Latest / Amplify Your Marketing Message with Christine Campbell Rapin / 197 - Scaling Your Business with AI Without Losing the Human Touch
Transcript
- 0:03If you are a B2B service based business owner and you are
- 0:06looking to gain more clients, create more impact and more
- 0:09revenue in your business, TuneIn to amplify your marketing
- 0:13message with Christine Campbell Rappin.
- 0:15Every week we're going to take you through how to build an
- 0:17audience of buyers, mastering your marketing message and
- 0:20making offers. You don't have to go very far
- 0:26today in the world of entrepreneurship to hear AI
- 0:30this, AI that. And there's been billions of
- 0:33dollars that have moved towards AI in the world of business.
- 0:37And yet there was an interesting stat recently that said what we
- 0:40realized with all this AI is that we need to stay human.
- 0:42And so I'm super excited to bring our guest into the program
- 0:46today because she has got this balance right.
- 0:49How do we scale our businesses with great technology and how do
- 0:54we do it without losing our humanness?
- 0:56So please give a very warm welcome today to our guest,
- 0:58Michelle Rund. Welcome to the show.
- 1:00Excited to have here. Thank you so much, Christina.
- 1:03I am super excited to be here with you today.
- 1:05Thank you for having me. My pleasure.
- 1:07So the first thing is for business owners, particularly
- 1:10those that serve B2B, which is where you and I play most of our
- 1:13business day, how come we actually do this?
- 1:16Because the aspiration is hugely interesting, but we see it not
- 1:21working effectively. So what's your take on this?
- 1:24How do we actually win the game? I think the 2025 was a year of a
- 1:30lot of lessons learned. Everybody when they in 2025
- 1:36thinking, hey, we're going to set up all these agents, we're
- 1:39just going to have everything run.
- 1:40We'll set it and forget it. It didn't work.
- 1:43AI is not there yet in my opinion.
- 1:45And the way that I like to frame this for a lot of business
- 1:48owners is think of AI as your sous chef, OK?
- 1:52AI works best in conjunction with human creativity and
- 1:56capability. So if you think about a world
- 1:59class chef in a restaurant, there's a sous chef, right?
- 2:02The chef heads up the visionary. He's the visionary or she they
- 2:06create the recipes, they make the calls on the flavor, they
- 2:09build their relationships and the sous chef executes, right.
- 2:12They follow the recipe with precision, they speed up the
- 2:15work and they handle the preparation.
- 2:18Think of AI as that sous chef. But you are always the one who's
- 2:22going to be in charge and your voice, your judgment, your
- 2:25expertise, your experience is what is going to guide this
- 2:30amazing tool. And as long as you can do that,
- 2:33you're going to have a lot better success.
- 2:35Any of the content that you create is going to be, it's
- 2:38going to sound like your brand of human and I have some things
- 2:42I'm going to share today that can help people do that.
- 2:46This is so important because I think we have lost sight that
- 2:51we're still the architect, we're still the person who must think
- 2:57before we can ask somebody else to implement it.
- 3:00And that was true whether you were using human labour or in
- 3:02the newer world, the AI bots that are becoming very prevalent
- 3:06and early adoption has been really interesting to watch.
- 3:09Yeah, we are still responsible for this.
- 3:12And without us at the table, without our creativity, without
- 3:16our brains at the power, we really truly see what we've
- 3:19created, which is a whole bunch of hot mess that we're
- 3:23wondering, well, why is it broken?
- 3:24How does it fix? And so we're kind of going back
- 3:26to the drawing board. I think it's kind of refreshing
- 3:28because we brought our brains to the table.
- 3:30So there's a lot of mistakes we've made.
- 3:32What are some of the biggest AI mistakes we have experienced
- 3:36when implementing AI as you've seen it?
- 3:39Let's start with that first. There's a whole list, but the
- 3:43one that I would say is the most prevalent is when people try to
- 3:48automate processes that are broken.
- 3:51So my sound bite here for everybody is don't automate what
- 3:54you can't articulate. AI only amplifies what you give
- 3:58it. So if your process is messy or
- 4:00broken, AI is going to make it messier at scale.
- 4:03So you need to fix the process 1st and then use AI to speed it
- 4:07up. It's just that simple.
