Sara Nay (00:00.996)

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is Sara Nay stepping in for John Jantsch and today my guest is Stephani McGirr. Stephani is the founder of EGS Marketing Solutions and Amplify DTPC where she helps direct primary care practices grow through smarter marketing systems and strategy. With more than 20 years of experience, she brings a unique mix of healthcare insight, agency leadership and practical.

marketing expertise. Stephanie, welcome to the show.

Stephani McGirr (00:31.817)

Hi, thank you for having me.

Sara Nay (00:33.912)

glad you're here. So I know we've spoken previously because I've gotten to know you in different business settings. And one of the things that you shared with me early on is that you decided at some point to focus on a very specific niche for your agency. And it's been a really positive decision for your business. So I would love to hear what drove you to focus on a niche specifically and how that's been beneficial to you.

Stephani McGirr (00:57.516)

Yeah, actually I started working with this industry just because I love it. And I am a patient of a direct primary care clinic. It's how I got started. My own provider was asking me, hey, can you help me with some things? I know you do marketing. And the conversation started and we just went deep and I've helped her grow from one to three practices. It's been a fun journey to be given that opportunity. And then referrals in the industry started coming naturally before I was helping

just any local based small business owner, right? The small local service area, different services. So not e-commerce or physical stores, really focus on the service industry. And by being able to niche down into this one area, it really helped us focus our efforts and become really streamlined not only with our processes and what we do for campaigns and strategy development, but also being able to stream

all of the processes on the client side and help them get really good at what they're doing. So referrals started coming in for this one industry and I thought, you know, I really believe in what this industry is doing and if I can do nothing but help them grow, then I'd feel really good about what we do and I went all in.

Sara Nay (02:16.964)

Yeah, I love that. I've been in the game for about 16 years myself and whenever we're working with businesses that are doing good and making an impact in the world, it just gives you so much more drive in the work that you're doing. So I love that. Thank you for sharing. One of the things that you noted is niching down has helped you develop your processes, but also your clients processes. And so in the small business space, what I see often is people are kind of just making it up as they go when it comes to marketing and there's not a lot of systems and processes behind what they do.

And so can you talk to me more about how you come in to a client of yours and help them build out their systems and processes a bit more?

Stephani McGirr (02:54.349)

Yeah, so it kind of starts to giving a deep dive into what tech pieces are you using? Where are you? How big are you? How involved is tech in the management of the practice? Some people are doing everything manually. Some people have literal multiple systems connected together or spreadsheets and the tech stack that can be. And so we first analyze what's going on and then what is essential to move over,

they have to keep, we started using Go High Level as an agency, which is our Amplify DPC platform. We started using it for service-based clients at first. I had no intention of selling it as a separate software on a different name. It helped us streamline everything we were doing. So instead of logging into a different system for every client with a different process, we were able to streamline our inside.

SOPs. And then for the clients who didn't have a tool, they were given a tool to be able to manage their practice. Just as we put more and more clients in the same industry on the system, we realized that we were custom creating sales funnels and workflows with every single person. And a lot of these things were something that every practice could implement, like a patient onboarding workflow. So what's unique about the DPC industry is that they don't take insurance in their membership model of health care. So you pay one

flat rate and you have unlimited access to your provider with no co-pays per visit. Some people refer to it as like the streaming for your healthcare like you do for online movies and TV shows. But so with that analogy, the onboarding process and the retention and the referral process in that industry is really big. And so we just had all of these workflows that were working across the board and

realizing that as this industry is also very new, it's been around a long time, but it's still new enough that direct primary care is not mainstream, right? People aren't looking for direct primary care. They're still looking for just a doctor or a healthcare provider. So the education piece of that is also really big. And when I'm gonna stop, I'm rambling and I lost track of where I was going.

Sara Nay (05:15.295)

Okay, no worries.

Stephani McGirr (05:18.497)

You were asking me, I wanna get back to the point, and I just realized I went off in a different tangent.

Sara Nay (05:23.172)

That's okay, that's okay. We can always edit it as we need. So I was asking you really about bringing systems and processes to your client was the focus of the conversation. Yeah, of course.

Stephani McGirr (05:31.265)

Yes, thank you. And I went completely the other way. OK, so I'm just going to start stop back and I can just start that question that answer over again. I remember where I was. I am so sorry. All right, thank you for editing this. OK, so how have we created systems and processes for clients or why? OK. Yeah, OK.

Sara Nay (05:39.194)

Of course, yeah.

It's okay, no worries.

Sara Nay (05:51.578)

Yep, essentially, Yep, because I was talking about how a lot of people, like lot of small businesses in general, kind of playing a guessing game with their marketing without putting a lot of systems and processes in place. And so how do you bring that structure to your clients?

Stephani McGirr (06:03.105)

Yes. Yes. OK. Well, all our clients are kind of all over the place because we work with smaller direct primary care startups and larger practices that have multiple providers, multiple locations. So being able to figure out what tool they need and how to simplify and automate their practice, those are the two goals. Simplify their their business.

and practice procedures and then automate as much because a lot of these practices are small and they don't have a large office staff. They work outside the traditional insurance world so they don't need a large staff to be able to handle the billing and insurance processing and a lot of them are just the provider and maybe a supplemental staff member. So by being able to give them a tool to handle the administration side of things and automate the business processes in that way, it's been

really helpful that they can grow their practice, focus on patient care, and not have to spend extra time on admin. That's where we focused on the tool implementation.

Sara Nay (07:12.056)

Yeah, that's great. And so I went through things a bit backwards based on that first conversation asking about tools and processes where typically when we're coming in and working with clients, we think about the strategy and then we think about the processes and tools. And that's where I actually see a lot of small businesses get stuck when it comes to marketing as they bring in a platform, they bring in a process, they start executing marketing without taking the step back and saying,

as a practice, what are we trying to accomplish strategically and what workflows do we need in place and all of that good stuff. So I believe you are a believer in strategy as well. And so when you're working with a client, how do you get started with them to understand what they actually need to do before you even start talking about specific tools?

Stephani McGirr (07:57.25)

Well, we use a tool for our clients. So when you become a client of our agency, we give you our Amplify DPC tool. That is a benefit of working with us. It is part of what we do for you, because when we run our services, we're running it through the system. And then you just get to use all of the features of it. Amplify DPC is a go high level.

as a white label. it is the tool that's built for marketing automation, the one tool that has all of the pieces for you. So it simplifies subscriptions and it reduces the cost in all of these other ways, as well as simplifies their processes and the number of systems they're having to log into. So it helps us and it helps them. And the reason why we sell it separately outside of services, because this was not our first intention, right? We were just implementing it for actually

our services and for the clients that we are supporting. But then we realized there are so many startup practices in the industry that need the help, need the tools, need the guidance, but they don't have the budget to pay an agency. And so by being able to provide them the tool, then we're just helping another level of providers in a larger group until they are large enough with a budget to be able to support somebody to help them along the way.

Sara Nay (09:17.368)

Yeah, okay. And so they might come in and start with a tool, but let's say they're ready for more strategic guidance and leadership. What does that look like in terms of your services for clients?

Stephani McGirr (09:27.405)

We would, everything starts with a conversation, right? We have a consultation, we talk about what are your goals, what are the struggles that you're currently having, what are the processes you're currently implementing, and then we look at, you know, what's working, what's not. I love to do that strategy first piece where we're really digging in deep before we commit to a specific plan.

of action. So that way we know everything that we're going to implement is for what they need in their unique practice level.

Sara Nay (09:58.902)

Great. One of the elements that we're thinking about and talking about a lot when it comes to marketing right now is the need for marketing leadership. And so not just necessarily always more people doing marketing, like yes, the doing needs to get done. But where a lot of businesses are seem to be struggling right now is having someone actually leading their marketing. And so is that an avenue that you've stepped into for your clients as well?

