Latest / The Marketing Brief / Joe & Brian Bond Over Their Love of Process & Reason (S2 E12)
Transcript
- Brian: Hello and welcome back to the Marketing Brief Podcast. I am your host, Brian Aquan, and this is the podcast where we talk about really anything across the landscape in marketing, anything that's kind of coming up. Of course, to do that, we need a guest, and we are very happy to be joined by Joe Tirso today. Welcome in, Joe. Joe Turso: Thank you, Brian. I I appreciate you having me here. Brian: Yeah, it's great to have you here. I know you're a multi-hyphenate. You've done you're you're a founder. What how would you describe yourself to the listeners? Joe Turso: Well, I've been in technology for forty years. over the last twenty-five, it has been an a managed service provider where that supports, you know, fifty, sixty different companies internal IT. and so over the course of this I started doing consulting work and seeing where problems are with businesses in different verticals, and it brought me to creating the high high point group, which is an AI native operating system for companies as well as AI readiness consulting. Brian: Absolutely. And certainly something we talk a lot about here. maybe to get us jump started. what do you see how do you see companies making mistakes in AI right now? Like what what what are some things where you can kind of jump in and be like, I I can see where you're going and maybe you should go this way. Joe Turso: Well the the biggest thing I see is people that s think they buy a tool and it's gonna solve a problem. Right. And and I I see that a lot. People buy a tool and they're like, Well, we're just we're just big a mess. It's not fixing my processes. I'm not getting the results I want. and so I see that a lot and I s and I help It is I I I wanna say it was it was two two episodes ago where w you talked about use cases, right? What What problem are you trying to solve? So AI is no different than the invention of the wheel or the airplane, right? It's not what problem are we trying to solve? And and once we define that, we then apply the tool. It's not apply the tool and want to fix. So that's generally where I'm seeing the biggest struggle with people of, hey, this is what I'm doing, this is what I'm trying to do, and this is this is what I chose to get me there, but it may not work. Brian: And I'm sure you've done that your whole career is like the solution comes after you identify the problem. But I agree with you, we're in this time where like there's almost FOMO for businesses that aren't using AI for everything. They're like, wait, everyone's using it. I need to get up to speed on it. So I need to put it in. But yeah, that's a great, that's a great insight to identify the issue or the problem that you're trying to solve first. Joe Turso: Mm-hmm. And and a a big gap I see too, especially with with with small and mid sized businesses, not understanding the impact of using AI, your data governance, right? Your data security. Brian: Mm-hmm. Joe Turso: we'll put something in, not realize that my financial data are now available to the public. My client information is now available to the public. and and that's where they call like shadow AI. person A in your company is using Chat GPT, person B in your company is using Gemini. Right? So my my data is going out and I have no control of Brian: Yeah. How do you solve for that? Are there si are there secure ways that you can use your data and still get the impact of the data analysis from AI, but you're guarded from that? Joe Turso: Well yes, and and that's really the the main purpose of why I built the hive is there's very few actual infrastructure applications. Like I can get Chat GPT or Copilot and and have the private instance, right? But I don't have data classification, data governance. Right? I can't say if you're using this, I don't want credit card information going out. I can't redact Brian: Gotcha. Joe Turso: requests. Also, if you're not using an infrastructure like a backbone, you have no shared context. You have three people in marketing. You're working on this project, you're working on this project, and then this person's working on both. Right? Every time person A sends out information, right, the AI knows what they're doing. B, AI knows what they're doing, but AI doesn't know A and B. Right? So when this per your third person that's supporting the projects tries to get into the data, they they don't have the same context. So it's code it's and that goes back to working in silos. Brian: Right. Which has always been a problem. Joe Turso: Mm-hmm. Brian: So data governance, how do you define that? Joe Turso: So data governance is being able to control basically policies of your company to say what can go out, what can be used, who can use what, and and who c what needs to be redacted, what needs to be blocked, what needs classification, like what's internal use only, what's client