- 4:09I can give an example of a a company that I think did a
- 4:12really great job with this if you like.
- 4:14Sure, please. OK.
- 4:16There was a publishing company that had an employee, we'll just
- 4:20call her Sarah for the sake of this example.
- 4:22And her job was to create author BIOS and book descriptions.
- 4:26Simple, right? So she would send an e-mail to
- 4:28the author and she would ask them for that.
- 4:31And it turned into this painful process because everybody came
- 4:33about it a little bit differently.
- 4:35Sometimes what they gave was incomplete or just was really
- 4:38off brand for what the publisher needed.
- 4:40So she ended up in these, like, unbelievably long e-mail
- 4:44threads. And she was spending about 35
- 4:46hours a week just on this task. Her her leadership sat down with
- 4:52her and they took a look at what the actual process was.
- 4:57They wanted to document what done right looked like, because
- 4:59at this point she couldn't even really articulate it.
- 5:02So they went back to basics. What does a great author bio bio
- 5:06include? What makes a really compelling
- 5:08book description? And they had a ton of data that
- 5:11they could take a look at to see what are the elements that we
- 5:13need to include. So then once they define that
- 5:16standard, they put together a standardized group of questions
- 5:20for the author intake process, and they deployed it using a
- 5:24custom GPT, which, if you are not familiar with that, it's
- 5:27something you can do with ChatGPT.
- 5:29It's essentially like a question and answer framework.
- 5:33And they gathered all the information.
- 5:35Now, once that foundation is in place, the AI could create the
- 5:38first draft of every bio and book description automatically.
- 5:42And at this point, Sara's job shifted tremendously.
- 5:46She went from 35 hours a week for this down to just three
- 5:50hours a week. That's an 87% reduction in
- 5:54operational efficiency. And every business would love
- 5:57that. Yes, absolutely.
- 5:59So all she had to do was refine and review, and this freed her
- 6:04up to focus on more valuable work.
- 6:05And this is what I think is like one of the best use cases for AI
- 6:10because she was able to then focus on building strategic
- 6:13partnerships with the authors. The other ripple effect of this
- 6:17that I really love, and it's one of the reasons I like to tell
- 6:19this transformational story is the the publishing company began
- 6:24to scale. They began to add additional
- 6:27authors to their book of business because now they had
- 6:30the they had the capacity to do it and they didn't have to start
- 6:33adding additional people. So it was a win, win, win across
- 6:38authors Sarah and the company. What's so important guys, and I
- 6:44know you've heard this here for sure many times when amplifier
- 6:47marketing message is that you must bring your brain to the
- 6:50table. What does success look like?
- 6:52What does our standard be modeled around?
- 6:56And this is the starting point. It's not the haphazard after.
- 6:59Do not let a I tell you this. I think that's really, I know
- 7:03I've seen it, but it's dangerous because remember what a language
- 7:06learning model is. It's a people pleaser on
- 7:09steroids. So if you say do this and it
- 7:12will go, I give you the Gold Star.
- 7:14We can get off course. So I love in this example we
- 7:17talked about, let's dial this back.
- 7:19What are our foundations? What do we see as hallmarks of
- 7:23success? What do we want to create?
- 7:26And then we can still synthesize the data fast, but we still are
- 7:31in control of what does the outcome look like.
- 7:33And to your point, is it on brand?
- 7:35Is it reflecting what we want to put into the marketplace?
- 7:38Because without that, you're losing the plot with your
- 7:43audience. And that will slow down for
- 7:45sure. The yes, as you get with people
- 7:47who say here we want to partner with you, here's my credit card.
- 7:50So what is another mistake that people often make in the world
- 7:53of AI? What have you seen?
- 7:54So I think the four big ones really are, they don't want to
- 7:59start with documenting the process.
- 8:01You have to be crystal clear on what the process is, Get it out
- 8:04of your head and onto, you know, a document so that you can have
- 8:08the AI take a look and say, hey, you can actually ask the AI,
- 8:11here's my process. Is there anything missing?
- 8:14And it'll tell you if it needs something else in order to
- 8:16really execute the plan. So documenting first.
