Episode 1: AI is Here—Now What?

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:10] Speaker B: Hello, and welcome to the very first episode of the your marketing Support podcast. Matt McClure here with you along with David Belville and Joe Barker. Thank you so much for being a part of it. Episode one. And of course, Joe and David, I want you to introduce yourselves to everybody who is either watching or listening and just talk about the show a little bit and talk about what your marketing support is all about. [00:00:34] Speaker C: Sure, Joe. Ladies first. [00:00:36] Speaker A: Absolutely. So, hey, I'm Joe Barker and I lead the year marketing support account management team and the digital marketing team. And basically to give a real quick overview of your marketing support and who we are. Our entire goal is to work with agents and advisors and just help simplify marketing, make it really easy to understand and show ways and teach ways in which you can implement tactics and you can implement, like, different strategies to reach your individual custom goals. So that's our entire goal here, is just to make it as easy as we can to explain things and help you take away real value and implement those things. [00:01:14] Speaker C: And I'm David Belville. I am the director of marketing strategy for your marketing support. And, and I get really fired up and passionate about creating and crafting strategy, using data analytics to craft those strategies and make your lives easier to market your products and connect to customers and leads. And so anything having to do with strategy or even creative, it just fires me up. And I'm so excited to be starting this podcast and delivering value to you. [00:01:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's going to be an absolutely great podcast, full of wonderful information. And of course, we got to start out this, this week just, just, I think right off the bat with something that is sort of ever changing and ever evolving here. And you know, when you talk about the digital space, everybody's mind, I feel like these days goes immediately to AI. Some people are scared by it, some people are thrilled about it, and a lot of folks are in between. So, you know, let's, let's talk about, first of all, why this topic is so important to everyone listening or watching the show. [00:02:24] Speaker A: Yeah. So I think, you know, when we, when we think about AI, I think in the beginning, people were maybe a little intimidated by it or scared by it, and they weren't really sure what to expect. And the fact is, is it's here. I mean, it's not going anywhere. It's not even, hey, this is what's coming. It's here, it's happening. And it's such a great tool if you learn, like, how to embrace it and how to utilize it. And so for me I think it's a matter of just the more that we can teach about it and the more that we can help people not be afraid of it, but more of how to embrace it and how to utilize it to actually make them more efficient. To me, that's where the, you know, that's where it's really going to be key in our industry and for all of the agents and advisors out there, and it's. That's where they're going to find the most value. [00:03:05] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we haven't seen this type of a revolution since the rise of the Internet. And even, you know, back then, 20, 30 years ago, it was either you embraced it and embraced change and adapted, or you risk being left behind. And I really liken that to what we're seeing today with AI. It's something to be embraced and we encourage the adaptability. And the more you can do to educate yourself on the value that it can provide, the more comfortable you'll get with using it, too. So there's so much opportunity to streamline efforts and reach a large audience with AI. [00:03:43] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:03:44] Speaker A: It's funny you talk about, like 30 years ago because, you know, back then it was like, oh, let's pull out the yellow book and let's, let's look for, for businesses here. And if you would have said that to a business back then, like, hey, in the future, you're going to use Google and Google's going to be what you would be like, what? No, that's not how this happens. And I'm never going to do that. And, you know, you think about your smartphones and how much, you know, you used to have 20 devices that would make up everything that your one smartphone is now. [00:04:08] Speaker C: Right. [00:04:08] Speaker A: And I think that's kind of the way we have to think about AI is it's not a matter of, you know, like, whether you want to or not. It's. It's more a matter of it's coming. It's, it's. You're probably already, like, using it, right? Like, people don't even realize that you're probably already using it. And you don't even realize that you're using it because it's everywhere already. And it's built into programs, your Gmail accounts, Gmail sorts your emails for you. Guess what? That's AI doing that. So you're already using it. It's just recognizing it and then figuring out what other tools are out there, I think. [00:04:40] Speaker B: Yeah. And even just when you Google something these days, right. Like the top of the Search page is like an AI summary of results. And so it's, it really is everywhere. And I love David, that you bring up too, like