Marketing 911
Marketing 911, is the podcast where we tackle the toughest marketing challenges at the executive level.
Whether you're navigating complex strategies, trying to reach your target audience, or facing shifting market dynamics, we're here to provide you with actionable solutions.
From digital transformation to customer retention, if it's a marketing crisis, we're here to help you solve it—before it turns into a full-blown emergency.
Marketing 911
AI Beyond the Hype: Strategic Applications for Marketers
Are you using AI strategically in your marketing efforts, or just scratching the surface of its capabilities? In this eye-opening episode of Marketing 911, host Richard Bliss and co-host Brian Bakstran welcome AI implementation expert Ford Saeks to challenge everything you thought you knew about artificial intelligence in marketing.
Ford cuts through the AI hype to deliver a profound reality check: most marketers are treating advanced AI tools like "glorified Google" instead of engaging in meaningful dialogues that unlock their true potential. He outlines a comprehensive framework of four AI implementation levels that every organization should understand - from basic language models to sophisticated process automation - while emphasizing that mindset matters more than technology.
The conversation explores how marketing leaders can advance their AI strategy by focusing on outcomes rather than tools. Ford provides practical insights on using AI to enhance your business across three core marketing avenues: content creation, audience borrowing, and paid marketing. You'll learn how to approach AI implementation through the lens of mindset, strategy, and tactics, with specific guidance on tools like Make.com that can take your marketing automation to new heights.
What sets this episode apart is Ford's emphasis on strategic thinking over technical specifications. His advice to "treat AI as an expert, but monitor it as an intern" perfectly captures the balanced approach modern marketers need. Whether you're just starting with AI or looking to advance your implementation, you'll walk away with actionable frameworks to transform how your organization leverages these powerful tools.
Ready to move beyond basic AI usage and implement strategic automation that drives real business results? Listen now and discover how to shift your AI mindset from monologue to dialogue.
Welcome to Marketing 911. I'm Richard Bliss, your co-host. I'm joined by my other co-host, brian Baxter. Brian, hey, richard.
Speaker 2:Great to be here again and I understand you brought along a special guest today.
Speaker 1:Well, all of our guests are special, but, yes, I have brought a really special guest, extra special, extra special A friend of mine and colleague that I've known for a couple of years. He is an expert in the area of AI, does a lot of conversations around that with a lot of organizations, and I thought it would be great to have him on the show talk to a few minutes with us about AI. And so Ford Stakes is his name, and Ford focuses on business growth acceleration and has a lot going on out there. So, ford, thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3:Hey, I'm glad to be here. I'm honored.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you're joining us from Wichita, kansas. I'm here in the San Francisco Bay Area and Brian's in Boston, so we're just getting the countries covered with this one. That's great, but how often? Okay, ford, just so the audience knows how often do you actually spend in Wichita? Because over the years that I've known you, you're pretty much on the road all the time, aren't you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm spending my time on the road being an opening keynote for conferences and events around the globe actually. So even though I live here, I travel. About 75% of the time I'm out of town.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you and I met in Phoenix I think was the first time that we met or maybe in Orlando or San Antonio, but yeah, it's gotten to that point where, if it's a different city, I'm never going to meet you in Wichita. I'm always going to see you somewhere else. So that's right. Well, you never know. You never know Today we're going to talk about. You're here because AI and everybody's talking about AI and it's all over it, and particularly in marketing. As we talk to marketing folks, we continually hear from them that they're using AI. But I have felt that they're using AI on a very limited basis and I often talk to them about some of those opportunities. But I know this is something that you really focus on that while AI is powerful, I think there's an entire approach that we're missing. You want to expound on that?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So you know, every time I'm at a conference, there's three or four other speakers on AI and I listen to them and some are the real high-tech theory people and some are the bells and whistles people. But very few are looking at it through the lens of strategically on. How is this going to help me? To me, I don't care about technology. I would tell your listeners it. I don't care about technology. I would tell your listeners it doesn't matter. Do not get seduced by technology.
Speaker 3:The only reason I care about AI and I've been in business development now for decades is because I want it to expand my influence. I want it to help me build my lists, whether that's social media or in-house lists. I want it to help me generate leads. I want to build the customer experience and increase sales. And, of course, the fourth, fifth one there would be improve operations. But I'm using it as a feature, not a tool, because tools come and go, they adapt constantly and even as our listeners are watching this or listening to the replay on the podcast, it changes so quickly. So it's more about the shifted mindset, richard is. What I'm focusing on is helping people understand, regardless of what their role is. How should they shift their mindset, and I'm happy to go into a little story about that if you'd let me.
