Custom GPTs vs. Projects: The New AI Workflow You Need

[00:00:00] Hey, if you're a small business owner or entrepreneur listening to this podcast, you know you don't have enterprise budgets to create custom apps or tap into ChatGPT APIs. But here's the thing, you don't necessarily need them. My guest today is author of a book called AI for Small Business, and he's going to share how you can start finding small wins with AI simply by tracking your time and asking three crucial questions that will transform how you work.

[00:00:29] From email automation that saves hours every week to using AI projects that make you better at what you already do, not just faster, but with more excellence. Plus, my guest reveals why custom GPTs aren't necessarily the answer for 95% of people and what you should focus on instead. We got a whole lot to cover, so make sure you stay tuned to this next episode of the Your Digital Marketing Coach Podcast.

[00:00:53] Digital, Social Media, Content Influencer, Marketing, Blogging, Podcasting, Vlogging, TikToking, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, SEO, SEM, PPC, Email Marketing. Whew! There's a lot to cover. Whether you're a marketing professional, entrepreneur, or business owner, you need someone you can rely on for expert advice.

[00:01:19] Good thing you've got Neil on your side. Because Neil Schaefer is your digital marketing coach. Helping you grow your business with digital first marketing, one episode at a time. This is your digital marketing coach, and this is Neil Schaefer.

[00:01:43] Hey, everybody. This is your digital marketing coach, Neil Schaefer, and welcome to episode number 437 of this podcast. AI and small business. This is a topic we've covered on this podcast before. And unless you're living under a rock, you've probably already been implementing AI in many different ways, personally and in your business as we speak.

[00:02:07] But here's the reality. A lot of you, from what you tell me, are small business owners and entrepreneurs that don't have enterprise budgets. You can't create custom apps, and you work at a very, very different level. So today, I'm really excited to bring on an old friend, a fellow Adobe Express brand ambassador, who is also the author of the book, AI for Small Business, which is really written just for you.

[00:02:34] Phil Pallon is a creative branding and marketing guru with a really popular YouTube channel. He's spoken on stages throughout the world, and he's going to share exactly how small businesses can start finding those quick wins with AI. We're going to talk about tracking your time to identify opportunities, why most people are thinking about AI wrong, and Phil's proven framework for systemizing AI in your business. This is going to be incredibly practical.

[00:03:01] So let's dive right in to my interview with Phil Pallon. You're listening to your digital marketing coach. This is Neil Schafer. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another edition of the Your Digital Marketing Coach podcast. First, AI, small business.

[00:03:22] This is a topic on this podcast, and unless you're living under a rock, you are already probably implementing AI in different ways, personally, in your business as we speak. Small business, right? A lot of you, I know, are small business owners, entrepreneurs that listen to this podcast that also want to know you don't have enterprise budgets. You can't, you know, create apps tapping into ChatGPT APIs, and you work at a very, very different level.

[00:03:51] So today, I'm really, really excited to bring on an old friend, a fellow Adobe Express ambassador, who is also the author of this book, AI for Small Business, which is written just for you. And it's going to be the topic of what we're going to talk about today. And Phil, you know, usually before I start recording, I ask you for the correct pronunciation of your last name, but I'm going to say Phil Pallon. And hopefully I got that right. You 100% got it right.

[00:04:18] Thank you for clarifying and also just hitting a home run right at the start. Yay! And that's, wow, a baseball terminology from a Canadian. I'm impressed. But anyway. I know. Don't expect any more sports terminology is coming from me. That was not normal for me. Okay. All right. So, for those that don't know Phil, so I mentioned Adobe Express. I already gave you a little hint. Phil is a creative branding marketing guru, especially like on the creative side.

[00:04:45] You know, really, really popular YouTube channel, but popular throughout social media. You know, speaker on stages throughout the world. So, I want to begin with, number one, how did you get to doing, like, did you go to art school or how did you get to doing what you're doing now? And then, you know, a lot of people, and for us that have been, I'm not going to say brainwashed, but educated by Adobe and Adobe Express, we understand the connection between AI and creative. But I think a lot of people might be surprised, well, if you're like in a creative, how could you write a book about AI?

[00:05:14] So, that's like a double-edged sword, double-edged question. But I thought that would be a great leeway into today's conversation. It's a great, great place to start. And I am unusual in this landscape, I would say. Join the club! Yeah, you know what, Neil? Like, I didn't formally study design. I studied media undergrad. My degree was called Media Information and Technoculture.

