Latest / Speaking Your Language / Episode 2 - Getting Inspired: How AI events and thought leadership help businesses embrace AI

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Episode 2 - Getting Inspired: How AI events and thought leadership help businesses embrace AI · Speaking Your Language

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Speaking Your Language, the AI podcast that is focused on how you really implement AI into your business.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: No hype, no noise, no jargon.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: My guest today is a friend, an investor, a client, a partner, and someone that I meet probably more than my wife.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that is Lee Hussein.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to welcome him in a second and let him introduce himself.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: But he is an innovator and somebody that I like to surround myself with because he has fresh perspective, fresh ideas.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: So today we're going to have a bit of a chat, aren't we, Lee?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're just going to have a conversation, let it happen because he might not want me to say, but he actually forgot it was today.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: So it's going to be very raw, very unedited, and I love that about it.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: So Lee, would you like to introduce yourself first?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thanks for that.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for the intro.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, um, I'm Lee Hussein.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the CEO and founder of Inspired Business Media.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: And ultimately, uh, we introduce businesses all over the world.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: You're a mega connector, a super connector, is maybe how I'd explain it.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's a bit crazy.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: We've been to your events, yeah.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: You have massive CIOs, CDOs from you know global companies.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: How do you even get them?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: How do you guys even find them?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um so firstly, I've been doing this for 18 years, so it is it's not just done overnight, there's no quick win to it.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: It is going in, grafting.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: When we first started doing this, I had a full head of hair.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't have a beard, I was a Peter Andre wannabe, and I tried to make myself look older.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, wearing three-piece suits to events, and um yeah, now we're trying to make ourselves look younger.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, had I thought I was planning on dyeing my beard for tomorrow's podcast.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: So uh this is this is what I actually look like.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah, how to answer your question hard work and being real and being passionate about it, it's not fake, being authentic.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: I know we say that a lot, and you know, in you know, in what you do, and it's it's true.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I absolutely love what I do.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: I have no plans of ever getting out of it.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: I love going to networking events, meeting exciting people.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: I find it inspiring, no pun intended.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's why we're called inspired.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it makes you realize as well that mindset is everything.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, obviously you need some intelligence behind you, but you could be there with a global CIO, global C level exec from a large enterprise and realize there's not a huge amount of difference between you and I bar, obviously a level of intelligence and drive.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: The big thing with the events as well, when you go to them, a lot of people will attend thinking I can sell to these companies.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's not an easy sell.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the biggest things attending myself is that you get so much value from the conversations, if nothing else.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: They are thinking of things in a slightly different way to this, to the small, medium businesses.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: They are trying to do it on a global scale, larger scale.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: But there's also so many similarities, I find they have massive disconnect in like their development teams.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: They have the developers there who do the talks and talk about these fantastic projects, initiatives they have.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then their operations teams, they start talking to us about it, because they say, Well, we haven't really done much on the operations side.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a big problem that's happening in the space.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: But like, what kind of trends are you seeing when you're bringing these people together and you're hearing the talks?
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of things have evolved over the last sort of four to five months?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: The trends everyone's talking about right now, every event that we're doing, um, every dinner we're doing has the word AI in it.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: And that is because people just want to learn as much as possible.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: And the the acceleration of it is so fast.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: There's a new thing coming out every single week.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: So we do six plus dinners every month in London, we do dinners in Manchester, all over the place, and every single one of them has at least one topic on the agenda around AI, new trends, automation.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: And that's across all job titles.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And you're right, there's a lot of learnings that enterprises getting from small and medium businesses.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's a really important stat, um, MIT and various others that have announced it, but 95% of enterprise projects fail on AI.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's because they are not getting return on investment.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: So they class as a failure because they haven't actually made savings.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: When it comes to small and medium businesses, there's a 3.7 times return because they're focusing on problems, pain points.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the biggest problem, and I can you I know you can uh vouch for this, Lee, as a busy business owner, is time.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Time back.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people think, well, that gives us more time that we need to put into the business in the right areas.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's bigger than that, isn't it?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's about family, it's about having time to live your life as well as run a business.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely spot on.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: So uh my good friend and former business partner I've been in business with for 17 years, uh, retired in November, retired from Inspired Business Media.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Jason Owata, give him a shout out.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: He's a good guy.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: He is a good guy.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: So he had a major stroke on stage uh in 2016 and wasn't sure, but he did come back into business.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: And um, he's always been trying to find his way out because his work-life balance is you know, his three kids and his wife, the time with them, he values now more than ever for obvious reasons.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: So he um is a huge advocate right now of AI agents, um, reading emails, getting time back, and he's helped me a lot with that.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: And um, he's speaking at Nextgen AI this week on how workplace um workplace health.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: How can you help your teams?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: How can you help yourself to adopt this to have more time?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: And you can choose then to use that time to do more work, make more money, or spend time with your family, or you know, do some other passions.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it's really nice to see you move in more into the small, medium business space because this event is 200 people-ish at the moment, maybe even more now, I think, since the last time we spoke.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And amazing businesses there, doing talks and sharing.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody's still trying to really piece it all together, they're trying to understand where the value is, and that's the big thing.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's where's the value?
