I have been going around the world giving two new speeches. One on “Harnessing AI for Your Business” and a new one based on my new book Audacious.

In the AI speech I make an important point — The rate of change will impact us as individuals and businesses as much as the change itself. To thrive we need to adopt a new mindset, a mindset of continuous change at a scale that is unprecedented in the history of our planet.

Think about it. The moment you read this sentence is the slowest rate of technological change you will ever experience.

If you’re in marketing, the problem is doubly difficult. It’s just nuts out there, and we need help coping!

I thought it would be interesting to discuss coping strategies with Jay Acunzo. We are both regarded as thought leaders in our spaces, and there is no halfway. Either you’re keeping pace, or you’re not.

In the new episode of The Marketing Companion we reveal our own strategies and secrets to stay ahead. Fasten your seatbelts! The world of blazing change is ahead. Just click here to listen:

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion Episode 312

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The post Six practical tips to stay ahead of the marketing learning curve appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Are you tired of reading about AI? Me too.

There’s a whole world of marketing disruption and opportunity to talk about, so let’s put GPT on pause for a moment and consider the State of the Nation and the 10 biggest marketing challenges.

One of the best parts of my job is interacting with business leaders of all types. I get a broad, global perspective of marketing issues from the very largest companies to solopreneurs and startups. And I certainly hear some common themes when it comes to the biggest marketing challenges.

Surprisingly, they have nothing to do with AI, at least not directly. Here’s what’s going on in the world from my perspective. These are NOT in any particular order.

1) Awareness

OK, I lied. This one IS in order — probably the biggest challenge we face today.

Marketers create customers. And to create customers, we must create awareness for our products. Rising above the noise to earn attention has never been more challenging. Media channels are fragmented and, as we see with TikTok, tentative!

Consumers have become their own streaming media entities. How do we get into those earbuds? And then you have AI swarming the media landscape. Sheesh. Marketing is hard. This is the time for audacity! 

2) From big campaigns to small acts of cultural relevance

A few years ago, Pepsi announced that the big brand “bonfires” were over. Brands had to connect to moments of cultural relevance. At the time, I wondered what that meant. But it became clear as brands became part of music, sports, fashion and leaned into emerging consumer signals.

Certainly, that is the direction of the marketing world right now, as brands try to capitalize on memes and trends instead of planning massive campaigns months in advance. A focus on cultural relevance requires an obsession with …

3) The Need for Speed

At 8:48 p.m. on February 03, 2013, a milestone event occurred that changed the face of marketing forever. The power went out at the Super Bowl. and in 10 minutes, Oreo launched an ad:

I remember being at a Super Bowl party  — there was a gasp in the room when the commercial ended. How did they do that?

The ad transcended all norms of advertising. The brilliance lay not only in the imagery but in the blazing speed of execution. This wasn’t a meticulously planned campaign — it was marketing at the speed of culture. The ad wasn’t just broadcast on TV; it also became a social media viral sensation and the company’s all-time most tweeted content. It was a global showcase of the potential of real-time marketing.

In the TikTok Era, a brand might have an hour to be relevant. There’s no time for planning or measurement. Many brands live in a reaction culture. This has massive implications for creative, resources, and legal approvals!

If the need for speed hasn’t transformed your marketing department, it will soon.

4) The Disconnected Customer

Many people, especially those under the age of 25, experience their entire media world by themselves through earbuds. They binge music, video, movies, and podcasts in an ad-free streaming environment. They play their games and socialize in Discord groups. They’re not visible to brands, and they don’t see the brands either, at least not like they used to.

A few years ago, I wrote a book about one solution to this dilemma: Belonging to the Brand: Why Community is the Last Great Marketing Strategy. I was absolutely right about this trend. As I am writing this post, I’m attending the global thought leadership conference SXSW. The sessions on brands and communities are so hot that they had to create extra sessions. In the current marketing environment, this might be a hotter topic than AI.

Community is certainly one of the few options to earn your way past those earbuds!

5) Adjusting the marketing/advertising infrastructure

Quiz time.

You know without a doubt that word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) is the purest, most trusted form of marketing, right? It’s been around forever … but how much of your budget is devoted to WOMM? My guess is: ZERO.

How about brand community? How about experiential marketing? Also, probably zero.

There are lots of marketing options beyond Facebook ads and SEO but we’ve stayed in the familiar marketing trenches. If you have a contract with an ad agency they are probably resisting alternative forms of marketing because, well, they’re not ads. There is a legacy infrastructure in place that keeps us less effective and boring.

6) Navigating a world where one person can alter brand strategy

Life used to be so easy. A brand was what we said it was. Today, a brand is what we tell each other. And that can spin out of control.

The problem with our social media world today isn’t a matter of free speech, it’s a matter of amplification. A hundred years ago, if somebody spread a conspiracy theory, it would be unlikely to get any further than the boundaries of a neighborhood. But today, false information and deep fakes can reach millions if it comes from an influencer.

Our favorite brands have spent decades and millions of dollars building consumer connections. And all that can be ruined by somebody who is out to get you. It is certainly a weird world where our hard-earned brand marketing can be tarnished in a single post.