[00:05:42] From Canada, did my undergrad at Western University. And then I did my master's in the U.S. at a school called Full Sail University. Did my master's in entertainment business. And that was how, you know, that was, I was really excited to study at a media school and study entertainment. I had done a little bit of television when I was young in Canada, hosting. Yep. And I know we're going way back. A lot of people don't know this about me because lots has happened since then.

[00:06:10] But it kind of paints the picture for what I do now. When I started, I moved out to L.A. the day that I graduated. And I thought, okay, I think I'm supposed to go work at an ad agency. I know from my degree that I love branding more than I love spreadsheets. That feels like something I would do for fun, almost like a hobby. So that's, don't we all want a job that we find fulfilling and exciting and something that you'd almost do as a hobby? At least that's kind of what guided me.

[00:06:40] And I thought, you know, the first three people that I met that became clients, makeup artist, real estate agent, and a jewelry designer, all of them needed help in 2011 with social media and building their online presence. All the jobs that I applied for at agencies I didn't get.

[00:07:01] But I thought, gosh, if I could help what feels like people that need more help than the big businesses and the enterprises right now, the solopreneurs, the small business owners, if I could help enough of these people every month, I could probably pay my rent and buy my groceries out in Los Angeles. And that is how I started. And the truth is, it's all I've ever done. I've never worked for anyone. I started my business in 2011.

[00:07:26] Since then, I've worked with over 400 people and brands across more than 30 countries. I've been speaking on stages for over 10 years. I'd say the biggest inflection point came right before the pandemic. When I see you like this, I sent a video to a client. I said, let's pretend you're my client, Neil. I said, Neil, here's how to update your blog on your Squarespace website. It's really simple. And the client said, Phil, why don't you post videos like this on YouTube?

[00:07:54] It was really entertaining to watch and I learned a ton. I thought, God damn, that's advice I'd give someone. I should probably take that advice. This is 2019. You hadn't done a lot of videos before then. I had no idea. No, I had done a few. If someone else was like, Phil, come teach or do a webinar or... No, no. Yeah, this was very late. This was really only a few years ago when I took my own YouTube channel seriously.

[00:08:18] I literally dusted it off and thought, I much prefer making videos than I do long form writing. Of course, I wrote a book this year, so that's a whole other topic. But this is how I'm comfortable and this is the way that I enjoy creating content, teaching people and teaching people in this medium.

[00:08:37] And so, when I started to take that seriously and I thought I cared less about what others would get from watching my video and more from me penciling time into my calendar and saying, hey, I'm going to make a YouTube video this week about branding strategies. I'm going to make a YouTube video this week about this new marketing software that I'm going to try and see if I like it. I made a video about trying ChatGPT when it became generally accessible.

[00:09:01] And four months later, I got an email from the publisher saying, we loved how you explain ChatGPT to beginners. Would you like to write a book about this for small business owners? That's how that came about. So, for me, content creation has always been more and building my career has always been more about what do I get from it than someone else. And then, of course, folding in opportunities with brands is now the primary thing that I do. I create dedicated videos every week on YouTube partnering with brands.

[00:09:30] So, that's kind of a little bit about that quick little evolution since the beginning. That is awesome. And it's also a reminder for those listening. I will say that I have gotten lots of different opportunities have come my way from Twitter back in the day. They don't happen today. Just it's become political media as you've heard me talk about before. And speaking on stages, this is the first time I've heard about someone getting a book deal from YouTube. And it just shows YouTube's incredible influence. And Phil is not someone that's been doing this like Mr. Beast for the last 15 years.

[00:10:00] Relatively recently. So, I think that's really inspiring and hopefully encouraging to all of you. But obviously, we're not going to be talking about YouTubers today. We're going to be talking about AI. Yes. And so, you had created videos about how to explain. And by the way, Phil, thank you for all that introduction. I feel our paths are very similar. I started in January 2010 when all these different companies from different industries, they all needed help with their social media.

[00:10:24] For me, it was, they were small businesses at the time that were more like corporate, but very, very similar roots and haven't looked back since then. So, you know, congratulations. For the record, I don't need an intro of you. I already knew who you are. And then when I sat down beside you at Adobe Max, I thought, Neil Schaefer, I know who you are. And now I'm going to introduce myself because I knew you from Twitter. Oh, amazing. Thank you, sir. And yeah, Full Sail University, I had a lot of, I had a lot of hits on a lot of my blog posts from Full Sail University and a lot of people connecting with me.