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Where have you found value?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: What have you found that has made a difference for you?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: Well, firstly, um, automation.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I know there's AI and automation aren't the same.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: They there's similarities.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: So, right now, whilst I'm speaking to you, I've got um my emails and my LinkedIn doing my LinkedIn is doing reach out about events, and it's also got an AI autoresponder on there, um, which will then objection handle until it gets to output it once, being a registration or a phone call booked in with my team.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: So that that gives me peace of mind and gives me time to do other things that I'm passionate about doing, such as this.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my emails are checked.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Anything that's urgent now gets put into an urgent box and will get read straight away by somebody.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: So um it's really helped me in that way.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: With regards to sales, which is important in any business right now, because you need money to keep the lights on.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, our whole whole sales team now has um email automation, email um reach out taking place for them and LinkedIn uh reach out taking place for them as well.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: So, whereas they could be copying, pasting, and lead sourcing, et cetera, on a very manual basis, they've now got all that done for them.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: So they can concentrate now on doing um high priority tasks that they enjoy that don't make them feel like a robot, which would be meet-ins or you know, face-to-face uh or phone calls.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really important point you touched on because the biggest part of sales is the human touch.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think so.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: 100% people still buy from people, no matter what that is.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: But the bit that's difficult, like you say, time consuming, is just getting that initial contact and and and and engagement.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a fine balance in there between losing authenticity and having the ability to reach someone.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're just messaging them and say, I'd love to have a chat with you, yeah, and you're a real person behind the AI, that's that still gives you the authenticity and opens up the conversation.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Is that how you find it?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, it it's a because so many people are doing this now, that's also saturated.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got to keep on your toes, and you now, you know, the new thing now is sending videos, and then it's now now it's AI videos, yeah.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then AI voicemail and AI voice voice calls as well now is the new thing.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I've got my voice cloned, unfortunately, for some, and um, that can now leave voice messages to people as well.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes and no.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, to answer your well to comment on what you said, if you just do a reach out now, it's not enough because there's so many in your inbox, you must have it as well.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's crazy.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got to be different.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: So there's an element of uh angles, so it's input that you're putting into a lot of these tools as well that's important.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: You can't just go write me a script, send it out, and we'll copy and paste that and put it as a template in the workflow.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Spot on.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we always talk about data-driven AI.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's the most important thing.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's understanding why you're reaching out to this person in the first place, why are you having the conversation?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Why, what value can you add them?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's no good just saying, can we have a chat?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're all too busy for that.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I can spot an AI generic email message on all the way.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: I ignore it.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: I work in the space and I ignore it.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it it's just fatigue, fatigue of like overburdening of messages now that you get.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you try and differentiate that?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like you said, there you have to mix it with different touch points.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: But how do you try and find genuine authenticity in an automated message, for example?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: By trying to be genuinely authentic.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: So our advisory boards that run our events and dinners, we ask them for a list of people they would love to see at the event that they think are relevant.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: Who are the leaders, who are the movers and shakers, that being from a vendor side and being from a delegate standpoint.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they give us that list.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: We search that and we reach out, saying John Jones of Tesco's, not a real person, by the way.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um might be.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: Might be probably is a very common name.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, why don't you reach out now?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh as recommended we reach out to you as a potential vendor or as a delegate at the event.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Can we have a phone call?
