Chris Melotti on The AI Trap Hurting SMB Marketing

Speaker 1: is if a business doesn't have any sort of goal, then I always encourage them to go away and do it, or I'll do a goal workshop with them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If people listening and watching, they're probably wondering what does that look like? I mean, what's the business doing in a year? Two years and five years. Even as a small business, you have to have those things. And I'm not saying it can all be unique, but you need to have something like, I will make this revenue target, or I'm looking to

Speaker 2: with them. So you have that too.

Speaker 1: double growth or even something small. Like it might be something like I want to launch my next flavor or line. It could be small. But the thing is, if you come to a marketing person and you say, want to do marketing and they go, what is your goal? And you go, I just want to exist. You're literally, your marketing is, you're going to get angry at them because you're to go, what has the marketing done? And they're like, well, I've just been trying to help you exist.

Speaker 2: Yes, exactly right. Hey, what's up? Jeremy here, the owner ads guy, Digital Graph Marketing. Listen, I just had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Malotti. Chris Malotti is a true legend in the game. He's been around the game for about 20 years now. ⁓ And you know, we reconnected recently and we're talking about everything from marketing, how it's evolved from back when Mad Men days, Don Draper days to now where it's AI or home offices. And there's so much wisdom and he empaths with me and he's also one of the first people that helped me get my blog on the way. I just have a lot of respect for him and he's such a nice guy for saying yes to my ⁓ up and coming pod. So yeah, definitely can give it a watch. He also talks about a thing that I've never heard before, which is I caused sufficiency bias. ⁓ And he schooled me on that and explained to me why and how detrimental that could be for a business. So yeah. Definitely an excellent episode. Check it out and let me know what you think. guys, welcome back to another episode of Quick Wins Podcast. I'm your host, Jeremy Yang of Digital Glyph Marketing, and today I'm with the great Chris Mallotti. I met this man about 10 years ago at a general assembly when he was doing ⁓ one of his lessons. I was very impressed and I'm glad that I ran into him much later. He's the first one that contributed to my blog. and really helped me along the way. And we figured out that we don't live that far away from each other. So, so good to you here, Chris. Yeah, please give a quick intro of yourself,

Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Jeremy. It's an honor to be here. So my name is Christopher Melotti. I'm a marketing consultant. I'm a brand communications coach. I have a marketing agency, Melotti Content Media, and I help make brands relevant and personal brands relevant through constant execution strategy and brand communication foundations.

Speaker 2: Love it. And we always like to start with the thing that they're promoting. I'll tell you why, right? Because sometimes I listen to whole episode and then I'm like, I can't afford this guy anyway. What a waste of time that was. So we go from the start, go, yep, what's he doing? How much is it for? And then people can decide if they're going to hear it or not.

Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, perfect. Perfect. Yes, I agree. So while I work with a lot of large brands and a lot of, you know, governments, and I work with a of things, people, you're right, Jeremy, a lot of people go, oh my gosh, I can't afford him. But actually, a lot of my sessions that I do that are strategy based around 400 to 600 session. And the reason why I do that is because I work with a lot of startups and I want to make strategy accessible. And so a lot of clients that I work with will literally just say, can I book an hour to two hours of your time? And you, and we like run through something really easy. So like, it's not like they will go, ⁓ I need something in depth, like a business plan or marketing plan, which, which can happen. ⁓ a lot of the times it's, it's something as simple as like just a general marketing, like strategy, like they'll go, I'm going to show you my website. And what I want you to do is literally go through my website with me live. So record that session. that. So sometimes it's, my voice, pull my brand apart.

Speaker 2: All those things. know, when we spoke in the past, we were talking about the clients that we might be working together on. know, you're so natural at it, like you can't help yourself, but can't. Stop putting stuff out. go, why aren't you saying this? Why do you? And it's, it's really good. So that part's really important, you know, and that kind of, cause you've been in the game for, 20 years. Five. 25 years. Oh my goodness. So I only been in game for like nine years and I came from a tradie background. So very different. Yeah, I was gyms and tennis. I was the longest gyms and tennis in Australia.

