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What Do You Want to Be Known For? – #102

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Feedback from the Previous Random

Thank you all so much for your feedback on the previous issue of The Random. Many of you will be happy to know that we are to keep going “as is” with the newsletter. That means I’ll continue to share, well, whatever I want and not tie this to my business directly.

That said, I am going to publish most of this newsletter over on LinkedIn as a test run and see how it goes.

With TikTok most likely facing a ban (or a sale to a US-based company) and Twitter not knowing what they want to be right now, 2023 should be a growth year for YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.

I’m betting that LinkedIn gets much more attention in 2023 … thus … my current strategy.

My plan is to post at least once per day on LinkedIn, and comment on five to 10 posts of others per day. The goal? To build up my two email newsletters (The Tilt and The Random) and drive content creators and marketers to Creator Economy Expo.

I’ll keep you posted on how it works (or doesn’t).

Movie Alert

One of my favorite books of all time is “A Man Called Ove.” I recently learned that the book has been turned into a movie, “A Man Called Otto,” starring Tom Hanks. Apparently, the movie is to be released in the next few weeks. Here’s the official trailer. Fingers crossed that this is good.

The Day After Tomorrow

Like many around the country, Cleveland, Ohio was near zero degrees with plenty of snow most of the week. As I looked out the window, eyeing the snow drifts and frigid temperatures, I had a longing desire to watch the movie “The Day After Tomorrow,” starring Dennis Quaid.

I went over and asked Chat GPT for a one-sentence description of the movie for you:

The Day After Tomorrow is a science fiction disaster film about a catastrophic global climate change event caused by global warming, which leads to a new ice age and mass destruction.

Anyway, there is a scene where a group of teenagers and adults are waiting out the big storm at the New York Public Library, desperately trying to keep warm by burning books. As they wait longer and are unsure they will survive, the character played by Emmy Rossum says to Jake Gyllenhaal’s character:

Everything I’ve ever cared about, everything I’ve worked for… has all been preparation for a future that no longer exists. I know you always thought I took the competition too seriously. You were right. It was all for nothing.

For some reason those lines really hit me. So many of us (including me) are focused on the wrong things. So many of us spend too much time engaging in content (TikTok anyone?) or activities that don’t make us better people or impact the world in a positive way.

The rest of this sentimental newsletter comes from that thought.

What Do You Want to be Known for?

It’s the end of the year, so of course you’ve been inundated with every goal setting and prediction piece of content available. Hopefully, you’ve pushed many of these aside to focus on time with family and friends. Maybe de-stress a bit?

I generally do the opposite. Of course, I love spending time with family and friends, but I feel like a clenched ball inside trying to figure out what I’m going to focus on next year (I know … I have issues).

I take this time very seriously.

It reminds me of the famous story when Bill Gates met Warren Buffett.

Bill Gates did not want to meet Warren Buffett. He did not think they’d have anything in common. But at the urging of Meg Greenfield (the Washington Post editor at the time) they met on July 5th, 1991. Gates was nervous and was dreading the meeting.

Greenfield gave both a sheet of paper and asked each to write down the one word that is their key to success. Both, as it happened, wrote down the same word.

Focus. 

From that day, the two became best friends.

Now hold that thought for a second.

Almost a decade ago I read The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. The TL;DR is that focus is indeed king for success to happen … and then they outline a bunch of tactics on how to become a focused person.

In a section of the book the authors talk about sports phenoms such as Tiger Woods and Michael Phelps. Specifically, it was about how talented they were at MANY sports, but they decided to focus on being great at one thing (Woods at golf and Phelps at swimming).

They didn’t just excel. They dominated.

Among the many reasons why is that they CHOSE what they wanted to be known for.

Ask yourself this question:

What do I want to be known for?

This is easier said than done. I’ve contemplated this idea more than most, and it’s sometimes exhausting asking yourself, over and over, the question “what have I been put on this earth to do?”

I believe we can do this by breaking the idea up into smaller, specific parts, for our jobs … our families … the way we think.