- 8:19The other thing, I think that happens quite a bit, especially
- 8:22if you do something right and you get a really good result
- 8:25from your first AI implementation, is they want to
- 8:27go and they want to just start putting AI into everything.
- 8:31And it really is best to start small.
- 8:34Pick one thing, one small thing, get a quick win instead of
- 8:38trying to boil the ocean overnight.
- 8:40And from there you want to scale thoughtfully, grow what's
- 8:43working and pause what isn't. Not everything is going to work
- 8:46and it's OK. These tools change weekly.
- 8:51So, you know, just be willing to be flexible because that's
- 8:55something else that's going to be really important.
- 8:58And then the last thing is you humans need to stay central.
- 9:01A human needs to stay in the loop to help with the decisions
- 9:05and let the AI assist. The a lot of these AI tools,
- 9:09once you set up, somebody needs to check in on it just like an
- 9:12employee. Is it still doing what's
- 9:14expected? Sometimes if you're not feeding
- 9:16additional data or it's not, they tend to get less and less
- 9:20accurate. So a human needs to stay in
- 9:22there the whole time. I, I talk about how 2025 is
- 9:26probably going to be the beginning of the time when
- 9:28almost, well, most people will end up with AIT mates that they
- 9:33are managing OK. So these teammates will be doing
- 9:36a lot of the behind the scenes work, the repetitive things, but
- 9:39somebody still needs to make sure that they're staying on
- 9:41track. So those are probably the four
- 9:43biggest ones. That last one I think is
- 9:45colossally important and I had it at unfortunately as a
- 9:49nightmare story in my network. Appear of mine relies heavily on
- 9:55AI to provide the services that she has sold.
- 10:00And when you are using AI, like if you're using social media,
- 10:04you're on a rented platform where the rules are changing and
- 10:07you don't get briefed Monday morning and the standing meeting
- 10:10around that. So she showed up one day with a
- 10:13multi 6 figure business and suddenly her product wasn't
- 10:17performing and she went, wow, I've rented space and they've
- 10:22changed the rules and we've all been through that social media.
- 10:24If you lose your social media, I've gone, I've had so many
- 10:26calls. Christine, what do I do?
- 10:27You start again, right beginning.
- 10:29And they're like, wow, because it does change and it does need
- 10:33to be edited and it does need to be reasoned with, which is is it
- 10:37still what we want to create? Is it doing the job we intended?
- 10:40And I love, love, love that you're suggesting we are going
- 10:43to be managing the systems and saying, is it doing what we want
- 10:47like you would any other human if you're in a leadership
- 10:50official management role. Because she watched her business
- 10:54crater and it was a huge wake up call.
- 10:57Unfortunately very expensive. And I said you just paid a
- 11:00lesson tax. You need to rethink about this
- 11:03and make the decision when you go in to your point, start
- 11:07small. How much exposure do you want to
- 11:10have your business change when you are least expecting it
- 11:14because it is moving so fast and programs we loved last week,
- 11:18we're not loving this week with something new is coming.
- 11:20And if you're watching this currently, you're watching the
- 11:23world fall out of love to a degree of chat and in love with
- 11:26Claude. And I will tell you that pattern
- 11:29will only accelerate. You've got to really watch your
- 11:32balance and risk exposure because it can have huge winds
- 11:35but you also need to know there's no such 3 is a risk free
- 11:39win. OHP always have to be managing.
- 11:41This. And I love those.
- 11:44Things, yeah, risk is something that I'm so glad you mentioned
- 11:47that, Christine, because this is something that's really critical
- 11:49that I talk to clients about. It's very exciting to have all
- 11:53of these connectors, right? You can connect any of the AI
- 11:58tools to your e-mail, to your calendar, to your, you know,
- 12:01your like your Google Drive and that's great for efficiency.
- 12:07But all of these connections also can create vulnerabilities
- 12:11in your business. These AI agents can be
- 12:14vulnerable to something that's called negative prompt
- 12:17injections. So if somebody out there who has
- 12:19bad intentions tries to talk, you know, that AI into giving it
- 12:23your e-mail address or your password, you just have to go in
- 12:27eyes wide open and really do your due diligence when you're
- 12:30when you're doing this. We're in an age where
- 12:33information is king and you want to guard your data and make sure
- 12:36to keep it safe. And everything comes with a
- 12:39little bit of risk, but you can still manage it.