7) Activating influencer marketing

I was sitting at a table of brand managers, and one of them said, “Influencers are everything.” That’s a profound statement. But if you’ve followed this post so far, you can see how influencers fit into this new marketing world.

Influencers have massive, loyal audiences, and their message can cut through the earbud blockade. They can be counted on to react with speed, in the moment. In fact, day-to-day relevance is what makes them great. They are more than trusted — Their biggest fans consider them family.

I’ve been following the influencer marketing trend since its beginning, and I think the momentum will pick up going forward. While this is mainstream media for the biggest brands, most companies are just getting started.

8) Talent Acquisition and Skill Gaps

The rapid evolution of digital/influencer/meme marketing requires new skills in AI, analytics, and content creation. Finding and retaining top talent is increasingly difficult. Something I hear all the time: “There is no shortage of marketing jobs. There is a shortage of the right skills for those jobs.”

9) Proving ROI and Justifying Budgets

Marketing teams face increasing pressure to demonstrate clear ROI on campaigns. With long sales cycles and brand-building efforts, attributing revenue directly to marketing initiatives has always been challenging.

I think this is the greatest source of marketing stress. Your boss expects marketing to be coin-operated. Put coins in, get more coins out. But customers don’t operate that way and they don’t care about your quarterly revenue goals. Marketing takes patience and that is not a popular trait these days.

10) Global de-population

I bet you didn’t see that one coming. But this mega-trend will put a lot of pressure on marketers and their brands.

The global birthrate is nowhere near the replacement average of 2.1 births per family. In the U.S., for example, the rate is about 1.4 births per family. Almost every business depends on population growth for incremental annual sales gains. However, the population will inexorably decline in most developed nations, which has massive implications for sales and marketing.

The latest UN numbers show that 2040 will be the peak population on earth, just 15 years away. So, it’s coming at us quickly.

Well, on that happy note, I’ll conclude this post on non-AI marketing issues. You might be thinking, “Whew … that’s a lot.” But that’s exactly why I love marketing. It’s a field that is endlessly changing and endlessly fascinating.

I love solving hard problems and marketing has no lack of them!

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Image courtesy Mid Journey

The post The 10 biggest marketing challenges have nothing to do with AI appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I’m a big fan of Rick Beato (one of his 4 million subscribers!). He is a passionate, intellectual YouTuber who dissects and explains much of the music that I love.

He recently created a video called The Real Reason Music is Getting Worse, and as I listened to his reasoning, I felt as though he was talking directly to me as a marketer in the AI Age. If you haven’t discovered Rick and you’re a music lover, I hope you’ll check him out. But in the meantime, let’s see what he says about making music in the AI Age and discover if this speaks to you, too …

Music, and Marketing Content is getting worse

Here are the notes I took from Rick’s video:

Technology makes the act of making music too easy. It’s difficult to play an instrument, and it’s really hard to record it well and produce a record. Rick received this note from a fan: “I wrote this song using AI, and I think it’s pretty good, but I literally know nothing about music.” Music has been commoditized.

Technology allows you to save a lot of money and take shortcuts, but the artistry and soul are stripped from the music. He compared an original recording of John Bonham drumming to a loop of the drumming, and it’s a hygienic version.

A creative dependency on technology limits the ability of people to innovate because they don’t know the craft.

When everyone relies on the same tools, you create a homogenized sound and a lack of diversity in the music. Music today is formulaic because people follow trends of certain types of sounds that are in style in the moment.

Ease of production speeds up the process, creating an oversaturation of music and making exceptional work harder to find. AI songs will make the level of saturation even worse as record labels produce their own AI songs instead of using original artists. One new song is added to the streaming catalog every second.

Finally, he explained why human creativity is undervalued. In the golden age of music, you would have to have a job to make money to buy a record album. You had to expend energy to find, buy, and consume the content. There is no sweat equity needed to enjoy music today. You can pay $10.99 per month and have access to any song ever published. So music becomes value-less or at least under-valued for many people.

A record bought for your collection became part of your identity, part of your history. A record was something shared among friends. We would read the album cover and learn about who made and produced the music. The creator and creative team had value.

Lessons for the AI Era

See, I told you he was speaking to marketers. This is EXACTLY  the problem we face when AI churns out content at lightning speed. We risk drowning in a sea of mediocrity. The craft of marketing — the human touch, the unexpected twist, the soul — is in danger of being automated away.

AI presents many existential issues, but here is the one that haunts me the most: When we eliminate all the entry-level jobs, how will young people learn their craft? And if they don’t learn a craft, all we’ll have is “auto-tuned” perfect content, stripped of artistry and soul.

Like artists, will we become so dependent on the same technological tools that everything becomes homogenized?

Here’s what will drive AI adoption: cutting costs. Sorry, that’s the way of the world. So it seems inevitable that we’ll experience an AI pandemic of dull as every possible task moves to a machine.

The other day, I picked up my car from the shop and the technician had tuned my radio to a pop station. I don’t normally listen to current pop music, so I listened for a few days. The music today is truly awful, and I’m a person who embraces new musical ideas.