Stephani McGirr (10:21.237)

Yes, I also offer the fractional CMO services. And so in this aspect, it's really helpful because it's a personal struggle of mine being an agency owner as well. We offer a set plan for somebody who doesn't have the additional funds to be able to have a fractional CMO or that strategic oversight, but they need the tasks to be done, right? They have to get the work completed. So we do offer that.

But what I don't like about that is the inability to customize it according to what they need. And when you're a practice owner, you are the service provider, right? You are the healthcare provider. So you're not the person with a marketing degree, business degree, all of that. And that's what's interesting with this industry is they're leaving one system and they're joining a new or creating a new way to run their practice. It's a different model.

outside of the standard industry norms. And it's like they're escaping their frustrations with the system that they've been in. They've started their independent practice and then they discover that they're in a new world of frustration. It's a business owner frustration. It's the entrepreneurship, right? Wearing all the hats, exactly.

Sara Nay (11:30.232)

Yeah. Yeah. It's all the hats that they're wearing now.

Stephani McGirr (11:37.166)

And the last time I was at a conference and this conversation actually came up, they're like, the struggle for DPC, right? You have to do this, this, that, and the other. And I just, I stepped up to say I want to...

kind of give you some reassurance, this is not a DPC problem. This is a business ownership problem. When you are the business owner, the CEO, if you don't have the support staff or the means to operate your business more streamlined, then you are going to be overwhelmed, busy doing all of those things. So it was...

I felt like it was really encouraging for them to realize they're not alone in their industry. It's just, it's that business owner problem and being able to take that understanding and say, okay, this is normal. It kind of gives a little bit of relief. And then they can focus on what the next step is to overcome the overwhelm, how to streamline, how to automate. And so we do focus on both sides. And then from that fractional CMO side,

coming in, being able to support them in that more in-depth way, and then helping them work through what's right for their practice and their situation.

Sara Nay (12:50.712)

Yeah, that's great. We often say, you know, helping the business owners stay in their zone of genius versus doing all of the things. And so as entrepreneurs, you know, oftentimes you get into a business because you're passionate about something and then all of sudden you have to become somewhat passionate about finance and marketing and sales and managing team and hiring and onboarding, all the things that go along with it. And so it's, it's overwhelming. And I would agree like they're not alone. That's just a common.

Stephani McGirr (13:18.412)

Mm-hmm.

Sara Nay (13:18.572)

struggle in the small business space. That's great. Thanks for sharing your perspective on that. Next question is because you've been in marketing for 20-ish years, I believe at this point.

Stephani McGirr (13:29.805)

Yeah, experiencing marketing, learning marketing. I did run a different business earlier on and I was learning marketing by running my own business because I was the business owner doing all the things. I was collecting more certifications along the way because I was learning by doing. Yeah.

Sara Nay (13:33.274)

Great.

Sara Nay (13:38.872)

because you needed to.

Sara Nay (13:45.624)

Yeah, that's great. I've worked with lot of marketers over the years where they were in a business, they ended up having to learn marketing, they kind of enjoyed it, got the hang of it and then transitioned to helping others. So think it's fairly common path. Okay, so being in marketing over the years though, regardless if it was in your business or working with others, how do you feel like the landscape is changing right now versus in previous years?

Stephani McGirr (14:13.237)

Of course, it's all around AI, right? This new tool, new technology, people don't all accept it yet, but some love it and are willing to dive in. So I think it's almost like DPC itself. DPC is not mainstream. People don't get it. People don't understand it, but it's growing, right? So right now, what's changing the landscape most is AI. And people don't understand it yet. And trying to figure out ways to...

Sara Nay (14:33.412)

Yeah.

Stephani McGirr (14:42.375)

still keep marketing human, the message human, the connection human, but being able to use the tool to be able to be more efficient at what you're doing. That's, think the biggest piece of it.

Sara Nay (14:51.982)

Yeah. And so for you and your agency and your fractional CMO services, are you using AI as part of your team or are you empowering your clients to use AI? How are you approaching it specifically?

Stephani McGirr (15:06.797)

Yeah, a little bit of both. So we have some clients that don't want AI anything and we make sure that we write the content and we're really in on that. But for the most part, our clients are even giving us feedback. Hey, I went to chat GPT and gave me this. Can we do something like this? They'll bring their ideas, run it through AI and then give us the idea. And that's how we kind of start the...

Sara Nay (15:25.454)

Yeah. Yeah.

Stephani McGirr (15:33.856)

ideation of a new concept that they want to implement. So it's really hit or miss depending on what the client wants, but we are incorporating it in our processes. I think it's smart, you know, just being efficient. I don't believe we're at a place yet where AI can do what it needs to do without human oversight. So I say it's a tool, not the end game of using it and relying on it. Yeah.

Sara Nay (15:59.982)

Yeah.

Yeah, it's a great tool, I would say, but it can be misused and overhyped in many ways. And so I think a lot of people got into AI of like with the original thinking of like, we don't have to hire anyone and we can have super lean teams and we're going to like have all these agents and automation set up. And maybe that's where marketing is going.

Maybe, but right now I still believe as you said, human on the front end, human on the back end, approaching things strategically, editing, feeding AI all of your story, like all of that stuff still needs to happen from humans at this point too. Yeah.

Stephani McGirr (16:40.023)

Right, right. And I always use the analogy of the dating relationship for marketing and the customer journey, right? So having that relationship is important, especially in the industry I work with. It's a very close relationship model of healthcare where the providers really get to know their patients on a deeper level because they spend time with them. They're not rushed in and out. They take longer time and...

Sara Nay (17:03.108)

Yeah.

Stephani McGirr (17:06.921)

that model just allows a deeper connection to grow. And so I bring that into the marketing concept of it. Well, that should start with leads and the lead to conversion into membership cycle. It shouldn't start once they become a patient. And the right tools and automations can help you streamline your work, but stay personal and stay relational.

Sara Nay (17:26.938)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And imagine for the practice that you serve, you know, it's a lot of awareness and education on the front end when it comes to marketing, but then a lot of retention and probably some referrals on the back end when it comes to marketing where, know, lot of doctors offices out here, I'm in Idaho, like it's hard to get into doctors offices, like to get an appointment anytime soon. And so they're not really having to do a lot in terms of retention. Then people call them when they're sick and they come in.

with this model where it's more membership based, I imagine you're doing more of like ongoing education events retention type of marketing. Is that a correct assumption?

Stephani McGirr (18:04.117)

Yeah, absolutely. You these practices are not getting patients just because they're on an insurance plan. So they have to actually be visible and they have to let the public around them know that their practice exists. And then once they do become aware of the practice, the education part is huge and the lead to conversion time is typically longer just because it's so different. The questions are, why don't you take my insurance?

Sara Nay (18:08.995)

Yeah.

Stephani McGirr (18:30.219)

the monthly membership, why do I have to pay, what if I don't come in every month, little pieces like that. And so it's the education of the value of the membership, what you get above and beyond a single visit. And then once somebody realizes that they have that level of healthcare, they're more likely to go in to see their provider because it's not gonna nickel and dime them for every visit and they get better healthcare and results because of it.

Once the model is more well understood, think that lead to conversion time will definitely lessen and go much higher, but there's a lot of education involved. Yeah.

Sara Nay (19:03.066)

Yeah.

Sara Nay (19:06.862)

Yeah, yeah, that's great. Where do you see marketing going in the next year or two? Any major shifts or changes that you're thinking about or considering either for your business or for your clients?