Speaker 1:We will, and so, before we do, let's talk about how you perceive most people are currently using it, particularly in marketing. Where do you see most people as the audience is listening? They're going to be like oh yeah, that's me.
Speaker 3:Most people are using it. If I asked a scale of one to 10, if I have my audience to stand up and I say, on a scale of one to 10, I'm going to ask you about your level of experience with AI and, as you hear your level of experience, then sit down. So one through five and then usually I lose 80% of the people and then I always get a few people standing between 8, 9, and 10. And what I find is that they're delusional on what they think they can use it for, Because they're using it more as a glorified Google. They're treating it as you know write me a 900-word blog post on how to do this as opposed to having complex conversations to having complex conversations. So the challenge I see is that the people are using AI with what they are conditioned in the past, of how they would use Google, as opposed to using it as a sentient being that you should have a dialogue with, not a monologue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's really it, that monologue versus dialogue. And again, the iteration that happens when I go through my examples with people. It's to get them to okay, you can ask it a question but then argue with it, fight with it, challenge it, ask it for clarification, go back and forth with it and all of a sudden, as you just said, it's almost like having a conversation with a sentient, being that now the richness and deepness of the experience with AI starts to expand dramatically richness and deepness of the experience with AI starts to expand dramatically.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that it's important for the listeners to put it in a framework of the human touch versus high-tech touch. You know when we started with? Remember when phones came out with the automated attendant, where you call a company and it says press one for sales, press two for this, press three, and people thought that those automated attendants were really going to save time and improve the customer experience. But I don't know about you, but every time you call a company you get an automated attendant. Your stress level goes up. So that was an opportunity where they applied technology that they thought was going to help, but in reality it probably didn't help.
Speaker 3:Now I realize we could argue certain companies and everything, but it's, it's not. I don't. I'm not an advocate for replacing everything. I think people should map out their customer journey and look strategically at what points in the customer journey, what things could be automated to improve the customer experience. Like when we order an Uber or a Lyft, that technology helps we know who the driver is, we know what the rating is, we know when the car is coming, and that's using technology to help improve the relationship. But we don't want things that aren't going to help improve the customer journey.
Speaker 1:Now I'm interested in this little story that you mentioned. Tell us about this story.
Speaker 3:Well, it's really I'm going to frame it this way that there's really four levels to look through the lens. One level one is people who are just using large language models. So they're using ChatGBT, maybe they're using Claude, maybe they're using Perplexity or one of the other ones. That's level one. Level two is where they're using customized programs to do specific things, like, for example, if I'm using a LinkedIn prospecting tool that uses AI or seamlessai or Jarvis or Opus Clip. There's a millions different derivatives that have been built on top of the large language model. So that's level two, a specialty program, specialty app. And they change all the time. Like I used to use get munch to repurpose content, now I use Opus Clip and now I'm using a new program called Taja.
Speaker 3:So don't get seduced by the technology. Look at how you use it. So level one is large language models. Level two is specialty products. Level three is an enterprise app where someone in the company has used AI to create an intranet or an AI agent, possibly, that uses all their content. So, richard, you've written many books and you're known for all your expertise. If you were to put all that expertise into an AI and it was like mini Richard, well then, that's level three, where people are actually creating their own agent.
Speaker 3:And then level four is where I think the future is, which is robotic process automation.
Speaker 3:Robotic process automation is a fancy way of saying workflows, and so if a business looks at everything they do in their business and anything they do two or three times that they do on a regular basis, they should be asking themselves how could I automate it?
Speaker 3:So on a level four, you and again I'm not trying to give you the how-to today everybody I want you to get the lens to look through. Level four is look at your technology stack. So you know, I use QuickBooks, I use Zoho, I use Microsoft Teams, I have a WordPress website, I have Gravity Form, and it's looking at all the technology and then looking at how can I make all of these things work together. And so there's four different levels and you and organizations have to have an acceptable use policy to what's acceptable for their company. But that should give you kind of a layout of when I come in to work with people. I look at it strategically what problem are you trying to solve, what are people willing to pay to make go away and how do they want to consume the content, and then looking at AI as a tool, not as a replacement.
Speaker 2:Lord, a quick question. I love the four levels and we've talked about this, richard and I, on other podcasts. There needs to be a group of trainers out there that are training marketing people on each level of this. I think probably level one and two people can kind of get to. But when I see level four, which historically has been solved by purchasing another piece of technology, which is you're saying, don't get hung up on that, how does somebody in marketing learn how to actually do level four beyond the theoretical?