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: So that's just a first angle of many.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you can't.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not important.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: That human to human link and that connection.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why what you do is really important, why you know companies like us and others work with you, because you build the connection first.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: You they might not be in the market right now.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: But when you go back out to them, it helps you automate the reminder without you having to remember to go back out to them and ask, and they already know you.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's about first building that relationship and the connection, right?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: First touch point.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm a massive advocate for any network and stuff, you know that.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: I tend so much stuff.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: But I I'm I'm the opposite to what I think a lot of people in AI space are trying to do, which is just digitize everything.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's about enabling us as people, I think it's about bringing us together in a better way, remembering information about people that is relevant.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: You want to remember, we just can't hold it all in our brain, right?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Couldn't agree more what you just said.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And what's the what's the next thing for Inspired that you're really excited about?
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know you've been innovating for a long time.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: You've built your own app that helps support the events.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a bit of tech you were building.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Where are you going next?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: What are you seeing as the evolution of Inspired?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well, firstly, we're doing AI events now.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: We can't do enough of them.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much interest in all of our individual personas that it makes sense that we do an AI decision making event, which um we did our first one uh in March of this year.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's called the CAO.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: I can't even say it now.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's a tongue twister.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's the CAIO Inspired Summit, which stands for Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's not enough of them right now, but you'll see more of those job titles popping up.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, a lot of the AI decision makers in these large enterprises are sitting with the heads of transformation, CIOs, in some cases CISOs, because a lot of these companies are starting first and foremost with um using AI for security, because once they've got that foundation right, then they can build other AI in.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, to answer your questions, CAIO summits are absolutely vital for us.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: We've got three now coming up this year.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: We've got Manchester, London, and New York for AI decision makers.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: And the other thing is, as you know this week, uh next gen AI, we're moving into the SME space.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's a lot that we've learned um from the enterprise space that we would like to um share with the SME audience.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: Plus, is it's a whole different ballgame as well.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because when we're dealing in this space, we're dealing with people who are aspiring to be an SME, right up from a one-man band, right up to a medium-sized business as well.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: So um, I'd like to think, yeah, there's there's a lot that we can give, there's a lot that we can learn, and it's exciting for us.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's great though.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Are you going to do more in the SME space going forward?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're somebody that I know does a lot of work with a lot of businesses behind the scenes.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: You're always supporting them, doing these things.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I always say, you know, when you're making the businesses around you better, you make your own business better.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's genuinely what I one of my true beliefs.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you emphasize that in everything you do.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, how are you supporting businesses at the moment, generally?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Not even with AI, just generally, like what kind of stuff are you doing behind the scenes?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know you've got loads going on.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yourself, as you know, um, I'll give you advice, you'll give me advice, we'll learn from one another.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: So you say that I give back a lot.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people give to me as well.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I believe in karma and it happens.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um advice, sitting down with people, brainstorming, I think is key when you're in a small to medium-sized business, they don't have enough uh heads around them, also out of industry perspective.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I'll I'll make time in my diary all the time for coffees, for Zooms, um, or try and get together a lot at networking events.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm involved in Ultra, which I know you are with Jamie Brees.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Highly recommend that.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: I find that really valuable.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: I've just joined now the sporting club.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I'm a sports enthusiast, so they'll always have events for networking, um, take your clients, which is really good, um, and have a sports speaker.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I was at one last week with Jeff, Sir Jeff Hurst, uh, the World Cup winner, the only person to score a hat trick uh in a world cup.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: So that that's a bit of fun, but also I was around a table with clients um and other businesses.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm enjoying my time, but also utilizing it with um the having the right people around me.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: When I'm speaking to businesses, I say exactly this.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's all well and good, looking for optimizations of what you can do and how you can do all this stuff.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: But are you actually doing the most you can to build your network, to build your partners, to build relationships that are gonna see you really scale?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it's something that I've worked on for a long time.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: My wife hates me because I'm never home and I know you're exactly the same.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's really hard, it's really hard, isn't it?
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so um it's really hard.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Something I'm working on, something we talk about a lot because why do we do all this?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: We do this for the wife and the kids and for the family, right?