Speaker 1: That's so incredible. That's awesome.

Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I did. And then I went back to uni and me and you both were Macquarie, but you were probably earlier than me. And then I went back to get a marketing degree. Um, but what I always never understood was the time before, like, you know, when you look at the, the Don Draper percent, like the marketing agency suits, kind of thing. Was there really a thing like that? Oh, so long lunches. Yeah.

Speaker 1: changed our lot. Yeah, yes, yeah. 100%. So I studied marketing in 2003, 2004, 2005. Like that was my, when I was at uni, marketing. And then I studied law after that. So I loved Macquarie uni and enjoyed it. But when I first started my marketing career, because I had a few jobs while I was studying and it really was like that, Jeremy, like, I, and it wasn't a bad thing. Like it was, I think today is a very different landscape of marketing. Back then, it's not even that long ago, it's not like it's the 80s, like this is the mid early 2000s. Like when I started as a marketing assistant and I worked for a lot of big companies that were really fun. We went on holidays, conferences. ⁓ we went to long lunches and all of that. And, you know, worked in agency side, I worked in client side and it was about the politics of the situation. was about the schmoozing. was about the learning and growing and, and you know what? It's not always that glamorous. Like it's not like, there are advantages that unfortunately have been lost. I feel like today now everything is done at such a fast pace.

Speaker 2: Okay, yeah.

Speaker 1: Yes. That we kind of don't let the creativity flow as much as we did. Yeah. Back then, the reason why we did a lot of those lunches was not just to win the account. A lot of it was to, ⁓ like to learn and to grow and to brainstorm and to think. And we had a bit more time to do that. And we launched some big campaigns that, that would really like really set the world on fire and go for awards. And I feel like today there is some, a lot of good work out there. Don't get me wrong. those, that different level of professionalism and in-person meetings has changed.

Speaker 2: So let me ask you this, you know how you gave the example of the sneaker bar? Like the sneakers bar, the ad, like how you're in your podcast. Yeah, you how you know yourself when you're hungry.

Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're not really yourself. Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 2: So that idea would have came out from one of those lunches.

Speaker 1: ⁓ no, definitely. Yes. Yes. So for everyone who's wondering. there was an ad that Snickers did a couple of years ago that where ⁓ it was like they had an actor like Betty White who was like playing rugby and then they would like she would eat a like a Snickers bar and then she turned into a rugby player and it was like not yourself until yeah, yeah, And and it's yeah, those kind of big stunts and big campaigns. know they happen today. But they were the direct result of a lot of that stuff. Like I remember when I worked in agency side, we would literally like meet with a client, then we would sit down and brainstorm for like hours and go, here's some ideas. And even when I was on client side and I was the head of marketing, I would have three or four agencies pitch and they would bring those kinds of ideas and things to us. And it was fantastic. It was a really cool.

Speaker 2: We don't have that anymore. don't think, like for me, because I want to make this about myself for one second. So because for me, I'm not, I'm not really, I don't have the appetite for the politics of that, for the, for the game and all that. And that's, that's okay. That's not for everyone. ⁓ I would love to be like part of the ideation, you know what mean? Like we did a lot of that in uni, but there's no more of that. And me on the ad side of things, like, I don't think.

Speaker 1: Yeah

Speaker 2: we ever get that, we just get a lot of ideas that we get to test.

Speaker 1: Yeah. And that's, that's what's happened with the commoditization of ideas with AI, but not even just AI, it's just, um, you know what? Marketing has evolved because the platforms as well. like the Facebook, the LinkedIn, what they do is they optimize and optimize and optimize. it's like, you can see even when you do a Google ad, they give you like, you know, insert six or seven different variations and then it runs all these AB testing and all of that, which is, like, not, let's be honest, that's an improvement as well. ⁓ It's not as personal, but you know, it hits more because you can sort of test things and yeah.

