Using AI to change your business and life with Emily Baillie | Ep. 46 Content Magic with Lindsay Smith
Sep 10, 2024In this week's episode, I'm welcoming Emily Baillie, a marketing and AI strategist and trainer and we are chatting all about how you can use artificial intelligence responsibly and ethically to help grow your business.
Emily shares invaluable tips on using AI for marketing and workflow automation, emphasizing the importance of maintaining human oversight to ensure professionalism and accuracy.
Emily and I also get into things we wish AI could do for us which might not be that far off in the future. And Emily shares some of the dangers we need to look out for.
Tune into this episode if you've been curious about how to use AI in your daily life, businesses or just want to explore.
04:55 AI integration in marketing tools is unavoidable.
08:20 AI tools useful, not replacing human creators.
11:38 Zapier automates business tasks across multiple platforms.
14:02 Failed zap attempts and unnecessary email notifications.
20:08 Start with public info; iteratively refine tool output.
23:29 AI biases in generating gendered professional images.
25:02 Always fact-check AI content for business reliability.
28:29 Using AI as an advisor, not replacing.
CONNECT WITH EMILY!
Instagram: @emilybailliesocial
Website: compasscontent.ca
LinkedIn: Emily Baillie
Freebie: prompt writing guide
Lindsay [00:00:00]:
When you say AI, do people immediately think chat GPT?
Emilie [00:00:05]:
Yes, they usually do. And that's okay because chat GPT is still the most commonly used AI powered tool.
Lindsay [00:00:15]:
If you have an online business, you're creating content. And the way you create content is more important than ever. It's really noisy out there and learning to stand out is the only way. Hey, I'm Lindsay and I'm the host of the content Magic podcast, all about being an online entrepreneur and creating kick ass content to market yourself and your business. I have a not so secret superpower for copywriting, marketing and content, and I've helped hundreds of folks just like you show up with a ton of confidence in the online space. I've been doing this content thing for 20 years, and I believe the real magic is a combo of intuition, creativity and strategy. You can create content for your business without losing your mind, I promise. So tune in every week for tangible content tips, inspiring guests, and some real spicy opinions.
Lindsay [00:01:06]:
Probably mine. Ready to dive in? Let's go. Hi, friends. Welcome back to Content Magic. And I am excited to introduce you to my friend, Emily. Hi, Emily.
Emilie [00:01:20]:
Hi, Lindsay. Thank you so much for having me.
Lindsay [00:01:23]:
Of course I'm excited. So can you tell the people who you are, where you are, and who you help?
Emilie [00:01:30]:
Well, my name is Emily Bailey. I'm based in Ontario in beautiful Canada. I live in the Horseshoe Valley area and I'm working across Ontario and beyond to help businesses, marketers and nonprofit organizations make better use of marketing technology and artificial intelligence. So I do that.
Lindsay [00:01:54]:
Bye.
Emilie [00:01:55]:
Doing workshops and corporate training sessions. And I also do some mentorship and strategy advising to help people get from where they are now to where they want to be. And that looks a little bit different for everyone. So it's sort of a cool experience to work with people that are very early on in their journey of AI and also to work with businesses that are at the forefront of marketing and using AI to enhance their customer experience.
Lindsay [00:02:31]:
And so how did you get into this? Because I feel like it's still kind of new.
Emilie [00:02:37]:
It's very new. It's very new. And it was a bit of an evolution. So I've always worked in marketing since I graduated university, and I worked for a number of different businesses before opening up my own business about eight years ago. And when I opened up my own business, I started doing teaching at McMaster University part time. And I also started doing workshops. So the workshops were really an opportunity for people who were business owners to come out, learn a new skill, learn about like the marketing trends and tools and tactics and things like that for, you know, let's say, the upcoming year or the upcoming quarter. Since then, AI has, of course, just blown up on the scene.
Emilie [00:03:26]:
And over the past couple years, it's such a hot, requested item. This is the topic that everybody wants to know more about. I dove in headfirst when it first came out for my own business and my own teaching. Now I'm doing a lot of AI training with a view to help people use it for workflows, but most mostly for marketing purposes. And it's cool because it can do a lot. It's not foolproof, but helping people understand how they can use it for their business or to promote their business in a way that feels good to them has sort of become my, I guess, niche, you could say. And I've been able to do that all across Ontario.