[00:10:54] So maybe that's where it started. I don't know. But anyway, yeah, I do want to get into the book. So a publisher and this is no, this is like major publisher reaching out to you from YouTube. And you had a video explaining chat GPT for beginners. So I'm really curious because obviously, like anything else, I mean, I just finished a complete revision of a book I wrote a year ago about LinkedIn and AI we know changes rapidly. Obviously, what you've written is very, very evergreen guide.

[00:11:18] But how did you go from teaching beginners how to use chat GPT to a full on AI for small business? Right. That's, you know, how did you go about deciding what you were going to talk about, how you're going to talk about it? Because I think that will help our listeners also understand the way they need to be thinking about AI for their small business. Yes. So great question. Also experiencing the publishing route versus self publishing. I self published a book 2015.

[00:11:46] I have experience with both of those and the journeys were very different, but I really, Neil thought, I kind of put my content creation hat on and thought, what do people need? Not even content creation. I'd say also branding. I think owning a branding agency and having worked with different clients in all different industries. That's given me a front row seat into some really fascinating careers, industries, client work.

[00:12:14] So rather than thinking about, oh, my God, this feels like a marathon. Where how do I even begin? It's kind of like, what is that first mile marker? Small business owners. What do I know to be true? I know that every small business owners wear a lot of different hats. OK. And so unlike maybe enterprise where people are very siloed. This is my job. This is my department. This is what I do. Small business owners have to do everything. And I thought that would probably be a good place to start.

[00:12:43] Certainly, there are areas of running a business that I know from experience and from my expertise. So marketing, social media. Those were categories of their chapters of the book that I was very confident writing. I did have the publisher come back to me and say, Phil, our goal is for this to be a well-rounded book. 60% of the book can't be about marketing. Damn it. You know, marketing ready. That's what I know.

[00:13:09] And so in that moment, Neil, I thought, this is not about me flexing everything I know. This is part, here's what I've learned and here's what I've, you know, here's what I know. But it's also part research project. I'm sure your books, you have much more experience. I was, by the way, so appreciative before I get to say this. I was so appreciative to have your support. Not only when I published the book, but throughout the process of writing it, I reached out to you a few times. I was like, what the hell am I doing? Of course. And you were always so helpful.

[00:13:39] But I accepted that this book would be an opportunity for me to showcase what I know, you know, and what I've learned, but also research new things. Like, I didn't know much about HR. I didn't know much about security and compliance and some of these aspects that are really important for business owners. So it was equal parts expertise and equal parts research. Gotcha. Yeah. And I will say that, you know, it's funny.

[00:14:06] The first books I wrote, I did zero research because I had this philosophy that I did not want to be influenced by anything and anyone on earth. Right. I wanted it to be solely based on my ideas. But over time, you know, you think back to university days, you have to write a thesis. You need to back up your thesis. What did other people say? What's the data? So I think that that research is important. And indeed, I will say a lot of my blogging that I still do, a lot of it's research because I want to learn. Right. Facebook ads for real estate.

[00:14:32] Right. Well, how do you know what are special, you know, ad categories on Facebook and what are the limitations? And this is a blog post I wrote last night. So a lot of it is research because it's I want to learn and I want to share what I learned. Right. Yeah. So I totally get that. And, you know, appreciate your being very transparent about that as well, because it's impossible for us to know everything. Right. Yeah. And that's OK, because you're going to be talking about AI for HR for compliance from a different perspective than a compliance expert. And that's great. Right. We all need different. Exactly. Exactly.

[00:15:02] I will say now working in branding that I think qualified me quite well, given that throughout the book, I wanted to draw on all different types of small businesses. And I have not worked with just one industry or one sector. I don't clients will say to me, Phil, what's your specialty? Do you specialize in hospitality? And my favorite thing to say to that is, no, I don't. You do. You do.

[00:15:27] My job is to make sure that you make a strong first impression online in three seconds or less. The best brands recreate the in-person experience. That's been my philosophy since day one. So photography, brand identity, social media, all of these types of things feed into how someone experiences you. And if I can have some influence on making sure that those two experiences are consistent, then I've done my job.