Stephani McGirr (19:19.893)

Yeah, yeah, that's a good question. You know, at this point, honestly, I'm kind of along for the ride and I feel like the sky right now with the way and the speed that technology is advancing and changing. I can't honestly say if I could pinpoint one idea or another, but it's it's I feel like if we don't embrace the AI technology, we will get left behind. And it's it's smart. It's speed.

for implementation and research. So I think those pieces of the tool are important to use and know and be aware of, and then being able to take advantage of how to use it.

Sara Nay (20:01.774)

Yeah, I think it is hard to predict the future right now when it comes to marketing because stuff changes so quickly. I was on a podcast recently and someone asked me where I see marketing being in 10 years and I'm like, your guess is as good as mine in 10 years. Who the heck knows? So I can relate. Well, if anyone's listening today and you want them to take away one tip or piece of insight from our conversation or maybe it's something that I didn't ask you that you think would be helpful.

Stephani McGirr (20:16.461)

I know what I feel like.

Sara Nay (20:31.7)

anything comes to mind that you want to double tap on.

Stephani McGirr (20:35.437)

I think the only thing I can think of right now is, if you're talking from an agency perspective, don't be fearful of AI. Don't be fearful of being squeezed out of a job market. I think if you're embracing it in the right way, if you use it the right way, that strategic human oversight will never go away. So being able to stay relevant in the market is more important.

Sara Nay (20:49.156)

Yeah.

Stephani McGirr (21:03.499)

Yeah, just don't let fear drive your efforts, but use it and learn with it and grow with it.

Sara Nay (21:12.11)

Yeah, I often, you know, in the personal growth journey that I've been on is, if something scares you a little bit, it's usually worth looking into or at least exploring a bit more versus completely shutting it out altogether. Well, I you also recently went through our fractional CMO certification. And so anything you're willing to share in terms of a takeaway or anything that was beneficial from that program as we wrap up.

Stephani McGirr (21:36.628)

Yeah, it was really interesting for me because I've been working as a fractional CMO for much longer than before this certification program, but I still decided to take it because I liked the interesting aspect that you guys brought to it and the way it helps guide the services after.

not just big campaign concepts. So I've been coming from the bigger campaign concepts, these bigger pieces, and then rolling into regular retainers. And so this is really helping us customize and really get very specific to those business individual.

use cases. So that's what I really love about it. And also you bring a lot of AI implementation knowledge into it. And that's helpful because I love learning from different people, different tools and ways to implement AI. So it was all very beneficial.

Sara Nay (22:35.706)

Great. Thank you so much for sharing and for being on the show. If people want to connect with you online, where can they find you?

Stephani McGirr (22:42.125)

Sure, you can find me under EGS Marketing Solutions as the marketing agency or Amplify DPC as the software. And I'm on LinkedIn as well.

Sara Nay (22:52.308)

and we'll put those in the show notes as we publish this recording. So thank you so much Stephanie for being here and thank you everyone for listening to the Duck Tape Marketing Podcast. We'll see you next time.

Stephani McGirr (23:02.008)

Thank you.

Sign up to receive email updates

Enter your name and email address below and I'll send you periodic updates about the podcast.

John Jantsch (00:01.71)

So what if the press release isn't a relic of the pre-internet era, but actually one of the most underused tools a small business has right now, especially when AI can help write them, but there's a catch. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch. My guest today is Mickie Kennedy. He's the founder of eReleases, a press release distribution service started back in 1998.

After watching small businesses get turned away from PR agencies, it charged a minimum of $20,000. He's since distributed over 150 press releases, more than 30,000 customers. And today we're going to talk about how to train AI to write press releases that journalists actually read and use. So Mickey, welcome to the show.

Mickie Kennedy (00:49.141)

Thanks for having me.

John Jantsch (00:50.872)

So I've been in this business over 30 years. And so certainly the press release and PR and media relations were a big component of marketing. Seems like when the web came along, they sort of lost a little bit of their use and usability. And I wonder how you've been in this game a long time as well. E-Release really came around.

kind of when the web was just starting. how have you seen the practice of PR in general and certainly the PR or the press release tool changed dramatically over the last couple of decades?

Mickie Kennedy (01:30.241)

So I think the biggest change I've seen is the proliferation of noise in the PR space. There is a lot of, I guess you'd call them syndication feeds where for $49 or $119 your press release gets replicated on a bunch of websites, but it's usually like a sub domain or a folder on the website. And if you go to the website and you do a search for your company, it won't show up.

John Jantsch (01:36.066)

Yeah, sure.

Mickie Kennedy (02:00.481)

So, you know, humans aren't actually seeing this and it's more of just a, I don't know, an ego lift. And it's gotten to the point that, you know, people don't recognize the opportunity of what a proper newswire is. In the US, it's largely a duopoly between Businesswire owned by Berkshire Hathaway and PR Newswire. And PR Newswire is the oldest and largest. And they also charge, they both charge

quite a bit being a duopoly, around $1,800 for a 600 WordPress release to go out nationally. That being said, all the releases that go out through e-releases go out nationally and it's probably about 25 % the cost of that. The caveat is you have to be a small business or entrepreneur. Basically the type of customer that PR Newswire sells team has no interest in pursuing. And that's sort of what I act as a co-op for small businesses and entrepreneurs. And we move about 30,

Let's see, right now we're moving about 10,000 press releases a year. Altogether, we've worked with over 30, I think right now around 32, 33,000 clients that we've helped. And so we're moving a lot of volume and as a result, we're really helping people. But you know, there are people who have used the other services, then they'll do a press release with us and they'll actually say, we had less impact with you. And I'm like, well, I see you got no earned media.

and you got no earned media with them. They're like, no, we got picked up by 200 links. And I'm like, where? And they're just the syndication links. And I'm like, nobody wrote an article about you. These are all the press release replicated on a bunch of syndication websites. And they, you know, it's just hard to, I find education has become the thing now where we try to get people to understand the opportunity.

John Jantsch (03:51.736)

Well, let's talk about that because in the old days, certainly the press release was a vehicle to get media coverage, even if you were just trying to get it in your town. Then when the web came along, it actually became as much or more of an SEO play than a PR play, right? Yeah, because unfortunately in the early days, those links buried 10 rows deep were getting picked up by the search engines.

Mickie Kennedy (04:07.861)

Yeah, people trying to game that.

John Jantsch (04:18.19)

Even though no people really saw them, they were getting indexed. And so they did actually have some value in that regard. But certainly the search engines now are onto the game and those days are certainly over. So talk a little bit about this idea of earned media versus owned media, because I think we're actually back in a window of time when earned media is probably going to become more important than it maybe ever was or certainly

Mickie Kennedy (04:21.909)

But right now.

John Jantsch (04:46.978)

more so than it's been in the last couple of decades.

Mickie Kennedy (04:49.685)

Right. I think with AI, people are looking for stuff and AI is leaning on credible sources. And believe me, when I tell you it's not this subdomain on a website that no one knows, it's, if you're in the waste management space and you've been picked up in Waste News, which is the industry standard publication, and they've written about you doing something exciting.

John Jantsch (05:03.459)

Right.

Mickie Kennedy (05:17.537)

the AI as well as the search engines are going to know that that's a very relevant publication. And as a result, you're going to stand out. you know, that let's just take that one as an example. I mentioned it because I had a client who did a press release about them where they build facilities for municipalities. And it's everything nuts and bolts from waste as well as recycling. And, you know, a city orders it.

And there's nothing else. They handle everything. They work with the contractors and they build out a complete facility. very, you know, there's nobody really doing that. And so, they sent that press release out. They got one article and waste news, magazine. It's like the perfect magazine, but it was just one article. They were contacted by, a city in Australia and, within six months they were under contract to build two facilities in Australia.

John Jantsch (06:06.136)

Mm-hmm.

