#546 - Those AI Flyers You've Been Seeing

Speaker A: What's the deal with those AI flyers that so many people are using? And not just AI flyers, but billboards, yard signs, and all sorts of media and print that's getting put out there? We're going to talk about it on today's podcast and what the big deal is about why these things are getting such an outcry. Hey, my name is Blake Bins. I'm the host of the Good Advice podcast. And you come to the right place to learn how to do business better. No fluff on the podcast. Just the stuff that actually works in running a successful, scalable business. Hey, before we jump into today's episode, quick ad from one of the businesses that sponsored today's show. Check this out and we'll be back soon.

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Speaker A: All right, so let's talk about this. Uh, you know, this is always a fun thing to talk about because, you know, we're living in the world world of AI and all the neat and interesting things that come with it. But this is something that I have continued to see quite a bit of backlash about. And we're going to talk about it today and dig into should you be worried about using AI content for your flyers? Uh, is this something that, you know someone's going to leave you a one star review over? Candidly they might. Uh, you know, people are getting feverish about the anti AI conversation, which I'll be totally honest, I'm definitely, definitely biased towards, uh, being anti AI just because of, you know, my brand is so defined by just doing authentic business and genuine business. And so much of the AI slop that's out there is not genuine, it's not authentic. So I'll get that right out there from the get go. But having said that, I do have a Claude ah, membership and a chat GPT membership and have found some value in using AI for parsing through data and things like that. All that to say, jumping into today's conversation, there has been a, ah, raucous crowd, excuse me, talking about AI flyers. I've noticed this the other day. I've seen uh, quite a few posts on Facebook and on LinkedIn about um, I guess from random marketers being like, hey, stop putting up your AI flyers. And I, I think that this is actually something to pause and talk about because I totally get where are coming from now. Wherever you are in your business, many people have found themselves in a position where, you know, they couldn't afford to hire a marketer, they couldn't afford to have any kind of outside help. I totally resonate with that and empathize with that. In fact, often whenever I am in a sales conversation with people, I do what I wish someone had done with me way back when when I started. Good advice. I wish that someone had said, hey Blake, dude, don't spend any money on this. You got to build up your business first. You know, don't spend what little cash flow you have and put yourself in a difficult position. Though I did have one person at some point a couple years in who did give me that kind of advice and I so appreciate it. But often in my sales conversations with people, one of the first things we talk about is revenue. We talk about, you know, how much money are you making right now? What are sales like right now? How many are you selling right now? And realistically, is it an honest, um, is it an honest possibility that you can peel off some of your revenue and dedicate it to monthly marketing? And for many people, they can't, especially in today's economy, it's just not a doable thing. So from the get go. I often tell people, hey, don't spend money on this. Or I say, hey, here's how you can do it yourself. So I empathize with the person who, you know, maybe they just discovered canva and they're realizing, oh, there's so many cool assets and things that I can do myself. And, um, oh, my gosh. I mean, I think about some of my websites, some of our early websites, and just some of the early work, just. I cringe. I think, oh, my gosh, that was so awful. It was so terrible. Even, like, some social media content we put out that we made, I'm like, oh, it's so ugly. It's not. It's not a good one. Um, and all that to say, you know, you have, I guess, some of the excitement around tools like ChatGPT and what have you is that it can suddenly be your marketer, it can be your graphic designer, and it can start to generate lots of really cool things. So having said that, I don't think that the business owner who uses an AI flyer is necessarily taking shortcuts. I don't think that the person using this is, um, lazy or cheap or what have you. You know, the. The thing is that a lot of people who've never run a business, they don't understand the pain and challenge that comes with running a business. Uh, I've seen this myself where I was in a. I've told the story so many times. I was in a group, uh, conversation at a table, and we were talking about business struggles, and someone was saying how revenue was really difficult, and the table was like, hey, you just need a salesperson. And he was like, well, yeah, I know, but I, I can't afford that. I can't do that. Um, so, like, what's my next move? And someone was like, well, that's a limiting opinion or a, ah, limiting mindset. You know, you got to just believe that it can work. And the person was like, um, okay, well, I, I still can't afford to hire a salesperson. And they're like, no, you just got to do it. You just got to hire a salesperson. And then I jumped in and was like, squad, this is not doable for this person. They've literally said they are not even making enough money to pay themselves. And how many times in your life