Speaker 2: You can get to the bottom quicker, but back then when you have a big idea and the production goes behind and the dollar goes behind it, if it flops...

Speaker 1: Yeah, and they did. They did sometimes. Yeah, yeah. And so and so it's not like it's not always better or worse is just evolved and different.

Speaker 2: See ya! Yes, okay, got you. Yeah, love it. right now, like just say, I think I imagine because most businesses are smaller businesses, they're listening and thinking, well, how do I get this guy on my thing? Like, what's your current process now?

Speaker 1: Yeah, so the way I like to work is I'm a content and communications marketing agency at Melody Content Media. ⁓ So what we do is we sit down and we do those strategy sessions. And the reason why, and this is for everyone listening and watching. Always start with a strategy session. Like I'm sure Jeremy, you do this as well. Is if an agency wants to rush into tactics and execution straight away, that can actually be quite dangerous because that's when you're setting yourself up for failure because they don't fully understand your circumstances and things. If you're asking me how marketing has evolved, it's that. every business is so different in such a different circumstance that the same marketing execution for a different business could flop versus could succeed. So it's really important like I do to sit down with a new client or even a current client and do the strategy session, work out where they're going, what they're doing, how they're doing it, what's the situation, what are the competitors, what are the customers, what are their needs and goals and all of those kind of things because the best marketing is not just execution, it's done from a plan of goals and objectives and understanding the circumstance because if you were to say to me, I want to run a LinkedIn campaign or I want to do some personal branding. The first question I always ask clients is why? Because the thing is, is that if they've come to an idea, I want to know what goal or what ambition they have. Cause sometimes I'll say to them, it's better to do some videos or it's better to do something else. ⁓ And so strategy was always first. Then what I do is I do brand positioning. And what that means is corporate identity or brand identity. I spend time working with a client to put together their brand on a page, if you will, like their DNA. So like not, your logos and your colors, but like your vision, mission, narrative, your internal culture, your, ⁓ like your hero statements and, and your personality, your tone of voice, all of that is important for every single business. If you do not have that brand communications and brand positioning documents set up, then you had a loss because This is the, I say this Jeremy all the time. If your brand lives in your head, you're, setting yourself up for failure because when you hire new people or you hire an agency or you do anything like that, you have to tell them what you see. Whereas if it's written down and approved and vetted, you can literally say, new employee. He is our brand. Hi, sales team. He is our brand. Hi, marketing team. He's our brand.

Speaker 2: I agree with you. So just for the first two, can I just quickly, second. just want to ask you something real quick, real quick. So for the strategy session, what do you say to businesses who don't have clear goals or the goal is not really, they're like, cause everyone else is doing it. So, know, I figured I got to do something.

Speaker 1: dangerous. The reason the way the reason is, is because I want to explain to them that they're going to waste their money and money is too precious to waste. I'm not that guy that goes, well, just spend it with me. Not at all. Because then you're going to be angry that you don't get results. And I didn't want you. So, so like, to answer your question, Jeremy is if the first thing is if a business doesn't have any sort of goal, then I always encourage them to go away and do it. Or I'll do a goal workshop with them.

Speaker 2: with them. So you have that too.

Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. If people listening and watching, they're probably wondering what does that look like? I mean, like, what's the business doing in a year? Two years and five years. Even as a small business, you have to have those things. And I'm not saying it can all be unique, but you need to have something like, I will make this revenue target, or I'm looking to double growth or even something small. Like it might be something like I want to launch my next flavor. It could be small, but the thing is if you come to a marketing person and you say, want to do marketing and they, and they go, what is your goal? And you go, I just want to exist. You're literally, your marketing is you're, you're going to get angry at them because you're to go, what is the marketing done? they're like, I've just been trying to help you exist.

Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. Yeah. So I think that's very well explained and articulated. So the second thing is, you know, I spoke to you the other day about this thing on your podcast as well. Like, cause people will look like you. Right. And that claim they do the same things as you. Right. And then they, the client already got one of these, they got, not this stuff again. Right. Cause they spent like two days or whatever. They got these half finished documents. It's not very good. It's template. It's cookie cutter. I know you are different, but how do you convince those jaded people to be back on your side?

Speaker 1: get it. You know what? it's the chat. It's the chat. I think honestly, Jeremy, like I wish I had some sort of like, but when I, when I speak to clients, would say a good eight out of 10 have been burned before. had this conversation just last week, like a guy from Queensland. He said he's trying to get me to help him build his website and his brand. And he said, listen, I've had, you know, I'm a family business. I've had multiple different agencies come and, I just, And I've been burned so many times. And so I literally spent the time talking him through it to reassure him about how I work. And what I would say is make sure that you're ready to have those conversations. Right. Because people today are worried that their budgets are tight. We're going through a lot of different world events and things. so if you're not able to confidently explain what you do and how you do it, it's a real problem because People are going to go, they do, they look at your website and they go copy paste, you know, like lawyers have a lot of this problem a lot of the time, they all are the same. Finance companies have this problem, tech has this problem. A lot of these professional services, know, insurance, that to the average customer, they look and sound the same. So if you don't invest in your marketing to make yourself look authentically,

Speaker 2: Mortgage brokers.

Speaker 1: different and originally different, right? So not AI, like this is your stuff you put together authentically, your photos, your language, your tone, your videos, all of that. That's where you stand out. And that's why people choose you. And so it's really important that you never forget that as a business of any size or shape.

Speaker 2: you so that'll be before interruption that was first two steps so you got that you got the strategy you got the yeah the first bit yep

Speaker 1: No, no, interrupt away. So once you've done, once you've done your strategy, once you've done your brand foundations, then you get to execution. And the reason why you do that is because you've now set up your goals and your objectives and your strategy. Then you've got your brand messaging and brand positioning and direction now is when you start to go execution. So that's like award submission, writing PR websites, videos, photos, social media content and LinkedIn. ⁓ you know, could be. I capability documents are very, popular landing pages and brochures events. But see the difference. Jeremy is you don't start from the end. Yes. Because if you start, if you literally say, you know, if you, you, if you get a client that says that Jeremy, I'm sure you play, if I said do ads, right. You probably wouldn't go, all right, give me your money. You'd say, what, Yeah, like what, why, why are we doing ads? hope you, I hope you do that bit. if you don't ask those questions, you're just putting money into a machine and then they're going to go, Jeremy, what happened? You go, well, I

Speaker 2: Absolutely. It's very scary. I run into the situations a lot because that's what I always like to hang around marketing strategists because you already got the plan for them to sort it out. And they'd be like, makes sense. Well, I'm just coming in for this little part of it. And I know the language. I know what you're going for. You have clear goals. Then I can draw some dotted lines. Because ads, a lot of it is about math. I'm not creative like you. Ads are a lot of it is about math. It's a lot about timelines, math, how aggressive you want to go. Yeah. So yeah. So that's the process, was there anything after? And then I think that number four and five is your analysis or something, last time I remember.

Speaker 1: No, so the main thing is we do execution ongoing, right? We might revisit the first two steps occasionally, but like, we might update your strategy in a year or we do like, you know, revisit the brand messaging or expand it. But most of the time then it's regular monthly catch ups and, you know, checking in on things and running events and all of that. But it's still underpinned by the strategy and the brand foundations.

Speaker 2: But you when you mentioned all those things, capability statement, digital PR, events, landing page, and I know that that all draws from the initial strategy document up the top, right? But then do you help them implement a lot of that stuff if there was the money involved? If they got like, yeah, sure, let's do it.