Mickie Kennedy (06:15.297)

And it was I think over 30 or 40 million dollars from one article and so And you know, they'll continue to get leads and recognition for that and that's what happens with our media I tell you you know you appearing on a website that no one's looking at nothing is ever going to happen But when a journalist writes an article about you it's like an implied endorsement You know, it's someone has transformed the press release into a written article

John Jantsch (06:18.83)

Sure.

Mickie Kennedy (06:42.977)

You know, during the pandemic, we helped an initiative called the dining bond initiative to help restaurants that were closed during the pandemic. It was sort of like a volunteer effort. And if they you you nominated a favorite local restaurant, if they were able to contact them, you could give money that went directly to them back by dining bonds for like a gift certificate scenario. And it raised over $10 million in revenue, it got picked up in over 100 places. It got

You name it Wall Street Journal picked it up New York Times lots of food publications and I saw over 80 daily newspapers who picked it up and so it did extremely well and again that would never happen on these syndication sites, know, these were all individual articles that people wrote about and I think that you know what people are missing is You know, what's what's the magic sauce and its strategy, you know in this case it was a lot of unknown

John Jantsch (07:21.4)

Yeah.

John Jantsch (07:27.566)

100 %

Mickie Kennedy (07:40.279)

You know, we were sent home two weeks to flatten the curve and there was an uncertainty. And here was something that was potentially positive news, but it was also actionable. You know, we have, we are powerless, but we could give $50 to the favorite restaurant we go to for our anniversary every year and make sure we're helping them in some small way. And I think that that's

John Jantsch (07:59.896)

Well, that, I mean, I think that brings up a really good point because a lot of times when people think about promoting something, there is like, here's my new product, you know, press release. and you know, that's not very interesting, it's interesting to that person, but maybe nobody else. So how do you find those? mean, you know, the pandemic was kind of an interesting opportunity, but in, in, in the real world, every day of small business, how do you find that thing that, that, that nobody's covering or that

Mickie Kennedy (08:11.329)

No.

John Jantsch (08:27.33)

that's really unique inside your industry instead of just self-promotion.

Mickie Kennedy (08:31.798)

you have to, you know, sort of put your thinking cap on. You have to play the contrarian. You have to look at different angles. Do you have to think and talk to people? Like if we were at a trade show or conference, what are the things you'd want to ask people right now? Have you noticed that this is happening with your company or is it just mine? Those are the things that are ripe for bringing out because often these are industry blind spots that the industry is not reporting on yet.

but you've noticed this trend and now you're looking for verification from someone else. And if you can get that verification, they're like, yeah, I'm seeing that too. You can break that. And that puts you in control for getting that news out there. And I've had that work really well, especially for clients that traditionally aren't very newsworthy. There was a local carpet company in New Jersey and talking to them during a brainstorm, we asked who their biggest enemy was and they says the big box home improvement stores.

And not only are they our biggest enemy, they give consumers a really poor product and a poor experience. And this is why. And so we did a press release about that. And they got picked up in almost every floor trade publication. No one had discussed it ever before. And yet it was something that really excited everybody. And we continued to milk that cow for a few more weeks, talking about different ways of which this company

know, targets and markets against the big box of improvement stores and brings home the value of why having seasoned people install your carpet rather than Home Depot going down a list of saying, here's the list of people who have a certification for home improvement license in our state. And that's the only qualification that Home Depot and Lowe's uses. They,

John Jantsch (10:13.944)

That's a pretty good, like if people are looking for a hook, like find an enemy, right, in the industry, like find a bad guy to kind of rail against. That's a pretty proven practice, isn't it?

Mickie Kennedy (10:27.53)

And also, think putting the spotlight on a customer, you talk about a new product or service, you get greedy, and you want to put the spotlight on you. But often you're not the most interesting story. But if you had someone who beta tested your product or software, and they had an amazing outcome, sometimes putting the spotlight on them and saying, we have this new product or service, here's a company that used it three years in, they lost money every year, looks like they're going to be one of the casualties of these companies that

John Jantsch (10:31.276)

Yeah, yeah,

John Jantsch (10:39.534)

Right.

Mickie Kennedy (10:57.164)

fail in the first five years of business. And by using our software solution to write better invoices that are more profitable, they're now projected to have their first profit ever. And then you have a quote by them. And it's like that shows the stakes. And it makes it so much more intriguing and interesting for an audience. And a journalist is at the end of the day doesn't care about

John Jantsch (11:04.12)

Mm-hmm.

Mickie Kennedy (11:18.518)

whether this is going to make a strong article for you, but is it going to make an intriguing and interesting article that their audience is going to want to listen to or read? And that's the biggest metric. Sometimes I say, you have to take what you want, and that's the pill. And sometimes you've got to put it in cheese to get the journalist to swallow it. And what is that magic thing that you're going to do? And sometimes putting the spotlight on others, it's really just creating a compelling story arc. Because naturally,

John Jantsch (11:25.41)

Right. Right. Right.

Mickie Kennedy (11:47.863)

Journalists like to write in a story arc. It's something that we learn from children onward and having a product or service with a list of features doesn't yield much of a story. So what are the things that you can do to make the stakes higher and to put more of that story arc in there?

John Jantsch (12:05.102)

So another sort of casualty of PR practice was the fact that we could hit a button and send out 20 million. I get pitches every single day. like, who on the planet thought this was relevant to my audience? And so how do you kind of balance that? I mean, in a perfect world, I wrote this press release for you, journalist, in this publication in this city. I mean, how do you balance that?

with the fact that you're probably gonna need to send a few out to get a hit.

Mickie Kennedy (12:36.278)

Yeah. So I think that it's one of the cases where going over a newswire now is more important than ever. And it sucks that it's in a duopoly environment because it's expensive. But, you know, that being said, the newswire is very clean. And so if you go into your log in on PR newswire, you have an industry feed that you've signed up for, and you can actually tailor it to exclude, you know, press releases with certain keywords, make sure that you capture

John Jantsch (13:02.53)

Mm-hmm.

Mickie Kennedy (13:05.89)

and pin certain press releases that mentioned certain keywords that are really important to you. And so it's the opposite of their inbox. know, media databases have become prolific over the last 20 years. And, you know, if you're a golf club company who spent $10,000 for a yearly license, and you sent to 2400, you know, people who cover golf, and they all passed, you now start talking yourself into

Well, know, bankers and financial people like to play golf. So let's send it to financial analysts and reporters. And it's like, they'll never cover golf clubs. But you know, that's happening in every industry. People are talking themselves because it costs nothing to just hit a few keys and blast to everybody. And so I find that with everybody, but perhaps local media, email has become a really difficult way to reach journalists. And I think that the newswire

John Jantsch (13:46.35)

Yep, right.

Mickie Kennedy (14:00.382)

is a better way to reach them. You just have to make sure that, you know, when you're spending money to go over a newswire, even if it's a reduced price with us, that you're really playing with something that's strategic and you're not doing a press release that's like, hey, we hired Judy as the new HR associate or something like that. It's a meaningful press release. And so I tell people to really, you know, put a little bit of effort into the strategy behind the press release.

John Jantsch (14:19.416)

Right.

Mickie Kennedy (14:28.515)

you know, look for ways in which you can make a compelling story and help develop a story arc because almost anything that people do you can sort of play with it and elevate it and try to create nuances that brings out more of a story element.

John Jantsch (14:47.534)

So we mentioned AI and certainly, you know, if hitting the button to send has gotten easier, certainly writing the press release has gotten easier. In theory, you can do one prompt and tell it what your product is and what your company name is and voila, it'll put it in a press release format even for you. How do you actually write, how do you actually use the AI tools to write better press releases, ones that are going to get picked up? mean, what does that look like in practice?

Mickie Kennedy (15:15.267)

So I never let AI decide what to write on. I tell people the metric is about 97 % of press releases that even go through the newswire where people paid $1,700 plus to go out naturally. They do not generate earned media. So what I tell people to do is focus on the 3 % of press releases that do get picked up because there's patterns in there. The story arc is an important one.