have you hired someone who was willing to work for free? It's not to say that there aren't plenty of sales positions out in the world that are commission only. It's not to say that there is Some avenue where this person could walk down this decision and make it happen. But point being, when people have never been in a position like this, it's easy to, you know, form an opinion on what needs to be done, what needs to be done, and what should not be done. So I empathize with the business owner who, you know, they're realizing all the cool things that come with AI and the productivity that comes with it. You know, that's, that's all very well and fine. Um, and I'm trying to ground our conversation too, and not get into, um, the ethics of AI. And you know, I have plenty of opinions about that. I've shared them on a multitude of podcasts. You can check all that out if you really want to deep dive on it, not get on the soapbox today. Um, but I, I do want to warn people who are overly using the AI flyer and part of your creative process. And this conversation reminds me of whenever we started Podcastable a few years ago, which we were doing podcast editing and production for people's podcasts. And then it was like, man, we really need to roll this out as its own thing. And so I launched Podcastable and I had this great customer, we did a lot of podcast content for them. And then it came around where, um, they said, hey, we want to use one of these AI tools, edit our podcasts, and then use you for like some of the more nuanced or niche clips or what have you. So we had this conversation and the thing about Opus AI or Opus clips, which is like, at the time it was like one of the most giga, uh, popular, um, podcast editing tools out there. Now there's quite a few other ones. I don't know if Opus is still like the main one or not. Um, but point being, I think opus was like $30 a month or something. Um, and then we, we were editing podcasts for something like $400 per episode. So, uh, I like, I'm not like surprised by someone like looking over at Opus being like, well, geez, this is a one time fee per month versus $400 per episode. Like, the difference is pretty staggering. Which is, by the way, if you go out and you try to hire a company to edit your podcast, $400 is pretty cheap. It's, it's, it's about what you'd pay. In fact, it's on the lower end of what you'd pay. The reason for this, and again, not getting like super in the weeds. I'm like, well, what do you even get from that? There's just those of you who've used AI for something versus hired an actual human. You've known the difference in quality. Or maybe you've even had a customer of your own who's come to you about AI versus what you can do and you've known the difference in quality despite that. You know, regardless of that, what has happened now is that customers are starting to notice the difference in quality. So continuing with the story, we pulled up some Opus clips and I, uh, had had this conversation actually a few times with just different customers over the last couple of years. And so I already had some things ready for this conversation. Never really bothers me, by the way, when a customer is looking at competitors or looking at other options. Um, it doesn't make me uncomfortable, it doesn't worry me, it doesn't get me panicked or offended. Um, you know, ultimately my customers loyalty to me is about as powerful as what I've done to earn it. And I've never really felt like I deserve anyone's business. And more important, I think the second part about doing good business is just being a great advisor and telling someone, yeah, let's look at Opus. Let's see if that's a better option for you. Um, and being genuine in that I have just found that long term it just builds so much more trust and actually develops fans of your business that are far more loyal than they would have been otherwise. So we look at this and in looking at Opus, um, in looking at Opus, we, we pull up a handful of clips and we're just kind of, you know, going through things and customers saying, you know, oh yeah, we could do something like that. Here's a clip where you know, it's, it's going back and forth and you know, what have you between like the guest and like the host and um, all those things and uh, the customer, we go through a few of them. M like, yeah, this is pretty good. And I'm not like bashing it. I have quite a few opinions about it. Um, but we're just kind of going through a few. And then I say, yeah, so what do you, uh, which ones do you like? Like, is there something that they do well here that you'd want us to do? And uh, the customer says, yeah, you know, they, they kind of all look kind of the same. And I said, yeah, they do. And he says, yeah, I mean they, it's like the same, same cuts and it just looks very similar. And I'm like, well yeah, it's an algorithm. It's gonna, it's applying an algorithm across a few different podcasts. And yeah, the font face is the same, the style is the same. Um, you, it all kind of looks the same despite them all being different podcasts. And it led to this conversation where it was like, so why do you pay for podcastable? Why are you paying for this other company rather than doing like, this $30 a month membership? And I said, well, let's, let's look at, you know, one of your recent episodes. So we pulled it up and we looked at like, the color grading and how visually the podcast just insanely popped versus the, um, the natural, uh, camera coloring. I could not think of the words to use it for a second. Um, but we were looking at like the actual, uh, original