Career & Product Development at the Speed of AI

Recently I was interviewed by Authority Magazine about the 5 Things You Need to Create a Highly Successful Career in the AI industry.

I have used AI as part of my business toolkit for tailored and customized customer engagement, personalized user experiences, creating content aligned with and relevant to our target market, optimizing revenue models and identifying deals that have a high probability of closing, reviewing ad spend targeting and real-time bidding to get the best ROI as well as timing and location to get in front of our perfect fit customer. The list goes on, and AI is here to stay.

I now focus my revenue growth, product management and leadership skills on AI companies. In the interview we talked about my journey with AI, including concerns and challenges about rapid and accelerated technological advancement like we have never seen before.

Read on to hear more about my career journey and how we can ethically, securely, and transparently create innovative AI products and services.

Thank you, Authority Magazine and Yitzi Weiner, for the opportunity to tell my story and share my thoughts on building a career and products at the speed of AI.

Cancelling Hustle Culture

After 32 years it is safe to say that while I haven’t seen it all, I’ve seen a lot. One of the most unsettling things I have witnessed in the tech industry is the constant moving finish line for individuals, teams and companies with little to no regard for the humans doing the work. I’ve seen my employees break down, burn out and have experienced burn out in my career twice.

Recently I had the pleasure to speak with Authority Magazine to discuss a better way to be high performing, achieve results but maintain and respect humanity and connection.

Read more about how we can create a new sustainable work paradigm in this article Frenzy to Focus, How we can Cancel Hustle Culture.

AI and the future of Content Creation

There has been much talk, debate and even heated opinions on the use of AI for content writers, especially with the availability of ChatGPT taking the content creation world by storm. The fact is, AI has been around helping content creators for years. In this article for Founders Press, I connected with AI and content thought leaders to hear their opinions about AI and the future of its role in content creation. Do people care if AI or a human wrote the content? I asked my network what they thought and was surprised by the results.

Read on for more!

Creating Healthy Online Communities

Communities are powerful customer relationship management tools for any business, association, organization or fanbase.

Great communities provide an enhanced level of interaction and immediacy that can't be found with standard dialogue through email, website submissions and voice.

Organizations adopting and fostering communities have some challenges when launching, including how to:

• establish a community that attracts members,

• keep a community exciting and engaging,

• make it "sticky" so users keep coming back, and when they do, they stay and,

• create a place that can be easily shared and grown through community member networks.

I've launched some internal and external communities and want to share some make-or-break lessons learned as an experienced community manager and executive stakeholder:

Single point of failure

Having only one person responsible for community is a single point of failure and an accident waiting to happen. A community manager's responsibility is to create content, interact with users and promote the community to potential members. Essentially they are the point of contact for all things community, or is that the single point of failure? The community manager should be an overseer vs a lone ranger with critical contributors on their team to keep the community running smoothly. One community manager responsible for all content and interaction is a sure way for your community to fail. This is especially true where the community manager is wearing multiple hats for the company, and community management is only a part-time job. They need help to ensure they are effective and your community thrives! From an organizational perspective, empowering your employees to participate in the community-building experience is essential to keep them as engaged as the members you serve.

The Chokehold

Everyone wants to ensure content is customer-ready, on-message and bulletproof. Who doesn't? Super sanitized content requires approval from the Communications Director, Marketing Director, and Legal and revisions to make the posts suitable for community viewing. Epic #Fail! If you go down this path, you will encounter at least two things with poor and potentially damaging side effects to your community.

Issue #1 – When your content goes up and down the flagpole, it will be stale, like old bread. Your members won't care because it won't be timely, nor will it be relevant.

Issue #2 – Your customers are savvy and can smell sanitized spin from miles away! Quite frankly, they won't tolerate it for long. People want to do business with people. They don't come to get hooked, spun and buzzed. Save this material for your collateral, presentations and website.

The poor side effects I was eluding to? Your members won't stay, won't return, your message won't stick, and your community will ultimately fail.

Some Employees aren’t "Customer Facing."

This is a terribly old argument. In most cases organizations haven’t ever tried empowering non customer facing employees with being a face of the company. Consider giving them an opportunity and train them to engage with the people who build your business.

