The Future of AI with Cary Weston [Endless Customers Podcast S.1. Ep. 35]

This transcription has been generated by AI and not checked for accuracy. 

Cary Weston
0:00:00
Don't be afraid to reevaluate yourself and go back and be objective and measure because you can always do it better.

Alex Winter
0:00:07
Welcome back to the Endless Customers Podcast. I'm Alex Winter and today I'm joined by Kerry Weston, who's an agency owner and a certified coach. And I'm really pumped to have you on the show. We're

Alex Winter
0:00:16
here in Chicago. I'm happy to be here.

Cary Weston
0:00:27
Thanks for having me.

Cary Weston
0:00:27
Appreciate it very much.

Alex Winter
0:00:28
Thanks for taking the time. Yeah, I'm really excited to talk with you. First things first, we're in Chicago.

Alex Winter
0:00:32
It's Impact Live.

Alex Winter
0:00:32
How are you liking the event so far?

Cary Weston
0:00:34
How are you liking the show? So one, love Chicago. I took a walk through the other day with my Red Sox hat on, just to remind folks that Carlton Fisk will always be ours. But the summit here is fantastic. I mean, how can it not be?

Cary Weston
0:00:45
You've got so much energy. You've got so much motivation. You've got a curious crowd. You've got great content. And this makes for a wonderful environment. So it's my third time here and it gets better every time.

Alex Winter
0:00:56
Excellent, you're in good company too because I'm from Massachusetts, I'm a Boston fan as well.

Cary Weston
0:00:59
I'm in Maine, but since we've adopted the, you know how it goes, we adopt the socks and it's even better than the lobster. We're New Englanders. New Englanders, right, right.

Alex Winter
0:01:06
You guys have a great lobster. Best lobster in the world, I think.

Cary Weston
0:01:09
Thank you.

Alex Winter
0:01:10
Let's talk about the chat GPT experiment. I wanna hear about your show and I wanna get some high level just background about who you are, your agency, what you do, so our audience and our listeners can get a sense of everything that's Kerry.

Cary Weston
0:01:21
Quick four in one. So I am an owner and partner in an advertising agency called Sutherland Westin. We're about 20 years old. We're based in Bangor, Maine, or as most people say, Stephen King's town.

Cary Weston
0:01:33
And I've been following markets for a while. Quick story for you, in Portland actually years ago, I went to a marketing conference and it was on the campus of a university. And it wasn't well marked, so I didn't know what building I was going to,

Cary Weston
0:01:45
I kind of got lost. And as I got lost, in the parking lot was a gentleman with a luggage and a daughter. He was lost too. And so together we found out where we were supposed to go, parted ways, I go sit in my seat.

Cary Weston
0:01:56
Well a few hours later, that gentleman I was lost in the parking lot with comes out and he's the keynote speaker, and it's Marcus. And it was the first time I saw his presentation. This was pre-book, so this is before the book.

Alex Winter
0:02:06
No way, wow.

Cary Weston
0:02:06
And he shares his story. I'm like, that is just so dang simple and common sense. And ever since that moment, following Marcus and just following the principles and the framework and the philosophy, it's had a huge impact on me personally, it's had a huge impact on the company.

Cary Weston
0:02:22
And so when I had the opportunity of jumping into the certified coaching program, I said, heck yeah, let's go. And it just continues to evolve both with my business and with clients, which is why I'm here, because I'm constantly learning.

Cary Weston
0:02:35
The chat GPT experiment actually started as a newsletter on LinkedIn. I still continue to do that. And then I said, why not? Let's just, I've never done a podcast before. Let's just go figure this out.

Cary Weston
0:02:46
It's just that constant curiosity. Actually, I was in Chicago last year, and Paul Ritzer came the last day and gave me... From marketing artificial intelligence. Yeah, he was... I mean, I love Paul and he...

Alex Winter
0:03:00
Me too.

Cary Weston
0:03:01
...just this big picture overview, and I just... I've got to get in. I just got to figure this out, you know? Right. And so I went home and just started kind of experimenting and playing with it, and that's where the name came from. I had no idea what I'm doing. I still don't know what I'm doing. I'm just trying... I'm just making more mistakes than everybody else, you know?

