Latest / Legal Late Night / AI Can't Replace Your Content Writer: Tips for Lawyers + How to Write a Book (Feat. Adam Kosloff)
Transcript
- Jared Correia (00:00): Hello again everybody. We've got a show that promises to be at least mildly interesting for your listening and watching enjoyment. First, I've got some content marketing tips just for the ladies. Na sir, everybody. After that we've got Adam Kosloff of Virtuoso content. Last but not least, Adam Cracks open the suburban dictionary with your boy as we uncover some new words and phrases, which we can maybe have him use in his next book. Now just how do you content market? Again, as you know, if you've listened to the show for any period of time or the prior show, I'm a big content marketing guy. I think it is like a really effective strategy for law firms, small businesses, and I would say cost-effective as well. It just takes a little elbow grease and it still takes a little elbow grease because the AI is not quite ready for primetime when it comes to content drafting. (01:09): There's still got to be some human input there at some level, and I don't think anyone wants to listen to two ais talk to each other still as yet, let's hope not because hopefully we have at least a couple of good years left with this podcast. So if you can edit, finalize your own versions of the content that you produce, that'll help you escape the uncanny valley, which is not a place you want to be. And as I alluded to in this conversation coming up with Adam, one of the things that's been really interesting about all the Google content algorithm updates recently, or the core algorithm updates that Google has done recently, those are all focused on content and the viability of content and higher quality content pumping into their system, which is also favored by Google's AI mode. And even some of these AI search engines like Perplexity, which every search engine is going to be in the near term, those are all going to be AI products. (02:13): You can interact with the search like you could with the generator of AI software, but I talked about that already. So how do you take advantage of this? Well, you might be asking yourself, what do I need to be a content marketing monster? So if you want to write a book, Adam's going to talk about his strategies for that. He's also got his own book on writing a book, extremely Meta, which you can pick up. Link is in the show notes, but there are three big things you need, I think to produce content like a champ. The first thing is you need anchor content, which is one of the entire reasons why I do this podcast. I got one thing I do on a weekly basis and I can repurpose the shit out of that. So we have a full scale episode, we have a full scale video episode. (03:02): We can do video shorts, we can pump out text based on the transcripts of these episodes. There's a whole host of things we can do, and what I find is that when people don't want to post content, it's because they feel like they have to come up with stuff on their own and they feel like that's self-aggrandizing in a lot of cases. So if you do something like this, you can produce content, you can maybe focus on others and just be helpful to people, and that's a great content marketing strategy. If you don't want to blow the eight about yourself all the time, or if you don't want to come up with a million LinkedIn posts about why some everyday activity was mind blowing for your business, it's obnoxious to everyone. So once you have some kind of anchor content solidified, I don't care what it is, and you could have other types of content as well, but just have that one anchor type of content. (03:55): You want to have a content calendar, and this is probably the most important thing because it's going to force you to do the things that you say you're going to do around your marketing campaign. So what's covered in a content calendar, which could be a real actual calendar that you have only related to content, or you could color code tasks or events on your general calendar for content projects. So you can list here the content you're creating and how you're going to disseminate that content, and then how are you going to promote it because the dissemination and the promotion thing may be slightly different. I may post my latest link to my podcast on my LinkedIn account, but I may promote it further than that. I may do a paid advertising campaign around that, or I may send that through my newsletter. I may do any number of things to promote that content, which is not just about posting it someplace. (04:52): Now, if you get a content calendar, right, you'll also identify who owns each task because ideally, you as a business owner are going to be the talent and you're going to have people in place supporting you who can help you to revise and edit what you're doing, who can help you to publish it, who can help you to promote it. Sometimes those are inside team members, sometimes those are outside vendors, but you want to have that all laid out with a plan like that in place, it's going to be tough to miss in terms of your content marketing project. Now, the last thing you can do, which I think is interesting, which we've talked about before with Meghan Harrower when she came on the show a few weeks back, is it's helpful to write an AI or the way that an AI likes to read. (05:40): So what does that mean? Probably shorter segments, more headlines and bullet points, thorough research cited sources. The good news here is that that also contributes to generating quality content, but if everything's going