But here’s what excites me. True artistry still breaks through. I recently saw Jon Batiste in concert and no AI on earth will hold that man down.

As a marketer, you’ll have to be that Jon-Batiste level outlier to swat back the AI. Create work that no AI could dream up. Be so good they can’t ignore you.

There is still room for the crazy ones who push boundaries—there always will be. Start pushing, my friends.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post The Real Reason Marketing Content is Getting Worse appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

There was one moment in my career that was a defining line between having a human existence and having an inhuman corporate career.

Perhaps you don’t remember a time before cell phones and laptop computers, but it was glorious because you could hide from your boss. Now, I was a hard worker and a responsible employee, but before the digital revolution, if you needed a mental health break, you could simply hide for awhile. If I was on the road, the only way for my boss to contact me would be over a pay phone some place. So I could just be “out of reach” for a little bit if I needed a breather.

Then there was this moment that I will never forget. I received my first laptop computer, and a report was due to my boss. I was living in California, so I was working at night so he would have it when he arrived in his office on East Coast time. And I had strep throat. I was so sick I could hardly be upright but there I was, typing out this report at my kitchen table. And my wife said, “What are you doing? The doctor said you had to be in bed!”

And in that moment I realized there was no more hiding. There was no more personal independence. I was now tethered to technology, bound to my work in an unavoidable way that introduced a new level of stress to every moment of the day.

Some time in my 30s, I began to realize that I had to make different choices. I was working in a way that was making me sick and taking too much time away from my family. So I started removing myself from the rat race and began mindfully pursuing a path of personal peace. I made choices for contentment over money, and started working for myself 17 years ago.

I’ve written about this journey toward personal peace from time to time, including:

The single word that changed my life

Why I stopped growing my business

Mistakes along the way

The meaning of life

But I’ve never talked about this subject on a podcast … until now.

Mathew Sweezey has been on a similar journey, figuring out this tricky balance of peace and the natural stress that comes with work. On this new episode of The Marketing Companion, we compare notes and share our own progress and hurdles as we seek personal peace in a hectic world.

We cover

• The balance between financial security and freedom
• The elusive concept of contentment
• Meaningful work
• How we calm down in the face of stress
• Psychedelics

… and much more. Please click below to enjoy this wonderful conversation!

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion Episode 294

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!

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The post The pursuit of personal peace appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

This week marks the fifteenth anniversary of my blog. Crazy, right? I realize that nobody cares about an anniversary like this … I don’t even care, honestly … but I thought I would use the milestone as a teachable moment because blogging changed my life. And here is the main lesson of the milestone:

To stand out in this world, you have to be known. To be known, you have to show up consistently. Consistency is more important than genius.

Unfortunately, this is where most people fail. They stop and start, or perhaps they never start at all.

In my Personal Branding Master Class, I show a slide depicting my personal income attributed to “being known.” My income grew steadily over time (except 2020!) because the more I am known, the bigger my audience, the greater the opportunities, the higher the book sales, and the more valuable the speaking and consulting engagements. This progress can only come through consistently showing up with helpful content.

Creating meaningful content is hard work, and at low times, I wonder if it’s worth it. While I’m working on a blog post, my friends might be reading, hiking, or cooking a great meal. Blogging is a sacrifice.

But when I emerge from this introspection, I return to the same conclusion: Everything started from the blog, and every business benefit comes from the thought leadership I’ve built from this space. In fact, without a doubt, blogging changed my life forever, in these five ways:

1. Deep emotional connection

A few years ago, I received an email from a blog reader: “I’ve been reading your blog for three years. It led me to buy your latest book, and it is the best business book I’ve read in the last ten years.”

It was signed by the CMO of a Fortune 100 company. Two years later, he hired me for a consulting project to transform his content marketing department.

Let’s dissect what happened:

• A stranger built an affinity for me through my blog.
• Over time, the affinity became trust … a strong enough bond for him to hire me, even though I had never met him.
• To earn his business, I didn’t have to apply for the job or bid against competitors. I was simply awarded the work, and I named my price.

If I didn’t have a blog, how much would I have had to spend on advertising to have a success story like that?

Brand marketing is about building an emotional connection that differentiates you from the competition. What a wonderful world we live in where a guy like me has the opportunity to build relationships — and a business — through my content. You can do it, too.

2. The introvert’s revenge

I hate networking. I am the worst networker in the world. I’m an introvert who loves a quiet dinner with friends, but put me in a room with a lot of people, and I want to crawl into a hole.

I know that sounds weird coming from a person who delivers keynote speeches in front of thousands of people, but it is different. I come alive on a stage because I can teach and entertain, and I’m really good at it. But shaking hands all night at a cocktail reception is my idea of torture.  I am a mingler misfit.

But through a blog, I can build business friendships with people every day without actually meeting them!

3. The fuel for a legacy

When my blog hit its tenth anniversary, I wrote that my biggest accomplishment was that over all those hundreds of posts, I never humiliated myself. My record still stands!

I have not made a major stumble because blogging forces me to clarify my ideas. Before I put something into the world, I think it through deeply. Is it thorough? Have I considered all sides? Am I being kind and showing up in a way I can be proud of?