For example, let’s pretend you are a marketer 😉. You are trying to choose between more focus on social media or more on content creation for your marketing? If you choose content creation, you can put social media to the side…but don’t stop there. Drill down on content creation. Let’s say you need to choose between TikTok videos and your email newsletter. You choose email newsletter.

You just decided to focus on creating and distributing the industry’s leading email newsletter in 2023. Excellent. But that still feels overwhelming, so break it down even more.

To create an amazing newsletter, you decide that’s going to take three original, thought-provoking articles per week. Are three articles per week specific enough? No.

Let’s say each article is 1000 words. That’s 3,000 words a week.

Dividing that by five business days, you have 600 words per day.

So, to dominate your market, you need to write 600 words a day.

Excellence = 600 words per business day. Anyone can do that, right?

Okay, let’s take personal financing. You are worried you haven’t saved well enough to this point and need a million dollars someday in order to live well into your retirement.

Let’s say you are 40 years old and want to reach this goal before you are 70. You’ve saved $25,000 so far.

Okay, break it down.

At an average 10 percent return per year, you’ll need $4,500 put into your stock market account per year. That may seem overwhelming.

You can break that down to $375 per month or around $35 per day.

At least now you can make the lifestyle decisions you need to and then focus on the goal.

You can do that with each one of your core categories. What’s your ONE thing for each category.

What do I want to be known for in business?
How’s my health? What can I do better?
How about my family? How do I find more quality time?
What about charitable goals? Is there a cause I should align with?
What financial goals do I want to tackle?
How can I keep my mind fresh?

When you run through each of these questions, the output should be one specific thing you can do each day to accomplish your focused goals. It might look something like this.

Write 600 words per business day.
Walk two miles per day.
Spend one hour without devices with my family per day.
Raise $5,000 for my charity once per quarter.
Put aside $35 per day into my retirement account.
Read 20 minutes every day.

I recommend using an app like HabitBull to keep track of your daily/weekly/monthly goals.

This is the type of focus that at the same time keeps you incredibly well rounded as a human being.

If you keep to this, you’ll look back at 2023 as a huge success.

How to Make Decisions

Ben Meer is a great person to follow on LinkedIn. Every few days he talks about systems that help you improve your life.

This one on making decisions caught my eye.

Normalize “no” as you default answer for everything.

Whether it’s new work projects or social gatherings, saying “yes” to non-priorities ruins your priorities.

If it’s not an overwhelming YES, it’s a no.

Rented Land Strikes Back

Twitter seems to be working on its own idea of focus for 2023. A few weeks ago they announced that they were killing their enewsletter product Revue. Revue was a newsletter service like Substack, but could be integrated into a Twitter profile and timeline. Newsletters could be free, paid or a combination.

Can creators move to another platform from their paid Revue newsletter? Sure they can, but accomplishing this is easier said than done. How many subscribers will want to move with the content creator and pay to another platform? A small percentage.

Just another friendly reminder that any revenue generated from content on a third-party platform is fleeting at best. Do your homework and consider the next platform VERY carefully.

Thanks for reading this edition of The Random. Just a reminder that the next pricing deadline for Creator Economy Expo is coming up soon. CEX is May 1st to 3rd at the Cleveland Convention Center. If you are building a business as a content creator, this is the event for you.

End-of-year Giving, Christmas Markets, and More – #101

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Today’s newsletter is 1,037 words and can be read by an average person in four minutes and 12 seconds (according to Google).

Feedback from the 100

My last newsletter, issue 100, received the most reaction from you (my wonderful readers) ever. Easily over 200 of you responded directly with your feedback and goals for 2023.

And…you also said (emphatically I might add) NOT to change the newsletter and NOT to make it more a part of my business (The Tilt). So, point taken.

Outside of changing this newsletter to just “Joe Pulizzi’s newsletter” it will stay pretty much the same (for now).

Oh, and thanks. It meant a lot to me to see the feedback. At least a dozen said that this newsletter is the only one they read, which made me both thankful and, at the same time, afraid for the future of the human race.

End-of-Year Giving

I’ve talked to many people who are looking to donate to charitable organizations before 2023 comes around. If you would like to donate to a tax deductible organization, please consider The Orange Effect Foundation.