to run through an AI filter, which is what's happening, that content needs to be recognizable to an ai. And so draft some stuff on chat GPT or some other Generat AI tools just to see how they produce content and then copy some of those attributes. This is not super hard to do. This is not anything new. It's a little bit like newspaper style. So if you can write in a way that is acceptable to an ai, you are likely to get better results in terms of your content. Now, I've heard it said that AI has only used M dashes and as a prolific user of the M dash, I'm a little bit offended. So to the AI content drafting bot, I say stay in your lane. Next book this appoint, because we've got Adam Savv of Virtuoso content. He's absolutely the dostoevsky of online writing for attorneys because if Nikko can be rehabilitated, then so can Eugene. (07:09): Well, I've effectively run out of things to say, which is awkward because this is a podcast. So I'm just going to go listen to an episode for another podcast. I'll be back in an hour. So just sit tight and I'm just fucking with you. That sounds awful. And honestly, what podcast could be better than the one you're listening to right now? So listen, interview our guest instead. I got a real trait for you today. Our guest is Adam Kosloff. He's the founder and CEO add virtuoso content. Adam, how you doing? Welcome in. Oh, it gets better. We just hung out this summer, which I was excited. I don't think we ever met in person before. I know it's the same thing, and I feel like we've known each other for 10 years, and then we met at a coffee shop for the first time ever, like two months ago. (08:18): Yeah, it's kind of wild. Never used to be this way. As I was saying, I was thinking about how to introduce you and I was trying to consolidate all the stuff you've done because you've done a whole heck of a lot of stuff. Then I read a segment from your bio, which I would like to read to the people in 2017 while working as a hack web writer by day and struggling screenwriter by night, Adam had a come to Jesus moment sparked by science writer Gary TA's book, good Calories, bad Calories. This book convinced Adam not only to stop eating carbohydrates, but also to abandon the screenwriting stuff in favor of advocating for tops alternative theory about obesity, the Lip Lia hypothesis. So I have one question. What the fuck does that mean? Please help me. No, we do all kinds of crazy shit here. Don't worry about it. Adam Kosloff (09:32): Yeah. Yes. Right? Yes. Jared Correia (10:03): Wait, this book is from the 1920s. Really? Holy shit. That's crazy. Adam Kosloff (10:21): Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Jared Correia (11:28): Fucking tough for the rest. That's a bad beat for the rest. Adam Kosloff (11:58): Yeah, Jared Correia (12:02): That's wild. All right, so what did you end up coming out of that with? How did you change your diet? I know the weight loss stuff or the life expectancy stuff is always wild. It's always like the chain smoking grandma who's like 97 years old, kegging around. Let's talk about another aspect of your life. So you mentioned the screenwriting part of that, and you've been in the entertainment business a little bit. You don't have to go into the whole thing, but can I ask you at this point, unless you're holding out for later, what was your best entertainment idea, show idea that you wish somebody had green? Adam Kosloff (13:07): Sorry. Jared Correia (13:08): Sorry, Ross. No, let's hope not. And if Ross does, I had nothing to do with it. Adam Kosloff (13:26): Yes, which is amazing. Yeah, Jared Correia (13:41): It is the last person you wanted to come on. I already like you. Adam Kosloff (14:13): He's down on his luck. That's awesome. Jared Correia (14:35): If anyone's listening, who has any connections, please for the sake of Adam Rice, get this shit green lit. Alright, so let's talk. People are probably like, what direction could this possibly take? Now we'll take it in a more conventional direction. You just released this book, it's called The Treasure Map, how to write a book that turns your expertise into gold. And this just came out last month, I think, right? So maybe even this month a week ago. Yeah. So can you tell folks about this? This is still pretty new and you talked to me a little bit about it, but let's expand the audience really. Oh, good, good. Alright, well if that sentence it's not working at all, we'd be in trouble, but I'm glad it's working. Alright. Yeah. So you want to give, do you want to give people a sense of the book, what it's about, who should buy it, that kind of thing? Adam Kosloff (15:51): Right. Jared Correia (16:10): Smog was taken, right? Adam Kosloff (16:27): Yeah. Jared Correia (16:45): Oh, that's interesting. So it's like project book writing becomes a project management issue. Okay. Yeah, that's really interesting. So books available now. How can people get it? We'll put the link in the show notes, check it out, everybody. Oh shit, it does work. Adam Kosloff (17:28): That's awesome. Jared Correia (17:43): Yeah, I think, I dunno, I feel like a lot of people want to write something book, great American novel, whatever it is. So it's interesting, I talked to a lot of attorneys about content marketing in general, and I think what you described about the project management part of it is really interesting. So do you think that's the biggest hurdle for everybody as far as getting content in general out? I mean, how many original ideas are there? Let's be honest here. Yeah, it's all been done, everybody. Adam Kosloff (18:25): Oh, yeah, Jared