To make a community successful, we need to establish a team of primary contributors representing the organization to their members in various capacities ranging from development, support, marketing and through to sales!

But you can't throw traditionally non-customer-facing people into the fire. That is just asking for trouble. Set up your employees for communications success with simple rules of engagement that foster a positive sense of community and encourage engagement by members with your community ambassadors. Train your people on the standards of care to be delivered and the type of conduct expected when they represent the company. Then MAKE IT HAPPEN and empower your employees to engage and interact with your community members. Communities will only be able to respond and participate if company participants are assigned to respond and participate. REAL PEOPLE – REAL DIALOG is a win-win for your members and your organization.

Contributor Abandonment

Recognize and reward critical internal and external participants in your community who go above and beyond in contributing to the content, discussions and dialogue. These members should be part of your company's top-tier TLC group. They should be publicly recognized in the community as key contributors and even given special treatment as ambassadors of the organization. Some platforms offer badges and visual recognition of contributions and participation. Leverage these features and reward and recognize critical members of your community that are keeping your community vibrant and alive.

CRISIS, SCANDAL, #FAIL, OH MY! What to do?

Your community will not always be filled with sunshine, happiness, rainbows and unicorns. Your members will use their voices in your community if they are unhappy. In the case where there is a negative statement or a concern or if your organization screwed up (yes, it happens), use it as an opportunity to demonstrate leadership with this approach:

RESPOND, OWN, ADDRESS and REPORT back (ROAR)

The ROAR shows your constituents that you are serious about customer satisfaction and will address a problem if it arises. It will always be a little fishy if there are never voices of displeasure or, worse, if posts voicing discontent are suddenly "missing." Some organizations censor activity; however, this creates a false community that will fail.

Organizations that solve customer issues build stronger customer relationships. It is easier and more cost-effective to "fix" a customer problem than to get a new customer, so it is worth the investment.

We don’t need to be “involved.”

The community will run itself they said. We don’t need to be involved they said. Some organizations believe that if you build an online community, not only will "they" come, but they'll contribute, maintain and interact. They think the community will make itself with little or no organizational involvement. While it has been successful for some huge organizations with knowledgeable external self-designated customer ambassadors to run and manage their community, being present and available in your community and contributing content is vital to the initial and future success of any community you launch for your organization. Don't believe that creating a community will magically attract your target members, and they will run it themselves. If you build it, they may never come, so get and stay involved! Take ownership, responsibility and accountability for your community's success with clear objectives and contributions.

SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAMITY SPAM

Spamming is a huge problem facing companies today, especially in free communities. If your users are being pelted with spam and have to wade through it to get to the actual content, your community is at high risk of losing the majority or all of its members. No one will return to a community if they spend most of their time sifting through spam to get the content they want. Once one spammer gets through, spam will multiply like rabbits and fast, so take care of it immediately. How to do this? Consider gating your community, setting entrance criteria or even a pay model. Spammers prefer to make less effort and like easy targets. They also won't typically pay to spam in your community. Consider a more robust account validation service if pay models are not in your future. Try limiting activity for a period, providing complete profile details of accurate profile information and, depending on volume or bandwidth, a review and approval of new accounts.

A negative disruption

- We’ve got Negative Disruptors and Trolls!

It will happen. Someone will act out or say something inappropriate that doesn't align with your community (or anywhere, for that matter.) The great thing about a healthy community is that its members will not tolerate disruptors with personal attacks, profanity, bullying or unfounded negativity. In any case, you need to address it. If there is profanity, racism, and direct attacks on members or ambassadors – REMOVE IT and consider removing the offender. No good can come from that type of content in your community. If, however, it is a simple disruption to be acknowledged or get attention, consider leaving it there for a little while and see how your members respond. You can quickly gauge the health and loyalty 

Community is a great way to stay connected with your customers but building community takes effort and time. Creating or upleveling your community starts now Get started!

Increasing the Value of your Brand Currency

How valuable is your brand?

I gave a talk on valuing your brand as currency. My approach to branding is to treat it like your own currency, whether it be your personal or company brand. It could be purely psychological, but as soon as something is related to money, suddenly, we become more conscious of its value.