[00:15:52] But, you know, the book, how do you write a book about AI on the traditional publishing route where I had to submit the manuscript? Not quite, but nearly a year. A year ahead of time. I had to focus on the things that were least likely to change. So examples, you know, stories of clients having productivity challenges or other organizational challenges. How can they use AI to tackle those things?

[00:16:21] And not just advanced, but some of these are very beginner. And so stories, tool recommendations, prompt examples are what I kind of built the book around. Even then tools have come and gone since I published the book. And that's kind of stressful for me. Yeah, no, I, this rewrite of my LinkedIn book, I've a dedicated chapter on using AI for LinkedIn. And yeah, I, I completely rewrote it, expanded it, and it's very, very different than it was a year ago.

[00:16:47] And yes, some tools have come and gone and my view on tools has changed as well. So, but let's dig a little bit deeper into your book and your expertise. So as we were prepping for this interview, you said one of the ways to get started, and I will say, get started or restarted, rethink how you're using AI is to look for small wins. And I'd love for you to go a little bit deeper into that topic and, and help our listeners. Maybe they thought they found some quick wins. Maybe they've missed some others, but you know, where do you get started? If you want to start to really infuse AI into your operation?

[00:17:18] So one of my, I mean, one of my pet peeves is content that's designed to stress people out and small business owners don't need more stress. So any of this content that's like, you're too late, you know, you've already missed the boat. Like that's all nonsense. People are trying to sell you products. I think in many cases, if you've stayed laser focused on the challenges and the areas of focus in your business, then you should be commended for that.

[00:17:47] So there are very successful businesses without social media, and there are very successful businesses without AI implemented yet. But, you know, where do we, where can we start to slowly and responsibly integrate these tools? I'm a big fan of tracking your time. I think that's a big fan of the time. For some people, like a week is, it can be a whirlwind. And it's hard to kind of take that apart and figure out where we can make improvements.

[00:18:17] So I love tracking. I'm tracking my time right now, for example, recording a podcast with you. On the clock. Yep. I'm on the clock because this is work. And actually there's a psychological element there that I think is really important. This is just as important, you know, promoting my brand or promoting my book is just as important as doing client work, in my opinion. And so I'm on the clock and this is a category in my monday.com called podcasts and press. And so I'm a big believer in tracking your time.

[00:18:46] I use a tool called Ever Hour. There's another tool called Rise that's really good. Rise with a Z. I'm Canadian, so I say Zed. Zed. All kinds of tools. I mean, I don't even care if you take a notebook and write out what you do and how many minutes you spend. The point is at the end of every week, have a reoccurring calendar invite, 15 minutes a week. I want you to look back at your week and ask three questions. Where did I spend time making high impact in my business?

[00:19:12] Where did I spend time doing things that I really enjoyed and love doing? Quick example. I love making my YouTube graphics, my video graphics. I do them in Adobe Express, whether it's like stock media or titling. Yeah, I should delegate that, but I enjoy doing it, so I continue doing it. Third thing, probably the most important question to ask is what did I not enjoy doing? And what could I delegate to someone else or now automate using AI? Those are the three questions.

[00:19:41] And having something tangible, having something rooted to be able to reflect back on is, I think, the starting point. Thank you very much for that. I guess very similar to, correct me if I'm wrong, the analogy. If you're like, oh my gosh, I don't have any more time in the day. I need to hire a VA. I hear pretty similar about, you know, track your time. Same thing, put different tasks into different quadrants. And so is that another way of thinking about it?

[00:20:09] And then I'm assuming from there, you're going to recommend people start with the stuff they don't like or stuff that takes up a lot of time that's not impactful or both? Yeah. So basically, once you have that list, you want to comb through that and go, what are some of the things here that don't bring me joy? I mean, that's honestly the metric I use. What on this list does not bring me joy? I think everyone, if they spent the majority of their time doing work that they enjoy, not all the time, that's not realistic.

[00:20:36] But most of the time, Neil, if we can focus our energy on the areas we make high impact and the things we enjoy doing, that's the key for success in business. And you either automate or delegate the things you don't enjoy, the things that are not worth your attention. I'll give you an example. I love examples. I hate taking time to reply to emails from people wanting me to do affiliate deals promoting their brands and products. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Join the club. Drives me crazy. And also, Neil, it's time-consuming.