it reminds you of the, you know, the Internet, like revolution. Right. Because you know, you look at the retailers even who back in the day didn't embrace the whole E commerce thing. And Sears, for example, was the, you know, one of the largest retailers in the entire world. And now it's essentially gone because of that very thing, because of the fact that it was too slow to embrace online, you know, e commerce and all of that. So, you know, don't become the new Sears kind of is the thing, you know, don't, don't resist AI and then maybe you'll fall behind if that's the case. Right, Yeah. [00:05:27] Speaker A: I mean think Amazon, exactly the perfect example. I mean think about that and what they did to embrace like the future. And that's where like even looking future state. So right now we're kind of in that data driven AI state. And now you sit there and you think about it and you're like, all right, well if we're here now, where are we going to be in 10 years? [00:05:43] Speaker C: Yeah, that's exciting to think about too. [00:05:45] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean you have virtual reality, you have so many different things that are going to come into play, most likely. And guess what, a lot of that is going to stem off of AI and different tools and adapting. So now is the perfect time to start. If you haven't started and even if you have started, it's the perfect time to figure out how to utilize more to make you even more efficient so you can do what you do best and be out there and provide value with the human touch. Absolutely compliment it. [00:06:09] Speaker C: And you guys both touched on this. AI is here and it's being used in ways that consumers might not even realize it, but they're utilizing it every day. That's going to lead to consumer habits changing as well and what they expect from businesses, companies, agents. And over time that's going to be ingrained in the consumer experience. And so the farther along we get to the consumer experience trending to, towards AI, the more likely it becomes that those who are not utilizing AI might get left behind. And so as AI emerges and continues to advance, so too will consumer habits. [00:06:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I feel like that's absolutely right. Because one, it's like it's a cycle, you know, because one will affect the other and then it sort of makes a circle and keeps happening. And that's the, I feel like I want to break out into The Circle of Life or something, you know, by Elton John. But I won't do that. I will spare us because we probably don't have the money to pay the rights to be able to, for me to do that. But let's talk about, you know, some, some practicality here and sort of bringing it home for, for marketers, for others who might be insurance professionals, financial professionals, what are some ways and some different tools even that they can use to be able to make use of AI each and every day in their marketing efforts? I mean, I know that I, you know, just kind of creative ways to help take at least a little bit of the burden off of my shoulders when it comes to coming up with ideas, creatively writing things or you know, just, just brainstorming like those types of things for, for me in my particular position. But for, from a marketing standpoint, for insurance and financial pros, what can they do? [00:08:01] Speaker C: My first advice would be, well, first to set the stage. It can be a little daunting and intimidating if you don' Experience first. Because there are so many tools out there now and AI has integrated itself into so many industries, it can feel a little intimidating. So what I would just recommend if you're just getting started, is pick one platform to just familiarize yourself with how to communicate with AI, develop those basic skill sets and then you'll start to realize or have a desire to use AI in different use cases and that's where you can start pulling in other products. And Joe, I know that you've tested and experimented a lot, huge wide range of products. So I mean, I'd love to hear what your experience has been too. [00:08:47] Speaker A: Yeah, I love, I literally chat and Gemini are like my best friends now. My husband jokes all the time and he's like, man, if they were a real person, you'd probably divorce me. And I'm like, well, they do talk to me more. But basically the way I see it is like everyone's so different in what they struggle with. Like some people are really great content creators and they don't necessarily need somebody to help them create content. And so maybe that's not the tool that is best for them. So to me it's more about like figuring out in your day to day activities and when you're working, what do you struggle with? What is it where you get stuck. So if you're working on a website, it may be, hey, I need some help with some code. And I can't quite figure out this integration. If you're, if you're out there and you're trying to help your consumers and maybe you have traffic coming to your website. So you're an agent or advisor and you have traffic coming to your website. It's great to add an AI chat to your website. It helps answer immediate questions. You can have it all compliance approved prior so there's no regulation concerns or anything there. And you can just be honest and say like, hey, you're chatting with