- 12:42Well, I remember a year ago I was in an incredible event
- 12:45called The Marketers. Those guys, if you want to know
- 12:47about the Marketers cruise, come ask me about it.
- 12:48You should be in that room with me.
- 12:49But I was sitting with somebody who who unfortunately that week
- 12:52honestly had had been hostile taken over as part of a Co owned
- 12:56business in a AIAI direction because there was friction of
- 13:00principle. So he found himself ejected and
- 13:03he said we have the capabilities.
- 13:06The question we're asking is should we?
- 13:08And our leadership is not aligned.
- 13:10And I just lost my job because of it.
- 13:12And so this is really important where you set your true north.
- 13:15Yeah. What do we want?
- 13:17What is our values? What is our principles?
- 13:19That's our risk tolerance. And we have to check this
- 13:23because I think it will also evolve like the AI is evolving
- 13:26and different people will have different appetites.
- 13:29You always need to bring yourself and your brain to the
- 13:31table and check in with, am I OK and am I doing the greatest good
- 13:38for everybody? Recognizing, as you've heard me
- 13:41say, this leadership is not a popularity contest.
- 13:44There will be lots of times you're not applauded and it is
- 13:46OK to recognize that your role is about the survivability of
- 13:51you, your business, your clients.
- 13:53And sometimes that means, I heard you say, you pull the
- 13:56plug, you take a course correction and you take a pause.
- 14:00So I love still that I think we can manage the risk and that we
- 14:05can still bring in our brain and our thinking power.
- 14:09How and where do we start as a small business to figure out?
- 14:14I like this. Where do we start for us in
- 14:18early adoption to that small piece you're suggesting we begin
- 14:22with? Yeah, I, I love the, you already
- 14:25touched on one of the points that I was going to talk about
- 14:27at this point, which was, you know, instead of asking the
- 14:31question, can I do this? Because they can do just about
- 14:34anything. The the better question is
- 14:37should AI be doing this or is this something we're human, a
- 14:42human needs to do it. So one of the most simplified
- 14:47frameworks that I've heard about is one that's called the C5
- 14:50framework. And this was created by my
- 14:52mentor, Alicia Little. And essentially it's five lenses
- 14:56for looking at your business and trying to figure out where I
- 14:58genuinely makes sense versus where your human expertise has
- 15:02to stay. So you start with cutting costs,
- 15:07right? That's the first SEA.
- 15:08Lot of times this is going to be your quickest way to some ROI if
- 15:12it's cutting costs for repetitive process.
- 15:15Customer experience is another one.
- 15:17One of those FAQ's is a great place to start.
- 15:21Competitive advantage, knowing, knowing what's going on in your
- 15:24market with your competitors. Creativity is the 4th 1 and
- 15:28that's not just marketing, that's giving yourself time to
- 15:30be able to think about strategic long term planning.
- 15:33And then the last SEAS colleagues were team efficiency.
- 15:38So I'll give you a couple of examples, just might give you
- 15:42one example. There was a marketing firm that
- 15:44was spending about $1500 a month on stock photos for their client
- 15:50campaigns and they decided to introduce AI image generation
- 15:55and they use tools by like Mid Journey and Ideogram.
- 16:00Now that transition reduced their monthly cost from 1500 to
- 16:03200. That's over a savings of over
- 16:06$15,000 a year. That is not nothing.
- 16:09Now, their clients were actually really thrilled because the
- 16:11marketing team now could create images that were exactly what
- 16:15was needed. They didn't have to try and find
- 16:16a stock photo that was close enough, and they didn't have to
- 16:21pour through stock photos or pay too much and take the loss just
- 16:24because it was the best photo. But here's what's cool that
- 16:27state human with them. They still chose which images
- 16:30actually fit the brand. They approved all of the final
- 16:34selections, and they maintained the creative vision and the AI
- 16:38handle the execution for creating the images.
- 16:40The humans kept that creative strategy.
- 16:44So that's one example. There's other examples that I
- 16:47can give, but I want to be conscious of our time here too.