Alex Winter
0:03:15
That's how you learn, though, right? That's how I learn.

Cary Weston
0:03:17
Yeah, that's how you learn. And so it's been great. So the podcast, it started out as an extension of my experiments, started out as just kind of sharing lessons learned, and I've brought people in to interview. And it's been an interesting exercise to see how others are using it, how others are gaining, learning, and using it, and I get to share that.

Cary Weston
0:03:34
And it's been good so far.

Alex Winter
0:03:36
Yeah, and I really like the tagline. We made a note here. It says, designed to help curious beginners.

Cary Weston
0:03:40
Yeah, yeah.

Alex Winter
0:03:41
Talk about that a little bit, because I love that. I think that's a really great value proposition.

Cary Weston
0:03:45
Yeah, so taking curiosity and making it into capacity and capability is really what I want to do. What I'm learning is there's no experts. This thing is so new that by the time we're done talking, Alex, something's going to change, right? So I have no idea.

Alex Winter
0:03:58
Guaranteed, yeah.

Cary Weston
0:03:59
So can we make more mistakes and learn from them and keep going? And what I, you know, years ago, it's a quick agency story, is I was a finalist for a hospital association to do some website work. And the hospital association shared with me

Cary Weston
0:04:12
that one of their goals was to increase membership and money, okay, revenue. So I had a meeting with two people. I came in with my pitch deck, I was gonna make a big presentation, and the two people in the room

Cary Weston
0:04:22
were the director of the organization and the director of education and outreach. And they shared with me that 60% of their revenue comes from education and outreach activities for the organization. I said, fantastic.

Cary Weston
0:04:34
So I open up my projector and my computer and here I go, I'm gonna make my pitch. And one of those two get up to leave and I said, where are you going? She says, at the beginning, and she said, you don't need me.

Cary Weston
0:04:45
I said, why don't I need you? So I don't know anything about computers. Computers just scare me, I don't like technology at all. And I said, what's your position again? She said, director of education outreach. I said, what's your goal again? She said, to raise more money. I said, and how do you make money again? And so we went through that whole thing. Okay. Shut the computer, turn

Cary Weston
0:05:01
the projector off, let's have a conversation. I remember that from 20 years ago that sometimes technology just creates anxiety that's probably beyond common sense or logical, but it just does. Yeah. And it keeps people from diving in and trying things and so I use that from an empathetic position When I'm coaching teaching and using the podcast that it's okay to feel this way other people's do it's relatable and if I can take that Uncomfortableness and that curiosity and kind of show you ways that you could bridge that into something productive

Cary Weston
0:05:31
Then I've considered that a win

Alex Winter
0:05:33
It's a fascinating fascinating story because I like that I feel like in the moment, somebody gets up and walks out as you're starting your presentation. That's a red flag. It's like, wait, what's happening? And it might throw most people off. And I respect that you took it as like, hey, let's ask some deeper questions. Let's figure out what's really going on. It seems like technology is not the right thing. So we're gonna

Cary Weston
0:05:52
shut the laptop and we're just gonna talk. Yeah, it's the yes and, right? I mean, Marcus talked about that all the time. Totally. But I learned a long time ago that you can't put your crutch in your presentation. You got to know what you're talking about. But when you see somebody really get anxious over something because they're just uncomfortable with it and they just don't think they're valuable, right? And I see that a lot with folks that don't

Cary Weston
0:06:12
think they have value, they don't think they have capability, they don't think they can. And anytime we can encourage them to find that within them to be courageous and sometimes it really feels like being courageous to try something then I think there's an opportunity to get somebody to learn something. I love that. I love that

Alex Winter
0:06:29
So I'm just curious. I want to go backtrack for a second. So you've had your agency for 20 years. Yeah, that's thing. That's incredible Congratulations 20 years is a long time for any business to be running. That's yeah, it's 25. Oh, well, it's 25. I had it for five

Cary Weston
0:06:42
and a series of life events just Teaches you that there's something better and bigger and more meaningful out there than just working. And so I found out through, like I said, some family, personal, and life events that I thought I had a company, but if I didn't come to work, nothing really got done. So I really had a job, right? I had a couple other people in

Cary Weston
0:07:07
the office with me, but I realized that I couldn't scale, I couldn't do anything with it. And so, five years in, I found a partner who was doing kind of the same thing. And so we've been partners now for 20 years. Wow. Yeah, saying 20, 25 years out loud, you know, it's...