John Jantsch (15:40.706)

Mm-hmm.

Mickie Kennedy (15:43.172)

you know, building in an industry survey or study, that's something anyone can do. Nobody owns an industry, you can do the legwork, get a survey in your industry, partner with a smaller independent trade association, not the big one, they'll often because it's a smaller independent one, they don't get a lot of love from the media. So they see it as a win win themselves. And I'd say more than two thirds of the time, they will cooperate with you to send that out to their members. And

you know, focus not on all the questions, but what was the most, uh, the biggest surprise or aha of that, uh, survey that you did and then focus on that, uh, as the press release. then ask AI, Hey, I've got this idea for a press release. Here's me. Here's my company. Do not write the press release. Give me the structure of what you feel would be the perfect press release on this subject. It'll probably write the press release anyways. And I go, okay.

I see you wrote the press release. Now give me just the structure. And then finally it gives you the structure and say, okay, give me eight headline options for this press release. And then if I find one that I really like, I'll get it. Otherwise we'll refine one. It's like number three comes closest, but I want to make sure that this is in there. And then I say, okay, now give me three opening paragraph options using this target headline. And it, this way takes longer. It might take.

John Jantsch (17:07.822)

Thanks

Mickie Kennedy (17:08.355)

I've the most has ever taken me to do a whole press release is 12 minutes. So you don't get it in 30 seconds. But if you take it top down, paragraph by paragraph, and then focus like, hey, I'm the second paragraph, I want to make sure I have a quote. And I want to say something very powerfully, you know, make sure active verbs are used, and that really stands out. And, you know, if you're comfortable,

John Jantsch (17:11.923)

Yeah.

Mickie Kennedy (17:33.88)

being a contrarian, you could even say you can make it a contrarian quote or something like that. like, let's say you did a survey of graphic designers and 80 % believe that they're gonna be replaced by AI in five years. could say, you could disagree with that and say, while this survey shows a lot of people are scared of the industry, I think this is a bit alarmist. And I do believe that those who don't know how to start incorporating AI into their graphic tools toolbox,

they're going to be at a huge disadvantage in the coming years. And you know, that you're not necessarily agreeing with what the survey said, but it makes you seem very thoughtful and rational. And, you know, those types of things. And then, you know, just going top down until you get what you will, you know, get it finished. AI is very good at writing the press release, but the ideas behind it, it's not very good at it'll, it'll make a press release, like you see out there. And you're like, this is as good as that one. Well, that one probably didn't.

John Jantsch (18:23.661)

Yeah.

John Jantsch (18:28.782)

Well, it's because it's read all the bad press releases, right? That's right. You know, one of the things I think people really under utilize is the deep research aspect of it. I mean, you can get to the point where you could go to just about any industry and ask it something like, what are generally accepted practices in this industry?

Mickie Kennedy (18:31.734)

Right. And it's like, yeah, you're right. It did as well as another bad press release that didn't get any media pickups. So,

John Jantsch (18:53.614)

that nobody is questioning. mean, questions like that can all of a sudden really spark some things that will be polarizing, controversial potentially. And that's really where the gems are, isn't it?

Mickie Kennedy (19:09.56)

Yeah, absolutely. mean, the research capability of AI is so good. And a lot of people also don't brainstorm with it. It's like, hey, what are some contrarian ideas that we could use for my industry and just brainstorm them. And maybe it gives you five or six, and you're sitting there saying, well, I would never feel comfortable saying that in my industry, but maybe number four.

is one that I could get behind and I wouldn't alienate my customer base. But being a contrarian is a really great way to stand out with the media because so many times everybody agrees in one direction. And as a result, stories get written that are one sided. And believe it or not, outside of politics, journalists like to be fair and balanced. So if you're the only one raising your hand and saying, hey, electric cars are bad for the environment, they're bad for right now,

you know, taking a lithium battery fire and getting it under control often involves 12 fire trucks and 50,000 gallons of water and and it burns to X amount of degree. Plus, we don't know what we're gonna do with these batteries at the end of the life. Maybe we could hit pause for a few years until we figure some things out before we embrace electric cars so strongly. And that way you stand the likelihood of every time they discuss this subject, you get plugged in as that rational contrarian viewpoint.

And that's a much easier place because less people are competing for that spot.

John Jantsch (20:40.75)

Well, Mickey, I appreciate you taking a few moments to stop by the Duck Tape Marketing Podcast. Where would you invite people to learn more about e-releases and connect with you?

Mickie Kennedy (20:49.902)

So our website's ereleases.com. I have a free masterclass where I teach people in less than an hour these strategic types of press releases that work, the 3 % of press releases that are actually working. And again, it's completely free and it's a great place for anybody to start. And that's at ereleases.com slash plan, P-L-A-N. And again, it's completely free and you can feel free to call or email my office or chat with us.

You know, we work with people all the time on their first real PR campaign and we're great at holding hands and sort of teaching people the way to do this. And I always tell people, this is something that anybody can do. You don't need to hire a PR firm. This is something that you can do yourself. It just takes a little bit of thought and effort, but it's a way in which I think a small business can sort of implement it and maybe do it quarterly or every other month, you know, find a cadence that works for you.

John Jantsch (21:45.516)

Well again, I appreciate you taking a few moments and maybe we'll run into you one of these days out there on the road.

Mickie Kennedy (21:50.735)

Sounds good. Thank you.

Sign up to receive email updates

Enter your name and email address below and I'll send you periodic updates about the podcast.

John Jantsch (00:01.016)

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch, and again, no guests. This is actually, if you've been playing along, you know that I'm doing a series of seven podcast episodes based on the seven steps to small business marketing success, which is a new workbook program framework that we have created. You can find it at dtm.world/slash seven steps. So

if you did not listen to episode one, you can go to Duct Tape Marketing, go to the podcast tab, and find episode number one if you'd like. it's obviously on Apple and all the other places that you get your podcasts. This is episode number two, and today I am going to talk about one of my favorite topics, and that is random acts of marketing. So I think it's just a hopefully lighthearted way.

To name what is a common affliction, if you will, with a lot of small business owners. We we see somebody doing something, we go to a conference, we read a book, and next thing we know, we're telling the team we need to do this. and we do that for a while or two, and then we change our mind. So that's what random acts of marketing really is. And a lot of times it comes not as a budget problem, not as an effort problem. it's really a foundation problem. So

You know, a lot of times we'll sit around and say our our our marketing is busy, but nothing adds up. Ever said that? We're doing a lot of things, but it's not adding up. every vendor that you hire, you know, somebody do SEO, somebody do content, somebody do ads, they all have a different plan. they're all just executing the way they want to execute rather than around a cohesive plan that that you or the business is somehow directing.

We're doing a lot, but the the pipeline's not only unpredictable, but you know, we're we're not closing as much business. maybe we're even getting leads, but they're the wrong leads. You know, these are all symptoms. really, really diagnostic symptoms, I guess it would be the way to talk about it. I mean, they're not character flaws. So please, if random actual marketing sounds harsh, it's not you. It's really in a lot of cases what you've been told, what you've seen, the advice you've gotten from.

John Jantsch (02:23.562)

from marketers. So I really want to position it that way because let's talk about what would help fix that idea. And it really comes down to something that I have been saying for really more than 30 years now that strategy needs to come before tactics. And that's really that's really been the basis of my body of work, if you will. Everybody that hires our firm hires us to or is at least going to receive

an a part of the engagement that we call strategy first. And it really has very set components, it has a very set purpose that that is really can then inform any of the tactics or any of the acts of marketing now that will now be intentional acts of marketing random rather than random. So first element. I'm gonna talk about really the three core elements, and that is your ideal client.

