark and Juntao the other week where it was like, you got it at least. You know about AI. You need to, otherwise you're in the dark. You're in the dark. I just published an article right before we got on about 15 minutes, which got into that exact same topic and it got into the cybersecurity issues, the environmental issues and then also the labor issues with AI. And I agree with you. I feel like this is not going anywhere. This is the next generation of technology. To not embrace it is to make oneself an employable long term.

11:21Absolutely. Yeah. And, you know, it's just like being in an account that says, I won't use QuickBooks. My guide, the NADU exists too. So, you know, exactly. And so you have to question the veracity of that argument at the same time, the concerns about how it's impacting people, how companies are abusing AI or the myth of AI to lay off people. And hire them back. And hire them back because they're always like, oh, we shouldn't have done that. And everyone's like, well, then you get to pay me more now, buddy, because you made the dick move. So, right. These are all reasonable things. I would say even more reason to get involved and to manage AI systems so that you can shape the future of the technology and how it's used within your entity. Yeah. And my biggest proponent is that you need to keep a human in the loop. You don't just start the AI and publish it. That's slop. As soon as I hear that we let people go because we have agents doing it, I'm like, okay, this company is a little quality. Yeah, they're quality.

12:22They're not going to be around or they're going to be eating, eating, crow and hiring everyone back. By Ford. Yeah. And did you see their most recent quarter? Really bad. Yeah. Because they ended up, we did something bad. The government's like, well, tough, tough, tough puppy. We found another job that appreciates us and Ford's like a crap. Yeah. I mean, there are some good people there. I know people that work there. And it's just Scott Monty used to work there. Scott Monty used to work there, Richard Binhamer from the Del Days is over there too. Good guy. And they have, I really love the Bronco, man. It's a great product. I cannot wait till there is an electric version of that. I'm definitely going to buy that. Yeah. It has to be electric. Otherwise, it's a gas guzzler. I mean, I think we're seeing right now with this whole war thing that again, we're going to continue to experience volatility with fuel. Yeah. Let's go electric phones. Yeah. I mean, just come on.

13:22Let's stop age, do you know? Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So what's next for you? Is there another book? There probably will be another book. I have to again have something. Now and now and now is really gone, guys. The future never arrived. I mean, there will probably be another book. It's got to be something worthwhile. Sorry about the background there. No, it's fine. Yeah. Yeah. We're working through it. It's where it's supposed to be. I guess when I am PR, it's like the noticing that the whole way, I'm kind of like laughing. I'm like, oh my god. I hope people are not watching this on YouTube. But maybe people will not subscribe to YouTube. They'll be entertained. Now you guys go watch the YouTube because the office is getting cleaned. We're going to take a quick break here from our sponsors and get right back to you. You enjoy podcasts. We know because you're listening to one. Hi, I'm Jason Falls, the executive producer of the Marketing Podcast Network. We love podcasts too. So much so that in addition to providing you with a great episode you're listening to, we also help businesses, brands and even individuals produce their podcasts.

14:25MPN Studios offers podcasts, consulting and production services to help you get you or your business. It's very own podcast. We've helped dozens of smart people, advertising agencies and brands develop podcasts. All you do is record your content or interview. We take that and deliver a professionally produced audio or video episode complete with show notes, transcriptions and even promotional clips to use on social media. And our monthly subscription prices are hard to beat. If you or your company are jonesing to have your own podcast to establish stock leadership, drive business leads or just have fun talking about your business or topic of choice, we'd love to help. And more at marketingpodcasts.net slash studio. That's marketingpodcasts.net slash studio. That's right. The office is being cleaned and I have a happy wife and a happy wife now as a result of that. That's perfect. That's the idea. Absolutely. But the other thing that I think is coming in, I was just talking, I don't know about you. Do you talk to a lot of other people and a lot of other entrepreneurs throughout your