Speaker 1: And I also, I'm a big fan of helping and empowering clients to be able to do it themselves as well. I like that. So where I need to step in, do. But a lot of the time, ⁓ you know, when time's an issue, like they don't have time, that's when I help, or expertise when they're lacking that. But when they have the capabilities to do it in-house, I always try and encourage that. So, and the reason why is because... Sometimes businesses and brands, love to get involved. And I'm a big believer in that. Today, marketing is not a department in your business. It's not a function. It's the whole business. And I always give this example, right, Jimmy? If your website says, are friendly and approachable, we're a great team, and then they call and you're nasty on the phone, right? That does brand damage. And that's part of your marketing. Right? It is. It's not, it's not your business operations. It's your marketing. If you promise something and then you don't deliver it in the same way, then you do brand damage. And guess what? Everyone tells everyone. Everyone says, ⁓ that guy or that team or that business. They all do it. And you look online, they're all over Reddit. They're all over things saying, ⁓ they promised this, but they didn't deliver. And so it's the same thing about a plumber or electrician. If that says, where your friendly local, right. And then they're horrible. They don't clean up after and so damage to brands straight away. so it's really important for everyone to think now marketing is not a department that does the pretty photos on social media. Marketing is your whole brand positioning, your corporate identity, your execution. And so it's really important to make sure that they're all aligned.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Okay. No, that's, that's great. I think that that's, um, that's also a really important point. Was there anything like you feel like in your dealings that are kind of a hidden, hidden fear or hidden hesitation that makes them not want to do marketing? All the time. All the time. Yes.

Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. the main ones are, I can do it myself using AI. this is a big trap, right? And the reason why it's a trap, it's not me dissuading you. I love AI, right? Everyone is watching, it's not me going, ⁓ know, Chris is just saying that so you don't use it. Not at all. But the problem is what's called sufficiency bias, which means that when you ask AI to do something for you,

Speaker 2: the

Speaker 1: You think, well, it's better than I could do. And so you don't vet it with scrutiny. You just use it. so all the time, see, like people often say to me, Oh, well, it's better than I could have done. So that's, that, that's not okay. The reason why is because if you're a, here's an example. If you're a dentist and you say, I'm in Mossman and you get, and you get AI and you say, I'm a dentist in Mossman. He's a few of my competitors, um, write me a homepage. Right. And it was something now at first. As a dentist, you go, sounds pretty good. It says what it needs to say. Then you realize half of your competitors website is now on your site. ⁓ it's saying the wrong things with the wrong tone. Right. So you, as a dentist think, well, it's saying I'm a dentist and I look up your smile. It says, do cleaning. does it tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. But then what you don't realize is your customer is looking at your competitors when they're making a decision. And if you sound exactly the same, which is what AI does. Then guess what you're competing on? Price. Right? And so the thing is, is that it's much better to make sure that you put your originality in it, which is like what, what makes you different? Right? I this with a, with a business recently and they said, ⁓ we use a lot of technology. like, that should be all over your website. Like you should say our specialty is this is what makes us different. Yeah. All of that. So careful with the fish and spice. The second part of that question that you wanted is why people were reluctant to market budget. Yep. Always budget. I get that. I understand that. And look, I get it. Every business decision is always a risk, right? If you put a new CRM in, it's a risk. If you do marketing, it's a risk. A new HR policy, it's a risk. But this is the thing is when you choose to do marketing, if you embed it in strategy and it's centered around your business goals, it's a low risk because everything you're doing is aiming for something or should be aiming for something that you want your business to achieve. So what I'm saying is if you are trying to get more leads in the door, then your marketing should all be fighting and encouraging for more leads. And that's where the risk goes down because you should be able to use your own scrutiny to go, okay, I can see this marketing agency or the activities we're doing to generate more leads. And I can see where this would logically go.

Speaker 2: Yeah, I like it. You know, I never heard sufficiency bias before. This is the first time explain. I love it. And I also think that the thing that you're describing is around because a lot of people have these sessions and then they find that underwhelming. That's what I think about yesterday a lot too. got a straggler session. Yeah, yeah, they could have got awkward. I could have, could have, I could have done that. You know what I mean? Cause they're not very good. Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 1: Fortunately cowboys out there are unfortunate.

Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. And I was going to say before as well, think the positioning around for marketing people like me and you, think positioning maybe around COVID or just after COVID was a lot around, we're the good guys, right? Because the marketing agency was ripping them off, we're the good guys. But I think that's been overcooked as well now because everyone's saying that. I'm the anti-agency agency, I'm this, that. I think it's cooked now. So think we've got to go back to just saying what we do good.

Speaker 1: Yeah. the thing is, is that you can't trust one touch point to sell you. Right. So this is another tip is that make sure all of your marketing is alignment because people, this is the biggest problem, right? Is you see your business, you see your business, your brand every single day. Right. So you think, well it's all together, but it's not. If you look at your Google, ⁓ if you look at your website, your LinkedIn, all of those touch points that people see if they aren't aligned. then it's very confusing and people today don't put up with confusion, right? As soon as it's confusing, they move on to someone that's less confusing because it's easier for them. you know, so making sure that all of your touch points are aligned is so incredibly important because your website has to say what you're saying, which is what you're saying at events, which is what your brochures are saying, which is if it all looks different, you are easy to forget. And in a world where there's a lot of competition, a lot of noise, you don't want to be easy to forget.

Speaker 2: No, no, I love it. they'll look, I really appreciate it. there's so many good tips and, you know, as I would come to the end of our thing, I just want to know, I always ask this because I came in, is that two more questions from, me? I appreciate it as I'm coming in and I came out of, you know, um, Macquarie uni ducks 4.0 GPA because I was like, I really wanted to do this. was something I wanted to fulfill. Yeah. And then I was like, um, couldn't find a job.

Speaker 1: I'm Hathi.

Speaker 2: Right? Unpaid intern for a year and a half. Unpaid. That's illegal now. I don't know it's illegal, but it's like ruled out. I'm just discouraged and all that. like, guess that's my way to get in the door in a way. I got in. Yeah, I played with WordPress websites for, you know, for Brickworks and all that. And then I kind of like got to where I got to today. But like, what's your tip for the interns, like the people graduating these days?

Speaker 1: encouraged. It's really hostile. Yeah, look, I get it. It's tougher now. It's tougher than it ever has been before. ⁓ And look, for me, I recommend getting experience in any way, shape or form. And the reason why is this marketing is a, ⁓ can learn as much as you can, but marketing is an experiential discipline. And what it means is you like, you have to be able to get out there and problem solve. The reason why people don't choose marketing is because they like structure and formality. Marketing is not like that. Every day is different. Every client is different. Every circumstance is different. Like every day you are presented with a challenge. Someone will come to you and say, this is my issue, solve it. You have to be a problem solver, right? It doesn't matter what type of marketing you're doing. So the reason why people love experience in marketing when choosing a new employee or career is because you have to prove that you can problem solve. Right? Like your boss can't always say to you, hi Jeremy, let me show you how to solve this. You need to be able to think agile and be, you know, like open to different methods and, problem solving and thinking outside the square. And so, so what I would say for the new generation is how can you get experience that's going to demonstrate your ability to problem solve? So it might be your own project. You might be your own like task. ⁓ you know, know you said intern, but it's, it's not, it's like, might start doing something as free. And I'm saying what, what I mean is just getting a little bit of space. I'm not saying that there any year and a half that was really long. Something like, know, it might be going to, ⁓ you know, just making this up on the spot, but it might be like going to your local vet and, and offering and saying, you know, I've just graduated or I'm graduating from marketing. Can I do a little bit of free promotion on your socials and things to help you out? And what is, but it's not, it's you're not doing this for months or years. It might just be build your portfolio because then when you go for jobs, you can say, I volunteered at my local vet to run their social media. went from this to that.