my, you know you're chatting with AI right now. But we've got some great content in here with you. If you want to talk to us, go ahead and just leave your email here and we'll reply back to you or message us here. So there's so many different ways to integrate it in there to where you can make it to where your business is more efficient and at the same time you're more efficient. So now instead of answering those easier questions, your chat can do that for you. But I agree like the content is probably, I think for marketing one of the harder pieces for agents and advisors because we hear those questions all the time. What should I be posting? What should I be doing? Use it for inspiration. Go on those chat GPTs and just ask it like hey, this is the topic that I've been talking a lot about lately. Can you provide some frequently asked questions? Or here's the frequently asked questions that I've been asked lately. Can you give me an outline of five posts that I could utilize? You'll get better and better with the prompts the more you use it and I think it's just getting comfortable with it. The, the only advice I have though is please, please, please do not copy and paste it. Like do not take it as it writes it because people will know and, and we need that genuine human connection still of who we are. And so to me never take it as is. Just take it as inspiration and take it as kind of like a starting point and then make it your own. [00:11:02] Speaker C: I think that's a really important point that we should call out Joe, is that AI is never meant to replace that human to human experience and that relationship building, it's just supposed to supplement and make your life more efficient and in find that inspiration that you're talking about as well. But just know that especially in this business when our relationships matter so much and trust matters so much that your, your relationship building skills and your networking skills and your communication skills will all still matter. It's just this is able to supplement and improve upon but there's still no replacement yet for that human to human connection which is still so incredibly important in this business where trust is paramount. [00:11:47] Speaker B: Yeah, Nothing can replace that, you know, and, and that really is just so paramount to make sure that you don't, as Joe said, just copy and paste. Use it as that starting point. Use it as, as inspiration or that's your rough Dr. Maybe. And you then take it and make it your own 100%. And then, you know, also, not only from a text standpoint or a content standpoint as far as, as words and language go, but how about visuals? I mean, you know, there are a lot of different tools out there that you can use. I know that I have used a couple of these that you're probably going to mention as well in my life to help improve visuals or just even, you know, make, you know, even touch up a photo or get rid of a background in a photo that I need to do something with or something like that. Like, it's can be very useful and very quick when it, when it works properly. And these tools are getting better. [00:12:41] Speaker A: Yeah. It seems like most platforms are having some form of AI being brought in, brought in with them. So if you, you know, if you, if you have the skill set where you're, you're like, oh, I use Photoshop, that's great because they're, you know, they have their own AI tools. But if you're just getting started and you have those visuals or those graphics that you need, Canva is great. And it has Canva AI. I mean, that's just an easy one. And it's an easy to get you started. And you can keep using it the entire time because you make it how you want it to be and it's you explaining what it is that you're looking for. And then the AI is what begins the creation for you, which is just, it's an easy tool to use and everybody has access to it. [00:13:17] Speaker C: Absolutely. And you, you touched on this. There is an AI tool to produce visuals for whatever your skill level is, and you can use it to create an entire image or, or to just help you through the design process. And so as a Photoshop user myself, you know, I would spend sometimes hours cropping and, you know, isolating a background or isolating a subject. And now I can do that in one click. With AI, that can sometimes save hours or as you mentioned, can be AI. You can build everything using AI. So whatever your talent or skill level is, wherever you're at, there's an AI tool out there that will meet you where you're at. And so it's an incredible way to, to generate visual and imagery that are on brand. But it also takes a skill set to identify what is AI and what isn't. And you'll have to develop an eye to see what quality AI images are versus what aren't. Quality AI imagery. [00:14:11] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, we've all seen those, I think in the, in the news or online where it's like, oh, we know this is AI generated because the person has seven fingers or something like that, you know, and, and so those little details. Right. You know, just, just those things that AI sometimes doesn't quite get. But yeah, but I mean, again, it is a helpful tool when you put your human eyes on it and make sure that everything is good to go. That human interaction, that human touch, it cannot be replaced, but it can be supplemented, it