Lindsay [00:04:13]:
So usually when you say AI, do people immediately think, chat GPT?
Emilie [00:04:21]:
Yes, they usually do. And that's okay because chat GPT is still the most commonly used AI powered tool. So chat GPT was the first big AI tool sort of out the gate. That was the one that sort of started this whole thing. And chat GPT is free. People can just, you know, hop on and they're up and running. It doesn't take, you don't have to pay, it doesn't take a lot of, you know, you don't have to jump through a lot of hoops to get going. So it's still a good place to start.
Emilie [00:04:55]:
But of course, this is not the only AI powered tool out there. A lot of marketers are finding great success with Claude, which is also a large language model, kind of similar in functionality to chat GPT. There's a lot of other great ones out there as well. And a lot of non AI tools such as, you know, canva and kajabi are adding AI features to their tools. So this is a movement that is hard to ignore, we can say, you know, and I've met folks that are like, you know what? I don't really feel like I want to learn AI. I don't have time. I'm, you know, maybe I'm at the end of my career or I'm going to retire soon, so forget about this stuff. But, you know, the reality is that AI tools are cropping up everywhere.
Emilie [00:05:48]:
So even if you're just using the same Microsoft office software you've used for years, well, guess what? You're probably starting to notice that AI tools are finding their way into those platforms as well. So it's definitely sort of picking up steam. Folks have mixed feelings about AI, which I completely understand. There's a lot of challenges, there's a lot of limitations that I caution people about whenever I do a training. And I want people to use AI to help them reach their goals. I don't want them to use it to replace humans. I think AI very much should complement human talent, not replace human talent. And there's a bit of a fear factor around that as well.
Emilie [00:06:33]:
So helping people kind of navigate this new world and helping them feel a little more confident in their skills in the workforce or in their business is really what gets me excited about it.
Lindsay [00:06:48]:
So the robots are not taking over?
Emilie [00:06:51]:
We hope not. We hope not.
Lindsay [00:06:53]:
Okay, cool. So, okay, so a couple things there, like, and yes, I've absolutely noticed, like when you go into canva, it gives you like this, the AI choices to, it's called magic, right, or whatever. I've noticed it in Kajabi, which is my web platform. And it like, when I'm adding an image to my like, emails, for example, like, it gives me the option. And even now on like any of the meta stuff, like if you're searching for somebody on Instagram, it says meta AI there, which I know a lot of people were like disgruntled about because I'm like, I just want to find the person that posted the thing about the cool makeup or whatever, so, and this is the other thing too. And I've been told this because obviously I'm a copywriter and a content strategist, so I've been told that chat GPT is coming for my job.
Emilie [00:07:47]:
Oh, snap.
Lindsay [00:07:51]:
I disagree, because I think, yeah, listen, I have used it mostly for recipes, if I'm gonna be honest. Fair. Yeah. But I think, and I'd like to know your take on this because I think my clients, especially, like my done for you copy browning clients, come to me because they want a human to write their copy for them. So what is your take on this?
Emilie [00:08:20]:
It's a great question, and I think a lot of people are wondering, where does it end? Where does the AI tools, you know, okay, they can, they can do some tasks, they can't do all tasks, but are they going to grow and get more powerful and eventually replace us? It's a valid concern. I don't believe we're in immediate danger of that. I think that AI can be used for copywriting, and let's face it, some folks are already using it for copywriting purposes. Chat GPT is, in my view, not the best tool for copywriting. It can do an okay job of it. It's good for outlines and thought starters, brainstorming and that sort of thing. There are tools like Jasper, that's a paid tool, costs, I don't know, maybe four or $500 a year that do a better job of pumping out content. But for someone like yourself, Lindsey, who's being hired to craft, let's say, a website and do so in a way that truly reflects the value proposition of the owner and their unique voice and their view and what they want to convey.
