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Navigating the Future of Small Business with AI
Welcome to Small Business Mornings! I'm your host, Pat Miller, the founder of the Small Business Owners Community. Today, we're diving into the latest study suggesting that some small business owners need to act fast to stay ahead of the digital competition. We’ll be talking marketing with Lisa Raebel from Rebel Girl Marketing, sharing three big changes to the Small Business Owners Community, and presenting our Meme of the Week. Happy Monday! Let’s kick off the week with some positivity and motivation.
Our lead story highlights the impact of AI on the labor market, with a significant decrease in demand for digital freelancers in writing, coding, and social media post-production. The study indicates a 21% drop since the launch of ChatGPT, and I expect these numbers to rise. To stay competitive, move your business upstream and harness AI to boost productivity and client lists. Also, don’t miss our 4th annual SBOC conference featuring Lisa Raebel, where she’ll discuss making marketing easier. Thanks for joining us on Small Business Mornings. Talk to you next week!
Mentioned in this episode:
Transcript
AI is coming for your small business.
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:And there's a study out this morning
that says it's already eating into the
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:opportunities for freelancers, which I'm
translating to small business owners,
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:because many of us are freelancers.
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:We work with a bunch of different people.
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:We don't have just one employer.
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:And if you're a small business owner,
especially a certain class that I'll
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:talk about in a minute, we need to
be on red alert about this because
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:to me, I feel like Paul Revere, when
it comes to AI in small business.
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:I'm riding through the
village with the lantern.
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:AI is coming.
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:AI is coming.
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:Like, I feel like I'm trying to sound
the alarms for you to get with this
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:program because it's getting serious.
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:A new study that was released yesterday,
or at least I found yesterday, said
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:the demand for digital freelancers
in writing and coding is down 21%.
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:Since the launch, launch of ChatGPT,
just, just writing and coding freelancers
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:down 21 percent in the last two years.
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:In addition, data entry, and
this one's scary for some of you,
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:social media post production.
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:So helping you write your social
media posts, that category down 13%.
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:But wait, it gets scarier.
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:This time period that they analyzed.
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:Was a two year time period.
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:It goes back from like 2021 to 2023.
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:So this is old data.
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:The old data shows 21 percent fewer
opportunities for freelancers.
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:And that's old.
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:What do you think it is now?
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:Way higher than that.
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:And in the next 12 months, it's
going to be way higher than that.
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:And why do we say that?
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:And listen, I'm going to talk about
how bad this is, but then I'm going
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:to give you two ideas on how you can
fight and win still as a freelancer.
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:Okay.
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:So I'm not going to just say
everything sucks too bad.
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:I'm going to say everything
sucks, but Hey, here's some
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:things you can do about it.
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:Okay.
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:I know that this is going to get worse
before it gets better because Right
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:now, today, at my computer, I'm tippy
tapping, trying to do business stuff,
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:and what does my computer say to me?
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:My computer says to me, hey,
would you like help writing this?
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:What about designing it?
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:What about making a spreadsheet?
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:What about explaining what
this spreadsheet does?
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:What about creating the art for that
post, or editing, or summarizing,
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:or planning, or drafting?
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:All of those things are not
only available with Generative
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:AI, I'm now being prompted.
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:I'm on the Google platform, right?
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:And now I've got Gemini pop ups.
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:Whenever I need to do anything,
Gemini will literally pop up and say,
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:Would you like me to do that for you?
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:That's different than sitting in
your basement, Thinking about,
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:I wonder if there is an AI tool
that can help me with this.
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:No, no, now it's, hello, hi, do
you want me to do that for you?
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:I can do that for you.
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:It's changing fast.
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:And if you're a copywriter, if you
do social media posts for people,
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:if you help people understand
spreadsheets, this is red alert time.
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:Because as I sit here to do those
tasks, it's now good enough that
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:I don't need to outsource it.
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:Now the subject matter experts
that are the outsource people,
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:We'll say, yeah, but the AI work
isn't as good as what I can do.
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:You're right.
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:It's not.
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:However, if I have to make 10 posts
about the conference and I tell Gemini
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:to do it and it creates 10 drafts
that I go in and tweak, suddenly it's
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:good enough and I don't need to hire
an outsourcer because time and money
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:and your level of acceptance Is where
it's at right now and it's only going
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:to get better So if you create content
for other people, you're a freelancer.
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:You're a small business owner You're
an agency and you're in the business of
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:making stuff for other people Telling
you you got to get busy not yesterday.
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:Not tomorrow Right damn now and
I have two ideas of things you
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:can do to try and avoid Basically
being driven out of business.
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:Is that dramatic?
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:No No, it's not.
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:No It's not This is an existential
threat for you if you're a copywriter.
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:Not, again, I'm going to say it again.
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:Not because AI can write
as good as you can.
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:I'm not being critical
of you and your writing.
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:Because you're better than AI.
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:I know that.
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:You know that.
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:But your clients that have 80 percent
of the work done, and then they
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:can massage it, is it good enough?
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:That hurts.
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:Probably makes you mad.
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:And it should.
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:But that's the decision making process
your clients are going through.
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:Is that good enough?