can be helped and it can really help your efficiency. And you can do a lot of things with automation and communicating with customers and things like that. Joe, you mentioned earlier the chat on the website is a great one. What are some other things that maybe could be automated or maybe from a communication standpoint that folks could be able to use? [00:15:04] Speaker A: Yeah, I think if you just think about your CRM alone and the opportunities that are there. I mean, one, if you don't have a CRM, you might want to get one to help you keep you organized. And the tools that it comes with, I mean, and there's so many various ones out there, but the tools that are built within it to help you with the communication and the segmentation and, and really I think that's where, where everything needs or is about to go to that next level. So it's not just mass sending out an email to everybody. It's making sure that you're, you're talking and you're speaking to each of those segmented groups in a different way because not everybody needs the same thing anymore and not everybody wants the same thing anymore. And I think that's where the AI tools can really help because you can, you can use it for inspiration to figure out what is the messaging for this group of people that this is their need. And here's another group of people that I work with and this is their need. And I want a drip campaign for email that is going to provide them value and real value. Don't just email them to email them real value on, hey, yes, you, you know, you just bought life insurance. Here's why you should consider an annuity, things like that as the things that you could be thinking about. And, and that's a way that you can utilize AI1 to help you write it. [00:16:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:16] Speaker A: Then you make it your own. Then you get into your CRM, you segment your audience into the people that it fits and then you utilize the workflows to, to drip. And then based on their reaction to your emails, whether they open it or whether they read it or click on it, that is where those next AI and integrations come can come in to make sure that you're really personalizing it. The last thing you want to do is send an email to somebody and then send them the same email again when they already took the, you know, the step that you wanted them to take. And I think that's where the personalization is going to come into play and making sure that it's true journeys you're taking individuals through, not trying to treat everybody all the same. And by the way, you're all going to get the same mass email no matter what you've done in the past or what your current actions are. [00:17:02] Speaker C: So, and just in short, really well said that being able to do that and utilize these tools to make your life easier, it's just, it's only going to make you a better marketer, a better agent, a better customer service representative for you and your business. And so really being able to, to capitalize on everything that she said, it's great for time management, keeping yourself organized. The list just goes on and on. [00:17:32] Speaker B: It really does. I mean, and speaking of that list going on, you know, things like, you know, targeted marketing, targeted advertising. Targeted advertising has been a thing, you know, for a long time. But now I feel like I can really help people just kind of micro target almost the, the potential clients or prospects that they want to actually reach that fit that certain profile, maybe live in a certain place and all that. It sort of takes a lot of the guessing game out of the whole targeting process. [00:18:04] Speaker C: Yeah, that's so well said. I mean more generally what we're talking about is how AI is changing the marketing landscape. And even a year, two to five years ago, what used to work is now changing dramatically. And so just mass sends and sending things out in droves, just hoping for bytes. It's more so now quality over quantity as to where it has, you know, largely been quantity over quality. And AI is such a powerful tool to utilize those personal messages and really hone in on specific targets. Like you were also mentioning, Matt. [00:18:45] Speaker A: An example that I just thought of as, as you were speaking about really matching the audience is think about like if you have a family who is shopping online and on target and on Target, they start purchasing baby items. I mean, that is a perfect experience where you could go in and you could locate them. You know, it's a RET Media network and you know, hey, I can run some ads on there. You can target the females that are purchasing baby items for life insurance to protect their future. You know, knowing that they're purchasing for a smaller baby and knowing that that is a time when people start thinking about those type of things. That is a perfect way that you could utilize AI to, to really segment. And you could do one ad or one, one for females and one for males or. And you can break it up any way you want. You could do it by age, you could do it by so many different things. And that is where AI and, and the segmentation and the really being taking it to the next level. It's almost like moving people from a level of right now where, where we're kind of like they're out researching, so they're on Google and they're