These clarified blog concepts are later used in my speeches and books. The seeds of my legacy are planted here.

4. Personal reward

When I was in the corporate world, I would get an annual performance review (if I was lucky!).

Although I generally had an idea of how I was doing, there always seemed to be a zinger in there. Nobody gets a perfect performance review, right?

The cool thing about blogging is that I get a performance every week. Here is a comment posted on LinkedIn recently by Jim Hunt.

Isn’t that awesome? It makes my heart soar. I just can’t believe how lucky I am to have an audience of people who appreciate my work.

That’s the fuel that keeps me going. When I create a blog post, a podcast episode, or a book, I have only one mantra in my head: “I will never let you down.”

5. Personal healing

In the first chapter of my book KNOWN, I wrote about the darkest time of my life. This was so difficult for me to reveal, but I did it to show the reader that when I started my personal branding journey, I was a mess. I was below zero. I wanted to encourage people — If I can do it, you can too.

In those dark days, the stress of my life was killing me. When I went to see a doctor, my blood pressure was so high she would not let me leave her office. She was afraid I was about to have a stroke or worse.

The doctor demanded that I monitor my blood pressure every hour of the day. And this is when I witnessed something miraculous. There was one hour every day when my blood pressure was normal. It was when I was blogging.

There is a zen about blogging that sends you to a different place of focus and peace, even when the world is terrible.

Even more importantly, when I started posting my ideas online, I received feedback from people who didn’t know what I was going through. It was so nice to connect with people who didn’t know of my suffering. I was so tired of being sad.

Perhaps it is too dramatic to say that blogging saved my life, but mentally, physically, spiritually, and financially, I am transformed from creating these words on a screen.

Thank you, friend

I will never forget the moment 15 years ago when I received the very first comment on this blog. It was a moment of awe. Somebody read my work and spent their precious time commenting on it.

I have never forgotten that feeling. I re-live that sense of awe every day when I get feedback on my work.

Whether you have followed me for 15 years or this is our first meeting, thank you for being here. I’m just getting started, and I will never let you down.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post 15 Years On, Five Ways Blogging Changed My Life Forever appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

by Sonia Hunt, {grow} community member

It took me almost dying for a fourth time to get serious about my health and well-being.

At age three, I was diagnosed with severe food allergies, asthma, and environmental allergies – the trifecta nobody wants.

I managed my diagnosis the best I could while hiding it from the workplace for decades because it did not offer me the psychologically safe environment that I required.

Over the years, I rose up the ranks to Chief Marketing Officer, still keeping my personal and professional lives separate. This brought a double whammy of stress, anxiety, and unhealthy behaviors from both sides, which I somehow survived through.

In 2008, I found myself on the emergency room table for a fourth time in anaphylaxis and almost dead. The diagnosis was that it was a severe food allergy reaction, and it left me with hives all over my body for the next year of my life.

There was no way I could hide this from my CEO or my team anymore.

This incident forced me to be real about my health situation, become empowered to live in my truth, and get serious about improving my health and well-being in a way that could finally see me thriving across work-health-life.

I wanted to stop “surviving.” I wanted to see myself thriving.

And so, I began what became a new journey to optimal health and well-being, breaking down personal and professional compartments, advocating for myself and my needs, getting help when I needed it, and leading my teams by example by taking care of myself first and foremost and promoting they do the same.

As I look at the world today, I’m guessing this is a very good time to write about marketing career burnout and YOUR HEALTH.

Marketing career burnout and you 

Ten years ago, there was no talk of workplace well-being. Many of us grappling with health challenges endured a silent struggle behind closed doors, striving to maintain well-being while the corporate world demanded the separation of our personal and professional lives.

That thinking was shattered with the pandemic.

Today, there’s no more compartmentalization, and Gen Z rocked that torch in this fight against employers.

Marketers, in particular, have been through too much pain in too short of a time. We’ve been trying to manage everything as best we can — pandemic catastrophes, new rules of marketing, remote work, layoffs, crazy customer behavior, and this little thing called AI. I am exhausted. And you probably are, too.

“The work cannot suffer,” said my former CEO … but here’s what he really meant: The people could suffer.

I’ll venture to say the Marketing Leader has the worst job today.

Others haven’t agreed with me, but they aren’t marketers! There is no career on earth that has changed so quickly.

And it’s not just the hard skills. You’re required to evolve in new ways – with strong inner/core skills, including resilience and adaptability – and almost immediately required to be the expert in them.

Marketing career burnout is real, my friends. The data shows it, and I know it from personal experience.

Today, as the lines between personal and professional are blurred, the holistic well-being of Marketing Leaders becomes paramount.

Why? I believe the skills and mindset cultivated in the field of marketing align well with the principles of Healthy Leadership, making Marketing Leaders natural candidates to champion a culture of well-being, collaboration, and adaptability within their organizations.

But to champion this within your organization, you must first be healthy yourself.

Marketing leader, healthy leader

Healthy Leadership is about a simple formula:

• For your customers to thrive, the business must thrive.
• For the business to thrive, your people need to thrive.
• For your people to thrive, their leader must thrive.
• For you to thrive, you must prioritize your health and well-being first.