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:Because when they're sitting
there doing their work, and
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:they have to start from zero?
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:Oh gosh, just have somebody else do it.
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:But when you start from zero
and AI will take you to 80%?
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:Suddenly, I don't need to hire
someone else, I'll just massage
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:it so it looks good enough.
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:That's what's happening right now.
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:So don't get hung up on
the, I'm better than AI.
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:You are, granted, but if I don't
have to hire someone to do it,
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:it's pretty compelling case.
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:So what can you do about it?
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:Good morning, Susie.
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:Good morning, Patty.
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:What can you do about it?
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:Two ideas.
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:The first one, take your business to
Think about what you do for people
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:and see if you can move one click
upstream from the work you're doing now.
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:You're a writer.
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:Perhaps you help people write the book.
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:You don't actually write the chapters.
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:Like, help them draw out
what they want to say.
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:Help them establish their concepts.
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:Help them package all of their
ideas into a focused 12 chapters.
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:Rather than being the person
that writes the 12 chapters.
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:Instead of being the person that
writes everyone's weekly LinkedIn
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:posts, you're also helping them
strategize their overall message into
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:a point of view that makes sense.
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:You're helping them analyze
what's working and what's not.
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:You're not just doing their QuickBooks,
you're also thinking about where they can
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:cut costs, or whether they could invest
their money, or how they could raise
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:their prices to capture more profit.
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:You're putting more of your
humanity, thought, strategy,
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:expertise into what you do.
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:You're moving upstream, you're,
you're getting more important,
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:more valuable to the client.
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:By injecting your humanity
in your experience.
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:This is critical stuff right now.
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:And if you think, ah, this isn't affecting
my industry yet, yet, the more human you
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:can be, the better you're protected and
AI is getting more human every single day.
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:Now you're looking at me
thinking, damn, he's handsome.
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:I get it.
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:I know, but you're also looking at me
and you're thinking, He's overreacting.
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:Am I, am I, if you go back on this show
and the other content I've put out 12
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:months ago, I said this exact same thing.
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:What are you doing to
protect your business?
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:And 12 months from now, When this is
at 40 and 50 percent of the gigs are
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:gone for copywriters, you'll say, boy,
I wish someone would have warned me,
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:read a light red alert, lights flashing
right now, telling you, telling
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:you, and it's not just copywriters,
no matter what it is that you do,
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:what are you doing to be more human?
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:What are you doing to
bring people together?
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:And even if you think my
industry is immune, that's when
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:I really want you to double down.
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:and think about how you might be at risk.
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:So I mentioned two strategies
that you could use to protect
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:yourself in this environment.
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:The first one is to move upstream
and think about how you can be more
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:thoughtful and more human in what you do.
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:The second one, use AI yourself.
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:The quote I've used a million times
and I wish I could accredit the right
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:person is AI won't take your job.
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:Someone using AI will take your job.
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:I think that's where we are right now.
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:So doing what you do, how can you
harness the power to explode your
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:productivity as a subject matter expert,
and maybe explode the number of clients
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:you can support to stay relevant.
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:So if today, just for example's
sake, you can carry four copywriting
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:clients at a thousand dollars a month.
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:But using AI, now you can take 8
copywriting clients at 750 a month.
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:More clients, more revenue, more
workload done in the same amount of
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:time because you are AI assisted.
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:I know the artist in you is sitting
there right now saying, but AI
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:sucks, I don't want to use it.
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:I don't care.
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:I don't care.
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:I don't care.
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:And I've seen this movie before.
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:I'll tell you the place
that I saw this movie.
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:I am not young.
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:I know, I look it, but I'm not young.
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:And I was a part of the last generation
of over the air radio broadcasters that
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:when I started, there were people on
the air 24 hours a day, seven days a
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:week in every radio market in America.
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:And my generation of broadcasters oversaw
the automation of the radio industry.
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:And every time a shift or a DJ was let
go and a pre recorded shift came in, the
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:old timers would say, this will never
work, they're ruining the industry.
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:And the listeners really didn't ever care.
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:Because all it meant was better
broadcasters were on more often.
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:Because you could let go of the
people that weren't good, and you
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:could let go of the hours that no one
listened, and you can have really good
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:broadcasters do more with technology.
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:Now, me and my radio friends, who are
all over the age of 90 like me, could
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:go off to a bar and argue about how
the industry's been devastated, but
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:in general, people didn't care much.
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:And that's kind of where we're at today.
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:People really don't care.
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:Take your expertise, supercharge
it with AI, get more productive,
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:and be ready for what's coming.
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:This is a critical issue.
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:This is something we
need to be talking about.
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:And you need to double check
your own ego and pride here.
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:Because you might be like
these old time broadcasters.
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:If you're feeling that way, that's fine.
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:But the market will move around you.
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:You're not that special.
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:I'm not that special.
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:And I'm telling this
to you as your friend.
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:Because I'm trying to protect you,
and your business, and your family.
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:Either move upstream with
your content and thought.
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:Yeah.
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:Harness the power of what's there and
be more productive and more valuable to
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:the people that you choose to work with.
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:Those are your two options.
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:Pick one and get on with it.