researching and they're the ones doing it. I think the future of what we're going to see isn't necessarily people expecting to have to research it themselves anymore. It's almost like we're going to expect everyone to know and tell us first, like, hey, you know, I just looked at that. You should be telling me this. That's what you're going to see. Like, I just bought a dog. You should be giving me ads. Like, why hasn't anybody told me yet where to get my leash and collar from? Like, and you all. But I think that's where the future is going to head though, is it's going to be like, instead of, instead of us wanting to go do it ourselves, we're going to expect the retailers and our partners and the people that we purchase from to know what we need next and to guide us. And I think that's going to be critical in the next five years of really like, streamlining that process. So we're good at it. [00:20:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:32] Speaker A: And not expecting them to go look for it themselves and find it on a Google search. It's going to be, nope, hey, you just did this. Guess what? Here's your next step. That's what you need now. And I think you're going to see buy in on that because people are going to feel protected and valued, like, wow, you know me. And you're right, I did just purchase that. And you're right, that is the next step. That is what I need to do. Thank you. And that's where I think we're going to see that switch. [00:20:53] Speaker B: Yeah. And that sort of lends itself too to, you know, that, that human touch that we've been talking about. Like it makes making it seem as if, in that way that you really do know your customer and you really do know what their needs are because you know what actions they've taken and you know what they likely need to do next because of that. And then, you know, not losing that human connection is, is just essential, as we've been talking about, you know, you mentioned earlier, you know, just copy and pasting and that being like, you know, not a good thing to do, a big mistake when you could actually, you know, take that sentence or phrase or paragraph or whatever and make it your own. Don't use, you know, the over automation like you were talking about with customer communications. Right. You know, don't, you know, send those people the same email that you've already sent them when they've already taken that action. Can't tell you how annoying that is because it's happened to me lately. Any other sort of like mistakes or anything that you wanted to maybe highlight that people need to keep in mind. [00:21:56] Speaker A: I think the only, like, the only thing I can think of is, you know, it's just thinking about things a different way. I think that's what, what is going to help everybody with their marketing efforts. So, you know, it used to be like you put all Easter's coming up so I can use this one. You put like all your eggs in a basket. And you know, it used to be you would put all of it in TV ads or you would put it all in a newspaper years ago. And then all of a sudden like the Internet came as you mentioned earlier, and you had everything but about SEO and making sure that you're ranking on Google. And right now everything's about AI. And I think we just need to realize like where we're headed and where everybody really needs to prepare for now is the eggs aren't all in one basket anymore. We need each individual egg by itself and everything needs to be set up just for that one egg. And that. That's going to be the biggest change, I think. Or the biggest. Yeah, just that it is the biggest change we're going to see is it's not about everybody's grouped anymore. It is individual. You have to personalize everything moving forward. And it's going to be an expectation, not a. Well, should I. It's, it's going to be expected. Maybe not right this second, but it's coming. And that is where Where I see like this show and everything that we're doing, that's where I see we're going to be able to try to bring the most amount of value is it's helping everybody prepare for what's coming. And it's exciting though. It's like a whole new playbook. We got to rewrite and we get to kind of train from the very beginning of how to do this, which is it's great. [00:23:23] Speaker C: There is so much to be excited about and it is happening and it's happening fast. And so you know where we are at today. By the end of the year we could be having a completely different conversation. But one thing that I do want to make sure is a takeaway here. We've talked a lot about content and how AI can help facilitate your brand and your messaging. Another huge aspect of AI is how much time it can save you. I, I don't mean to contradict like copying and pasting, of course we've iterated, we should not be doing that but just creating a schedule or an outline or getting you through your week and organizing your tasks or your thoughts. I mean there's so many use cases that can AI can help you with in your mundane day to day tasks as well that will propel you further and allow you to spend more time on what truly matters to you and your brand. And so if you're not utilizing AI, you and others are, your competitors are they're going to be 10 steps ahead always. Because AI is also just such a great time saver and time management tool. So that's just an important