Speaker 2: Yeah, and how you said-

Speaker 1: Yeah, right. And that's one way. The other way is like doing more courses like you know, you did done with me, what was it? The General Assembly, right? Yeah, doing some more courses and getting involved and all of that. and building your resume of projects and experience to prove because your career will be built on reputation and ⁓ demonstration of experience.

Speaker 2: General Assembly. Yeah, definitely. Like, I think even those General Assembly stuff, I'm always bad, I'm never any good at it, but like, networking and stuff like that.

Speaker 1: Networking is important because in today's digital world, people want to see you getting out and amount it. Now you might be like, ⁓ I'm not an extrovert or that. That's fine. It's not about like getting a megaphone. It's about getting involved, meeting people, connecting with people. Again, there's people like to get a feel of you. They like to understand what you're doing and your approach and you can be a quiet achiever. People will see that. But you're not going to build your career sitting and waiting, right? You need to, especially in marketing. In marketing, world changes so much, everything changes so quickly, and you just want to be involved. Get out there, participate, ⁓ look at the latest trends. The other thing I would suggest is, again, Jeremy, you're right, I can't help myself, ⁓ look at what's evolving and jump on that. Because sometimes the best marketers come out from a new trend. You know, like I remember when TikTok was started, people started setting up TikTok agencies and now they're huge, right? So it's like, if you're a younger person in marketing, you know, look, don't, you don't always have to go and compete with things that are already well established. Look at what you love to do. Like I know Snapchat was, you know, very big over last few years and people set up things on that. It's creating that demand and being at the forefront of what you already love. can really help you.

Speaker 2: Yeah. As you are talking about this, you know how like every day is like a new AI tool that came out. Correct. And you have like a war of AI icons. Like it's a computer game. You're picking skill levels or something. It's like, look, if you're able to, if you're just able to use one, I don't know, like I think it's pretty, can do like two or three string together and solve a problem. Like not many people can do that yet, you know.

Speaker 1: No, and that's the thing. people will pay for that. that can be your type. I mean, look at you, right? Like Jeremy, you, you, you came from a trading background. Yeah. The thing is you have that advantage and I don't know if you use it, but like you, you, you could have said, I'm, I'm a trader. That's a marketer, right? I get you and that's your niche. And then you specialize. Yeah. And then they get it. they go, Oh, this is not some, some random marketing person. Like Jeremy is one of us, you know, and then that, your career driving momentum. So there's a lot of opportunity there.

Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. I think they do. yeah, it's really great tips. Especially, know what I really love the most is about your sufficiency bias. I'll look it up. ⁓

Speaker 1: You know what? It's the biggest thing I try and promote when it comes to AI. And the reason why is not to discourage people, but to encourage people to be more about scrutiny. My own team do it. Like, because I have copywriters, right? And I use Chatjibiti to do research. a lot of the times they go, ⁓ that's great. And I'm like, but did you check, is it the right tone? Right? Like I've had Chatjibiti say irreverent things. and say things that aren't contextually or nuancedly relevant, know, like, it'll say something that's odd or it'll use internal strategy language for an external message. And someone might go, oh, that sounds brilliant because you're the one doing the authoring. You think, oh, that's exactly what I want to say. But when the end user is reading that, they'll go, well, that's a bit on the nose. Right. And Chachapiti doesn't know the difference you do. Yes.

Speaker 2: That's exactly right.

Speaker 1: So it's better than me. Right. You've got to be able to scrutinize and check it and say, is this actually the right outcome? Has this produced, you know, like even the video and the latest stuff, just writing, think about when AI is producing video, does this reflect what I want my brand to have? Cause he, know, if you go, I'm just making this up now, Joe, if you say, me a video where I grab a can of soda and I drink it and go refreshing, right. And it does that. And it does weird AI things. And then you get backlash for using AI. Then you damage your brand. Yes. So you have it because, then AI, can I tell you all those platforms have a list of terms and conditions that say it's your problem, not ours. that's what it So you can't say, Oh, it was clawed. You're in charge. So your scrutiny must hold up, especially in

Speaker 2: yeah yeah Yeah, for sure. think that people always, know, it's also cliché now, human in the loop, human in the loop, right? Human in the loop. So it's like everyone explains a little bit differently. But I think this is a great way of explaining it. I'm going to look into it, to write a bit about it.