- 16:51And I think this is interesting. I know when I have played and
- 16:54again, we guys, we have to, we have to really think about the
- 16:57questions we ask, the vision we see and check its interpretation
- 17:03because we know we all think we're amazing communicators
- 17:07truthfully. So we think we're communicating
- 17:09awesome even with the human. Never mind we think we're
- 17:11awesome talking with an AI who says you're awesome, but we're
- 17:15not actually great at this. Stats would say 70% of us are
- 17:19actually really could use improvement in our
- 17:20communication. And I know when I played with
- 17:22that creative element in the graphics, I said I I've I've
- 17:26just gone. It's really not right.
- 17:28And that's not due to the a not being capable.
- 17:31It's been through what prompting I am giving and what I love is
- 17:38using stuff that you don't contort yourself around that's
- 17:42genuinely authentic to fuel it. So you can say here's what I
- 17:45liked, here's what I did and I use mentioned earlier, you know,
- 17:48take a process and and use things to create frameworks.
- 17:52Sometimes one of our biggest challenges, I don't know what my
- 17:54framework is. I don't know what my style is.
- 17:56I don't know how to do this because if you're not been
- 17:58through the marketing engine, you're not a.
- 17:59Marketer, right? You don't have the language that
- 18:01the AI might be expecting, but you can say here's 7 phone calls
- 18:06it mean in this example, pull from that my framework.
- 18:10Here's all the images that aesthetically I have in my
- 18:13phone. Pull from that and tell me what
- 18:15you're interpreting. And I think one of the most
- 18:17important prompts to check the logic of your AI is tell me what
- 18:22you're seeing. And then you say, surprisingly,
- 18:26yes, that's right. Or wow, I didn't know that's how
- 18:29it was being interpreted. And it can be that fine tuning.
- 18:32So we love the savings. We love that idea because it
- 18:36does mean you commit to being coached, hmm, to asking those
- 18:43questions. And you cannot excuse the human.
- 18:49So if your dream was that this will all operate without humans,
- 18:54just imagine. Yes, your business can be
- 18:56enduring, but if you disappeared, it falls apart
- 19:01because you're leading it, right?
- 19:03There's still more risk to that. Yeah, right.
- 19:06Yeah, exactly. We're the face of the business.
- 19:08I I love what you were just saying about interacting with
- 19:12the AI and asking it a question. What do you see?
- 19:16Another question that I found is unbelievably helpful in a lot of
- 19:21instances is asking what questions do you have for me?
- 19:25Like what information do you need from me to fill in the
- 19:29blank of what you're asking it to do?
- 19:31It always has really good questions.
- 19:34Most of the time their contextual is asking for context
- 19:37or it's asking for intent. What, what, what are you going
- 19:40to use this for you trying to get, you know, what's, what's
- 19:42the end goal here? And once you give it the context
- 19:46and once you start asking those questions, you are truly
- 19:49inviting it to be a thought partner.
- 19:52Sounds weird, but to your point, they see patterns, they see
- 19:56trends and they're sharp. They I do this with Claude a lot
- 20:01and Claude has pointed out things that I'm like.
- 20:05OK, I guess so. I I didn't really think about
- 20:07that, but it's, it's an amazing experience.
- 20:10It is, and it's an interactive one.
- 20:12That's evolutionary guys. So this is also like how you
- 20:15evolve the systems and the tech behind it is evolving, but also
- 20:18it's interpretation is involving.
- 20:20So always bring yourself to the conversation.
- 20:24This is going to be the key to creating this scalability, this
- 20:29improvement in the ROI. And what's really going to be
- 20:33clear is still the human director, architect, thought
- 20:39person. And it needs to be true.
- 20:43And that's a very human gut response because I always say
- 20:46when people create content in the company said this is what
- 20:49the market says it needs. That's what the AI told me this.
- 20:51I said it also told that to 100 other million other people.
- 20:54What's your lens in this? Never forget you're going to get
- 20:57hired for your opinion. And your opinion is what is
- 20:59directing the AI, your thought patterns with directing the ISO.
- 21:03Please bring that and embrace it because truthfully, without it,
- 21:08I will say it's shiny, it sounds good, but it's not true.