[00:21:05] It is so time-consuming if you're replying to them manually. And is that, if it's a deal you know you're not going to do, is it really worth your time? No. No. So here's a solution. I have an email template. This isn't even AI. This is in Google Mail. I save a template called no purely affiliate deals. Okay? Literally hit reply and choose that template that says, thanks so much for the offer. I don't do purely affiliate deals. Happy to explore paid partnerships.

[00:21:34] Check this link on my website, best fill. So that's the beginner route. Now, I also use an email tool called SaneBox, which... Me too. Love it. Yeah, you use SaneBox. Oh, that's so great. Yeah, yeah. So it automatically organizes these emails incoming. Almost nothing comes into my inbox. It gets organized into a folder. And I have a folder trained for pitches. Wow. And that is my lowest priority folder.

[00:22:01] When people are pitching me and wanting to do affiliate deals, okay? That's different than my brands folder, which are when they say we'd love to explore it. And a paid partnership. SaneBox has the ability to identify this is a good lead for Phil and this is a bad lead for Phil. And it's just by dragging like emails into that folder that it learns. One more tool. I'm a geek for tools. Serif is another email tool that will actually write your responses.

[00:22:27] It does not send emails, but it will write the draft for you based on your previous inbox behavior. Very cool. And so that tool... Yeah, so I have SaneBox that organizes it and I have Serif that automatically writes my response. I may need to change one or two words, but a lot of times, particularly for the types of emails I get often, I can literally just click send. So there we gave three kind of... Well, two tools and one example. I like to give like a non-AI solution also. Yeah.

[00:22:57] An email template alone can save you a ton of time. We want you focused on high impact work and work that you enjoy. And Gmail has the ability, it's a plugin to have saved responses. I use that. I want to share, since we're talking about automation, I get pitches for, will you add my tool to your tool list? Can I be on your podcast? Or the other one is, can we swap links? So I literally have a spreadsheet, a Google sheet with three different tabs, and I automate it with make.com and it goes into my ConvertKit.

[00:23:27] So when I add them to the sheet, they get tagged. They get into, make sends them to ConvertKit. ConvertKit, they get put into a separate form and they get a separate email. And I might follow up with them. I might not follow up with them. And then I do a, I do it whenever I get someone new, I do a search. And if I've sent them a message before, then I put them in my same black hole and any Gmail, anything that comes from a Gmail, like email address into my same black hole. So if you don't use, you know, saying later, you probably should because it's really, really incredibly efficient, but there's a lot of different ways to automate this. Just wanted to throw that out there.

[00:23:57] Love it. Love it. I want to add something like I learned just as much from other people, other small business owners, other AI enthusiasts, then they might learn for me. Even though I wrote a book about this topic, this is such a new era, a new age that I, I think it's really important. Even if I'm an author on this topic, it's important for me to be humble. There's so much for all of us to learn.

[00:24:22] Nothing brings me more joy than talking to someone like you that has a brand new workflow that I may not have thought about. And that's like the beauty of this space right now is the learning is so fresh. It's very, very exciting. Agreed. There's so many different ways of interpreting sort of like the beginning of Twitter, the beginning of social media. There, there's no rules. Right. And with AI, there was, there's no rule book. It's sort of like when we brought home our baby from the hospital, you know, what's the rule book for raising a kid? There is no rule book, right? Everybody raises them differently.

[00:24:52] So AI is very much the same. And I want to ask you, so, so it's taking that one step further in terms of, you know, you've, you've done your time tracking. You have some ideas of what you want to use AI for. Would you today, Phil, recommend you simply start a conversation in your favorite LLM, whether it be chat GPT or cloud or Google Gemini and say, hey, I spend way too much on this. How can I best leverage you to help me save time? And I mean, would that be a valid way of getting started? I think it's a, yeah, every way of getting started is a valid way.

[00:25:21] My second pet peeve are people that push the quote, perfect prompts onto you. There's no perfect prompt. That's like me saying to you, Neil, you can only speak English the way that I speak English. And my way of speaking is the best way. It doesn't exist. Well, there's a president that's preaching that, but anyway. Well, right. Yes. Yes. So the best way to learn is by doing.

[00:25:45] And it's funny, even though I wrote the book and I did have some help, there were three of us that worked on it together, researching, writing, and doing all of the other components that are required to write a book. I'm more of a speaker. So I, you might actually write out your prompt in chat GPT or any other generative AI tools. Some people prefer Gemini. Some people prefer Claude. They're all different. They're all great in their own way. I talk things out.