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, it defeats the whole point.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: So trying to make my time work for me and for business.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: So um, as you know, we've now this year sponsored um the Dragons, Newport Grent Dragons.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a fan, Newport County.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's been amazing for me because I've been able to get the family over.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: My kids now actually they're at sports day uh this afternoon, and um, they're wearing their Newport County tops because they're blue uh and they're in the blue house.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I do get a kick out of that.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um so we get to go over and we get to have business conversations because you always get an invite, you come over.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking AI and talking business, and the family around is cheering.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: So uh killing two bears with one stone, um, meaningful experiences, um, and and just trying to do more of that, like I just said, with Ultra with the sporting club.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we're my whole family of big fans of Man United.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: We've got a box at Man United now this season, which was a surreal uh thing for me.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: But we're also going to utilize that for business and monetize it as well as enjoy your life a bit more with it.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, big thanks to you because we're we last year we were working with uh Newport County, so we're dating a partner.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: This year again we are.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: You introduced us to to Dragons and Bloom there and had a great chat, and we're now supporting them and sponsoring them back as well.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it's all about give and take, right?
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's about working together and collectively collaborating, and that is what I think we are really good at in the small business space.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: We are amazing collaborators, and the people that are are the ones that are gonna push forward, I think, in the world of AI.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really happy to see you doing that.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: One thing though, because we can always talk about the positives of AI and transformation or digitisation or whatever you want to call it.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: What's the bad experiences you've had?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now the question.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um you've got to learn from the negatives to move forward with the positives, I think.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: So you try things, you're trying new things all the time, and um a lot of them are time consuming and a waste of money.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: But you don't know unless you try.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: So the softwares I'm using right now, it's probably taken me about 10 softwares to get to the ones I'm like, these are good.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um you probably tried that Suno uh music creator one.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Love it.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: I use it all the time.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: What do we use it for?
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's an absolute waste of time.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: But it's fun, isn't it?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: So there's tools out there.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah, the negatives at AI are oh, the one when I was trying AI Autoresponder.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: So here's a bad example of the one I was telling you about then with the LinkedIn automation.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's um call to action is to get a registration or to book a call in.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: So it just keeps objection handling for you until it gets what it wants.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: So when someone replies, and this was a real case example, someone replied to him, so sorry, thanks for the invite, but I can't make it because I'm at my dad's funeral.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: It responded.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: You can see what's gonna happen.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: It responded saying, Um, if things change or the date changes, I don't even think it was that nice.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we'd love to have you at the dinner, try to objection handle it.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that was at that was at the early stage of that.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's overcome that now.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but that was awkward because that was in my name.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: That was a message from me.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: It looks chat, it and then it makes you look bad.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it is bad.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it makes you look really bad because it shows no empathy, nothing.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then as a person, I would instantly think I'm not gonna work with you with that.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you asshole.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the key thing is having automation and implementation, and there's a rush, people are rushing to do it.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if you rush to do it, rather than considering all of the elements, there's no safeguards, and there can be a negative impact.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, you here's the one uh last week.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: So um if you try a mail merge now, unless you've got a subscription-based um database, third-party mailer like mail chimp or whichever, um, you can't just mail your people straight away and you're going to spam the spam.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: This is another thing AI's brought around now on top of firewalls.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's so you just you're going to spam all the time, right?
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: So it's harder to get into people's inboxes.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: So the safest way to do it is LinkedIn, back to LinkedIn, um, with your first connections.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: So there's tools out there that can message um 250 to 350 if you want to push the boundaries a day.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: First connections.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're connected to 2,000 people in in and around South Wales and West, um, that's ideal.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I am, and I thought for the the next gen AI event, I'm not gonna send you one by one messaging people, and I haven't got all their emails, so I can't mail merge them and it wouldn't work, it couldn't spam.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna put this bot on and it was messaging people, it was messaging people that used to work for me, it was messaging people, um, competitors that I'm connected with, it was messaging people who are already coming who I know.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: It definitely messaged you.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so you you then find yourself having to then go behind it and go, Oh, Marco, sorry, mate, automation, which then loses its um personal initial touch as well.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: One of the interesting things I'm finding, and we're advising people on is almost in some areas going back to the physical touch point is a massive advantage because everybody's moved digitally in some areas, especially for people that might be high value clients, high mouth high value prospects, and shout out to James Taylor, Superstars, who's one of our advisors, and I know he did some of you as well.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he said to us, why don't you send a physical item and only half of the item?
