What a world.

Who could have dreamed that parents would be fearful of a phone?

Is there any other conversation so vital right now? Should our children have a smart device? How do we monitor it? Keep our children sane and safe?

This is one of the essential topics Paul Roetzer and I cover in the new episode of The Marketing Companion. Paul has created a new resource.

In Kid Safe GPT for Parents, an online safety advisor to help parents understand and manage risks their kids may encounter online.

The GPT’s goal is to educate parents on the risks associated with digital interactions—from gaming to social media—and provide proactive guidance to help parents protect their children’s mental health and safety.

Kid Safe GPT offers practical advice, empathetic support, and tailored strategies to encourage healthy digital habits for families.

(And, it’s completely free to use with a ChatGPT account.)

In this show we also cover:

• AI literacy for marketers
• The future of art and creativity
• The magic of NotebookLM

You won’t want to miss this! Just click here:

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion Episode 302

Please support our sponsor, who brings you this amazing episode.

Bravo for Brevo!

This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customer to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence in order to strengthen their customer relationships.

Go to https://www.brevo.com/marketingcompanion to sign up for Brevo for free and use the code COMPANION to save 50% on your first three months of Brevo’s Starter & Business plan!

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post How to talk to your children about social media and AI appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

While AI is the greatest marketing story since the internet, it’s been earning a lot of bad press lately.

• Some analysts don’t see the possibility of an ROI commensurate with the billions being poured into the technology.
• Environmentalists decry the energy that is needed to maintain the systems.
• Lawsuits are flying everywhere, and deep fakes have become mainstream news.
• And on top of this, most people aren’t adopting the technology beyond “dabbling.”

It begins to make you think:: Does AI have a marketing problem?

A few weeks ago, I suggested that it was time for AI to embrace marketing. No tech company is telling the story of what AI is and where it’s going—the story is being interpreted by pundits, critics, and politicians.

Sure enough, both Google and Microsoft launched ad campaigns during the Olympics, but the ads were terrible. Google’s ad, in which a father encourages his daughter to use Gemini to write a letter to her favorite athlete, was particularly cringe-worthy. Writing a child’s letter? Is that the best you can do?

The AI marketing problem is one of many subjects I cover with Paul Roetzer on the new episode of The Marketing Companion. Paul is the founder of the Marketing AI Institute and always presents a measured view of the AI landscape. But we did address some hot-button issues like:

• The new AI “robber barons” knowing stealing content and IP to grow a business
• The HUGE copyright issue blocking adoption
• The special impact of Elon Musk
• The lack of preparation for possible AI-driven job loss
• AI and the U.S. election
• AI and marketing productivity

Does AI have a marketing problem? This episode will undoubtedly get you thinking. Click here to listen!

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion Episode 296

Resources mentioned in the show:

JobsGPT

Artificial Intelligence Show

MAICON

CharacterAI

Special thanks to guest appearances from RISE members who participated in the bonus Q&A session:

• Joeri Billast
• Brian Piper
• Dan Christ
• Sandee Rodriguez
• Roxana Hurduca?
• Bruce Scheer
• Scott Scowcroft

Please support our sponsor, who brings you this amazing episode.

Bravo for Brevo!

This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customer to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence in order to strengthen their customer relationships.

Go to https://www.brevo.com/marketingcompanion to sign up for Brevo for free and use the code COMPANION to save 50% on your first three months of Brevo’s Starter & Business plan!

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post Does Marketing Have an AI Problem or Does AI Have a Marketing Problem? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

No one I know studies the AI and marketing scene more thoroughly than Paul Roetzer. As the founder of the Marketing AI Institute, Paul wears himself out keeping up with the latest ideas and trends. So it was fun having him on The Marketing Companion podcast to get his views on current events!

In this show, Paul and I discuss:

• The ethics and philosophy behind using other people’s voices and faces in content. When is it fair use? What is the impact of new legislation?
• “Move fast and break things” has been a Silicon Valley mantra for years, but when does it cross a line when it comes to AI? New product shipments are so bad they might be fraudulent.
• New AI developments rate human performance and even grade the development of our children. Are we creating AI or is AI creating us?
• Several companies have announced AI replacements for executive functions. Can you blame a bot for bad performance? What about accountability?

I’m sure you’ll find this show as invigorating as I did. To listen in, all you have to do is click here >

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion episode 291

Please support our sponsor, who brings you this amazing episode.

Bravo for Brevo!

This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customer to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence in order to strengthen their customer relationships.

Go to https://www.brevo.com/marketingcompanion to sign up for Brevo for free and use the code COMPANION to save 50% on your first three months of Brevo’s Starter & Business plan!

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post Does ‘move fast and break things’ still work with AI? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

We are starting to move beyond the magic trick phase of AI and it’s time to start thinking about using AI without being overwhelmed.

Paul Roetzer of the Marketing AI Institute and I generally agree on the path and we discuss it in detail on the new episode of The Marketing Companion. In this unmissable show, we cover:

• How to cut through the overwhelm and focus on practical applications now
• How to think about organizing around AI
• Gaining competitive advantage by pushing the edges of AI
• Overcoming the number one obstacle to AI adoption
• How AI will be built into everything we do

You do NOT want to miss this. All you have to do is click here to listen:

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion episode 284

Please support our sponsor, who brings you this amazing episode.

Bravo for Brevo!

This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customer to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence in order to strengthen their customer relationships.

Go to https://www.brevo.com/marketingcompanion to sign up for Brevo for free and use the code COMPANION to save 50% on your first three months of Brevo’s Starter & Business plan!

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post How does a business start using AI without being overwhelmed? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Open AI, the parent company of ChatGPT, recently introduced new functionality that allows you to create an AI personal assistant — a custom GPT — software anyone can program by simply typing in what you want.

The press responded with headlines like “game-changing” and “earth-shaking,” and I actually agree. Anyone of moderate intelligence and a $20/month subscription can now be a software developer — even me! In time, any person or company can even sell their software creations on a GPT store, similar to the Apple App Store.

ChatGPT allowed every person to access AI. This new development allows anybody to create AI tools of their own.

As you would expect, early Custom GPT efforts have been quirky and in the “magic trick” category, but many of my friends have already created personal bots to help them stick to schedules, plan meals, and soothe stressed nerves.

No wonder there’s so much hype. It’s incredibly exciting … and it’s just beginning.

The business case for Custom GPT

This is a good time to bring in a rational voice, and the best person I could think of was Paul Roetzer. Paul is an experienced business leader, entrepreneur, and founder of the Marketing AI Institute.

In an amazing podcast interview, Paul and I cover:

• A structure for applying a Custom GPT to internal business practices
• How to get started with your own Custom GPT
• Why big companies are so far behind in AI adoption
• Legal implications
• Why the impact on personal productivity is “off the charts”
• Applying the Custom GPT to a consulting practice
• A path to increasing personal efficiency
• Why AI will continue to depend on great human writers
• How to explain AI to your customers .. and your children
• The potential backlash that could occur with massive job loss and AI deep fakes

… and much more.

You won’t want to miss this vital and timely show. All you have to do is click here:

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion episode 276!

Please support our sponsors who bring you this amazing episode!

Bravo for Brevo!

This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customer to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence in order to strengthen their customer relationships.

Go to https://www.brevo.com/marketingcompanion to sign up for Brevo for free and use the code COMPANION to save 50% on your first three months of Brevo’s Starter & Business plan!

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post Cutting through the hype of Custom GPT appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.