[00:26:13] So I'll open the chat GPT app, for example, hit the microphone and just start talking. And that for me takes pressure off of me to like write something perfectly. I don't know why when something isn't writing, it feels like you have to put extra thought into it. I'll do exactly what you just said. Here's a challenge that I'm facing. Here are some ideas on how I think I might solve it, but I'd love your input now. And then I try to be specific in, in what I'm asking.

[00:26:40] So rather than leaving open ended, I'll normally say, give me five considerations or, you know, let's explore three different ways of solving this problem. And then I would just remind people that it's a conversation. So it doesn't have to be perfect. The output, the first result you get should ideally not be the final result. It should be the beginning of a conversation just like you and I are having right now. Yeah. Amen. I say the exact same thing.

[00:27:07] I, you know, I've, I codify my own framework that I'm putting in my next book, but yeah, I agree a hundred percent. So I'm assuming once small businesses or whoever's listening, maybe they want to find a new way of using ad that they haven't used before. They go through this process. They find something I'm assuming it becomes addictive, like crack, like, oh my gosh, I didn't know I could do that with AI. This is so helpful. What else can I do? And at some point I'm assuming we begin to use it more and more as we have Phil, right? And it becomes a daily tool that we use.

[00:27:32] So going on from there, how then you recommend as the second step is to sort of systemize everything now that you're doing, how would one go about doing that? Cause that might be where a lot of people are at right now. They have a lot of different conversations going on. They're not really as strategic as they could be in systemizing what they're doing. So what would your recommendation be for them? Yes. So many people are in that stage.

[00:27:56] You know, that you just described there in that stage of, okay, I see the novelty and I see the ways in which it helps me, but how do I make this sustainable? How do I fold this into something that it will make me even better at what I do? Here's something that is hugely important to me right now. And everything that I explore and teach, AI can be used as a shortcut. It can be certainly used as a sign of, or it can be seen as a sign of laziness.

[00:28:25] And we see it all the time. Go open LinkedIn right now and see and read, you know, one of the first posts you'll see when scrolling. M dashes, or for me, it's like the contrast setup. It's not this, it's this. I just drives me crazy. It's not just this. Yeah. But also, yeah, there's, there's different patterns that we all. Yeah.

[00:28:45] So I want to challenge people to think about how they can use AI, not as a shortcut, but as a way to do what they do even more, with even more excellence. So let me give an example. I'm a brand strategist. When I'm hired by a client to position, build and promote their brand, I might work with them for four to six months, sometimes even longer.

[00:29:09] But the duration of a project is typically in that four to six month range where we're photography, brand identity, designing a logo, you know, pulling this all together on a website and then devising a social media strategy for them. So what I can do now with AI that I couldn't do before is record and take intelligent notes on every single call. You and I can have a note taker, well, actually Riverside incorporates AI features.

[00:29:34] So you and I can just focus right now on having a conversation, knowing that AI will record it, transcribe it, and intelligently digest the conversation, which removes pressure on us. I record every single conversation that I have in front of my computer. I even have now a physical device called Plod.

[00:29:55] I haven't done a brand deal with them, but Plod, if you're listening, I like this because it's a physical device that if I'm not in an environment, I'm out on a run and I don't want to open up an app, blah, blah, blah. I can literally click it and get my notes down. Those notes can be saved into a chat GPT project, which I'm a huge fan of. This is probably my answer to your question, which is you have to take this information and organize it.

[00:30:23] So for me, I'll have a chat GPT project. I use the Teams plan, which is the entry point in chat GPT to not train the model on your data. When in doubt, don't use open AI. When in doubt, use Adobe Firefly integrated in tools like Adobe Acrobat, which do not train the model on your data.

[00:30:47] I believe Magi is another good one that allows you to try multiple tools, multiple models at once, but doesn't train the models on your data. Very important if you're dealing with sensitive information or client conversations. I organize everything into projects with the different tools that I use. Adobe Studio just launched. I just published a video on this an hour ago, and that's like their kind of version of making a project from this information.

[00:31:15] Rather than having like sticky notes in all different places, on all different surfaces, that's not conducive to execution. We need to make sure all of this is organized in one place. I have transcripts of every call with my clients from the moment we start the project to the moment we end. And when I'm writing that about page copy, I can say, comb through the last four months of conversations and help me get some inspiration on a good story we can tell that illustrates my client Neal's tenacity. Okay, I couldn't do that before.