footage and we looked at like the actual color graded one. And I personally think that great color grading, unless you like, you're doing color grading normally, I personally think that good color grading, you really shouldn't notice that it's color graded. Um, the, the, the thing about this, by the way, is like, how, like, you know, Hollywood movies, like Mexico is always tinted yellow, you know, and it's like there's sometimes it's so overdone that you're just like, what's, what's, what's going on here? You know, what's happening here? Um, and so all that to say, you know, I don't, I don't think that, you know, color grading is, um, essential. Um, but, sorry, I thought I heard my kids yelling, um, all that to say. We looked at it and I said, yeah, I mean, it's color graded. It pops. Great. Okay, let's look at some of these clips. And then we were looking at the Opus 1, and it was like, oh, the opus, like, kind of missed the punchline. And I was like, yeah, so, like, do you think you're gonna go in and like, edit that and revise that and, you know, what have you. And he was like, I don't think I really want to. And I was like, okay, so you're seeing the value here. Point being, though, one, I think it's valuable just to talk to your customers, you know, talk to your customers and have these kinds of conversations with them and not get uncomfortable with your customers. I mean, I had, uh, a conversation with someone where they were looking to buy a website. And in the conversation they said, well, you know, what's it going to cost just to like, do it myself? And I said, well, I mean, it's your time. Like, how much do you know about this stuff? And I said, Well, I don't really know anything about this stuff. So I said, well, it's probably going to take a lot more time than you expect, but having these kinds of conversations, I think are just really valuable. But separately, helping your customer understand, like, what's the outcome? What's the goal? What are you trying to accomplish here? Right? And this is mostly like, from a marketing perspective, but let's say you as the business owner, you're thinking about, how do I really make more money? You know, the question you have to ask yourself is, am I trying to create a. A, um, you know, create like a first steps of a brand to get out there? Like, no one knows me, I don't have any money coming in, nothing's happening. I, I would say go the AI flyer route, but if you're genuinely trying to make a name for yourself of, like, quality and, um, you know, we do a good job and we know our business, why would you settle with something like an AI flyer? And this is someone, by the way, who I don't, you know, we don't do any creative work, we don't do any branding work, we don't do any design work. But why would you settle with something like that? Because ask yourself something. If you look just like everybody else, how does your customer see you? You know, if everybody's using these AI flyers and using this AI generated content, what are people going to think about you? M. You know, one of the things that came up on the podcast, this was years ago, years ago. I had someone on the show probably about four or five years ago, talking about the problem with the hotel industry and how the hotel industry had really floundered and failed. And one of the things that we talked about was that every hotel experience is exactly the same. This was also, by the way, when, like, Airbnb was, like, getting so much traction. And, you know, now, funny enough, people are kind of going back to hotels because of, like, cleaning fees and all the things that come with making Airbnbs very difficult. We were talking about, like, why had, why had Airbnb and VRBO and these other places taken so much business from hotels? Well, when you look at a hotel, what really makes it special, you have the continental breakfast that everyone has. It's the powdered, soggy eggs. And, you know, it's. It's the same toast and jellies and jams and, you know, cantaloupe, uh, set out. I mean, it's, it's about, it's about as cheap as you can get. Right? I think one time I was at hotel and they had a waffle maker, which I was all about. I was like, okay, now we're living large. We're making this happen, right? Um, but, you know, it's just funny to me. I mean, you look at hotels and it's like, yeah, they're all pretty much the same. In fact, a lot of them really aren't even that clean. You know, they're not even really, in many cases, not even really that nice. With exception, there's been a few that I've said that I've been like, okay, this was a great experience. But the point that I was talking to with this person on the podcast was he said, you know, the issue is, is that every hotel experience is just like one another. They're all the same. And the problem with that is that when competitors or when a customer is making a buying decision and all of the choices look the same, what do they most often cling to? Do you know, it's price. Think about it. You're at the grocery store or you're at the electronic store buying a TV or, you know, I, uh, don't know what you're getting. You're buying something and everything looks the same. I mean, when they all look. When the, the products are all the same, you're going to look at the dollar sign, you're going to look at the price tag. So what ends up happening then in, like, the hotel industry is all these hotels are similar experiences and they're all fighting over the cheapest price, and this is a race to the bottom. The same thing is true for your business. Do you really want to be known for having the