Alex Winter
0:07:21
It's impressive. It is. Did it start out as a traditional ad agency that got more into digital as it all evolved

Cary Weston
0:07:26
in... As life itself, right? Yeah. Absolutely. I find it fascinating where I tell this story. When I first started, the Yellow Page guy, right?

Cary Weston
0:07:35
So every October, November, the phone book guy.

Alex Winter
0:07:38
The phone book guy, the big phone book.

Cary Weston
0:07:39
They'd come in and in Maine there's like 11 phone books and all the districts. And so I had clients that were all over the state and so he'd come in with his 11 phone books and we'd literally spend hours like, what size ad do you want in this book?

Cary Weston
0:07:52
And what size ad do you want in this book? And I remember he said, you know, if you buy these books, we're gonna throw this internet thing in for free. It was like a cheap throw-in value ad. And then one year they came in and they said, well if you buy our internet product,

Cary Weston
0:08:04
we'll throw these phone books in for free. So then I did it, right? And so life itself became digital, and so that whole traditional and digital marketing.

Alex Winter
0:08:13
Yeah, wow, the evolution has been,

Alex Winter
0:08:15
it's been a journey, for sure.

Cary Weston
0:08:16
Yeah, it's fascinating. I'm old enough to remember when there was one computer that rolls through the school, and there was dial-up modems. And so I feel like I have one foot in each world, right? I mean, I have the perspective of remembering when it wasn't here and I'm

Cary Weston
0:08:31
still trying to keep up with my kids to understand what the heck is going on and

Alex Winter
0:08:34
why we're using it and why. Well, this is a perfect segue to because speaking of technology, there's a new trending topic that everyone is talking about. It feels like the new dot-com era and it's AI. Everyone's talking about artificial intelligence, right? So can you talk a little bit about why you're so intrigued with chat GPT and the podcast and just like how that's Basically open up a new chapter for what you're what you're doing, you know

Cary Weston
0:08:58
So I have a piano in my basement and I can't play a lick of music Oh, I have two kids that can I don't know where they got it from And I look at that and I say That's an amazing instrument You bring your talent, your perspective, your skill, you can make it sound in so many different ways

Cary Weston
0:09:16
and have such an amazing variety of output. And I realized, back to the story of anxiety and making people feel comfortable and enabling them to be courageous, that artificial intelligence is a very intimidating topic. Like those two words together are very intimidating.

Alex Winter
0:09:31
It's scary for some people, for a lot of people.

Cary Weston
0:09:33
What we started to do, I realized that if I could soften that, then I could get people into the right mindset of being curious and being capable of having capacity. So we turned AI into an amazing instrument rather than artificial intelligence. So that's how we present it. It's an amazing instrument. And the reason Shack TPT for me has been my focus, it's really the

Cary Weston
0:09:53
Ford and Chevy. I mean, there's a hundred thousand tools out there that you can

Alex Winter
0:09:56
use. And there's a new one every day, I feel like. Right. It just happens to be the

Cary Weston
0:10:00
mainstream, right? It happens to be the Coke and Pepsi or whatever you want to say. So that's where I've been spending my time. But as I tell people, it's not about learning chat GPT, it's not about learning this specific software. It's a lot like Marcus's philosophy of framework, there are principles. So as long as you can learn and be comfortable with the principles, every time something changes, and every time there's a new tool or a new version, or whatever it might be, you can always apply those principles and can even get benefit from it, right?

Alex Winter
0:10:29
or whatever it might be, you can always apply those principles and can even get benefit from it, right? So that's really how I approach it. Very cool. Very cool. I love that.

Alex Winter
0:10:38
So we're here at Impact. You're a certified coach. You definitely, the story of meeting Mark

Cary Weston
0:10:44
is in the parking lot.