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: To get the other half, they've got to meet with you.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Half the item.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: So his idea was they were used, they were sending shoe, new shoe, sports trainer.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if you want the other trainer, you've got to you've got to meet with us to get your you know, your new trainers.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Which I was like, okay, that's interesting.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Not gonna work for us, but it was an interesting concept.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we've started playing around with the idea of okay, we identify the people that we really want to speak to because we know we can help them.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: They might have a gap.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: We use AI to maybe source them, find extra information out that helps us really understand whether or not they're gonna be somebody that we can work with, yeah, but it can focus our attention to send physical items.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we started sending a box with a screen built in that has a video, turns up like a beautiful box, goes to their office.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: When they open it up, everybody's like, What's this box?
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: So the first thing they do is they take the box over to the person it's for, and everyone huddles around, they go, Look, what's this?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: They open the box, we've got some little goodies and stuff inside, and it says, There's a video there of my gorgeous face, obviously.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it says, I would love to have a chat with you.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I this is the best way I thought of getting in contact.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's a different approach.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's definitely a different approach.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure I agree with it.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds expensive.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is it can be, but for the people that you really know you can, and this is where I think AI is going to really help people, is how do you find rather than just mass spam or or hit every target you might be able to work with?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: How do you really find the key people?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you do it.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: I know you do it.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: You identify the key people, but you still use the same mechanisms.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is where the change is happening.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's combining tech with physical things.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's exciting.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: But from your side, what's the next steps?
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of things are inspired outside of tech, outside outside of events?
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: Is there anything that you think I'm really passionate about this?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we haven't really explored it yet.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's on your well, we are we're always exploring something, we're always trying things because the plan is the vision of the business is to be a centurion business to last 100 plus years.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I believe people will always need to meet meet people.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: The person selling AI will want to meet the person buying AI.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: Now with deep fakes now and augmented reality, and yeah, so it's even more so now.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: Who's doing a six-figure deal over Zoom?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's not happening.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: You need to meet face to face.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: So for that reason, I think we'll always be there.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: That being said, we also do offer virtual uh engagements because it's it's just so efficient that if you've got a sales director um in one part of the world and your CTO in another part and your prospects are global players, you can bring them into a virtual round table for five to uh seven execs over an hour and a half.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's super efficient, really cost effective and timely.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: And what we find with them, yes, they're 10 times harder for us to arrange, but the um the people who come on are not there for anything but an hour and a half business discussion.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: So the follow ups are really solid.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: So we do that, we do the physical.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: For us, the next step, and we're already doing it, is experiences, really enhancing the experiences.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, us, like many other companies and other industries, we're in a very saturated market, and we've got to keep up in our game.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: So um we're big now on corporate hospitality, we're big on concerts, uh, we're linked with Escape Records.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: Shout out to them that do festivals.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: Amazing festivals, massive, amazing festivals.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: So we're looking at doing fest uh doing summits and engagements within the festivals, which might sound a bit crazy, but the In It Together festival we uh went to two weeks ago at Margan Park, we took a load of C-level execs with us that loved it.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: They're there with their wellies, they're there, you know, having a great time.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it's a large family festival, so it's a safe environment, it's really nice, it's great experience and memory.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: So we're looking at enhancing things there.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and yeah, sports, hospitality, concerts, anything at all that we can add a memory, um, associate ourselves with the memory with that because I can also get to spend time with great people.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you're doing exactly what I was just saying, which is you're using the digital side, but actually moving your experiences to actual experiences.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just attending an event, it's not just transaction, far more than that.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's far more than that.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Building relationships, it's amazing.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now we were talking earlier, and I think this is a really poignant topic, around the social media band that's just come in.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you've got young kids, I've got young kids.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what's your thoughts on it?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's amazing.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I've got a six and a ten-year-old, and we've been really worried.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: My daughter now, um, turned 10 four weeks ago, and um, she's already asking for a phone, and we're like, oh god, and even the iPad worries us.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: So um, because you hear some horror stories, I've been at some events recently around cybersecurity, and you hear some real life horror stories of um children being bullied and then to the extreme, unfortunately taking their own lives, and it could be prevented.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the one story I was speaking to you about offline um without going into too much detail, um, this child was groomed by thinking they were speaking to six children their age, and it was actually all one person.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it's horrendous, and it can be completely avoided.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, social media has had chance upon chance to um regulate more um to stop these things happening, and it's not happened.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, they're gonna get a massive downturn in share price now, but I think it's right.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think that social media should be verified all around.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, on the business side of things, um, we've had people go on and make reviews from fake profiles.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen people uh mentioning names, friends of mine who are entrepreneurs that have had people slate in them online by fake profiles that are clearly their competitors.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and it's just um how is this allowed to happen?