Not who you're trying to attract, what demographic are you trying to attract, you're trying to attract anybody who has money, but it's it's really a it's a it's a really an exploration into what would make an ideal client. In fact, a lot of times I will tell people, okay, think of your existing clients today or clients you've had over the years, and and and picture one or two or three that you that that you would easily say, I would take.

I would take that kind of client every day because they had the right problem, they had the right attitude, the right beliefs. We were able to solve that problem. We were able to deliver a tremendous amount of value very profitably. those are the elements that really go into an ideal client profile. Now, it doesn't necessarily mean that you will never take anything else as part of your business, but it's a specific

It it might be a set of demographics. I mean, if you are in a certain geographic space and you sell to a certain type of buyer, you can demographically have some elements there. But it's also going to be about the problem that you're uniquely suited to solve really better than any alternatives. It's going to be about their specific situation. And sometimes that can be a 25-year-old demographic and a 65-year-old demographic. It's that they had the same.

John Jantsch (04:47.306)

issue or challenge. So a lot of times people get really stuck on trying to define an age or a gender or a lifestyle or a income. And and it really is much more than that. Those can be components of it, but it's really you really have to get a handle on what the how what problems you can uniquely solve, right? So I'm going to use a home service example. it might be people that have been in their homes for 20 years. They certainly live in certain zip codes.

They are thinking about doing something like aging in place, for example. so those are those are ways that we start kind of refining and narrowing this ideal client. and what happens then is then you could start making decisions, ads, even photos, pricing, content, everything that you are offering, you know, aligns to that person and to the problem that you solve for that person. So

You know, there's there's a saying about, you know, niches. and I I think a lot of people lose, you know, the the what what's the saying? The reach riches are in the niches. I guess it should be reaches are in the niches. I don't know. Riches are in the niches. the the idea that people had with that was that they had to narrowly define an industry or a certain type of person. And again, what I'm suggesting is that

You focus more on the messaging of the problem that you solve and not necessarily industry. I mean, in some cases an industry makes sense, but even inside of that industry, you focus on the client that has or or the client that at least the problem you solve resonates. and talk about that. So the second component then, even if you've narrowly defined who you serve and you're starting to communicate that, the second component is, Well, why you? I mean, how are you different or or you know?

Well, what can you do that is different than what everyone else claims, right? So quality, service, experience, I mean, those aren't differentiators because even if it's not true, it's pretty darn easy for somebody to claim. So

John Jantsch (06:58.114)

The real challenge is to then understand in the voice of the customer, what are they saying? How you're different? How are they communicating the problem that you solve for them? That's going to be one of the real challenges. And this is a this is a really great place to start. and the beauty of this is that it in many cases, you can find this information. You we we've we've for many years done interviews with our clients, clients. That's a great place to start.

But in this day and age, you know, people go and they they make reviews and they make comments and they participate in places like Reddit. and so they're actually sharing, even without you asking in a lot of cases, most cases, frankly, they're sharing what they believe is the problem that you're solving for them. So we would need to really focus on that differentiation and start communicating that. And then the last piece is

what what I have just called for for years your core message. And this is going to be one sentence customer language. is it clear? Is it different? Is it credible? And and it's not about here's what we do. It's not a clever tagline. a core message is very clear that says you know this is who we serve. This is the problem we solve for them and this is how we solve it.

so it the the challenge with it in in many, many years of doing this with folks is there's a real temptation to want to say everything that you do or why you're great. and this is really about, you know, we like for us. I mean, in in duct tape marketing, what I tell people is that that we install small business marketing systems. and that is a huge differentiator, believe it or not. it certainly identifies who we serve, but it also communicates.

the difference. Now, if I were taking a longer version of that, I would say, you know, so that that businesses can, you know, stop guessing, performing random acts of marketing and and start really focusing on what actually moves the needle. So the last component then of a strategy first is something we call the marketing hourglass. So any longtime duct tape marketing listeners know that that you know that is our version of the customer journey.

John Jantsch (09:21.656)

There are seven behaviors. You know, a lot of people call them stages. I like to refer them to them as behaviors that businesses or or buyers want to participate in, and they are no like trust, try by, repeat, and refer. and we have to really think in terms of it's not enough to say, okay, we're going to run an ad so somebody can come to know us. we have to actually then intentionally plan out the steps where we can activate the behavior of like and trust and and that they might be able to try what it

You'd like to work with this. And obviously, we want to keep the buying decision or the buying experience just as high as everything that led them to that. And then after they become a customer, what are we going to do to surprise and delight them and turn them into advocates? Those are all intentional marketing activities that can come directly out of developing this marketing strategy. So you can get this full framework. This is session number two.

I'm going to do five more sessions on this. Hopefully you'll get a chance to listen to the entire series. But if you want to also get the companion workbook that goes with this, it is at DTM.world slash seven steps. So DTM like duct tape marketing.world slash seven steps. So here's what I would give you as your challenge today. Think about your ideal customer. Again, you may not have defined it yet, but think about

Let's hope you have one or two of those, right? So think about who that ideal customer is, if you could go out and find more of them. and thinking about the problem that you really solve for them, not the service or product that you provide, the problem that they are trying to solve when they engage you. and think about, you know, what would be a core message that that you could actually write for them. So that's your your your homework today.

and hopefully we will see you in out there on the road someday, but also in episode number three or step number three of the seven steps to marketing success.

Sign up to receive email updates

Enter your name and email address below and I'll send you periodic updates about the podcast.

John Jantsch (00:02.129)

What are the biggest threat from AI? Isn't that it replaces your job. It's that it exposes the parts of you that were never fully developed in the first place. Sound interesting? Stay tuned. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duck Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch. My guest today is Derek Reddall. He's a true time bestselling author and transformational leader who has spent over 25 years helping people unlock what he calls their emergent

potential, the idea that everything you need to become is already inside you waiting for the right conditions. We're going to talk about his new book, A Whole New Human, 10 Ways We Must Evolve to Survive in the AI Age. There we go. Got it right. Derek, welcome to the show.

Derek (00:48.558)

Thank you, John. It's an honor and pleasure to be here.

John Jantsch (00:50.981)

So we're not, some tells me we're not gonna talk about prompt engineering, at least not right off the bat, are we?

Derek (00:55.374)

Maybe how we have to prompt the AI within us, but not more than the AI outside of us, yes.

John Jantsch (00:59.783)

Right.

So for 25 years, your teaching has started with this idea of emergence. There's a lot of people on here that maybe that's the first time they've heard that word applied particularly to self-development or self-improvement. You want to give us kind of what you mean by that?

Derek (01:21.304)

Sure, I mean obviously in science there's an understanding of the emergent property of things and you know that something emerges that is more than or different than the sum of the initial parts etc. you know oxygen and what is it hydrogen comes together to make water so you get water as an emergent property and so that's one way to think about emergence and what I speak of it it's more about an experience I actually had

after a near death experience where I saw this and I began to see that, you know, in every living thing, it begins with a seed. There's a pattern. There's a pattern behind everything that is alive. And whether it's the acorn, the oak is already there in the acorn. And even from a quantum physics standpoint or a platonic form standpoint, the oak, the idea of the oak is a pattern in the field.

as a part of the superposition. So we can get scientific about it or not, but the bottom line is the oak tree is already there and it's there in potential. It's there in a pattern and the mechanics of its fulfillment are there. It's simply waiting for the right conditions. When the conditions are a match to the pattern within anything, that potential emerges naturally. And when I saw that

not just theoretically, but experienced it and began to consider there was a pattern in me. There was a seed pattern planted in the soil of my soul or whatever and began to ask what that was, you know. And this really brings us back to the Oracle of Delphi and the OG success self-help guru when she said, know thyself or aristocraties said an unexamined life is not worth living.

the fundamental pattern of knowing what I'm really made of and made for and learning what are the right questions to ask. And then to say, okay, this is what I am like a gardener with a seed going, what are there for the right conditions for that seed to thrive? And I began to cultivate the inner and outer conditions that were a match to the pattern that I was discovering within me. And I went from broke

John Jantsch (03:36.999)

Mm.

you

Derek (03:43.385)

broken, literally suicidal in a one-room apartment, living on macaroni and cheese, no kidding, got very good at mac and cheese though, I could make it in a lot of ways. Within the first 12 months, I ended up launching my life's work, growing my business into six and then multiple six figures, falling in love. My whole life began to emerge or unfold.