Emilie [00:09:35]:
Like, the thing about AI is that you have to train it. It's not going to be able to read your mind. You would have to, as the owner of the business, write in the AI tool everything that you know about yourself and your business and your value proposition, and then the AI tool would take a crack at it. Could you get there eventually with some back and forth? Certainly. But I think that a lot of people that would hire someone like you are looking for someone who sees them, understands them, and can translate how they feel and their thoughts into copy that actually converts. So I think that that level of customization, that level of personalization is difficult to replicate with AI because you want your own voice to come through. So AI generated copy can be good, but it can also be kind of generic. It can also be overly flowery.
Emilie [00:10:39]:
It can also use the same cliches and catch phrases over and over again. And those are dead giveaways that someone has used AI. So people know. And if you work in this field, you can tell when something is written by AI sometimes, because sometimes AI doesn't do a very good job.
Lindsay [00:10:58]:
Yeah. And something I've been curious about and I've sort of seen other people is like you mentioned, marketing goals. So something I've seen is that people are using AI to manage their workflow, which is something I've been curious about, like automating stuff or like, I don't know, like replacing a va kind of. Well, no, I don't want to replace my va because she's wonderful. But you know what I mean? Like it's, it can, and I don't know how to do any of that. Is that a thing that people do and is that what they use it for?
Emilie [00:11:37]:
Yeah.
Lindsay [00:11:38]:
Okay.
Emilie [00:11:38]:
It's a thing. So there's a popular tool called Zapier that people use. And what this tool can do for a business is it can automate all of those repetitive tasks that, that you might spend time doing or not all of the repetitive tasks, but some of them. So, for example, maybe you're running a Facebook ads campaign and then you want to capture the data that people enter. When you bring in a lead, you want to add that to a Google sheet and then you want to have a trigger set up so that they get an email from your email software. So those are like two or three different tools. We're talking about Facebook or the meta platform, then we're talking about say Google sheets. And then you're talking also about your email software, which could be like Kajabi or something like that.
Emilie [00:12:28]:
So those are three different tools that need to talk to each other in order for this workflow to happen. And you can automate that. So using Zapier you can connect many different platforms. Whether you use HubSpot, you use Facebook, you use Google products, use Microsoft products. There's like 4000 different tools or softwares or apps that you can connect. You basically set up the workflow within that tool. And what'll happen then is of course you want to set it up and test it, but you can get it to do those automated tasks for you so that you're not spending your time doing the same thing over and over again. And it could be like a multi step process, certainly lead generating and that sort of thing can be a multi step process.
Emilie [00:13:23]:
Or it could just be like, if x happens, do y? So that you don't have to be monitoring and spending your time linking one task to another. So that's an example of how people are using some AI powered tools. Zapier is probably the most popular one for workflows at this stage. And it's great for small businesses. You don't have to have a huge budget. You don't have to have an overly complex sales funnel or anything like that. A lot of small businesses have really good things to say about it.
Lindsay [00:13:58]:
I have tried it and failed. Mister, please.
Emilie [00:14:02]:
Okay.
Lindsay [00:14:02]:
I tried to get Kajabi to talk to Google sheets and then, and then, so my zap obviously didn't work. And then they kept emailing me about like, email me like every week to be like, your zap has failed. And I'm like, yeah, I know, I don't need the reminders, but I have seen, I've seen people who have like 16 step zaps from one another and I'm like, holy shooshu. So I can see how it's kind of cool, like, especially if I use kajabi, which kind of has everything in one. But let's say you have a squarespace website and you have convertkit email and I don't know, all of your leads are in a Google sheet or whatever. Let's say you have multiple different platforms. See how it could be super helpful as long as, you know, kind of like, you know what your client journey is or whatever. Like, I can see how it could be super cool.
Lindsay [00:15:01]:
I tried it once and I just was, and I gave up because I was like, I don't know, it's not working. So maybe.