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I completely agree.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so we we've got the means now to be able to do passport verification, um loads.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: There's loads of ways.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like I did an insurance the other day and it wanted passport, it wanted face ID to prove who I was.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if if you don't like that, you shouldn't use the platform.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Completely agree.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't normally like, I'm not somebody that's behind force regulation on stuff, if I'm honest.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a massive fan.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: However, in this case, my wife and I have talked about it quite heavily.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Same when we get to the point where our daughters are old enough, you know, they're only seven and five at the moment, but when they're old enough where their friends start having mobile phones, we were saying we don't feel comfortable with them doing it.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: But how do how would you stop them if their friends have it and then they're left out?
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: So this takes the headache out of it because it's well, it's not legally allowed now.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm quite interested because I also see this in the AI side.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: What we've seen it recently with Claude and Anthropic, where they they released this new model and the American government said you can't put that out because too powerful, too much risk, et cetera, et cetera.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's the first time they've actually stopped one of these companies doing that.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think, from just all the conversations you've been having, there will be more regulation coming on AI around the limitations of it?
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: What's your perspective?
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think they will, and I think it'll be the UK and Europe which will be penalised, which is crazy.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think you can do it if you're not doing it to every country in the world.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: And this has been the conversation that I've seen uh Danilo Mugari uh shout it to him that he's brought up saying if you don't penalize China, if China added deer into it and Russia and all these other countries, how how can you uh regulate um like say UK, Amir, um North America because you're just gonna hold them back from the cut their companies advancing, from them doing well.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: So um I do think there'll be regulation and I I I don't think it'll work if not everyone's allowed, if not everyone is made to do it.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's gonna be an interesting uh time over the next six months, I think.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see what sort of comes through.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: I ask everybody, and thank you, Lee, because this has been a really great conversation, but I ask everybody for one book or podcast that they recommend, one tool, and I don't like promoting tools, but there's always good tools out there that can help people, and one piece of advice.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, what would yours be around the book and podcast?
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Or podcasts, one over the other.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: Bad person to ask you, right?
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because uh I use uh recording anyway.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna have to have to think about this because I don't just say I watch the story of a CEO, I find it really interesting.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: He always gets amazing guests.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um I struggle ADHD to finish anything, I really do.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: Moment I he's the start seems a bit not interesting anymore.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'll cut off.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I find myself just watching videos on on uh repairing cars to try and relax.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't think I've got one for this.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna have to have a thing.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll tell you what, I've got one for you then.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: So Headway is a summary of Headway, it summarizes books.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, podcasts.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, okay, you don't get the full enriched detail, but it gives you all the key highlights.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I you know, like like you, I I've I've been diagnosed, you haven't, but I've said a million times when we get together, like 100% takes one to know one, right?
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you've definitely got ADHD, which is actually why I've got you this book.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going forward gonna have a personalized book for every single person that I've read and like.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: So this is unstoppable.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Francesca James is actually in the Great Bridge Entrepreneur Awards, which with a Friday.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: With a Friday, yeah, and awesome.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: But um little stories, and you'll be pleased to know they're condensed for people with ADHD.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: So that's your book.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate it.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: And um, okay, this will be one that you can answer.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: What's one tool that you would recommend?
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: Tool or person, um, tool without naming names, because I've been like as I said, I've been through a lot of demos um and been through a lot of bad ones.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: Is the LinkedIn automation has been a game changer for us as a business.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but with regards to you might turn red now and blush, uh, but with regards to you and your business configure, obviously you have helped us tremendously and ongoingly uh building um AI into our inspired executive network, which is the platform that all of our execs use um that gives them reporting, gives them insights, and also um enables us to truly qualify um our buyers and our solution providers to match up problems, but also our buyers meeting like-minded buyers as well.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: So that's been a huge game changer for us.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh gosh, thanks Lee.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll pay you afterwards for that.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for that.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you very much.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate that, mate.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: And one piece of advice for anyone watching uh don't stand still.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, just keep moving forward, even if you're uncertain.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's great advice.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's been it for the podcast.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much, my guest, Lee.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a lovely and insightful chat, actually.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we've stayed on topic as best we can, which doesn't normally happen.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks again, Lee, and I'll see you all soon.