Sometimes, when thinking about branding, airy fairy creatives making pretty graphics comes to mind. Thinking of a brand as personal or company currency takes on new meaning, and the brand becomes so much more than simply the imagery that represents you. The brand becomes a powerful, holistic representation of your business, including many factors making up public perception.

High, Mediocre, and Low-Value Brand Currency

High Value Brands

A brand, like currency, gets attention if it is soaring high in value. Customers love it, the products are excellent, the imagery is stellar, and everyone recognizes the brand wherever it is virtually and physically seen. This type of brand is newsworthy and highly visible. When your brand is at this level of value, it's time to capitalize on that value and seize the opportunity to release great products, increase the customer base, make strategic announcements and even give back to the community.

Mediocre Brands

If a brand currency is hovering somewhere in the middle and of average value, it risks getting lost in the crowd and is most certainly not newsworthy. The brand may be the same as the next one in their space. It is time to up level, differentiate, reignite the brand, and work on reputation management. Remember that public perception doesn't always have to do with reality. It is all about how the brand is presented and perceived.

Low Value Brands

If a brand currency is low in value, the brand will undoubtedly get noticed, but for all the wrong reasons. The perception of a crappy brand could devalue anything significant a company has going on or to offer, like, fabulous products, a great team, or incredible skills. It is hard to recover from having a craptastic brand and moving it from low to a high value because the public perception already exists. It can be done. In this situation, consider starting from a blank slate and rebuilding from the ground up. Is a rebrand in order? Line up positive announcements, gather social proof of your brand's well-being and begin a campaign to create a solid foundation, communications, and positive brand recognition.

Words of Wisdom

A brand goes well beyond a logo or graphics. It encapsulates the culture, values, attitude, communications and your products and services. Visuals need to be high quality, easily recognizable, not too complex and have 100% alignment with everything that makes up your brand. A tagline is something that not only supports what you do but is fun to say and easy to repeat. Capitalizing on the value of word of mouth is the least costly and generates a huge return when done correctly, so make it easy for anyone to support your brand. Remember, people do business with people, not logos, not products, not corporations, so any information about your company or brand passed on from one person to another has the potential for high ROI or the opposite end of the spectrum.

Finally, your product quality and ability to delight your customer will seal the deal and increase the value of a brand currency. Even if you have a good product, sound imagery, and a good tagline, everything seems okay or even good. You can put it well over the top by providing extra service to your ideal customer. When you think you have finished and everything is delivered, go that extra mile to delight! Invest in quality and differentiate what you offer from the clouded market.

Feeling Bold?

As you know, I am not a fan of just preaching; I have some things for you to do to boost your personal or company brand! If you are feeling bold about your brand, here are some action items on how you can create or increase the value of your brand currency

• Enlist the help of your inner circle. What is the first thing to mind when someone thinks of your brand? Is it what you expected? Is it what you want? How can you change that perception?

• Create or re-examine your brand holistically. Look at everything that makes up your brand, including imagery, product quality, values, company culture, opinions, strategy and communications. Is a part of that puzzle failing or not living up to the image you wish to portray and the perception you want your ideal customers to have? Make a plan to improve it and make it in 100% alignment with your perfect brand.

• Create 5 taglines aligned with your brand and market-test them with your inner circle or key community members. Choose one and run with it!

• Everywhere your brand is present. The Web, social media, print, and email, make it 100% consistent. This way, people will instantly recognize your brand, wherever you are physically or virtually. This includes all social media platforms, your online presence, your offline presence, signage, packaging, and even your promotional bling. BRAND THE HELL OUT OF IT and do it consistently!

• Be the brand you want to portray and behave like you wish to be perceived. Be your brand all day, every day, wherever you are. You may be travelling, at a conference, seminar or going to lunch. You never know who is next to you. It may be your future best customer or even your biggest competitor.

5+1 Steps to Reignite your Brand

It is a brand new year and a perfect opportunity to create or reignite your brand.

Whether you are an employee, solopreneur, or business leader or want to establish your professional persona, your brand enables you to define or even re-invent your public persona how you want to be seen.