John Jantsch (03:49.095)

you

Derek (04:09.824)

And what I saw was that before that, I'd been a self-help person trying to improve myself, you know, for years and years and years. And I found that most of our efforts to fix change, heal and improve ourself is a form of resistance against what is naturally trying to emerge. We end up creating conditions that are oppositional to what is really in us. So that's in a nutshell or in an acorn shell.

John Jantsch (04:30.289)

Yes.

John Jantsch (04:38.009)

You

Derek (04:39.128)

basically where the idea of emergence, I read a book on it called Emergence.

John Jantsch (04:41.223)

So we're all just waiting around for the right squirrel to bury us in the dirt? that it? That's right.

Derek (04:46.698)

Exactly. Squirrels are farmers of the forest, right? And they luckily don't have good memory because they forget about 80 % of where they buried it or something. And then we get oak trees as a result. Exactly.

John Jantsch (04:57.511)

So I've had a lot of guests on here, obviously. AI is a topic of certainly the last 18 months or so. And it's typically about tools and tactics. What's the different argument you are making when it comes to AI?

Derek (05:03.192)

for sure. Yes.

Derek (05:07.682)

Yes.

Derek (05:11.724)

Yeah, I mean, obviously I think it's an important thing. We should learn AI. should master the tools. You should know how to use them. Just like you can use internet and use a phone because you won't be replaced immediately by AI. You'll be replaced by somebody who's really good at it. And, but you are going to be replaced one way or the other. So you want to make sure you replace yourself with AI rather than being replaced by it. But basically the approach is, you know, I've spent 25 years, I started off in tech. I was a computer nerd. I built programs.

John Jantsch (05:24.58)

Mm-hmm.

Derek (05:41.357)

I watched war games. thought it was a great idea to build a program to hack into the government and start global thermonuclear war. Don't ask me why. And so I was, and then I got into the brain and was going to be a neuroscientist. And then I had this opening spiritually, whatever you want to call it near death. And I became more interested in consciousness and the deeper dimensions of us. But what I saw is that I've been practicing the inner technologies and

that we have to understand that AI is an expression and a prosthetic of our capacity for intelligence. And from the Tower of Babel to Chatch-EPT, we're still just building these outer tools. And that's OK. But with every new technology, we outsource a little bit of ourselves. And so on the one level, the very real danger, and it's already happening. MIT has studies about this.

John Jantsch (06:30.8)

Mm-hmm.

Derek (06:38.094)

that we're outsourcing the thing that makes us us, the ability to think, to think for ourself, to think deeply, the ability to create, to communicate, to connect, et cetera. And as you outsource something, if you study the technology history, you atrophy that capacity. Exactly, exactly. I don't even remember where I am right now. It's only been a few minutes. No, and so I don't have my GPS to see where I'm going.

John Jantsch (06:55.514)

Can't remember my phone number.

you

Derek (07:05.302)

And so in like GPS, our spatial cognition, our mapping capacity, all these things, and it's important to understand that cognition is not just linear, it's layered. And so as one cognitive ability starts to collapse or atrophy, there's a cascading effect. so we see this over, and I talk about this in my book, kind of the history of industrial revolutions and the unfoldment of technology.

and the outsourcing and where we're heading in a trajectory is to become like the characters in the movie WALL-E that are basically these slabs on a conveyor belt staring at screens with no more agency and no more even concern with what's happening outside in the world. That's not science fiction. There's already a lot of people sitting in their basement just like those characters. And it's especially dangerous with men who need to have

John Jantsch (07:51.441)

Yeah.

Derek (08:02.121)

utility and usefulness and if they don't, they become self-destructive or destructive in the world and that's also happening now. And the second big piece is it will do everything a human can do better, faster, cheaper. And so the big existential question of our times has to be if that's the case, what's a human for? And there is an answer to that, and we'll talk about.

John Jantsch (08:28.603)

Well, you do lay out some ways that we need to evolve or that you suggest we need to evolve. So for the person that's like, yeah, well, my job is my boss tells me I got to go in and get this work done. Here's the tools I use. it's an occupational hazard, right, that I'm doing this. So what are some of the ways that you teach people to counteract that?

Derek (08:33.315)

Yes.

Derek (08:52.451)

Yeah, when you say counteract that, you mean use the AI tools? And you're basically training the AI.

John Jantsch (08:55.993)

Yeah, just the fact that I'm there on front of that computer screen all day long using these tools, you know, because that's my job. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Derek (09:00.951)

All that, right. That you're becoming like a WALL-E character potentially. Well, yeah, you know, just using the tools, the danger again, yes, we're using these tools and the danger with AI first and foremost is you have to make sure you use the tool to become a better version of yourself. Not like when we started to use power tool, you know, like the plow and all these different things or the automobile.

They got us somewhere faster. They made us more productive, but we didn't have to walk anymore. We didn't have to use our muscles anymore. And you can study the increase of disease by the fact that we don't have to move anymore. so, so we had to build other industries like gyms and exercise and running clubs to do the things. And that's okay. But as we start to outsource our cognition of these things, we just have to make sure, first of all, we are

John Jantsch (09:36.261)

Yeah. All right.

Derek (10:00.483)

doing hard and challenging things on a regular daily basis, because you were evolved and adapted to be chased by tigers and to chase wooly mammoths. And if you're not chasing and being chased a little bit every day, you're going to get fat and sick and cognitively decline much faster. But the great news is you can use AI to strengthen you. You can, and I talk about that with each evolution. I mean, the first evolution is AI is going to think for you.

think for yourself. So we have to deepen our ability. Right now, this is already happening with kids, happening with students. They're hitting a button, they're producing an essay, and over a semester their cognition is falling off a cliff. And already kids cannot read handwriting. They're losing that cognitive ability, let alone do it. So we have to make sure, and you can, and I show people how, to use it to know yourself better.

to use it to become a better writer, a better communicator, a better creator, a better and a deeper thinker. And again, thinking is what got us out of the trees on the savanna and up into the stars. And if we keep giving it to AI, there will come a day not too far in the future, we literally won't have the ability and we will be forced to bow before our AI overlord. That's not a science fiction trope.

So we have to use it to think deeply. If you're writing a paper or doing research, do the first amount yourself. Write the first draft. Make your head hurt a little bit every day thinking as an example. There's other examples, because it's also showing up in communication. Write that first draft of the email. Really try to communicate with that person. Have a real conversation with a human being every day.

You know, these are skills that aren't just nice to have. You know, they call them soft skills, but they're really very hard. But these kinds of skills also will make you more human, more creative, more intuitive, more alive, and it will make you irreplaceable. Because your lived wisdom, your lived experience, your internal technology, that's the one thing AI can't do.

John Jantsch (12:14.801)

Right.

Derek (12:24.727)

AI will do everything else. But if you can embed that in your work, your words, your world, now you become valuable. The moat of the future is an authentic human being. Everything else will be commoditized.

John Jantsch (12:39.953)

Well, I believe that, and I've kind of made the case for saying, think the people that are thriving in this right now are people that came from more liberal arts backgrounds instead of like a technical training to do a thing because taste and discernment I think are going to be what's left. Yeah.