cheapest price? This is something that I think newer business owners really struggle with in the sense of they're wanting to grow their brand, they're wanting to grow their business. They think that a cheap price is what creates accessibility, it's what creates greater interest in your business. But what it actually does is it does the opposite. It causes people to pass you over. Why? Because they don't think that you must have quality in your brand. Otherwise, why is it so cheap? Why is it so expensive? See, as much as people like to talk about wanting things to, um, uh, not wanting to pay for, like, a certain thing. This is separate, by the way, from like, the affordability crisis. I'm not talking about that. But people on one hand would want things to be so inexpensive. But on the same token, what do people value? What they're willing to pay for. There is a subreddit I haven't Been to it in forever, but I think it's called buy it for life or something like that. I think this is actually the wrong example, but, uh, there's, there's. I've seen social media posts about something you spent a lot of money on that you've never regretted. And you could probably think about something for yourself too. Maybe like a really nice coffee maker, you know? You know, just something you've splurged on and you're so glad you did it because the quality of it is so freaking good. See, we value what we pay for. And on the same token, you can probably remember a time that you skimped out on price and something broke or the quality was crap, so you had to buy it again and you had to buy it a third time. And then you finally ponied up the money and bought the one that was actually expensive. And then you thought, oh, uh, this is why it costs this amount. This is why is valued at this dollar amount. We've all learned that lesson. The same thing's true for your business. You don't want to be the cheapest one. It amazes me the number of times that people offer free services or, um, the worst offender I've seen of this is pay what you can. Or someone has like an actual business business, and they say, yeah, just pay what you can. You know, pay what you're willing. And it doesn't cause people to show up in troves. Instead it repulses people. Repulses, uh, is like such a strong word. It causes people to look you over because you don't charge anything for it, so they're not going to value it. And so, point being, you don't want to be the cheapest price. And with that, if you look like everybody else and people think you're like everybody else, and they don't see any differences and they don't see why you're special, then they're going to expect to look at your dollar amount. They're going to expect, or you should expect, excuse me, that they're going to look at your price. And it's a race to the bottom from there. Just like what happened with the hotel industry of the past 10 to 15 years. Uh, the same thing is true for businesses today that cannot differentiate themselves. And you gotta differentiate yourself in a way that makes sense. By the way, I had another guest on the podcast years ago who talked about being different has to matter. It has to make sense. He said, you know, you can show up at a business meeting wearing a clown outfit. And that's different, but it's not different in a way that makes someone want to buy from you. So different has to make sense. A good example of this, I think they're out of business. I don't think it worked out. But there was a web design company that they charge $50 a month to build a website and maintain your website. And there was no upfront cost, it was just 50 bucks. Which, by the way, I mean, you'd have to keep a customer for a year for this to make sense, money wise. But, um, and having a conversation with the owner, it was like, why do you all do it this way? And he's like, we just do it a different way. Um, now, granted, I don't think they lasted, but I appreciate, you know, they were doing something different. They were trying something different. You know, think about what you offer, what you sell. That cuts against the grain of what people expect in a way that benefits them, that makes them genuinely appreciate you more. That's different. That is different. That matters. That's what you should be known for. That's the kind of thing you should talk about when you talk about your brand or advertise or what have you. So again, you know, if you're new to the game, you can't afford creating some of this stuff. Is an AI flyer the worst thing you can do? Probably not. But if you're expecting it to move the needle or worse, you've spent hundreds of dollars printing off this kind of stuff. You've spent thousands. Worse, you spent thousands on a marketing company that has generated this kind of AI, uh, content for you. Uh, you're, you're in deep trouble because not only are you spending all this money that could have, could have gone to actual quality, um, you're putting out a bunch of slop that's not going to go anywhere. And you would think marketing companies wouldn't do that, but trust me, I've been in the game for almost a decade. I've seen it all and it would surprise you. Or maybe it wouldn't. Uh, the things people try to get away with. Hey, thanks for listening to today's podcast episode. If you enjoyed the podcast, feel free to subscribe to the show if you're not already. And don't forget, you can always support the podcast on our Patreon. Patreon.com Good advice, advice and a big shout out to all the people who support the podcast there. Hey, thanks for listening today. That's today's good advice. We'll catch you later. See ya.