All proceeds go to children in the United States who need speech therapy or speech technology who otherwise cannot afford it. OEF now supports over 350 children in 35 states. Donate here.

Discovering Christmas Markets

image taken at the Christmas Market at Grand Place (Brussels, Belgium)

After the last newsletter where I mentioned my wife several times, I have been put on wife/newsletter probation and I’m not allowed to talk about her anymore. So, I won’t be discussing anything about my wife this newsletter.

So, back to my wife. The image for this issue comes from the Brussels, Belgium Christmas Market. I was in Brussels last week delivering a keynote for the Belgium Marketing Association. This was the first time I was able to bring my wife along for the ride.

When performing my last few keynote speeches, I left the stage feeling I really didn’t hit a home run. This one was different. I was ON and the audience was fantastic (about 1,500 Belgians in the audience). I love speaking to people from Belgium and The Netherlands. They actually smile at you while you’re speaking. Either they like what you are saying, are awed by an American speaker, or are high as a kite. Maybe all three. Anyway, I need more of that. We all do.

Okay, back to my wife. I’ve been to Brussels three or four times, but this was the first time I was able to really enjoy the city. And we definitely did, especially the Christmas Market.

Before we arrived, I did not know that Christmas Markets were a thing. It’s so much a thing in Europe I felt a bit ignorant that I wasn’t aware of them.

A Christmas Market is basically a month-long Christmas party in a city center. It features booths with unique crafts, food, games and more. Many have programs with music or dancing. And lights! They are everywhere.

The Brussels Christmas Market (we were told it’s the best in Europe…I’ll take their word for it) featured all those things, plus outdoor ice skating, curling, and our favorite, VIN CHAUD. Vin chaud is the French term for a spiced wine drink, similar German glühwein. I honestly had my doubts, but wow was it amazing. We had the regular vin chaud (four euro), but you can add a shot of amaretto or rum for a euro. My friend Bo Sacks says the shot of rum is to die for. Next time for sure.

It was very cold in Belgium the days we were there, and those of you who know me understand that I can’t take the cold. I have a disorder that I’ve been whining about for years called Raynaud’s syndrome where blood doesn’t flow well to my hands and feet. My extremities easily go from pain to numb to (if I wait too long) passing out (which has only happened twice).

Anyway, I use Raynaud’s as an excuse to make extra stops into pubs to warm up and have more beer. It’s actually kind of nice so don’t feel bad for me.

The Brussels market left me thinking that Cleveland, Ohio should do something like this. I’m sure New York or Chicago do, but I’m not aware of it. It’s event marketing at its finest.

So put the Christmas Markets on your list of things to do. You won’t regret it.

Getting Older

As you know, I’m turning 50 in May. I guess everyone knows because I now introduce myself as “Hi, I’m Joe Pulizzi and I’m turning 50 in May.” I’ve noticed two things in the past year about how 50 is a real transition to getting older.

First, there is no such thing as “too early” to get up. There is, however, going to sleep too late. 11 pm is now late. 12 is too late. 10 seems just right. I’m not bothered by going to sleep at 9:30am.

On the other hand, if I happen to get up at 3:30 or 4:00 am it doesn’t seem weird anymore. I was sitting on the couch a few weeks back reading a novel at 3:45am and it seemed totally normal to me. When did that happen?

Second, phone calls from my family startle me now. If it’s a phone call, and not a text message, my first instinct is that someone died. My second instinct is that someone fell or had a stroke or heart attack.

But text messages aren’t safe either. A text before 8 am and I think one of three things: one of my international friends texted me, it’s my brother (who has no concept of time…love you bro) or someone has died.

I grew up in and around a funeral home, so death has always been a natural part of life, but these two things are new. Welcome to 50.

ChatGPT

I purposely decided NOT to write about ChatGPT (the AI writing tool) since literally every newsletter I read and podcast I listen to has been covering it. If you want to know what all the fuss is, you can listen to this episode of This Old Marketing (ChatGPT Goes Matrix) with Robert Rose and I.

I mean, it is important, but not THAT important.

That last sentence was a joke just in case some AI bot is reading this. Yay ChatGPT. Please don’t take over my body and use it for a battery.