Creating a personal brand is an investment in your career, credibility, and success. To create your brand, you don’t need to be a business owner or a well-known personality. Your brand could be a great selling point in the next step in your career!

You are more than just your resume. The brand of YOU represents your skills, education, expertise, values, desires and possibly business offerings if you are transitioning your brand to a business. Think of yourself as a product; building your brand is the first step in marketing that product.

“A personal brand is what people say about you when you leave the room.” Jeff Bezos, Founder, Amazon.com

Here are five steps (+ 1 bonus!) to craft a powerful and memorable personal brand to promote your unique identity and value. Each step asks you a series of questions. Grab a journal or copy and paste the questions below and answer them worksheet style. Answering these questions is the first step in creating or reigniting your brand! 

Let’s get started!

Step 1) Find Your Voice

• What is your intrinsic value?

• What have people said you do well? Not sure? Take a poll!

• What are your key most valuable skills?

• What are three key messages you wish to bring to the world?

• What style represents you? (Formal, Casual, Rebellious, another unique combination?)

Craft your voice so that everything you say, write, and create aligns entirely with who you are and the value you provide. Authenticity makes your brand building easier and ensures you don’t need to wear a mask or act like someone else when it is showtime! Be yourself.

Step 2) Define your Audience

• Who is your ideal audience?

• Why would they care about your message?

• How would your audience benefit from your expertise?

• Where can your audience find you?

• How do you find them?

• What are the best channels of communication with your audience?

Define who your target audience is with great precision. Go beyond demographics and start creating a persona that represents the ideal person/customer/audience. Remember, you can’t serve who you don’t know, and you can’t help everyone—being precise in your declaration of who your audience enables you to focus and provide a clear vision of your value to who you serve.

Step 3) Amplify Your Voice

• What tools/channels can you leverage to reach your audience? (Blog, Vlog, Podcast, Guest Posts/Articles, Speaking Engagements, etc.)

• How can you make it convenient for your audience to hear your voice and interact with you?

• Who can help you spread the word? How can you leverage your network?

• Where can you promote yourself to reach your audience? (Online and offline)

Amplifying your voice doesn’t necessarily mean turning up the volume. It means extending and expanding your reach in ways that will connect you to your perfect audience. Find ways to get to them faster, in a convenient way for them.

Step 4) Create Your Brand “Package”

• What are your top three areas or topics of expertise?

• What are your top three key offerings? 

• What level of online visibility do you need?

• Do you have professional photographs? (Dedicated professional photos of you for this business purpose). If not, who can you hire to take great pro-level photos of you?

• What proof points do you have or can you get to support you? (testimonials, endorsements, case studies)

• What is the best way for people to contact you?

• What type of look & feel do you want for your brand? (see what you wrote for finding your voice)

Think of your brand as an extension of you. It is a virtual package of your personal and professional identity, so you want to get it right. Remember that your brand is an investment. Poor-quality graphics or photos with family/friends/pets cropped out won’t cut it. You want a PROFESSIONAL first impression. Not sure where to start? Think of your favourite actor/singer/musician. Look up their websites and see how they have packaged their brand. Use ones that resonate with you as inspiration.

Step 5) Get Feedback & Tune-Up

• Reading over the information you have gathered, is there anything missing?

• Who in your circle will give you honest and meaningful feedback on your brand? Choose three people who can help you.

• What feedback did you receive? Did you notice any trends?

• Are all of your visual components consistent? (colours, fonts, language, tone, graphics, and photos.)

• Create an action plan to take action and tune.

BONUS STEP!

What can you do to kick it up a few notches? What help do you need? A speaking coach? A stellar graphic designer? A mentor? Better technology? Take stock of where you are and where you want to be. Then operate from where you want to be rather than where you are.

F*ck the Funnel

Have you ever gone to a theme park to spend most of your time mazes of lineups to get on the most popular rides? You finally get on and experience those few minutes of pure rush you were looking for to exit into the gift shop filled with cheap stuff you don't need and demanding kids (sometimes your own).

It's a significant build-up to a potentially huge letdown. It's what people feel when forced through a long, convoluted, over-engineered funnel process.