Correia (18:47): Yeah, yeah, yeah. So do you think part of this is farming it out or do you think if a solo attorney could write a book on their own or do they need help or could they get help? Part of it too, there's obviously people like you who could help somebody write a book if Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're like, my shit is great. Adam Kosloff (19:29): Yeah, yeah. Is that good or bad? Jared Correia (19:52): Yeah. Yeah. I like how you're people are criticizing me, but it's so hard to be open to constructive criticism. I talked to 20 people, they were like, my book blows, and then I revised it and now it's great. Yeah. Okay. So what if I got somebody who's listening to this and they're like, damn, writing a book sounds like a lot of effort. I know you do other types of content as well. What else do you think is viable out there in terms of written text-based content that law firms or other businesses could put out there? Well, I mean, just to give people background, and I alluded to it, you run basically a copywriting agency for business owners. So you do this shit all the time, so you should know. Adam Kosloff (21:23): Yeah, yeah. Jared Correia (21:48): Yes, yes. And I mean, the last two big Google algorithm updates have focused on viability of content. So content writing is I think, more important than it's ever been. Okay. I was going to ask you about this. This is a good segue. You've heard of artificial intelligence. I assume somebody like you who's a content writer, I feel like a lot of people out there would be like, well, I need a content writer anymore. I got my generative AI tool. So are you concerned about that for your business model? Do you see differentiation? What are you thinking about in terms of that? I think you've been honest about that in the past, and I appreciate that. I ization, I've never heard that before. That is a great term. All right, let's do it. Let's get catastrophic. Skynet. Is it happening? Not yet. Okay. Adam Kosloff (23:39): Oh, they're everywhere. Yeah, it right? Jared Correia (24:44): I don't think so. I mean, let me just say that by now. Having seen the Back Diffuser trilogy, I thought I would be flying around in a car and then when I wasn't in my flying car, I'd be riding a hoverboard everywhere. That has not come to pass. So we'll see if AI is the same way. Yeah. I don't think you're too picky, please. I love that To the future. All right. Please flesh it out. I love it. Adam Kosloff (25:28): Yep. Jared Correia (25:44): Yeah, throw bananas in there. Yeah, (26:10): That's fucking crazy. But I love it. Do we have to wait for the copyrights to abate before that happens? Is that like a 2085 thing in actuality, that's so great. I do love Back to the Future, though. I hope they never make any new Back to the Future movies, but they absolutely are going to do it at some point. I know it's kind of crazy. It's 10 years ago and it's not even close to being that advanced. I am waiting for my jacket that comes around my body, like the heated jacket or whatever that Marty has in the future. I always want, oh yeah, the sleeves fit in perfectly. That's what I want. Self fitting clothes, Mr. Fusion would be pretty sweet too. All right, let's bring it back to the content stuff for just one more question. I think this is all this is leading to for me. So what do you view as viable web content now? Do you have to write an AI or it sounds like you have to write more like a human, but the content's going to be quality, but what does that mean? Adam Kosloff (27:41): Yeah, Jared Correia (28:03): That's a great point. And they have, ais are emotionless unlike people, and I think for attorneys in particular, that's a great angle because I think every attorney writes like an attorney. And if you can get down to that level of humanity where laypeople understand you, that's killer for marketing. Well, you came up with that to the future 2040, so don't sell yourself short. Go ahead. Adam Kosloff (28:44): Yeah. Yeah. Jared Correia (29:14): This has been good stuff. Everybody pick out the book, we come back for another segment. All right. Bth Tannin will not be there and it's carbohydrate free. So we'll take a quick break and then we'll be back with Adam for the counter program. Welcome back, everybody. That's right. It's the Counter program. It's a podcast within a podcast. This is a conversational space where we can address hugely unrelated topics that I want to explore at a greater depth with my guests. Expect no rhyme and very little reason. And we're back. So I've got this great little recurring segment I do whenever I get two middle, middle-aged white suburban dads together. And because this is a legal podcast, there's a high likelihood that that's happening most of the time. So we've got a little segment we call Suburban Dictionary. Here's how it works. I'm going to take a word that is an actual word defined it. Urban Dictionary, one of my favorite websites ever, and I'm going to name this hip and phrase, and all you have to do is pick the right definition among the choices I give you. This is just literally me going on Urban Dictionary randomly picking a word, and I tried to pick some fun ones this time around, so I've got six of 'em for you. (30:43): Okay. Well, I mean, you've introduced it. I've heard that before, but can you define it? Yeah. Is it bad that I know who the Risler is? I do, but yeah. Do you want to explain it to people? Because I'm not sure everybody is aware of this. Let me clue you in, Adam Kosloff (31:28): Right, Jared Correia (31:35): That kid cracks