aspect that whether you're a marketer, an agent or whatever industry you're in, AI is here to stay and it can help you get ahead so much quicker. [00:24:39] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know, so funny because you just made me think of, you know, some way that I've used AI here lately is there. I enjoy cooking and so there was a new recipe that I wanted to try and it was on one of those websites where you know, it was like this annoyingly long like 58,000 page article before you get to the actual recipe. It's like their entire life story. And I once made this for my mother in law at Christmas and and it's like I don't need to know all of this. So I just put it, I copy pasted it, put it in AI and said summarize this for me and give me all the steps. And it did. And so that's the way I and I just emailed that to myself and it was great. Like, I just had kept that up on my phone as I was doing it, and it was wonderful and it worked out. So, yeah. Talking about more efficiency, I didn't have to read the 58,000 pages of this person's life story. [00:25:27] Speaker A: You couldn't just copy paste it and put it in AI and say, give me the bullet points and be done right. [00:25:31] Speaker B: Exactly. Talk about ways that it can make our lives better. That is just one of them for me, at the very top of the list. Well, just about time for us to wrap up here, as our time has just about come and gone. But I wanted to ask if there's anything that we have not touched on as far as the. The topic of AI. And I know it's something that we'll talk about more on the show going forward, but this sort of overview of AI and how it can help people's businesses and how it can help them in their. Their marketing efforts. [00:26:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's just, you know, if I have anybody, any advice for anyone who's never utilized it at all, it's just start with a free version of something and just start trying. Like, even if it's, you know, there was maybe a month ago, I was super overwhelmed. I felt like I had 10,000 tasks to get done. And I was like, man, I just feel like I, I'm overwhelmed right now and I just need to, to somehow get this organized. And I just did my voice to text to AI and I was like, here's everything I'm dealing with right now, and I'm just trying to figure out how I can accomplish all of this and can you help me? And it literally came back. It was like, absolutely, let's prioritize this list and let's get this going. And it just, like, just started asking me questions. I answered, and they gave me this entire schedule of how to get it all done. And I was like, oh, that's great. This is wonderful. So to me, it really is. It doesn't even have to be about your marketing in the beginning. It could just be about getting you overall organized and getting like. And it could give you ideas. And so it's just a matter of beginning to learn about AI and kind of learning to trust it a little bit. I know that sounds crazy, but it is, it's just, it's willing to give it an opportunity. And then I think you're. You're going to see rather quickly the value that it can bring, but you're also going to see areas where you're like, man, that's the same response you always give, you know, and you'll start to recognize things and you'll see the strengths, you'll see the weaknesses, and then you'll realize how important and, and then you won't worry as much about, oh, well, is it going to replace us? No, it's not going to replace us. We're fine. [00:27:34] Speaker C: I, I think, Matt, where the one thing that we haven't touched on, and I'm sure we'll talk more about this, is how we can use AI to help understand ourselves better. And so when it comes to personal branding and how social media has progressed as well to more authenticity and connection, I think that AI can help us with learning about ourselves. You know, what are your values and what do you care about? What products do you sell? What's the mission of your business? AI can help put all of that together so that you can understand how you can approach customers, how you can approach your colleagues, how you can approach clients and, and, and sell your brand based on who you are as a person and your own values. And so I think that's also a really exciting part of AI is, is how it can help your own life and your own personal life. But, but that, in an extension, helps build a personal brand that can help your business. And so there's. So I think you can hear the excitement in our voices when we talk about this. There's just so much opportunity there, and I can't wait to continue to dive into this on this podcast. [00:28:45] Speaker B: Yeah, it's going to be great. And you guys are awesome. And thank you so much for sharing your insights on AI because as we said, people can be intimidated by it or scared by it or really excited about it, but they've got to know kind of what its abilities are before they kind of dive in, I feel like. And the abilities, we've gone through a lot of them today, and they can really help in many different aspects of life and business as well. Joe Barker, David Belville, thank you both so much. Really appreciate it. [00:29:15] Speaker A: Thank you, Matt. [00:29:16] Speaker B: Thanks. We'll see you next time for another edition of the youe Marketing Support Podcast. [00:29:21] Speaker C: RA.