Alex Winter
0:10:44
I love that.

Alex Winter
0:10:45
That's really uncanny how that happened. And now you're a certified coach here as well. But we talk a lot about being authentic and transparent. How do you maintain that authenticity when we're talking about AI tools? but like when you're coaching people

Alex Winter
0:10:53
and you're starting to educate them that maybe don't know about AI tools and where they should start and how they should start to integrate it into their business, what does that conversation look like for you

Alex Winter
0:11:00
or how do you bridge that?

Cary Weston
0:11:01
So let's go back to the piano. Okay. There are self-playing pianos.

Alex Winter
0:11:05
Right?

Cary Weston
0:11:06
Right? But no one has value in a self-playing piano. You wouldn't bring a self-playing piano into a concert and go, look, amazing, right?

Alex Winter
0:11:13
Sell a bunch of tickets and just watch them.

Cary Weston
0:11:14
Right, so you just don't do it. And it's the same thing with Chad, is a lot of folks feel like it's supposed to be this automated machine, where I tell it, I want an article, or I want it to do this, and it spits it out, and it's wonderful. But it's a lot like that automatic piano. It's like, there's no value there.

Cary Weston
0:11:28
So back to the amazing instrument, it's a problem-solving partner, it's a tool. And the example I use is, anytime we can eliminate the busy work and get more to the value, the insightful part of our job, we're adding value to our day. And if we can use this amazing instrument to cut down on the busy work to get to the more value, then that's an amazing value proposition. And that's how we look at it. So it's not are we going to have ChatGBT build, produce, write something for us. It's how are we going to use it so that we can be more efficient in what we're

Cary Weston
0:12:03
going to produce anyway. So, case in point, probably one of the most frequent questions I get from marketers, content folks using chat is, I can't get it to sound like me. I can't get it to create content that feels like me. I can't get it to replicate what I do.

Alex Winter
0:12:17
Yeah, we hear that a lot too.

Cary Weston
0:12:18
It doesn't work.

Alex Winter
0:12:19
Yeah. It doesn't work. Right, and people can tell. They're like, I can tell this is written by AI or by a computer or something. Yeah. It's not necessarily like in your voice per se.

Alex Winter
0:12:27
That's right.

Alex Winter
0:12:27
Yeah, you can see the difference.

Cary Weston
0:12:28
And so there's the authenticity, right? It feels inauthentic. So the ability of creating what I call attribute sets and using chat to say, listen, this is what I want to sound like. This is what I want to feel like. This is what I like. This is what I don't like.

Cary Weston
0:12:43
Help me get there. Help me create a list, right? So a very specific exercise we use is if you're a content writer, you probably have samples of your writing articles, blogs, right?

Alex Winter
0:12:53
Sure.

Cary Weston
0:12:53
So take ones that you like, have at least three, and feed at least three articles into chat, and then literally talk to it and say, analyze these articles. I want you to find consistencies in voice and tone and style and tell me what you find. And of course, the more, the larger your sample, the more pieces you use, the more relevant and valuable this exercise is.

Alex Winter
0:13:11
Yeah.

Cary Weston
0:13:12
But you can reverse engineer your previous work with chat and have it come out and say, listen, this is what it looks like, your voices, and these are the adjectives and the words, and this is your tone, and this looks like a style that you prefer. And that becomes what I call an attribute set. So that list that it's giving you, it's building with you. It's looking at what you've done, analyzing it, and kind of giving you a recipe, yeah?

Cary Weston
0:13:31
Yeah, it's learning. It's learning from what you're inputting.

Alex Winter
0:13:33
But it's learning from you. Exactly. Right?

Alex Winter
0:13:35
Yes.

Cary Weston
0:13:35
So you're using as a partner and so the more that you can do that and build those attribute sets based on what you've already done, then that's the recipe to feed into chat to say I want to create an article and these are the rules. Right? Right. This is the outline, this is the voice, this is the tone, this is the style. Yeah. Based on the work you've already done and that's

Alex Winter
0:13:55
really how we get closer to authenticity. That's so cool. So can you share a story with us? Maybe you don't have to give names per se, but have you had a client where they really had this like aha moment, they were against using chat GBT or they didn't, they were fearful of AI and as you started to have this conversation with them,

Alex Winter
0:14:11
they really leveraged it and now they're crushing it.