Resolutions

I’m working on both resolutions and discontinues (things I’m stopping) in the run up to 2023.

For example, I have decided to run a marathon next year while I still have working knee caps. So there’s that. Also, I’ve made a pledge not to read email the first hour of my day.

And finally, I’m making a renewed push to gain new subscribers for this newsletter. If you have a friend or colleague who would appreciate getting this every two weeks, please send it on and have them subscribe.

The Special 100th Issue of the Random – #100

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On Valentine’s Day of 2019 I sent the first Random newsletter to about 500 people. The one you are reading now is issue number 100, sent to 9,371 subscribers.

Every other Thursday for almost three years. Hard to believe.

First, thank you for subscribing. It means a lot that I don’t just write these as inner monologues.

Second, this was a difficult issue for me to create. I mean, how do you deliver on the lofty expectations of a 100th issue?

I’ll get to that in a second…but first, a comment about this newsletter.

——

This is my personal newsletter. People subscribe at JoePulizzi.com and it really has nothing to do with my business, The Tilt. This has, in many ways, become an issue.

As a content entrepreneur and content creator, I know I should absolutely align this newsletter with my business in some way. On the other hand, I have people who open this newsletter who aren’t necessarily content creators or care about marketing in any way. They are basically “fans of Joe,” which is my most important audience 😉.

Anyway, I’m talking with The Tilt team tomorrow about trying to figure out how to integrate this newsletter into the business in some way. So… changes are afoot. More to come.

——

So, back to this 100th issue. Yeah, I was stuck, until I realized this is not MY 100th issue. It’s YOUR 100th issue. The Random has always been about delivering value to you, the readers, of this completely free fortnightly publication.

Based on my tireless audience research (which amounted to about six emails coming from the readers of this thing), I’m going to cover areas I believe are truly important for you and a successful 2023 (but mostly things my wife wanted me to cover ;).

So, without further ado, here goes.

My 10 Best Ways to Get Content Ideas

Reader and friend Brian Piper (and co-author of the next edition of Epic Content Marketing) asked me how I come up with fresh content ideas after 100 issues. Here are my top 10.

Read a fiction book. Since I’m in the marketing/content area, most people wonder if my best writing ideas come from reading business books. Not a chance. I read at least 15 minutes of fiction every day. It’s my #1 resource for writing ideas.

Just write. No one likes to hear this, but it’s true. Sometimes you just have to sit down and start typing. About anything really. That’s how I wrote my novel, The Will to Die. It took about four weeks of writing every morning just to start uncovering a story that wasn’t horrible.

Podcasts. I love listening to music, but podcasts are where the money is at. Any podcast will do. I prefer mine while running. Sometimes I have to stop while I’m running and read out notes to my phone so I don’t forget the ideas.

Talk to my kids. Holy holy this is amazing content. Talk to them about anything. When I was their age I grew up in a completely different world. They look at life so differently. Just ask them questions.

Talk to my wife. If I can just listen to her without interrupting with MY thoughts on the matter, I actually get quite a few writing ideas from our conversations.

Facebook. Ha, just kidding. I’ve never had one good writing idea that came from FB.

Running. Or any strenuous physical activity for that matter. Pushing yourself physically forces you to escape through thinking.

Take a shower. This could easily be number one. I’m not proud of the amount of water I waste standing in the shower thinking about life. I really need one of those writable boards that go in the shower.

Read my journals. I have hundreds of old journals that I scratch notes in. Most of it is gibberish, but for some reason when I read through old thoughts new thinking arises.

Ask questions. Talking to my audience is always beneficial. If I can figure out what that particular person is struggling with, I can generally create three or four articles, podcasts or presentations from it. I guess their pain is my power.

——

My wife Pam asked me to do the following in this newsletter: list 100 things I want to do, 100 books to read, something to do every day for 100 days, and 100 ways to make your wife smile. Below you’ll find my answers, but I knocked off the zero with each one of these because I’m lazy.

——

10+ Things I Want to Do

Travel more. I listened to Trevor Noah recently who said, “the cure to ignorance is travel”. I agree with this 100 percent. I’ve been blessed to travel to over 20 countries…and it’s still not enough. Bucket list items to hit in the very near future are Greece, New Zealand and Japan (with my youngest son).