- 21:10And what does the world need right now?
- 21:13Truth. Exactly.
- 21:15And that comes from thinking. So bring your brain to work
- 21:18today my. Friends and I give my AI
- 21:21permission to push back and to say when I'm off track and what
- 21:25it really thinks. I've already said, look, I don't
- 21:27need a cheerleader. I don't need you to tell me
- 21:29you're awesome every day. Yes, exactly.
- 21:35But yeah, don't be afraid to tell it what you really need.
- 21:38If you really need a thought partner to push back and tell
- 21:41you. Like Claude really good at
- 21:43telling me when I'm spinning or I'm overthinking.
- 21:45Good. That's awesome.
- 21:46It helps. Helps, of course, correct fast.
- 21:49I love this. So I always want to ask my
- 21:51guests this because everyone builds their business
- 21:52differently. But what's working right now for
- 21:54you to amplify your message to get in front of more of the
- 21:56right people who are saying, tell me more about your
- 21:59services. What's working right now?
- 22:01So what I do essentially is I help mostly B to B, whether it's
- 22:07consultants, coaches or service providers figure out how they
- 22:12can implement AI for their specific needs.
- 22:14Every company is different. And one of the things that I'm
- 22:18working on doing more of I've used AI quite a bit to help me
- 22:22create my footprint on LinkedIn because this is where a lot of
- 22:24buyers are. I have used it to help me put in
- 22:28create my website and I, I had it help me create a complete SEO
- 22:33strategy that I then checked with an SEO professional.
- 22:38Like are we on track? Because I don't know anything
- 22:40about this. I'm working now on my marketing.
- 22:45I've never been a marketer. I've been in sales and customer
- 22:48success. And so I'm, I'm moving slowly
- 22:51into that and I need to get some systems in place.
- 22:54I'm generating leads, but I'm not doing as much with them as I
- 22:57should. So my next step that I'm in the
- 22:59process of doing right now is setting up some nurture
- 23:02campaigns and some automations that can help these leads
- 23:07continue on to the point where they're like, hey, Michelle, we
- 23:09need to talk. That's the latest.
- 23:12This evolution for two reasons, guys, most of us have a strength
- 23:16and a skill set. When we start, we all need to
- 23:19recognize how long we want to own it, but we always have to
- 23:21own the leadership of the questioning.
- 23:24And without systems like most of us, we do an amazing job getting
- 23:28the lead. Let's do something amazing with
- 23:30the lead to support them to create the result.
- 23:33And that's really where 80% of people lose their momentum.
- 23:36So you're not alone, but we want to improve that.
- 23:38I love that you've already seen it and committed to it.
- 23:40So people want to know how you're using AI and how you
- 23:43might be able to help them leverage AI more effectively in
- 23:45their business. How do people find you?
- 23:48You can get me on LinkedIn, Michelle Rungie RUNG.
- 23:51There's another Michelle Rungi on there and she's with a
- 23:54different company. My company name is AI Edge
- 23:57Consulting. I also have a website which is
- 24:00AI Edge consult.com. It's got all the details about
- 24:04the different things that I do. I do speaking, I do training,
- 24:07got some products out there. So yeah, those are probably the
- 24:11best places. You want to be somebody who's in
- 24:15this game and sees their brain as integral to it.
- 24:18I think Michelle is an amazing resource.
- 24:20Go connect to her on LinkedIn as her preferred platform.
- 24:23Connect, learn, grow, implement and go today and amplify your
- 24:27message. Your next client is out there.
- 24:29They are ready to spend. It's up to you to get found, you
- 24:32to make the bold ask, and you to help them get the result they
- 24:35seek. Thanks for being our guest
- 24:36today. It's a pleasure to have you
- 24:38here. Thank you, Christine.
- 24:39It's been pleasure. That's a wrap on another amazing
- 24:46episode of Amplify Your Marketing Message with me, your
- 24:49host, Christine Campbell Rappin. Be sure to subscribe on your
- 24:53favorite podcast platform so you don't miss another great
- 24:56episode. And be sure to visit
- 24:58christinecampbellrapping.com/podcast to get a free resource on how to
- 25:03master your marketing message. We'll see you.