Cary Weston
0:14:14
Yeah, so there's a lot there.

Alex Winter
0:14:15
I'm sure there's a lot of examples.

Cary Weston
0:14:16
I'll give you an example. So there's a client that we had in New York. They're a manufacturing company of shields. So police shields, fire shield, badges. And they didn't have a learning center. And one of the things we used chat for right early on is we had our planning session.

Cary Weston
0:14:36
We said, what problems are we trying to overcome? And the salesperson, there was a few salesperson on the front line, they said, you know, all the time we get asked, how do I order. Yeah. So we exported all the emails that came in from the website, provided the chat and sure enough 60 to 70% of the content coming through the website was how do I order.

Cary Weston
0:15:04
So the first point of contact was, all right, let's get in how do I order page, let's get a buyer's guide page up there.

Alex Winter
0:15:09
Yeah, let's get ahead of the thing.

Cary Weston
0:15:11
Absolutely changed that conversation. So instantly, it's no surprise to you and me but this again is common sense right from objectively but sometimes it's hard to see. Yeah when

Alex Winter
0:15:20
you're in when you're inside the bubble it's hard to step outside and see some of those problem areas that are pretty common sense for anyone that's looking

Cary Weston
0:15:26
from the outside in. Yeah so how to order page goes up right and now from an assignment selling point of view we talk about that a lot when somebody sends an email and says how do I order if that does get through now, if they haven't found it, in 30 seconds, that frontline person can say, great, got an answer for you. Here's the information you need because they don't know what situation you're in, but I want to be prompt and personal. Here's all the information. Let me know if you have any questions. So that's step one. They saw such a

Cary Weston
0:15:52
instant impact on the burden of that question coming in. It went away. It literally went away overnight. And they literally said, well, what else can we do?

Alex Winter
0:16:02
Right?

Cary Weston
0:16:03
So now you got them. You've gone from skepticism to, oh my goodness, I see. And you need that spark. Like, sometimes you can talk and talk and talk, and they're like, I don't know what you're talking about. Then you give them an ounce of benefit, and they're like, I

Cary Weston
0:16:14
want more.

Cary Weston
0:16:15
Like, they're addicted, right? And so we went down, and that's where the Learning Center came from. So fast forward six to nine months, they were great students. They were killing it.

Cary Weston
0:16:24
Video and all the questions. Sales team was all in. It was just a great team They make a trip to DC to talk to Love us homeland defense, but it was a large large federal agency and they walk into the room ready to pitch Okay to do like the dog and pony show ready to sell sure okay. Yeah, and

Cary Weston
0:16:42
The agency holds up this is known. We know all about you. We know everything. We're here because we want to know how do we get started.

Alex Winter
0:16:53
No kidding.

Cary Weston
0:16:54
And they were floored. They were floored.

Alex Winter
0:16:56
That's amazing.

Cary Weston
0:16:57
Because they're more expensive, right? And all of the things that they thought would get in the way that they had to talk through, it didn't matter because they had educated so well that this agency says, we want to work with you. And it became the largest single order, the largest single client in their 25-year history, and they walked out without selling. They didn't sell. And so when I got the phone call from the owner, he goes,

Cary Weston
0:17:19
you're never going to believe what happened. And he explained it to me. I said, I absolutely believe that happened. Good for you, man. This is what we're doing.

Alex Winter
0:17:25
That's the power of this. Right.

Cary Weston
0:17:27
And so there's been different elements of buying along the way from reducing that friction of answering the same question over and over again that you think would already be there, to walking in and getting the single largest client in the history of your company without selling, there's multiple levels of buy-in there, right? So that's the sample of the kind of stuff

Cary Weston
0:17:45
that when you have folks that believe that buy-in are the good students and listening can be led, wonderful things can happen.

Alex Winter
0:17:51
Wonderful things can happen, and it shifts the whole conversation. They went in expecting to do a pitch meeting, and really what they were doing was more of an onboarding meeting. They were like, all right, what are the clear next steps

Alex Winter
0:18:00
to just get this going?