Yes, it’s that simple. Because, if you don’t, how can you:

• Be your best?
• Enjoy your work?
• Make conscious decisions?
• Drive the change you need?
• Lead healthily and by example?
• Be resilient to changing dynamics?
• Build long-term, valuable relationships?
• Adapt to the intricacies of business today?

For personal and career longevity, it’s no longer a nice-have to be healthy and well; it’s a must-have.

Being a Healthy Leader significantly expands your capacity to navigate dynamic landscapes, engage stakeholders, manage changing narratives, and cope with a need to be constantly “on” in a new remote-first work environment.

Beating marketing career burnout isn’t just a great personal decision. It’s a necessary business decision.

In my own journey as a Chief Marketing Officer who managed in a high-stress environment, I discovered an approach that seemed to be right under my nose. I could apply my best marketing skills to improve my personal health and well-being!

You’re the product

Your success as a marketer depends on vision, strategy, and execution that grows customers and your business.

Those same skills can be used to grow and improve your personal health and well-being using a simple formula: “Define + Implement + Analyze.”

With my engineering background, I’m all about systems that help us get to an optimal state – whether that be for the business or myself.

I realized the systems I used in marketing could easily be applied to my personal health with one slight twist: Think of yourself as a ‘Product.’

When you’re marketing a product (or service), there’s a systematic way to go about taking that product to a high growth stage.

In that process, you’re defining vision, current state, challenges, optimal state, and a set of strategies or tactics to achieve optimal state.

Then, you implement those strategies and collect data that will then be analyzed to see how far you are from the optimal state, tweaking the strategies in a cyclical process until you achieve the optimal state.

This works in marketing, and it can work for your health as well.

Applying marketing principles to health

Let’s look at three familiar marketing steps and apply them to your health.

1) DEFINE
Like defining a vision for your marketing, this step is about defining the vision you see for your health by identifying three things:

1. Key Challenges: what health challenges are you currently facing?
2. Optimal State: what does the optimal outcome look like for each challenge?
3. Tactics: what strategies will you put into place to improve each challenge?

2) IMPLEMENT
Define a set of strategies or tactics you can put into action to improve your health.

3) ANALYZE
Just as you would analyze marketing data, this step involves tracking the effectiveness of implemented health strategies, tweaking them as needed, and working toward desired outcomes

Let’s look at an example of one of the things I often hear from my executive coaching clients: “I feel stressed daily, but don’t know how to reduce it.”

Applying marketing principles to stress

1) DEFINE

• Key Challenges:
  • “I feel stress daily, but don’t know how to reduce it.”
• Optimal State:
  • Awareness: I know when I feel stress.
  • Management: I know the steps to reduce stress
• Strategies/Tactics: can be determined with help of a health coach or healthcare professional.
  • Physical health: Nutrition
  • Mental health: Mental Health fitness
  • Emotional health: Meditation
  • Spiritual health: Self-care activities

2) IMPLEMENT: the actions in this example are scientifically known to reduce stress.

• Nutrition — Primarily eat plant-based foods during weekdays
• Mental health — Therapy 2x/month
• Emotional health — 10 minutes daily meditation morning and night
• Spiritual health/Self-care — Walk for 10 minutes after every meal.

3) ANALYZE

• Track actions: keep track of what’s working, what’s not, how you’re feeling in a spreadsheet or app.
• Adjust what is needed to get to the desired outcome of reducing stress.

Then, repeat this system for every health challenge that you want to improve.

Over time, you’ll begin to determine what’s working for you and what’s not. Do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. In harmony, the strategies and tactics that are working will begin to, in this case, reduce stress because you’re eating nutritiously, exercising, more self-aware, meditating, etc.

This 3-step system guides you through defining awareness, management steps, and specific strategies such as nutrition, mental health fitness, meditation, and self-care activities for reducing stress.

This systematic approach aligns seamlessly with the visionary, strategic, and tactical facets of successful marketing work. Run this system through anything in your life, and you’ll realize that you can use your day skills to improve your health and well-being.

A thriving marketer leader

Marketing is a journey of perpetual adaptation, resilience, and, most importantly, self-care.

The truth becomes evident: when you, the marketing leader are healthy, your team thrives, and the business attains unprecedented heights of success.

Prioritizing your well-being creates a narrative that extends far beyond the metrics and strategies of the corporate world. You become a beacon of inspiration internally and externally. Your decisions, fueled by clarity and mindfulness, set the precedent for a work environment and culture of prosperity.

As the complexities of the marketing landscape continue to accelerate, the simple truth remains – personal health is the cornerstone of effective leadership.

It’s a journey of acknowledging the challenges, implementing proactive strategies, and recognizing that a healthy leader isn’t just an individual accomplishment; it’s a strategic imperative for the flourishing of teams and the endurance of businesses.

As you struggle with marketing career burnout, let one truth guide your way – thriving through health is not just a choice: it’s the essence of marketing leadership today. 