sensitive, right? Where it's it's it's labeling data. Most people have policies, paper policies, right? And they say here, this is what this is how I want you to do stuff like you're not gonna download my client list onto a USB drive. Right? Same thing with AI. I'm not gonna have my client list go out to AI for somebody to say, hey, go do an analysis on this client list. And now your client list is out in the public. Brian: Yeah. So Joe Turso: So the data governance is saying what people can and can't do, and it's no longer just about the the policy of an employee handbook, it's enforcing it. And that's the benefit of the enterprise. They have these tools, they have these infrastructure, and the small to mid-sized business don't even know about it. Brian: Yeah. And I'm sure it's something that's existed, right? Data governance. But that the that data was only in the hands of a few people. whereas now any deck that you build or any presentation you build, someone can just throw that right into a an Joe Turso: Right. Brian: LLM and then all of a sudden that's kind of thrown to the wind. So you work with companies on on building out their data governance for for the organization. Yeah. Joe Turso: I do. I do. And and I think it was I I loved when I heard you guys talking about domain knowledge, right? What makes you unique? You know, tools are not a barrier. processes aren't even a barrier. It is your culture of domain knowledge, and you can take that and make a secure agent inside your organization to allow your people to leverage your intelligence. and you talk I took I have my own four P process for how I coach companies, right? I've taken 30 years of processes, right? Of policies, of SOPs and job just everything I know and I put it into an AI domain knowledge. And so when my clients are saying, hey you know, how do I get my laboratory gross margins? And it pops right up. Here's what you go do and and it's gonna be over here and it's gonna be over here. Do you want me to go get it for you? Right? And it's just like asking for a consultant. So I help them through domain knowledge. Brian: Yeah. That's your domain expertise. Yeah, sometimes we call it that. Joe Turso: Mm-hmm. Yep. And lock that thing down. Brian: Yeah. Don't give that away. Joe Turso: Don't you don't. You don't give it away. Like every time like there's a mode you can go into and like, hey, I'm gonna have a a consulting session. Boop, here we go. Now we now you have it 'cause you paid for that connector. Brian: Yeah. Well, I'd love to ask you this because you know, I've been in marketing for a number of years and seen digital revolutions, you know, mobile revolutions, you know, programmatic revolution, right? These are all kind of things that have gone through. And marketers typically love change, right? We we like to see disruption and we like to study how consumers react to it. What's different this time is the rate of change. I think it's happening so, so, so fast that it's almost every day you're seeing something new. How How do you deal with that? Right. How do you stay on top of things when there is constant, constant change in this industry? Joe Turso: So the the constant change is wrapped around tools, right? Not use cases. Brian: There you go. Joe Turso: How humans interact isn't changing that much, but how we do the job is changing. So it still Brian: Mm-hmm. Joe Turso: goes to like I I I just it it boils me sometimes when people say, Well, let's use Cloud for this, or here's 10 things for use Gemini for that, or use Grok for this. The AI model should be irrelevant, right? there are plenty of what's called multi-model gateways out there. Like I have an AI gateway that says you should use natural language, right? Ask your question or do whatever it is you're gonna do. Let the system pick the right AI model based on price, based on performance, or based on whatever your criteria, your policies, right? You would never like if half the AI models shut down, you should never even know about it, still be able to do your job. The rate of change is how smart they're getting, but not how you run your business, just how you augment. So, you know, technology's been advancing at an incr at an incredible pace since the dawn of time, right? It has these big gaps and these gaps are getting smaller, these gaps are getting smaller. Now it's going so fast, but it's still you you you need to create a a social media content, right? You need to know who your audience is. You need to be able to touch them and get them emotionally involved. Those processes haven't changed, right? I mean, those those needs haven't changed, but just okay, I can do it differently, I can do it faster, right? I've enhanced my team. I am not replacing it because your team needs to do what humans do. Going through Brian: Yeah. Well and Joe Turso: your email and and saying what's important and what's not, or even auto-drafting replies, that's a time