15:26work week? I mean, you must. I do too. And I was talking with one right before I got on the call about an hour ago and there was a second conversation I had on this being like, what's next? What's next? And I feel like a lot of the work that I've been doing is helping people on kind of like a one-on-one to a one level with AI. I really want to find one. I want to find that major initiative, that strategic effort where I help somebody crush their business strategy because they implemented AI. I want that like bigger, meaty, three-on-one project. So that's what I'm looking at to next. That's what you're looking to do next. So personally about being an entrepreneur in your mind. Freedom to go find the work I want. And that has to answer to the man or the woman or the person. You have to answer to the woman because it's your wife. I don't know about you. That's your boss. That's your boss. Maybe this is a good question for you because I see this too and I guess this is what happens to have two podcasts people talk to each other. Yeah.

16:27I feel like so many of our peers right now are being forced into being an entrepreneur because they don't have a choice. And it's not the good way to go about it. It's better to go in it saying like, well, I guess in 2008, I went into entrepreneurship to get a job and never really got the job. So I guess it was kind of forced into it. But it was kind of kind of side-ceptive to entrepreneurship. But being forced into it is now always the best way, but it's not the worst way either. So I agree. Sometimes fate has its path. That's kind of talked about and now it's gone too. Sometimes getting your own revenue is the path of least resistance. If you have to earn in almost every single person listening to this has to earn. But there is so much freedom that comes with it. Again, how could I maintain that photography side hustle that I have if I didn't have it? That's an inbound only business. I don't really do too much to market it other than post on Instagram a TikTok. But so nice to just be able to say, you know what?

17:29I'm doing a photo job tonight. I'm photographing this event for this nonprofit. I'm not working there after a new prior to just so not like that. Exactly. I love it. I love it. Most important thing to carry with you all the time besides your camera. I would say the phone now. It's kind of shocking because the best cameras when they have with you. Yeah. Yeah. The smartphone also you have your AI on there. Yeah. I can run my business off my phone. That's kind of scary. Yeah. That's kind of scary but it's true. I mean, level bulls on there now. Levels on there. You know. Co-Works on there now. I know. I can be a smart drive. Everything through it. Make sure you lock up co-works so it doesn't leave all your contacts and all your emails. I know. And also, what is it? Codex too. Codex. Oh my God. You gotta be careful. You know, you know, it works out. It works out. It's a Jeff. Best place for people to find you would be obviously LinkedIn probably right. It's you hang out there a lot. Yeah.

18:30LinkedIn. So if you want to just social network, that's the place to do a generative buzz.ai. It's got links to everything. That's the singular URL. Generative buzz.ai. I like that, my friend. Yeah. And also we'll have buzz by livingston. That's subsac.com. And his bookshop.org. I try not to direct people to Amazon as much as possible. We'll have the bookshop.org. LinkedIn now is gone in there. Hey, I hope we'll be in there. All the good stuff. We'll have a nice big menagerie of links. You're a man. Exactly. That's right. And this has been a great show, but I always love chatting with you, my friend. It's good to see you. Always. Thank you. And we'll see everyone next week. That was a great show. If you're enjoying entrepreneurs in Nigma, please consider giving us a review in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps us reach new listeners. If you like entrepreneurs in Nigma, consider the other shows on the marketing podcast network at marketingpodcast.net.

19:43You may know you're listening to this show along the marketing podcast network, but did you know there are other great shows on MPN to help your business. Tim Hines hosts a great podcast called the Marketing Starter Podcast. Tim, tell these fine folks what they're going to get when they listen. They're going to get great insights on how marketers can take an entrepreneur attitude to what they do in marketing to be a little bit more successful. So I interview top marketers from all around the world and heck, even some that are bottom and middle. This is really about marketers who embody the entrepreneurial spirit to be the best that they can be. Awesome. Where can people subscribe? They can of course subscribe on marketingpodcast.net, but they can also search for the show on all their favorite podcasting platforms as well as visiting my website, which is tnhines.com slash podcast. You heard him go subscribe. This podcast has heard along the marketing podcast network for more great marketing podcasts visit marketingpodcasts.net.