Derek (12:49.903)

Correct. Correct. Correct.

Correct. Bingo, bingo, bingo, bingo. Yeah. Taste and discernment and everybody has it. They just haven't necessarily developed it. And you know, you have a lived experience. Your greatest wisdom will come from your greatest wounds. Your deepest purpose will come from all the pain and the problems you've worked through. And it builds a story and it builds a perspective that only you have, which creates taste, which creates, you know, real embodied wisdom and

John Jantsch (13:04.444)

Yeah, yeah.

Derek (13:24.685)

That is the new Prada and the new Gucci of the brave new world. Because again, AI will do everything that, you know, we're going to see more businesses started than ever before in history until business loses all meaning. We're going to see more books published, more songs produced, more websites, more apps until it's a tsunami that makes everybody want to tune out and look away and become apathetic. But then there'll be those individuals

who get to know themselves, excavate and harvest the wisdom of their life, have real taste, real point of view, real wisdom, and then use AI to scale wisdom, to scale authentic taste, to scale a singular perspective, to actually scale and magnify an algorithm only they have.

Those are the individuals that are going to become a signal in the noise.

John Jantsch (14:25.095)

So let's talk a little bit. So the emergence model says the answer is already in you, or maybe is. How does a business owner who's listening to this and maybe stuck at a revenue plateau, I mean, how did they apply that idea?

Derek (14:38.317)

Yeah, well, you know, there's different reasons why you're stuck at a revenue plateau. Some, mean, you are the biggest bottleneck usually, but sometimes depending on the business, there's, there's just different things. What got us to where we are, isn't going to, at a certain point, isn't going to get us to the next level. What got you to a hundred thousand won't get you to a million, won't get you to five, won't get you to 10 or 15, et cetera, et cetera, depending. And that's the same thing even in not just business, but I know this is business, but you know, you all have relationships too.

What got you to the first year in your relationship is not going to get you to your five, et cetera. It's something about you that has to change a new model, a new paradigm, somewhere where you have to either delegate or outsource or dig deeper. And, you know, the biggest challenge with, with businesses and it's going to be that now is, you know, it's the Kodak experience, the blockbuster experience, the businesses that were in denial, that we're holding onto an old model.

John Jantsch (15:34.459)

Mm-hmm.

Derek (15:36.515)

because it worked and it was still working up to the moment it wasn't. And so we have to be willing to create, creative destruction on ourselves, but not just on our business, but really, you know, this is, this is what could be one of the, it's the biggest existential crisis we're going to face, but it's also, I think one of the greatest opportunities to become the people we're meant to be and to have a whole new Renaissance. So you have to, again, understand that

John Jantsch (15:39.717)

Yes.

Derek (16:02.575)

There's a guy that just launched, started a, just built a billion dollar business. He didn't know anything about the business he built. He used AI and he built a team of agents, but he had a perspective and he tapped into a current zeitgeist. So he had a bit of wisdom and intelligence to identify that, which is what a great entrepreneurial creative mind does. And then he was able to scale it and build a billion dollar business. I think he just hired his brother cause he was getting lonely.

So they're gonna see a lot of the potential for that. But that required somebody to have a couple things that were human, which is a perspective, a bit of intuition, a lot of courage, some grit, the willingness to work hard. And the problem is once you build something, especially nowadays, again, that's gonna be completely competed away, that particular margin.

John Jantsch (16:56.977)

Yeah, right.

Derek (16:58.543)

The worst thing he ever did was have a New York Times article told about him because everybody's now aiming their arrows at him. what's that?

John Jantsch (17:06.503)

Is that 11 Labs, I'm guessing? Is that the company called 11 Labs? Is that who it was? Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, okay.

Derek (17:12.067)

No, 11 Labs is something else. I think that's got more than one person. This was all about Ozempic and stuff. He just sold Ozempic, but he's not a doctor. He just was a middleman, built a billion dollar business. I think he did it in like a year. But so there's a lot of opportunity if you're creative and entrepreneurial and you're willing to trust your taste, your intuition and perspective. And of course AI can help you there. But when you understand, just follow the logic that

John Jantsch (17:20.401)

Yeah. Funny.

Derek (17:40.021)

Everything is going to be commodified because AI is just units of cognition and intelligence and it can do everything a human can do. And with embodied humanoids, it'll include the physical. You just have to keep going down the stack or up the stack or whatever and ask, well, what's left? And you want to go where the puck's going, not where it already is. And, and like I said, you're going to, you're going to, unless you have the chips.

or the capex, the money, or the energy, the only thing that's left is the humanity of it all. And if you're a company or a person, the most authentic, unique, bold, willingness to be and be creative and intuitive and also be very flexible, know, like all of those things that are natural state as children and as people until we calcify around something.

John Jantsch (18:10.417)

Mm-hmm.

Derek (18:38.369)

or a business, if it has a founder energy, keeps evolving and then it gets, it loses that and then it calcifies. So we have to get back to that and that will become again, the new moat is to be that flexible.

John Jantsch (18:51.911)

So for a lot of folks, business owners, particularly, who feel like, I'm running as fast as I can to keep up with the AI race, right? So what's the first kind of inner shift that you'd encourage them to make instead?

Derek (19:00.227)

Which is the wrong race.

Derek (19:06.179)

Yeah, again, I understand you want to learn the tools. You want to try to become as AI native as you possibly can as fast as you can, because if you don't, you will be competed out of existence. And you may have a moat for now and some things, the moats will last longer because of regulations and different things like that. And just, you might have a really good brand. And so you'll have loyalty up to a point until they can get the same thing for half the cost or less. So you have some time, but, but, but again, what's you got to think about?

Community, real humanity, real authenticity. Yes, people want stuff cheaper and faster and better. There's no doubt about it. Amazon built Amazon over that. But ultimately we have, you have to ask, what is it about me or the thing I do that is truly irreplaceable? And you, and you have to start to really be looking at, and what's interesting is you'll find

The way you built your business in the beginning often had a lot more for most, a lot, a lot more of that humanity in it, a lot more of that touch. And we're going to have to, it's like what I call a handcrafted humanity. We have to return to that. What people, what's going to be a differentiator. It's why like on YouTube, the people that are the most successful now are the live streamers because it's live.

John Jantsch (20:13.927)

Thanks

John Jantsch (20:33.307)

Mm-hmm.

Derek (20:33.443)

because it's in depth, because people feel like they can trust you, they know you versus all of the AI slop and the highly polished and produced stuff. So something that feels real and authentic and raw and live is going to win above all the polished stuff over and over and over again. So this is the kind of thing we have to start thinking about. Again, if you look back to your roots,

A lot of the ways you lived and the things you valued and the things you did are what made you successful. Then you started building a machine and it became all about scaling the machine instead of scaling the original core and heart of why you were doing it in the first place. Get back to the story. Get back to the humanity. Get back to the community. Get back to real connection. That's going to be most fundamental.

John Jantsch (21:27.203)

Awesome. Well, Derek, I appreciate you taking a few moments to drop by the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. Where would you invite people to connect with you and find out more about your work?

Derek (21:34.275)

Yeah, I mean, they can certainly get my book, obviously on Amazon or wherever books are sold or any of the books, whole new human. They can also go to Derek Rydell, legendary life on YouTube, lots and lots of videos or my website, Derek Rydell D E R E K R Y D A L L. And there's lots of free trainings and support. And then there's my podcast emergence, millions of downloads there. And there's, there's more of this deep dive conversation for sure.

John Jantsch (22:01.287)

Awesome. Great. Again, I appreciate you taking a moment to stop by and hopefully we'll run into you one of these days out there on the road.

Derek (22:06.839)

Likewise, John, thank you so much. been a pleasure.

Sign up to receive email updates

Enter your name and email address below and I'll send you periodic updates about the podcast.