Sonia Hunt is a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer, Executive and Health Coach, Best-Selling Author, and TEDx Speaker in Health and Wellness. Her mission is to create a world in which everyone can thrive by building a foundation of personal health and well-being. For business inquiries, email sonia@soniahunt.com or visit soniahunt.com

Illustration courtesy Unsplash.com

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Note: My friend Frank Prendergast has a newsletter that unwinds many of the most confusing aspects of AI and marketing. He’s like a plow going through the new fields of marketing, making it easier for all of us to follow along. He recently wrote about Custom GPTs in such an eloquent way that I wanted to share it with all of you!

By Frank Prendergast

Just when you thought you had ChatGPT prompts figured out, here come Custom GPTs. Let’s cut through the clutter and get you started with this useful tool.

The big change that was announced is ChatGPT now allows you to create sophisticated programs with no coding. Literally, you can type in what you want a program to do, and it can be achieved with no computer coding experience! You can create what you can imagine.

If you’ve been reading the news, you might have seen this new opportunity called AI Agents, Custom Agents, or a Copilot.  For consistency, I’ll just discuss Custom GPTs.

There’s no reason to be overwhelmed or confused. If you are already using ChatGPT optimally, custom GPTs are just an organizational tool for what you are already doing.

What GPTs you develop for your business will depend on the most common tasks you carry out. Here are just some examples of marketing tasks Custom GPTs could help you with:

• Generate Ad Copy: A GPT model can be trained to produce creative and persuasive ad texts based on the product or service, target audience, and campaign goals.
• Analyze Customer Reviews: Custom GPTs can be used to process and interpret customer feedback, identifying key themes, sentiments, and areas for improvement.
• Optimize Email Campaigns: These models can generate personalized email content, subject lines, and (given the right data) suggest optimal sending times for better engagement.
• Create SEO-Optimized Content: Custom GPTs can be trained to write content that is both engaging for readers and optimized for search engines, using relevant keywords and structures.
• Brainstorm Marketing Strategies: GPTs can assist in generating innovative marketing ideas and strategies based on market trends, competitor analysis, and brand objectives.
• Maintain a Consistent Brand Voice: Custom GPTs can be fine-tuned to adhere to a brand’s specific tone, style, and messaging guidelines across various content forms.
• Suggest Data-Driven Content Topics: By analyzing trends, search queries, and audience interests, a GPT can suggest relevant and timely topics for content creation.
• Improve Social Media Posts: These models can review existing social media content, suggest improvements, and aligning posts with the target audience’s preferences and campaign objectives.
• Generate Social Posts from Blog Posts: GPTs can be used to repurpose long-form content into bite-sized, platform-appropriate social media posts.
• Create Images for Content with a Consistent Style: While GPT models are primarily focused on text, integration with AI models like DALL-E or similar image generation models can produce visually consistent and relevant images for digital content.

So this new development can be a big boost to your speed and in speed and efficiency!

A framework for Custom GPTs

Here’s how to put them to good use. My overall framework for using ChatGPT is as follows:

• Be the expert

• Define the brief

• Provide context

• Provide frameworks for improvement

• Have a conversation

• Add your personality

Now, with custom GPTs you can figure out the most common tasks you perform, and set up a GPT to do each thing really well – in the configuration of the GTP you can define the brief, provide context, and give it frameworks for improvement.

Once you have the setup done, all YOU have to do is show up as the expert and have a conversation, and maybe add your personality to the output.

A hack to help!

Let’s talk about the big problem with custom GPTs — why I think many people are disappointed with them …

OpenAI claims you can set them up conversationally. When you create a new GPT it will bring you into a chat to set up the GPT, in a “create” tab. Do not use that method. It sucks. It forgets half of what you tell it.

Trust me, go into the manual configuration (the tab labeled ‘configure’) and write your own instructions directly into the configuration. This works SO much better.

How to set up your Custom GPTs

Manually configuring a GPT is really easy.

1. Profile picture — I do this last, and it’s the ONE thing I use the conversational setup under the “create” tab for. When I have the GPT configured, I go back to the create tab, and I type, “please create and set a profile picture for this GPT.” You can even upload your own if you prefer.

2. Name and description –– Pretty self-explanatory, for example, I have one called “3 social posts from any blog post,” and the description is “supply a URL and this GPT will create three suggested social posts from any blog post, and offer to create images for them.”

3. Instructions — This is where you do your prompting — the meat of your GPT. Start by defining the brief, and then give clear and detailed instructions on what you want the GPT to do. Your instructions can be long; just make sure they are well-structured and clear. You can also provide frameworks for improvements here – specific guidance for the GPT to follow to ensure the best possible output.

4. Conversation starters — These appear as buttons you can click on to start the interaction. So for my GPT that creates social posts from a blog post, I have a single conversation starter defined that says “Let’s create some social posts.”

5. Knowledge — This is where you can upload documents. This is really useful for providing context. I upload brand documents here, such as marketing personas, brand voice, core messaging, and information about our business (or our client’s businesses).

6. Capabilities — Here you can turn on web browsing, Dall-E 3, and data analysis. I turn on any features I think the task requires. If I am trying to limit my GPT to very specific tasks, I’ll turn off anything that isn’t relevant.