[00:31:44] And so that's an example of how I'm using AI to do my job, you know, a brand strategy better. Yeah, you know, it's funny. There was a time, and I will, I was a big, because of the date that we're recording this, I was a huge ChatGPT fan until ChatGPT 5. And I literally had some major deliverables that I needed a lot of ChatGPT help on the weekend that it launched. And it was just slow, and it would change conversation.

[00:32:14] And so I began using Claude. Claude's a better writer. Yeah, yeah, that too. Very refreshing. ChatGPT also has projects. But there was a time when it's like, I'm going to codify everything with custom GPTs. And I find myself going back to projects and using less custom GPTs. And I'm curious if you could, and I think a lot of people at the beginning is like, oh, it's all about the custom GPTs because, you know, AI forgets.

[00:32:39] But I find the projects, you know, uploading, you know, files, as you just mentioned, and having those closed containers really helps me get a higher quality result. So I'm curious for those that are listening, and there's still a lot of questions, you know, custom GPT project, how, you know, based on the time that's gone by since you've written the book and your experience, how would you respond to that?

[00:32:59] Would you, you know, give us similar advice that custom GPTs are just for very rote, repeatable, not needing much customization type of short form, you know, content? Or do you have a different view? I love that we're having this conversation, and we're having this conversation because you and I are leaning on our own personal experiences of using these tools. So that's my asterisk for this. One is not right or wrong.

[00:33:22] This is just our experience that friends listening, new friends, you'll learn this by doing, and that's the only way you learn it. So custom GPTs, I think, are novel, and I think they're not useful for 95% of the population. Let me give an example of, for someone, one of my business besties, Becca Harpain from Inside the Square. She was just on Amy Porterfield's podcast this week talking about custom GPTs.

[00:33:50] Becca, very niche, she creates YouTube tutorials to customize your Squarespace CSS. She has a ton of existing content online, tutorials, written videos. She took the time to consolidate all of her information that was very practical into a custom GPT and has one that is wildly successful called Custom Cody.

[00:34:17] And that's why Amy interviewed her because this was the perfect example of someone who should have a custom GPT. It's very practical, tactile, tangible information that she's been creating for quite literally years. Now, what's key to this is she not only just consolidated and gathered the information, she tested this thing for months before launching it. So custom GPTs are great, but they're not time savers.

[00:34:45] It's probably actually going to take you even more time because of how much you need to test it to make sure that it's a viable product, particularly if it's something you're selling. And Phil Palin ain't got that time to test a custom GPT. In fact, Neil, when I use projects and I say projects inclusive of all the different tools, most of the apps and tools have some kind of projects feature. I don't like uploading files into ChatGPT project files. There's a dedicated area.

[00:35:12] I find that when you have more than three or four or definitely five files in there, the whole project and its chats become sluggish. I'm more of a fan of uploading the projects within the files, I should say, within the chat that I'm having. I find it works better. I do reach a point like if I've been working from a chat in there for, let's say, four months, three months, if there's a lot of PDFs or a lot of rich media, it does become eventually unusable.

[00:35:41] And that's definitely a weakness. I would say another weakness is citations. So if I am working on a project where I feel I need citations, no risk of hallucination. I want to be able to click every single fact that AI is feeding me and see where it came from. I use Acrobat for that because citations are built into it. So it is giving me an output based on the input. I don't open my book in ChatGPT. I don't upload it. I don't own my book. It's a publisher owns it. I was commissioned to write it.

[00:36:11] So I don't even have permission to, you know, Simon & Schuster had an email that went out that said, do not upload your books to ChatGPT. But I can open my PDF of my book in Acrobat and work safely with it and write my social media content there. So those are like a few examples. But I'd say generally the project's kind of structure within these tools has been likely the single-handed most revolutionary for my productivity and my work. Yeah, I'd say for efficiency, right? It just organizes everything.

[00:36:40] So, Phil, before we leave, I know one of the things you wanted to talk about were the pitfalls that a lot of small businesses run into using AI. I feel like we've covered some of them, but are there any that we've missed? I would remind people that this is not a race. This is not a sprint. This is a marathon. So don't let anyone stress you out and kibosh your afternoon plans because you feel like you need to sit in front of your computer and learn all of this stuff from scratch. That's nonsense.