Emilie [00:15:07]:
Yeah, yeah, it's a bit of work for all of these AI tools. Like, let's face it, it's, I think, a mythical out there that people think like, oh, hey, I will just do it for you. And you're going to save so much time. Yes, you can save time, but you have to put in more time. A to learn the tool and b to learn how to do it well. I'm speaking more about chat, GPT and clothe. Like, you have to train those tools to know your voice and your style and what you're asking for. And then later you're going to get, you know, some outputs that are probably going to speed things up for you.
Emilie [00:15:45]:
But it's not like you just turn on a button and yay, we're using AI and AI is doing an amazing job. What AI often will give you at the first pass is not that good. And that's why people come to workshops on AI, because they know they need to learn. Okay, how do I actually write a prompt that is going to get me what I want? And top marketers tell me they iterate on a single prompt up to twelve times. So they're not just saying like, hey, chat GPT, write me a blog post. They're starting with one prompt and they review the results and then they iterate. They go back and they have a conversation back and forth with chat, GPT or other tools up to twelve times on one single piece of content. So I tell people that, so that they understand that AI tools are not sort of the, the silver bullet.
Emilie [00:16:40]:
Yes, they can help speed up your work and perhaps boost some productivity for your business, but you have to put in some work upfront to learn how to use it and to set up those systems in a way that makes sense for your unique business. And that can take some time, and that's not something that people necessarily know how to do because AI is so new and everyone's learning a little bit more as time goes on to.
Lindsay [00:17:07]:
And so how do we train these tools to, like emulate our voice or to get to know our brand or whatever it is, or like, you know, like, I've seen, you know, I've seen some people create a logo, and you're right, like, you know, which is interesting because, you know, for the longest time, people were creating logos in canva, and it was kind of like, okay, well, sure, but there's going to be like 90,000 people with that exact same logo because you just pulled it from the templates. So how do we train these tools to do what we want, or like from a writing sense to sound like us?
Emilie [00:17:48]:
Is that a great question?
Lindsay [00:17:50]:
Like what you said, like, you just do twelve prompts and be like, I always say please, by the way, when I use it.
Emilie [00:17:57]:
It's very polite of you. I love that. I also say please. And actually, a lot of people tell me that they do say please and thank you to chat GPT just in case it's listening or it gets a little too powerful, you know, it's like, good to just make friends with it. I love that. But to answer your question, training the tool. Listen, if you're starting from scratch, if you're like, today I'm going to start using clothe, or today I'm going to start using chat GPT for my business, and you haven't used it before, the best thing to do, I think, would be to give it some background information on your business and your unique value proposition. So the basics, it's not going to know necessarily, unless you're, you know, widely sort of published or, you know, a well known person that may not have facts on your particular business.
Emilie [00:18:49]:
So you're going to need to give it some facts. And what you could do is take some content from your website, because your website should have all the fundamentals already there, who you are, what you do, why you do it, who your primary audience is and so on, and what your products or services are. So that's usually a pretty good place to start. And then, and you can literally, like, copy paste content in there into the chatbot if you need to. Or, you know, some folks can drop a link in there and instruct chat GPT or another tool on what you want it to do. So you're not just saying, here's my business and here's all the great information about my business. What you're doing is you're saying, you know, craft for me, a list of, you know, marketing ideas for 2025 to reach XYZ demographic and tell the tool who your audience is. I'm talking, you know, important details like age range, geographic area, gender, if that's applicable to your brand, you know, buyer habits, et cetera, et cetera.
Emilie [00:20:08]:
Are you a, b, two b brand? Are you a, b, two c brand? Like it's going to look different for every single business. And, you know, you don't want to give the tool anything, any sensitive information on your business, but anything that's already on your website is public information and you're already sort of putting that out there. So that can be a good place to start giving the tool the, the basics about your business and who you are, what you're trying to sell, the products and services and then giving it a task. So saying, you know, craft for me a list. I like lists, you know, because I can scan them and pick up the ones I like. Craft a list of ten marketing ideas for, you know, for, for reaching this particular demographic and then see what it gives you. It's not necessarily going to nail it and, and hit it out of the park on the first try, but you're getting the ball rolling and then you're going to iterate and continue going back and forth with the tool based on that initial prompt.