Alex Winter
0:18:01
100%.

Alex Winter
0:18:01
That's amazing.

Alex Winter
0:18:02
So you work with a lot of marketing teams, you work with a lot of different companies and industries. How does TBT interface with the marketing squads and their systems when it comes to like strategy and how can marketing teams and revenue teams start to leverage TBT to their advantage

Alex Winter
0:18:19
and start to integrate it into their processes and their strategy?

Cary Weston
0:18:22
Okay, so first of all, we've got to understand what they're doing now. It's not a, this is a package that you use like HubSpot or Salesforce and you've got to learn how to use it. One of the things I love about using chat, and you asked me earlier, Alex, why chat? It's been the most intuitive, it's been the most common, and it's also the most flexible.

Cary Weston
0:18:42
One of the things I've found, and actually I heard Chris DuPrez say this the first time, was when I meet with marketing and sales teams, I have them explain to me and then by default the chat GPT who they are part of this attribute list So one of the things I always recommend is let's build a background of who are you? What do you do? What does your audience look like where their fears questions concerns, right? Almost like creating a persona for yourself 100% Yeah, 100% so we need to take two personas. One is the company. Okay, what's your company do? Right, tell me everything to the whole value problem. And then who's your audience?

Cary Weston
0:19:15
Because we build that library, right, and that becomes something that we can feed on a regular basis on top of voice tones. This is a library that we're building. And then we can literally say, right, hey, chat, this is who I am, this is what I do, and this is who I do it for, okay? How can you help me? And it'll talk to you like it's an intern it's like a problem-solving partner and so that's the first step I do because I want folks to not see chat GPT as a software that they have to learn but as a tool again back to the

Cary Weston
0:19:50
amazing instrument as a tool at their disposal that they can customize because the sales guy might need something today differently from what he needs tomorrow marketing guy might need something different right sales and service may need something but I teach them the principles of how to utilize. Now, it doesn't replace humans, and that's the point here is it's not a replacement for somebody, but it certainly is a replacement for somebody's time.

Cary Weston
0:20:12
So if I can get them to understand how fluid and flexible it can be in a time of need, if I can get Chad to understand who they are and what they do and why they need them, then we get rid of prompts, we get rid of that computer mind of I need the perfect prompt or I need this perfect language, we just get into conversations. And when you get into conversations with ChatGPT and you've fed it the proper background, context, and all those variables we just talked about, you've

Alex Winter
0:20:40
got such flexibility to do wonderful things. It's really true and it's fascinating to me because I was using ChatGPT as a prompt. I would very much, almost like how I would use Google and search it was very like transactional and This Chris Dupre do the same thing with me where the shift to talking to it like you would talk to anybody else like it Was an assistant it it changes the game. It really does so impressive what it can do. It's amazing and

Cary Weston
0:21:04
One of the examples I've got a presentation here this afternoon is last year when I was having a conversation with him, and I shared with him that I was an agency owner and that I was an independent, they ask, you answer, certified coach. And he said, what's the difference between an independent certified coach and an impact coach? And I answered that very poorly, very poorly, for two reasons. Number one, I was stumbling through an answer that I'd never prepared. So in the moment, I was trying to come up with an answer that I hadn't really outlined and thought about.

Cary Weston
0:21:44
That's my outside voice. But my inside voice was saying, man, you've got to have a resource. Like you've got to have an article. You've got to have an answer for this. You've got to have this ready because if Marcus is going to ask you out loud, imagine the other people that are thinking it and not asking it.

Cary Weston
0:21:58
Where are they finding the information?

Alex Winter
0:22:00
They're searching for it and they're not saying it out loud.

Cary Weston
0:22:02
Yeah, and that's part of my BizDev process is to build trust and confidence and explain, right, the education process of getting more informed buyers. And so in that moment, I'm thinking, here we go. Like, I need to practice at the very basic level. I gotta eat my own dog food.

Cary Weston
0:22:16
I've gotta have this ready, yeah? Yeah, totally. And so that happens all the time and that's the culture that we try to build. And so I went back and I literally said to chat, said, hey, I got a problem.