Every customer journey is different. Consider their motivations, knowledge level, biases, influences, and requirements. No one wants to be "led down the garden path", and no prospect should ever have to jump through hoops to get the information they need to make a buying decision.

It makes no sense to jam every prospect into the same funnel.

JUST GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT!

Some view a funnel as a clear exchange of value for value. A company gets personal information in exchange for content designed to promote its product. Prospects essentially "pay" using their data as currency in exchange for being sold. Some funnels are so rigid they don't consider the customer at all but instead focus on what the company wants to say and do vs what the customer needs. 

How about just giving people what they want so they can make a buying decision? It doesn't have to be complicated. Marketing and sales, you are NOT off the hook! Knowing your customer is more important than ever to producing the best content and supporting your prospect's needs. There is no need to lock up all of your content, force a conversation or interaction and hold your products for ransom in exchange for customer data. Just make the resources (content & people) available on demand. Simple.

F*CK The Funnel

So why ditch the funnel and give people what they want and need to decide? Because it accelerates the sales cycle. Here's why:

• 60% of B2B buyers and sellers prefer not to interact with a sales rep (Forrester)

• 67% of the buyer's journey is done digitally Bizvibe).

• 86% of buyers will turn to Google in the research stage (Smart Insights).

• 83% of consumers require some degree of customer support while making an online purchase(eConsultancy)

• Online reviews of your company, product, service and people are used 83% of the time by prospects before they buy (Qualtrics)

What should marketers do?

• Know what your customers need at every stage in the decision-making process, but don't force prospects to take the journey you define. Provide a choose-your-own-adventure, multi-touch experience

• Stop gating your content

• Provide value at every single click

• Track user behaviour online to gauge the most important content or where potential buyers fall off your radar

• Showcase your customer successes front and centre (don't gate it)

• Be easy to contact, accessible and available for a live discussion at any time

• Shelve the hard sell and be a sales partner to your prospect. Aka, Give them what they need to make a decision

• Leverage automation to scale and provide personalized resources

• Start remarketing TODAY so you remain top of mind to unknown visitors

• Invest in Customer Development. Get out of the building and talk to customers and prospects. Ask them what they need and how they make buying decisions

• PSA – Sales is marketing's best friend. Talk to sales reps regularly and find out what info

• Track first touch and multi touch attribution points so you can double down on the areas that are generating revenue

Finding Your Mentors & Muses

Everyone has mentors in their personal life and business. I have had incredible mentors who radically changed how I do business and manage my career. Whether it is front and centre with a customer or group or behind-the-scenes business strategy, I have always made it a point to engage the most innovative, intelligent, savvy and strategic mentors with demonstrated success.

Find someone who has indeed BEEN there and DONE that!

Your mentors must have demonstrated success, an excellent reputation and a solid track record to give you the guidance you need. Research a potential mentor's background. Ask around. Get Referrals. This gives you the information you need to choose the right mentor.

Two-time, three-time even four-time! Have more than one mentor.

Having more than one mentor isn't two-timing or cheating; instead, you assemble the DREAM TEAM to guide you in building your business or career. Try to choose people with different core competencies. Even if there is overlap, another perspective is ALWAYS a great idea.

Don't abuse your muse.

Be respectful of their time. It is valuable and an investment on both of your parts. Mentors are not in the business of mentoring you and have other things on the go that are probably taking higher priority. Optimize your time with them by being on time and reliable, being specific with your ask and having gratitude for their contribution to your success.

Don't abuse your muse.

Be respectful of their time. It is valuable and an investment on both of your parts. Mentors are not in the business of mentoring you and have other things on the go that are probably taking higher priority. Optimize your time with them by being on time and reliable, being specific with your ask and having gratitude for their contribution to your success.

Don't let your muse abuse you.

Mentoring is an excellent opportunity to develop a relationship with someone you respect and admire. Like all relationships, sometimes they run their course and come to an end for various reasons. If the connection is no longer productive for either or both of you, end mentoring portion of the relationship without burning bridges and with grace and thanks. 

When you are in a position too, could you pay it forward? Look for opportunities to mentor others virtually and in person in your community.