Run a Marathon. I can’t believe I just typed that.

Sell individual stocks and buy ETFs. I pride myself on being a decent investor. Most of my investing I do by buying individual stocks. That said, it takes way too much time and energy to follow all these companies so I know what I’m doing. And honestly, it’s not worth the energy. Just diversify though ETFs and call it a day.

Write another novel. It’s nice that so many people want me to write the sequel to The Will to Die. Do I have another novel in me? I think so. My plan is to start writing another novel in 2023.

Downsize. My wife and I have been through a few situations where loved ones needed to downsize. OMG this is such a challenge. Best to start ASAP on this so everything I own can fit in a tiny house.

Stay close to my kids. I don’t have an action plan for this, but I’m hopeful my kids will always feel like they can talk to Dad…about anything. Texting them about stupid things is my current go-to strategy.

Less TV and less social media. Basically, this comes down to using my time more wisely.

Take care of my body. I’ll be 50 next year. Probably need to make better choices with what I eat and drink (as I drink a soda after finishing a bowl of queso).

Help others. I know, so broad, but…I have made so many mistakes and learned so much…I feel some of these experiences would be valuable to other entrepreneurs, creators, dads, husbands… I think that’s why I love the book writing process so much. I currently have a one book every two years plan. Maybe I should increase that.

NFTG. I’m still affected by what other people think and do. I hate to even admit this. I’d like to focus more on doing my thing, doing what I think is right and stop caring at all about what other people think and do. This is getting easier as I get older. Maybe I’ll get there someday.

More cruises with friends. You know who you are!

10+ Must-Read Books (or Series)

Note: These change on a daily basis based on my mood.

Stranger In a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein (greatest novel ever IMO)

A Gentleman In Moscow – Amor Towles

Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir (amazing sci-fi)

Matthew Corbett Series of Books – Robert McCammon (early 1700s mystery)

The Carls Series – Hank Green (sci-fi…your kids will love it too)

Amos Decker Series – David Baldacci (memory man series)

Monkeewrench Series – PJ Tracy (IT thriller)

Ready Player One – Ernest Cline

The Big Short – Michael Lewis

On Writing – Stephen King (best book on writing ever)

A Man Called Ove – Fredrick Backman (you’ll cry)

Kate Burkholder Series – Linda Castillo (nothing better than Amish suspense thrillers)

Anything by Blake Crouch

Something To Do Every Day for 10 Days

Set big but measurable goals and read them every morning before you do anything.

Don’t open your email until you’ve accomplished at least one thing.

Send a note to a different friend each day. Written/print/mailed preferred but texting is accepted.

Before stating ANY opinion ask a question first.

Kiss your significant other.

Donate something to someone in need.

Throw away something you have kept for more than two years.

Visit someone who doesn’t get many visitors.

Support a local shop or restaurant instead of Amazon or a chain.

Think about yourself in their position before you criticize. Or just don’t criticize.

10 Things to Make My Wife Smile

Don’t start any more businesses (this may be personal to just me, but…).

Smile at her (this is easy…research shows that when you smile people smile back).

Leave little notes around the house.

Listen. No, I mean really listen.

Plan a date (or two).

Pretend (every now and then) that we are still dating.

Encourage her.

Stay in bed a few minutes longer in the morning before running to the coffee machine.

Do groceries together.

Be present (this could easily be number one).

Use her ideas when writing this newsletter.

——

Well, that’s it for #100. I hope you found it worthwhile. I know I did…I feel like I have a lot to do.

If you feel compelled, email me back one big thing you are working on for 2023. That way I can help support you in reaching your goal.

Best,
Joe

The FTX Mess and the Gambling You’ve Never Heard Of – #99

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I had a dream last night.

My wife and I were at a Lizzo concert. We had good seats – front row, left side. As Lizzo came out for her finale, she played one song (About Damn Time). Before the next song, she walked over to me and asked me if I wanted to be a part of the show.

I said “heck yes” of course.

She took my hand and led me over to a batting cage of some sort, where celebrity figures started to throw objects at me. If I caught them without hitting the ground, I received a point. I remember President Clinton and President Bush throwing at me. Clinton tried to throw a curve ball. Bush kept dancing around.