Cary Weston
0:22:26
And I'm talking to it. And I use voice to text. I don't type anymore because my fingers get in the way of my thoughts. Because I can certainly talk differently and faster than I type. I got a problem, right? And I need you to help.

Cary Weston
0:22:37
Okay, great. So I said, I need you to be the guide. I need you to be the interviewer. I need you to pull out of my head what I need because I need to answer this question thoroughly, objectively, and honestly. I want to have the article ready.

Cary Weston
0:22:47
So it played role-playing with me. And it asked me questions, right? And I said pretend that you are The buyer now, what do you need to know? Like what questions do you have? How are you trying to compare? Like how can I use examples? And let's really work through this conversation and it talked to me and it asked me questions. I'm like great dig deeper and What we ended up with was a fantastic outline that you know, it's in there somewhere

Cary Weston
0:23:09
But I didn't have my thoughts organized and I was really frustrated with myself.

Alex Winter
0:23:18
Yeah.

Cary Weston
0:23:18
Because in the moment where I got one of the most basic questions that I hadn't thought about yet, I needed to get all that stuff out of my head and organize it. And so I turned to this partner that I talked to on a computer and it didn't write it for me, absolutely not, but it guided me through the process of getting my thoughts in order so I could make something that I could write.

Alex Winter
0:23:37
Right. You're using it in a different way than I think most people assume that you're supposed to use it.

Cary Weston
0:23:41
Exactly.

Alex Winter
0:23:41
Yeah, and we have here, we talk a lot about good prompts versus bad prompts, or what are the best practices for the prompts. It sounds more like you need to just talk to it and have a conversation with it, and not necessarily be in prompt mode all the time.

Alex Winter
0:23:54
Is that right?

Cary Weston
0:23:54
Correct.

Cary Weston
0:23:55
It's very less formal than that. And I did a workshop a while back, and I said, we're going to be using chat before you know it, just like we're using Google. And somebody said, well, I did, I used it. I said, okay, well, tell me, what did you do? And they went to chat and they typed in website RFP.

Cary Weston
0:24:10
And I said, what does that mean? This is like, well, I'm an insurance agency and our website needs to be redone. I'm looking for someone that can help me. I said, we'll say that. Why didn't you tell it that?

Cary Weston
0:24:19
But they don't know, like to your point, they're Googling using chat GPT. And so the eye-opening moment, we had 60 people on the call, and almost everyone went, oh, okay. You get it now. I said, if you had an intern, an assistant at your disposal, and you called them in,

Cary Weston
0:24:36
and they were standing in front of you, and you said, website RFP, and then pushed them away, do you think that they would come back with something of value for you? No, they'd be confused as I'd be confused. Yeah, I said so but do you think if you said You know, we're insurance company. We're looking for a website. These are the things we're frustrated with these are things we want to do We're not doing it now. These are things we're doing Well, these are the things we care about do you think that that might be more of more valuable to that person to come back?

Cary Weston
0:25:03
And do good work for you. Well, absolutely. Well, that's that's what you need to talk about. That's how you need to share it that's how you need to converse with this thing and those moments where everyone goes, oh.

Alex Winter
0:25:14
That's really cool.

Cary Weston
0:25:15
It is. And it makes people think about Terminator and AI ruining the world, right? Which is why I say be nice to it, because if they do ruin the world,

Cary Weston
0:25:21
you want to be on their side.

Alex Winter
0:25:23
I always make that joke to them, like, it's Skynet. Skynet's coming in.

Cary Weston
0:25:25
But that's the paradigm shift, is getting over prompts, getting over the 1,000 prompt cheat sheets and all the perfect things you need to say, and just talk to it.

Alex Winter
0:25:36
I love that.

Alex Winter
0:25:37
Those are some really great insights. And I even know that and I've been practicing that, but to hear you talk through it and have this conversation, it's reinvigorated some of these things for me and reinforced that. Like I can also get better with not prompting and actually having a conversation.