7. Actions — This is where you can hook up your GPT to other APIs. You don’t need to worry about this if you don’t have a need for it. But for example, you can fairly easily hook up your GPT to Zapier and have it perform tasks. For example, you could set up a GPT to create marketing materials and then use Zapier to create a Google Drive document from the conversation.

It really is incredibly easy to set them up. Go through the set up, and give it your first set of instructions. Then test the GPT, and if it’s not giving you what you want, add further instructions to get you closer to what you’re looking for. You can edit your GPT any time, so as you use it, you can continue to improve the instructions.

Examples of Chat GPTs

Let me show you one of my GPTs, it will take a URL for a blog post and create three social media posts based on the content. It will give you a headline to put on an image, and a longer text for the main post. And it will offer to create images to go along with the posts.

You can test it out here, if you have a ChatGPT Plus account. 

Here’s an example: I gave it this blog post of mine about attention spans, and it gave me a headline, the text of the post, and created an image for the post. I used Canva to pop the headline text on the image it gave me, and then I mocked up what it would look like on social media:

You wouldn’t believe how simple it was to create this. If you’d like to read the instructions for this GPT you can view them on Google Drive here. That way, you can understand how easy it is to start building your own.

For this example, I wanted to create something anyone could use. But to make this GPT even more effective, I would add knowledge documents to it that were specific to the business I would use it for.

I have another GPT for a client of mine. It’s set up similarly, but it has access to their marketing avatar, their brand voice, their core messaging, and info about their background and the main program they sell.

I hop on a call with the client, record it, ask them questions about their business, and then I give my custom GPT the transcript to create social posts from. The additional knowledge materials really helps the GPT to create content that we’re happy with for the client.

One of the first GPTs I created was a really simple one – it creates the TL;DR you see at the top of my email newsletters. I know that every week I will need to do that task, so now I have a GPT specifically to do that for me.

Finally, here’s a fun GPT I created for myself while I was sick last week. It has no practical use whatsoever, but it’s a lot of fun to use. It will help you create surrealist collages. You can try it out here.

And if you’d like to know how I created it, you can read the instructions here in a Google Drive doc.

I would love to hear from you if you find this useful in creating Custom GPTs, and do let me know what you build, too!

Frank is one half of husband-and-wife team Frank and Marci. They are award-winning digital marketers who help businesses rise above the blah through brand strategy, content marketing, and conversion copywriting. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter here! 

Illustrations courtesy OpenAI and Frank Prendergast

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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!

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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

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I came across this graph that seems to capture a feeling in our world today:

The theory here is that however we perceive the rate of change today, it will be double that next year, and the perceived rate of change will be 32 times where we are today five years from now.

Is this true? Who can say? But even if it’s off by 50%, that’s still a lot for us to handle.

Here’s what makes me think this chart might be accurate. The following chart illustrates how the world is changing, but also changing at a much faster pace. This chart might be hard to read if you’re following along on a smartphone, so let me give you the summary:

Historically, AI computational breakthroughs have taken years. New AI-driven capabilities are now exceeding human capabilities in areas like math and problem-solving in a matter of months.

Source: McKinsey

This trend is only going to accelerate, and I can say that with confidence: follow the money. Nearly all the venture capital money is pouring into AI right now, not to mention historically large investments this year by Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

In his famous book, The Condition of Postmodernity, David Harvey introduced the idea of time-space compression to describe how advancing technology, communication, and globalization results in tangible psychological effects of disorientation and alienation in the human brains that are unaccustomed to such rapid change.

Ever since ChatGPT was introduced, I’ve felt like a personal case study for time-space compression. When I look at LinkedIn bios, 105% of all marketing professionals now identify themselves as AI experts. Am I an AI expert? Of course not. I am lost if I’m not?

I’m not alone with my overwhelm. At a recent speech to several hundred marketing professionals, I asked how many felt overwhelmed, and every person raised their hand.

Now comes the creepy part.

I’m obsessed with the idea of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). When does artificial intelligence become sensing, rational, emotional … human?

I asked ChatGPT to explain AGI, and here is its gentle description:

 AGI refers to a type of artificial intelligence that possesses human-like intelligence and the ability to understand, learn, and apply knowledge across a wide range of tasks and domains. AGI systems have the capacity to generalize their learning from one task to another, adapt to new situations, and exhibit cognitive abilities similar to those of humans, such as problem-solving, reasoning, perception, and language.

I’ve had some comfort learning from the leading experts that this is at least 20 years away. I’ll be out of the picture by then.

Hold the presses. A new study representing the consensus of AI experts, as evaluated on Metacalculus, has moved the projected AGI timeline up from 2042 to 2027.

Here is my selfie after I saw this report:

Does anybody know anything?

A symptom of time-space compression is that we don’t have any experts any more.

This time last year, economists said it was impossible to have high inflation and rising employment. But here we are — inflation and record employment levels (at least in America). Nobody understands the economy.

Google’s quantum computer is 241 million times more powerful than the number two competitor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratories. This means it can solve problems that would take the Oak Ridge computer 47 years to complete. This is so complex that Google has an entire department dedicated to understanding how it makes decisions. Let’s reflect on this … the scientists who built the computer don’t understand how it works. Perhaps that is a first in human history?