Speaker 1: Yeah, it's called called sufficient advice. I also say the human AI human sandwich. I know it's a bit gross, but that's what the way I explain it when I teach classes in my yes, as I say the human prompts with a lot of prompting, then the AI does its magic, but then the human has to come to

Speaker 2: What And must, must, must come at the end. love it. you just, um, on the final note, you know how you touched about your team and all that. Um, Melody media is Christopher Melody. Like it's heavy, right? Like, like you are on the front. And for me, I can't step away either. As soon as I step away, like things are not going to work the way cause they're looking for me. Um, do you have plans or growth? Like what's the future for you?

Speaker 1: Yeah, no, no. So I've got, I've got a great team. I've got people in Queens and I've got people. Yeah. And, and, so the thing is I moved away from the agents. I still work heavily in it, of course. Yeah. But even though it's got my name, I'm, actually out of it a lot. Like I changed all my language to be my agency. So, so Angela's my managing director now and, and I've got a team of, of executors and all these kinds of things. So, so even though, yes, yes, people, um, know me and they, and they work with me. Yes, they, I always make them aware that it's not always me involved, but I try and check everything as much as I can and I'm heavily involved in a of But you know what, can I say Jeremy, I don't care. And the reason why is this, what I mean by that is I don't care that I'm involved. I love being involved. So people often say to me, Chris, you know, ⁓ that's not scalable because you're so entrenched in your business. I don't care. want it. Because one, I love it. The second is, So many marketing agencies struggle from that. They used to be good syndrome. Yes. It started with the founder. The founder built the foundations and made a great agency with great policies and procedures. Then they built a team, right. And they were the head of that. And every, every coach and business owner will, sorry, trainer, sorry, every business coach trainer will tell you, but if you have the right policies and procedures in place, it should run without you. I don't think so. I've seen too many cases where that's a problem, right? And, and you will always lose that sense at one point or another, that sense of authenticity and real passion for it. And I've seen it happen with fellow marketing agencies, a lot around me and it ends up costing them a lot because they end up losing that what makes them special. So it's, so what I mean is I'm not, I'm not apologetic about the fact that I'm heavily involved in my business. because it's what makes us special. And my team follow my lead. they use the same policies and they use the same way and methodology I work with. And it does work without me. But at the same time, I like to inject myself because I want to make sure that every client is respected, everyone's looked after. And that's how it should be in marketing.

Speaker 2: Yep. I love it. mean, I've worked with the team a few times already and they're very good. Yeah. I've spoken to Angela as well once and I was very, very good as well. I love it. I really appreciate you coming on. ⁓ Please tell people how to find you. Please tell people again what you're promoting currently and how people can find you.

Speaker 1: est Yeah. So you can go to melottimedia.com.au or christimelotti.com.au. I'd love to have a chat about your business and your brand. We can just do that one-self strategy session. There's no obligation to do anymore. Don't be afraid to contact us because we are very happy to chat. I know people often go, oh my God, as soon as I contact them, they're to harass me. It's not like that. We're happy to help. And then if you can go by yourself and go for it, no problem. If you need us, we're always here.

Speaker 2: I love it. And was it people best to get you on LinkedIn and stuff? I took you on LinkedIn.

Speaker 1: Add me on LinkedIn, Christopher Melotti. You'll see all the orange everywhere. Yeah, I love it. And I like to chat. You can see I'm really liking to chat. So I go to networking events and yeah.

Speaker 2: It's the best. Thanks so much Chris for coming on Coming on to quick wings podcast. Yeah, we will see each other soon. Anyway. Yeah. All right. Amazing. All right. She's ready