saver. Brian: Yeah. For sure. I Joe Turso: Right? Brian: I love that you boil it or you always bring it back to the use case, you know. I think we could work together, Joe. I I Joe Turso: Yeah. Brian: I always love to bring it back to the consumer because it it and sometimes it feels redundant and I like am I being obtuse? But it really is about, okay, what is the consumer doing? And in and in your case, what's the problem you're trying to solve? And I love that it's like, there's plenty of tactics, there's plenty of ways to do it. Joe Turso: Mm-hmm. Brian: But understanding that problem is really how you get to a solution. I sound simple, but I really love that you drill down on that. Joe Turso: Right. And and I think it's because some I th when I learned smart goals, you know, in in the early two thousand, how to how Brian: Mm. Yeah. Joe Turso: to how to do that, I'm like, well everything should be related to that. Any problem I'm trying to solve because out of that will become standards, it'll become processes, it'll become guardrails, right? And and if if you can if it can be very specific and measurable, right, and then relevant. Brian: Yeah. Yep. Joe Turso: That's then then the tool again, the tool flushes out itself. Brian: Yeah. Achievable is another one of my I love smart goals as well. Yeah. Yeah. And time and time Joe Turso: Mm. Yeah, achievable, right. And time, right? Time. So the Brian: bound. Yeah. Can can you actually do it? Joe Turso: Right. And I and I do like this was the last month was the the last two weeks were all about quarterly strategic reviews, right? What are we doing for for Q three? So I was doing it over and over and over. And every time we come out of it, what's my my my I should have three to five rocks that have smart goals attached. What am I doing to improve my business over the next quarter that's in line with my annual goal? Right. So I just do meeting after meeting with with businesses creating these plans and then None of it had to do with AI. Now, will AI be part of the solution? Absolutely, because a lot of technology companies are are AI first, but human always. Brian: Yeah. Of course. You're always trying to reach humans. Joe Turso: Right. Brian: I'd love to ask my guests one question. the season two's question is what is your superpower? Do you know what your superpower is, Joe? Joe Turso: I do, I do. So it's it's funny to use the word superpower because in in True Methods, which is a MSP structured methodology, it's your superpowers what makes you different. So my superpower, right, is organizational structure. Right. I help people understand that which lever the pull. from from your your frontline employees all the way to the executive. What lever do I pull to get the result that I want? And this goes to what I call experience level agreements. I of course didn't coin the phrase, but it's something that I can't believe has not come out there as a standard. And experience level agreement takes your your soft skills and the hard metrics and puts them together and says, was every interaction good for the client or the end user? Was it good for the member of your company, your employees, and was it good for the company itself? Was it profitable? And so if you it's not all three, then it's a bad process, right? Or bad workflow. And I boil it down to as simple as that. When I do this, do you enjoy working here? Did the customer enjoy the experience? And are we making the money we need to? Brian: Nice. I l I love process. It sounds like systems and process are kind of your your superpower. That's awesome. That's great. Joe Turso: That is correct. I think in fifteen minute increments. Brian: Yeah. And getting it down to that is even better. Well, how do people? Yeah. Joe Turso: It is, right? 'Cause ever what at the end of it we're w it's it's our time that's that's valuable, right? Brian: Mm-hmm. Joe Turso: And it's it's valuable because your experience of what you're talking, it's valuable 'cause you're learning, it's valuable 'cause you're doing. And it's valuable because you want to, you know, spend time with your kids or or do a hobby. Brian: Most precious personal asset is our time. Yep. Nope. Can't get more of it. Joe Turso: Yep, so one thing they're not making more of for you. Brian: Well, thank you so much for joining me, Joe. How do people get in touch with you if they're interested in Hive Point? Joe Turso: you can go online at highpoint dot ai and then simple email is joe.terso t U R S O at highpointgroup dot AI. Brian: Awesome. And we'll include that when when we post the episode. Well, thank you Joe Turso: All right. Brian: so much for being my guest and having this brief conversation on the Marketing Brief podcast. You've been a great guest, Joe. Joe Turso: thank you so much. It's it's always fun talking about this stuff. Brian: Yeah, I love talking about it with you. And to the listeners Joe Turso: Ha ha. Brian: out there, stay curious.