Cary Weston
0:25:50
And those are the principles we talk about. Like those are the guiding principles. As long as you can understand the guiding principles of being sincere and using your perspective and being detailed, but respecting privacy, then you can use whatever version, whatever tools, whatever modifications are coming your way because you're not task-based and memory-based, you are principle-based. That's the important part.

Alex Winter
0:26:13
I love that. I love that. Well, we're here in Chicago, Impact Live. What are you most excited about or what's been like a key takeaway from the show? Can you share anything with us that like...

Cary Weston
0:26:22
We need to do this again when the Cubs are in town. Okay. They're not here. That's my key takeaway.

Alex Winter
0:26:27
I'm going to have the complete box for that one.

Alex Winter
0:26:28
I've never been to Wrigley Field. That's on my bucket list.

Cary Weston
0:26:30
I've been to Wrigley. So the outside of Wrigley is probably a little bit more intriguing than the inside of Wrigley. It's a fantastic environment. It's just fantastic. It's super. So I appreciate it going every time I'm here. Well, and we're Sox fans, so we like those old ballparks. 100%.

Alex Winter
0:26:41
That's just in our blood. Yeah.

Cary Weston
0:26:42
Yeah, 100%. So now that I've said that, I actually forgot your question. So what was your actual

Cary Weston
0:26:46
question?

Alex Winter
0:26:46
Yeah. So the question was, we're at Impact Live. We've been sitting in sessions for half the day. You're gonna be presenting in a little bit. Is there something you can share with our viewers and our audience out there that maybe has stuck with you or something that you're most excited about?

Cary Weston
0:27:00
Yeah, I think it's probably the most value that I get from coming to sessions like this as a whole, which is don't be afraid to reevaluate yourself and go back and be objective and measure because you can always do it better. Be better next week than you were last week.

Cary Weston
0:27:16
Don't take for granted that mailing it in is gonna be good enough. There's always something else to improve on, there's always something else to do. And just when you think you're done, you've gotta reevaluate.

Cary Weston
0:27:27
So I think just recommitting, back to principles, recommitting and being objective and being honest with yourself, and being that honest, thorough critic of yourselves as well as others. We talk about role planning, being honest and supportive and detailed and feedback. If you can do that yourself and look at your business in an objective way or the work you

Cary Weston
0:27:45
do in an objective way, you'll always find ways to improve. And that's really how we survive and thrive right in today's economy. That's extremely well said.

Alex Winter
0:27:52
I couldn't agree more. And I definitely think as business owners and leaders, and even if you're frontline, it doesn't matter where you are, you always need to be open to learning and not being afraid to make mistakes because that is going to help enhance your learning and help push you to try new things.

Cary Weston
0:28:07
Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Experiences. Yeah. Experiences. You know, the negative stuff I think I've learned more in my life than the positive stuff. Right. Yeah. You got to make those collisions happen. Yeah. They're good collisions. They are good collisions. Yeah. You learn something. You should fail. Right. You learn something moving away. Well,

Alex Winter
0:28:23
I've learned a lot talking to you. I know our audience is going to have a lot of takeaways talking with having having this conversation with you. So thank you so much for being on the show.

Cary Weston
0:28:28
Yeah, appreciate having me, absolutely Alex, thanks.

Alex Winter
0:28:30
Yeah, for people out there, where can they reach you? Are you on LinkedIn? If they have follow-up questions or they wanna pick your brain, what's the best way to get in touch with you? Are you on Impact Plus maybe?

Cary Weston
0:28:38
I am, but probably more relevant to this conversation, chatgptexperiment.com has a couple different things. Oh, cool. It has the archive of podcasts library. It has articles and videos and resources on some of the things that we talked about today.

Cary Weston
0:28:51
It's got a contact form for me, my LinkedIn. So everything we need is there.

Alex Winter
0:28:55
Awesome. We'll make sure to link that in the show notes as well. Absolutely. Thanks again for being on the show.

Alex Winter
0:29:00
I can't wait to see you later on today.

Cary Weston
0:29:01
Yeah, appreciate you having me.

Alex Winter
0:29:02
Thanks. Awesome. For everybody out there listening and watching, this is Endless Customers. I'm Alex Winter.

Alex Winter
0:29:06
See you on the next episode. See you on the next episode. Bye!