And my final example is this recent projection that AGI is 20 years away. I mean, this was the projection six months ago, and now they’re saying this is coming in 2027. How can you be wrong by 20 years?

So in addition to everything moving fast, it is moving in unpredictable ways. At this rate of change, we can’t project the future. Let’s be honest … we don’t even understand what is happening now.

How do you deal with time-space compression?

Here’s the short answer. Nobody knows. This is an unprecedented time in history. Nobody has been through this level of change before.

Here are a few things that are helping me. Maybe it will help you.

1. Perspective

It’s easy to be overwhelmed and spend each day connected to the fire hose. Step away. Go outside and walk in a park. Spend time developing human relationships and conversations with people who are outside the marketing bubble.

Want to know what’s really overwhelming? There are a thousand stars for every grain of sand on earth. Everything in its place my friend.

2. Let it go

This is a very bad time to be a control freak.

I would not call myself a control freak (at all), but I do pride myself in being enough of an expert to be confident in meaningful conversations about marketing.

Every single day, there is a new development in AI that makes me go, “Wow.” And think of how many developments I’m missing! I have to let go of this idea of being an expert in anything.

This is a weird time in my career. If I know less about what is going on in the world, by definition, I’ll be less confident in my expertise. Perhaps a key life skill right now is humility. I’m an expert in being humble, I suppose. Maybe that’s the best we can do.

3. The vital role of community

The RISE community is absolutely saving me right now.

In this crazy world, how do you focus on what to learn? How do you know who and what to believe?

It helps to have a group of smart friends suggesting notable trends and ideas. It takes the burden off of me.

I wrote a book about the unexpected, massive value of community. Belonging to the Brand presents a unique perspective of community + brand marketing, but there are also significant personal benefits to having a team of trusted friends guide you through this chaos.

Every speech I give, every post I write, and every class I teach contains some nugget I learned through the community. It’s helping me stay relevant. You can learn more about the community here

4. Self-care

Practice mindfulness techniques and self-care activities to manage stress and anxiety. These can include meditation, yoga, journaling, or simply taking time to relax and unplug from digital devices. I begin each day watching the sunrise. I try to spend time each week working on a watercolor painting. At the end of each day, I do puzzles that take my mind off the stress of the day.

Set boundaries on the news you consume. Focus on deep, quality sources of information rather than constant, quick updates.

5. Focus

Tine-space compression means endless new ideas streaming your way. The world is overwhelming, but it’s also endlessly fascinating! I’m interested in how AI is impacting … everything! That’s a good way to go crazy.

My job is in marketing. I need to focus on that area. That’s more than enough.

6. Technological literacy

I was recently teaching a class of university seniors, majoring in marketing. Almost none of them were using ChatGPT or a similar AI technology on a regular basis. This is inexcusable. How are you going to be effective in the world if you’re not participating in it?

Dive in, folks.  Flexibility and a willingness to experiment are perhaps the most valuable traits in a marketing role right now.

7. Be mindful of the ethics

As technology advances, ethical dilemmas become more prevalent.

In the early days of the internet, there were tons of unethical behaviors aimed at gaining some eCommerce advantage. Over time, those will not work. You will be found out and penalized.

With AI, we face unprecedented new ethical issues that will eventually become legal issues. Don’t just be legal. Be ethical.

If you’re working in a company, be the vocal advocate for policies and initiatives that promote equitable access to technology, protect privacy, and address emerging copyright issues.

Consider the long-term consequences of technology development. Responsible decision-making can help prevent unintended negative outcomes.

8. Foster adaptability

When the telephone became common in America, train operators felt threatened. They believed that if people talked on the phone, they would stop traveling. Of course that didn’t happen. We travel more than ever.

Fear is the default emotion in the face of change. It creeps into my mind, too. I have to constantly remind myself to adapt, adapt, adapt. There is no choice,

Change can be depressing, but it can also be exhilarating. Make the choice to be exhilarated and adapt.

Onward

Delaing with time-space compression isn’t just an individual issue. It will be an issue for companies who employ those suffering from overwhelm.

My friend Sharon Joseph, a creative director, said:

“Your advice and guidance is so poignant on an individual level, and I would love to push for the same on a societal level. How do we start building communities and like-minded leaders to bring a constant awareness to filter and overcome the perceived strain of real life against the illusion of gains from being superhuman?

“Yes, I love my digital lifestyle including the accessibility to AI, but I’m still learning how to apply today’s workplace norm to be hyperactive, hyper-connected, hyper-producing, and hyper-knowledgeable while balancing an actual sense of normalcy. And this is something that could be tied to a higher education across organizations and communities to create the balance between human and artificial experiences consistently.”

The challenge of time-space compression is here, and it will become more serious in the very near future. It’s inevitable that the fear and disorientation associated with endless, rapid change will take a toll. It could affect productivity, mental and physical health, and relationships.

Here’s a prediction: We’ll see a field of time-space compression specialists emerge. This promises to be a major wellness issue for years to come, and I think a field will develop to help with this widespread issue.

The best advice I can give you is to BE AWARE of how this pressure is impacting you. Maybe even save this post to refer to in the future as the world speeds ahead.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

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