me up and then he's got his buddies too, right? And they go to Walmart or Costco or some shit like that. Oh, man, it's so funny. Okay, so here we go. We're going to get right into it. My first term from Urban Dictionary is called Stroke station. Stroke Station. Here are my definitions. Number one, it's a room where you pet puppies until you become very calm. Number two, it's the location in a man cave where masturbation is most likely to occur. Number three, the section of your garage where you tinker with engines. Is it? Yes. Yes. All that was kind of, we started off with an easy one. You got your tissues there, your hand lotion. You're good to go. Just to be clear, everyone, I don't have a mancave. All right. All right, one for one. We'll see if you can. We haven't had many perfect scores in the podcast history. I think we've got three, so we're off to a good start. The next definition is called We We gospel. Is this one a small amount of anything? Two, how Scottish people refer to baby geese. Three, when you try to pee, but only a little bit comes out. We gospel small. (33:03): It is actually number one, a small amount of anything. Yeah, see the questions get harder as we go forward. That's a good guess. You're still bad in 500, which is certainly respectable. All right, number three, nug. Nug, NUG. Is this half a chicken nugget? Is it the remaining plastic fastener that gets left behind when you cut off a tag? Or is it an intimate neck hug? Neck hug, excuse me. Hence the name. Nug performed by placing one's chin over the other person's shoulder during a hug, effectively placing the two necks necks adjacent to each other. So you're coming in and you're hugging somebody like that. If someone sees me in public, don't ever do this to me. So half a chicken nugget, plastic fasteners, or a neck hug. What is a nug three is correct? Three is, I almost threw you off as I was doing final school shopping yesterday and cutting off the little tags. There's always that little fastening piece that's left behind something. (34:21): It could be. Could be a enough. Okay, so now you're two for three. All right, now we got number four. This one I actually never heard before and I'm very disappointed that I hadn't. It's called Breezy jangles. Breezy jangles. Do you want to go ahead? Oh, kind of kind of. Alright, let me read the definitions. I think you'll probably get what it is. They super long pubes that flow in the wind long enough to attach bells to, are they wind chimes? Well, the chimes have been replaced by truck nuts or are they a drag Bengals cover band. Popular on the West Coast Breezy? Yes. (35:14): Oh yeah, this is real. We're actually going to publish this. My favorite part is trying to come up with alternative definitions, but I think you kind of sussed it out already. You know the Urban Dictionary game? I got two more for you. Same. Okay, I got two more for you. This one's not as bad as the ones we've gone so far, but then we'll get pretty depraved at the end. Alright, dur deal. Dur deal. I've never heard of this before. So is it when your parents punish you by forcing you to dig holes in random places like in the movie Holes, which is a great movie, by the way. Is it the act of selling a dragon plushie or other dragon paraphernalia in a shady manner that closely resembles a drug deal? Or is it how Swedish McDonald's refer to Happy Meals? Is it the Happy Meal, the drug dealing, or is it digging holes as punishment? (36:18): Oh yes, you got it. Well done. I tried to throw you off. You've never seen holes. I've never seen Holes. Oh Holes is a great fucking movie. There's this Louis Sacker book called Holes, and then they made a movie of it with Shy Above. It's a really good movie. Sigourney Weaver's in it too, so check it out everybody. Adam might not watch it, but that's all right. Okay, last one. Back to the depraved segment. Morning Wood. I know everybody knows what Morning Morningwood is, but Morningwood, we're spelling it this time. M-O-U-R-N-I-N-G. Morningwood Frank. Yeah, Frank would talk about this. Okay, so number one, when you get a boner, even though you're feeling sad. Number two, is this actually a casket making company in Louisville, Kentucky? Or number three, is it more specifically when you get a boner at a funeral? Mourning? What? (37:35): I hope we've taught people something today. Pick up Adam's book, visit Urban Dictionary. You'll be much better off. So I have to say, very impressive performance here in Suburban Dictionary. You trounced the other suburban dad we had on the show. You have the highest score ever in suburban dictionary, so congratulations. You have my eternal respect. All right, we'll get you back on sometimes. Thanks for coming in. Alright, thanks. We'll talk soon. Thanks for our guest, Adam Kosloff of Virtuoso Content. To learn more about virtuoso content, visit virtuoso content.com. That's virtuoso content.com now, because I'll always be a nineties kid who had a well-worn VHS copy of the all-nighter on his bookshelf, but his true passion is Bernie CDs for anyone who would listen. I'm now just doing the modern version of that, which is creating Spotify playlists for every podcast that I record where the songs are tangentially related to an episode topic. This week's playlist is songs about books or writing. Yeah, they're a pretty decent number of those, and it's sponsored by AOL instant messenger. I'm just kidding. By the way, AOL instant mixture was sunset in 2017, which explains why society has crumbled since then. Join us next time when I read the audio version of the Great American novel.