The board and the announcer said I caught seven, but I only remember catching three.

Then I woke up.

Someone tell me what this means please.

The FTX Mess

Joe pulizzi with camel in cabo, mexico

Last week my wife and I went on a cruise to Mexico where we stopped in Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada. We rode camels (see picture above), went to a cheese cellar and drank all the drinks. It was one of the few vacations we’ve taken, just the two of us, since our honeymoon. It was everything I dreamed it would be.

During this blissful week, I saw the headlines regarding the fallout at cryptocurrency exchange FTX. You can read all the up-to-date details here. The tl;dr is that FTX collapsed like Lehman Brothers did in 2008. In just a few days FTX went from crypto-leader to bankrupt. From $32 billion in value to nothing.

I feel so bad for all those people who lost money. And, it’s not over yet. There were so many major players who had invested in FTX, we have only seen the start of this wave. Bitcoin and Ethereum have both been hit hard, down over 20 percent in just days. Many firms, like Genesis, have halted withdrawals. Scary times.

Some takeaways:

  • If you bought Bitcoin or other tokens on an exchange like FTX or Coinbase, move access to your coins from the exchange to something you can control, like a Ledger cold wallet (here’s some instructions). I’ve moved most of my crypto holdings and our more valuable NFTs to my Ledger (a Ledger looks like a USB where you can hold your private keys offline).
  • Good or bad, regulations are coming. They are needed. I hope they keep the spirit of capitalism alive when they happen.
  • I’ve been into crypto since 2016 and this is as bad as I’ve seen it. To make a comparison to the financial fallout from 2008 is not overstated. That said, I’m still bullish on Bitcoin and ETH and certain NFTs with a solid use case or collectability. I still believe in tokenization as a business model. We need to remind ourselves how early we are with this technology. I call it the “alta vista” period of crypto.
  • All in all, I feel we have more downward pressure to go, but long-term my thoughts haven’t changed.

My Current Projects of Interest

I wrote an article about the present and future of the creator economy on Hubspot. Take a read here.

Tomorrow is the last day for the lowest possible price ($495) at Creator Economy Expo (May 1-3, 2023 in Cleveland, Ohio). I hope you join me. I’m finishing up the agenda and it is amazing for both beginners and advanced creators. Check out the agenda here and register here.

The site Discourse (they buy and sell businesses) asked me to write an article about how an entrepreneur who sells and receives a windfall should invest their money. Here’s the article.

My 10k Creator Podcast series with Daren Smith (from Craftsman Creative) has been amazingly successful. We are currently on episode eight (of 10). The show is about how a content creator can get to 10,000 subscribers and $10,000 in revenue per month. You can listen to and watch all the episodes here. We’ve had amazing guests the last three episodes: Jay Clouse (Creator Science), Daphne Gomez (Teacher Career Coach) and Lexi Grant (They Got Acquired).

The Gambling You’ve Never Heard Of

My friend Stephen Davis sends me interesting articles and videos almost every week. Many of these Robert Rose and I feature on our This Old Marketing podcast.

Last week Stephen sent me this video about Valve’s gambling problem. Valve is the company behind Steam, an online game distribution platform with 120 million active users per month and 50,000 games. If you have teenagers, they are most likely using it.

The video uncovers the teen gambling problem that is not only happening, but growing on games such as CS:GO (36 million players last month). On this game, you can buy what’s called skins, which are weapon and wearable accessories for the player.

I knew all that. But what I didn’t know is that many users gamble their skins to get more valuable skins. You have to watch the video to believe it. According to the program, billions are being wagered on CS:GO alone, almost exclusively by teenagers 13-18. This type of activity is causing long-term damage to children and making them prone to more serious gambling issues in the future.

The more I find out about online gambling (see this newsletter issue) and the incredible growth of the sports betting industry, I’m inclined to think that gambling may be one of our society’s biggest hurdles in the next decade.

Anyway, if you are like me who has bought multiple Steam cards for your kids, this is something to be very aware of.

What Would You Like to Hear About?