Lindsay [00:21:12]:
Yeah, and I think that's the thing too, right? Like there's this impression that it's like, oh, it's so easy, just do this. And I think you're right from playing with it a little bit. You have to sort of, it's like you're talking to an alien and you have to explain what you do to like an alien who's never been to planet Earth, basically.
Emilie [00:21:40]:
Exactly, exactly.
Lindsay [00:21:42]:
So in some ways, like it's like you really have to know who you are and what your brand is about and who you're speaking to, which sometimes is helpful because sometimes people don't even know that. Another thing I want to ask you is, is there, you know, you talked about sensitive information. Is there like any dangers that any business owners need to be aware of if they're using these tools or relying on them?
Emilie [00:22:09]:
I'm glad you asked that question because literally every single training I do, workshop virtual, in person, I don't care what it is course I teach, I make sure to cover that. So even if you're like spending 1 hour learning about Aih, you need to know during that 1 hour that there are things to watch out for. You never want to upload your client data. For example, if you have customer lists with people's names, you know, email address, home address, whatever that might look like, don't put that into chat. GPT, please. That's just not, it's just not worth the risk. I'm not saying something bad is going to happen. I'm just saying you don't necessarily know where that data goes.
Emilie [00:22:51]:
And your customer data is really, really important. Take any chances. Treat that with care. You never need to put anything like credit card information into the actual chatbot. Like if you need to buy a chat GPT subscription, okay, that's a separate sort of transaction. Your business registration number, like anything, you wouldn't want to be out there in the world. I just think it's best to be cautious about that. And you also have to be aware that the tools have, have biases in their algorithms.
Emilie [00:23:29]:
They can use outdated language, outdated imagery, and so on. I sometimes use an image maker called Dali. It's built into chat GPT, and sometimes I'll play around with it to create AI generated images. Every time I ask it to create an image of a marketing trainer, it creates a picture of a man. And I'm like, dude, I'm a woman. This is not a particularly male dominated profession, if you ask me. But can you imagine if you asked it to create an image of a secretary or an administrative assistant? It would, of course, create a picture of a female. And there are concerns with the types of language that can be used for, let's say, marginalized groups in society and so on.
Emilie [00:24:20]:
It's going on information that's from the past. It can't think forward in the same progressive fashion that humans can at this stage. Maybe that will change as AI develops. But as it stands now, we need to be the ones to train the tool. We need to be the ones to fact check everything. It will make stuff up if it doesn't have the answers and it doesn't understand how to complete the prompt or the task you've assigned to it. It's not going to be like, sorry, Lindsey, I don't know how to do that. It's not going to say that it's just going to make some stuff up and it's going to be like gobbledygook, but it's also going to be, like, kind of convincing at the same time.
Emilie [00:25:02]:
Like it's almost trying to trick you, and then you're reading and you're like, oh, is this true or is this not true? And this is where it gets so murky with AI. In the future of our communications, I could talk all day about this because it's like, our kids are going to grow up in this world where they don't know what's real and what's not. But in a business sense, you just have to be super careful to fact check everything. Even if you've been using AI for a while and you're pretty confident, you have to make sure that everything is overseen by a human. Don't rely on it to create marketing content and then just copy paste and put it out there. That can really damage your brand. And it's not a good look either. It's just not professional to use AI generated content all the time.
Emilie [00:25:54]:
You have to maintain that human touch.
Lindsay [00:25:57]:
Yes, I agree. Have you read a court of Thorn and Roses? That series?
Emilie [00:26:04]:
No, I haven't. Should I?
Lindsay [00:26:06]:
I mean, whatever. I got sucked into it and so now the algorithm keeps showing me. It's basically like, it's romantic fiction and they're like fairies and stuff. Anyways, it's not my usual genre of books, but now I'm sucked into the series anyway, so the algorithm keeps showing me, and there's all these, like, hunky men in this series, and so the algorithm keeps showing me these AI generated images of all the characters and now I can't stop watching those. That's so funny. Yeah, so it keeps showing me more. So if you've read those series now, if you're listening now, you're going to get all the AI generated videos of those series.