[00:37:09] I do think it's a good idea to prescribe or keep some AI experts in your feeds on hand, whether it be email, LinkedIn. I get your emails and your LinkedIn posts. I post on YouTube every single week. So keep experts that you can trust handy because it's their job to comb through this stuff and make sense of it for you. It's not your job. You're a small business owner. You already have so much on your plate.

[00:37:39] I'd say keep your eye on the prize is the most important thing. Where does your time need to go? It needs to go where you make high impact in your business and it needs to go where you enjoy the areas of your business that you enjoy. Focus on those things and explore AI as a solution or as part of the solution to some of those challenges. Yeah, well said, my friend. And I have a feeling that you're probably also a Marie Kondo fan. Does this spark joy or not?

[00:38:07] Because that's my – that defines what I do as well in my job. And I'll tell you, there are some days once the novelty of AI wears off, it's a job. It's work. There are some days I just don't want to deal with a ChatGPT interface. And that's okay as well, right? We're human. It's perfectly fine. I have my notebook right beside me and my paper and my pen. When I did my brand photos, I thought as much as I lean into technology, I also want to capture like an analog moment. As an investor, I want to invest in the retreats and the technology-free things.

[00:38:36] It's coming in the future because we are going to tire of it. Yeah, agreed. Agreed 100%. Phil, this has been amazing. I did want to ask you because as you were speaking, I didn't have a chance to ask you. That little device that went onto your iPhone or Android smartphone, is that basically an audio recorder with Wi-Fi that will then upload it directly to ChatGPT? Okay, got it, got it. Very cool. Exactly. Just a simple kind of physical device. Now, obviously, you want to like, if you're recording a conversation, you want to disclose it.

[00:39:04] But I find it more for myself. Like, there are moments where I want to capture an idea and do something with it later. And now having that as like a physical device always on my phone, I find that really helpful. Yeah, very cool. All righty. Well, there you have it. Obviously, Phil is a wealth of knowledge, of experience. Great person that wants to share, a true educator. So thank you so much, Phil. So obviously, I'm assuming, you know, AI for a small business, they could buy it at any bookstore, online or offline.

[00:39:32] But where else can we send people if they want to make sure that they have you in their feed going forward? Absolutely. Instagram and LinkedIn are the platforms I spend the most time. And then obviously, you know, related to AI content, I'm publishing two to three YouTube videos a week on YouTube. I stay very, very, very busy making videos and I enjoy it. So those are the three places that we can connect. And I'll look forward to it. If you took the time to listen to this, please say hello in the DMs.

[00:39:58] And I'm assuming that your handle on all these is P-H-I-L-P-A-L-L-E-N. Bingo. That's it. There you go. All right. Thank you so much, Phil. And yeah, I can't wait to see you at Adobe Max and hear about the latest and greatest what you've been working on. Can't wait. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Well, there you have it.

[00:40:17] I hope you agree that Phil shared some incredible insights today from tracking your time to identifying AI opportunities to why custom GPTs aren't the silver bullet for most small businesses to his three question framework that helps you focus on high impact work you actually enjoy doing. My biggest takeaway is that, and I've said this many times as well, this isn't a race or a sprint. It truly is a marathon.

[00:40:44] Don't let anyone stress you out into thinking that you need to learn everything about AI from everyone overnight. Start, for those of you that are still in the beginner stages, start with small wins. Focus on what brings you joy and makes high impact in your business. And remember that even analog tools like pen and paper still have their place. If you want to connect with Phil, as he mentioned, find him on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube, where he publishes two to three videos a week all about AI content.

[00:41:13] His handle across all platforms is Phil Palin. That's P-H-I-L-P-A-L-L-E-N. And definitely check out his book, AI for Small Business. Well, thank you again for listening to another episode of the Your Digital Marketing Coach podcast. Until next time, keep leveraging digital marketing to grow your business strategically. This is your digital marketing coach, Neil Schaefer, signing off. You've been listening to Your Digital Marketing Coach.

[00:41:41] Questions, comments, requests, links, go to podcast.neilschafer.com. Get the show notes to this and 200 plus podcast episodes at neilschafer.com to tap into the 400 plus blog posts that Neil has published to support your business. While you're there, check out Neil's Digital First Group Coaching Membership Community if you or your business needs a little helping hand. See you next time on Your Digital Marketing Coach.