Next edition of The Random is my 100th newsletter. Always a special number. What would you like to hear about? Please reply to this email and let me know. I’ll make it a special read for everyone.

Thanks so much for reading. It is SO much appreciated.

Practicing with AI Tools – #98

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Practicing with Artificial Intelligence

WARNING: This is a very long section on me practicing with AI tools. I’ve become fascinated with this and thought I’d share some results with you.

A little over a year ago, my friend and Marketing AI Institute founder Paul Roetzer told me about a new artificial intelligence design tool that would be coming out soon.

It was called DALL-E 2. The idea would be to describe the image you wanted in text and, using an AI algorithm, DALL-E would create an original image for you.

I was, as always, skeptical. That said, I was super curious.

AI Art

I signed up for the beta trial and finally gained access (right now, anyone can get access at OpenAI.com). I decided to test it with our podcast art for the This Old Marketing podcast.

After each episode, I go out and try to find a royalty-free image that I could use for the current episode based on the podcast topic. This generally would take me about 15 minutes. It wasn’t time consuming, but it was not something I enjoyed doing.

Some background: At times we’ve used a graphic designer (human being) to create these. The problem is that Robert Rose and I would often record our podcasts late at night on Thursday (distribution is Friday morning at 4 AM EST) so asking a designer to do this was often impossible. So…it was up to me.

I thought this would be a perfect case to use DALL-E to generate our podcast images. I started three weeks ago, so we have three solid examples to look at. The creation of each one has taken me about one minute: 30 seconds to come up with the phrase, 10 seconds (or so) for DALL-E to render the image, with the remainder left to download into the podcast template. Done and done.

Here are the images from the last three episodes:

I thought the images were nice enough and relevant to each episode, but the feedback tells me this is working. I’ve received a number of compliments from listeners over the past few weeks on the upgraded image design (although there has been no impact on listener-ship that I can tell).

The key to success is generating very specific textual descriptions and including the style you want it in. For example, the image for this issue of The Random came from DALL-E. This was the description I used: boxing match between two artificially generated humans, style of salvador dali

It gave me four options and this is the one I chose. If you like one but it’s not quite there, you can choose one of the four examples and get more variations of that particular image.

There are many AI-art generators out there now. Here’s a handy list.

BTW, my friend Brian Fanzo of the NFT365 podcast, has been generating AI-driven art for months and selling his AI/Human creations as NFTs. Each one has sold out in minutes.

AI Writing

I recently heard about an AI-writing tool called Jasper. Jasper claims that they can create quality blog posts (and other writing outputs) with just a few prompts.

Again, my skepticism was high.

I signed up for a trial version of Jasper and got to work.

I took one minute and inputted the following:

Title: How to Gain Newsletter Subscribers
Audience Target: Content Creators, Newsletter Writers, Entrepreneurs
Voice: Professional

In 30 seconds here is what I received:

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Blog Title: How to Gain Newsletter Subscribers

Blog Introduction: If you’re reading this, chances are you’re looking for ways to grow your newsletter subscriber list. And rightfully so! A newsletter is a great way to keep your audience informed about your latest content, products, or services. But if you don’t have any subscribers, then your newsletter will never see the light of day. So how do you gain newsletter subscribers? Keep reading to find out!

Blog Body:
1. Use a CTA in Your Blog Posts
If you have a blog (which you should!), then make sure to include a CTA (call-to-action) at the end of each post inviting your readers to subscribe to your newsletter. You can also include a CTA in the side bar of your blog or in the header or footer. Basically, you want to make it as easy as possible for your readers to subscribe.

2. Leverage Social Media
Social media is a great way to promote your content and grow your audience. So why not use it to promote your newsletter too? Every time you post something new on social media, be sure to include a link to your newsletter sign-up page. You can also run ads on social media specifically for your newsletter.

3. Host a Contest
People love free stuff! Hosting a contest is a great way to entice people to sign up for your newsletter. Make sure the prize is something that would be of interest to your target audience. And be sure to promote the contest across all of your channels—social media, email, blog, etc.—to get as many people as possible to enter.