Emilie [00:26:47]:
Exactly.
Lindsay [00:26:49]:
So, okay, so something like, is there fun stuff? We can do it. Like, I was looking for, like, coloring sheets for the kids and I was trying to, like, my son was really into axolotls for a while, so I was trying to find like, a coloring sheet of an axolotl and I was like, went down this path of doom and I signed up for all these things and then I got all these emails. So, like, like, is there fun things we can do that are not business related, like coloring sheets for your kids?
Emilie [00:27:17]:
Yeah, that's a great question. I don't know about coloring sheets, I'll be honest, I haven't searched for those yet. But you can make some cool videos, which can be fun. There's a lot of different video makers that can, can get you, you know, get those creative juices flowing. I know people that have used chat GPT as sort of like a fitness trainer and like a meal planner. So let's say your goal is to lose weight or just, you know, work on your health. You can get chat GPT to write your program and actually make you a meal plan with recipes and actually make you a fitness regimen and tell you on a day by day or a week by week breakdown. Here's what you should be doing to me.
Emilie [00:28:03]:
That's kind of cool. That's kind of fun. Not everyone can afford a personal trainer or has time for that, so that's kind of a neat one. And I like that it incorporates the recipes as well. I know someone that uses chat GPT for stocks, so she has a lot of investments and she'll use chat GPT. Yeah, I know she'll use chat GPT. So cool. To compare and monitor her.
Emilie [00:28:29]:
Yeah. Her investments and see, you know, what she wants to trade or what does she want to put more money into and so on. So she's almost using it, I would say almost like, you know, like financial, what do you call? Financial planner? Financial advisor. Advisor. Thank you. And this is, I want to be clear, you should not use AI as an alternative to a real qualified, certified financial planner. But if you're interested in that kind of stuff, you can play around with it. I have another client who told me that she used chat GPT, and this is kind of wild.
Emilie [00:29:08]:
She used chat GPT after seeing a doctor. She did a little test, so she told Chad GBT her symptoms and she asked it for a diagnosis and it nailed it. And then she asked for a treatment plan, and just out of curiosity, and it gave her a bunch of different options, and she said those options were like, they were pretty, pretty accurate based on her interactions with a doctor. Again, don't use chat GBT as a substitute for. Use it as a doctor.
Lindsay [00:29:33]:
Friends, go to your real doctor.
Emilie [00:29:35]:
Go to your real doctor. But it's amazing what the potential is there and how you can kind of use it more for interest and how we can kind of learn from the tool that will probably have more impact in our lives as time goes on.
Lindsay [00:29:52]:
Yeah. And I've seen people go to their fridge and be like, I have a stock of celery and a pack of chicken. What can I make? And it'll tell you, like, to me, I think that's kind of cool.
Emilie [00:30:07]:
Absolutely. I've done that, too. I'm like, I have so much eggplant and onion and what am I going to do with this? And you just ask chaat GPT and it gives you a recipe. And I don't know, to me, that's more fun than trying to google a recipe where you may get what you're looking for and you may not. It's a time saver and it's a convenience.
Lindsay [00:30:26]:
Yeah. And maybe one day we'll have AI on our fridge and it'll tell us you're out of this thing, and then it'll connect to like, instacart and, like, deliver to our door. That would be. Yep. I feel like that would be really ideal. Thank you, Emily. Where can people find you and how can people work with you?
Emilie [00:30:46]:
You can find me on LinkedIn, where I share a lot of marketing and AI tips. My name is Emily Bailey and you can also find me on my website, www. Dot compasscontent. I'm available for workshop bookings, virtual training, and strategy sessions that can be conducted from anywhere. Always happy to connect. Thank you so much, Lindsey, for having me. This is awesome.
Lindsay [00:31:11]:
Yay. Thank you for coming. All right, everybody, that's it for today, and we will see you next time. Thank you so much for listening. If you loved what you heard, do don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, or share this episode on social media. And don't forget to tag me on Instagram at lindsaysmithcreative. And if you do all three, I'll be your best friend forever and invite you to all my birthday parties. That's it for today, and I'll see you next time.
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