4. Provide an Incentive
In addition to running contests, you can also provide an incentive for people who sign up for your newsletter such as a discount code, free shipping, or early access to new products or content. This is a great way to sweeten the deal and encourage people to subscribe.

Conclusion:
There are lots of ways that you can gain newsletter subscribers. By using CTAs on your website and promoting them on social media, you can give potential subscribers an easy way to sign up for your newsletter. You can also host contests and provide incentives as additional motivation for people to subscribe. So what are you waiting for? Start growing your subscriber list today!

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Okay, not amazing but not horrible. There is real potential here to take base content written by AI and do something incredible with it.

My next question was this: could AI write my next mystery novel?

I started doing some searching and found this article on how to switch Jasper to “Boss Mode” so I could have it create long-form content (like a book).

After making the settings changes, I gave it a prompt. That prompt was the first five paragraphs of my novel The Will to Die.

NOTE: you can scroll through some of this…I’m just trying to give you an idea of what it can do.

Here’s the first five paragraphs…my writing:

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Everything seemed to be in place. The desk was to Abe’s right. How many meetings had he taken behind that old mahogany desk? Must have been thousands. He could see the legs of his desk chair and scanned down to the wheels that clung to the plastic roller mat, which was in dire need of replacement. The cracks in the mat were visible. It now made sense to Abe why the desk chair didn’t glide from side to side the way it once did.

The lower half of the office door was open a crack, with the light from an exit sign shining in from the outside. That seemed normal. It was late. He was the only living person at the funeral home at this hour. The lone sound was a passing car every ten seconds or so driving on the main street, probably a few feet away from the adequately lit Pollitt Funeral Home sign.

Abe could see the lower pane of the office window and then looked down to where the drapes came in contact with the ground. He was in shock of how filthy the bottoms of the drapes were.

Abe shifted his eyes to his left and noticed a congregation of dust bunnies underneath the coffee table. He realized he’d never once in forty years looked under that table. He tried to sweep the dust particles away with his left hand, but nothing happened.

That’s odd. Then he tried to blow them away, but he couldn’t turn his head to make it happen. It was then Abe realized he was lying on the floor. How did he get here? He thought he knew but couldn’t remember. He tried to turn over to push himself off the ground. Nothing happened.

—–

And here’s how Jasper continued on with the story…

—–

He tried to yell for help, but no sound came out. Abe could feel the panic rising inside of him like a geyser about to erupt. He was paralyzed!

Abe lay on the floor, trying to move and make some noise, but he was completely helpless. He looked around the room, trying to see if there was anything that could help him, but he was completely alone. The only sound was the occasional car driving by outside.

He knew he wasn’t dead—he could still think and feel—but he had no idea what had happened to him. Was this some kind of prank? Or had someone actually done something to him? He didn’t know how long he lay there before he finally managed to drift off into an uneasy sleep.

He was awoken by the sound of footsteps outside the office door. Someone was coming! Abe tried to call out, but he still couldn’t make a sound. The footsteps got closer, and then the door opened.

Abe’s heart sank as he saw who it was. He would have preferred anyone else in the world at that moment, but it was his boss, Mr. Pollitt, who stood there looking down at him with a cold, unforgiving expression.

“I’m sorry, Abe,” Mr. Pollitt said. “But you’re fired.”

Again, not perfect by any means, but I was simply amazed by how this can help writers (not necessarily create all the content). If I’m a writer and I’m completely stuck, I could see Jasper assisting me to get to the next section, or come up with a new direction for the novel.

Editors are still needed here, but I can see the possibilities for a tool like this. For a human being that can understand how to prompt the AI-engine correctly, it could be a game changer.

And I say all this while I’m not quite sure this is a “good” thing.

Thanks for subscribing and, if you made it this far, shoot me an email and let me know what you think of AI solutions like this.

One More Push

In less than two weeks I’m participating in Silence for Speech 2022. For 12 hours (yes, 12 hours) yours truly WILL NOT BE SPEAKING to raise money (and awareness) for kids who desperately need speech therapy and can’t afford it.

Thank you SO much for those who already donated. It is truly appreciated.

Anything you can do would be great. Please support me here. And fyi…$100 covers two hours of speech therapy and everything you give goes directly to the kids.