Speaker 3:Well, I think there's a couple different ways. One I think any's a couple different ways. One I think any growth starts with three things. In the growth of a business, there's this gap between where people are and where they want to go, and people always think that that gap is unique to them. And what I've found working with brands, big and small, working with my clients and my digital agency, primeconceptscom, and then as a Hall of Fame keynote speaker around the globe primeconceptscom, and then as a hall of fame keynote speaker around the globe that that gap always comes down to one of three areas. First, mindset If they don't have their mindset dialed in, if they're not open-minded, coachable and a critical thinker, then they can't use AI.
Speaker 3:So AI by itself is a vehicle, but if their mindset isn't saying I'm going to look at how I can learn this and use this as a new tool, because it's the most disruptive thing that's ever going to happen in our lifetimes. It's bigger than fire, it's bigger than the wheel, it's bigger than the phone, it's bigger than any it's. It's going to change the world and it already is. I just think people are maybe delusional about that. And so the mindset's number one. Number two is strategy. So, strategically, how are you going to use it? So, for example, on level one, I recommend people one, set up their custom defaults so that the AI is doing the way it's supposed to. And number two, take the same prompt and use three different LLMs. Put the prompt in ChatGPT, put the prompt into Cloud, put the prompt into Perplexity. Then take all that information back into the favorite tool. So I use ChatGPT as my main tool. I use Claudeai when I want to write content, because it writes the most human-like content, and I use Perplexity if it's anything that I want current events for.
Speaker 3:So Richard and I have spoken on the same programs before. We're actually speaking on a program coming up in Las Vegas here in a little bit and let's say I'm going to go do some research on Richard. I know Richard, but let's say I didn't know him. I'm going to go to perplexity and say I'm speaking with a fellow expert in business. His name's Richard Bliss.
Speaker 3:I want you to give me a synopsis of key points so I can build a relationship with him and have it for my CRM system. So I would use perplexity to go out and do the research, because it sits on top of Google and ChatGPT and its current information, and then I'm gonna use ChatGPT to formulate it. So it's a long answer to your question, brian, but the key is level one, where people think they're using level one, they're probably not. They think they're using it but they're not using it to the easy capacity. If they had a couple of shifts in their mindset which is my book AI Mindshift it shifts how they think, so they're able to get better results and save a lot more time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we see that challenge for that you're talking about and, brian, the question that you just brought up you having run so many marketing teams is that oftentimes, the challenge is not a lack of desire, it's just a lack of okay, what do I do next? How do I do this? Do you turn to the internal IT team to actually implement? See everything through a lens of technology, but what you're really talking about is a lens of process. Think about how to use this differently, how to do this differently, right?
Speaker 3:I tell you what, richard, I tell my audiences. I tell them that if you don't know how to do something, get ChatTBT downloaded on your phone, turn on the audio version and have a conversation. So I would say I'm Ford Sakes, I'm looking for opportunities to speak. I want you to use Richard Bliss's key action steps on how to prospect on LinkedIn, for social engineering and to build my relationships. And it's going to say, well, richard suggests this and I'm going to say, well, what about this? So I have a narrative. So when I don't know how to do something, instead of going to my it department, I go to ai first and use it as my coach to help me solve the problem. So the takeaway would be if you're sitting here listening to this today and you're saying, well, man, this guy talks fast. No, go to ai and say I was just on this podcast marketing 911, where I heard ford sakes say this ai knows who I am. You can say, ford sakes this, it knows me, and we can easily then have a conversation as if you're talking to me. So there's no excuses anymore.
Speaker 3:I think the real takeaway here is there's no victimhood, there's no excuses, the answers are out there. And if I said this to you, brian and Richard. If I said, how many books have you read in your life, what would you know? Behind me we're doing this as an audio, but we're doing this with visuals. Here we can see I have a whole bunch of books behind me. You guys have books behind you. I'll ask you, richard, how many books do you think you've read in your lifetime?
Speaker 1:2,200 maybe.
Speaker 3:Okay, what's your percent recall?
Speaker 1:I can't remember. Yeah, I mean, if you asked me, it would be, 0.001% Right.
Speaker 3:But AI has 100% recall and it's read everything, so why would you struggle to try to figure out how to do something? Now I want to put this disclaimer For the purpose of people listening. This is for educational and informational purposes only. We are not giving you legal advice. This is you need to do your own due diligence purposes only. We are not giving you legal advice. This is you need to do your own due diligence. With the disclaimer out of the way, what I would tell you is treat AI as an expert, but monitor it as an intern. Ai is going to get you 80% of the way, 70% of the way, but if you are thinking that I'm just going to copy and paste, copy and paste, you're probably going to run into some problems. Now, AI is 100% when you come up with a workflow, but when it's just you, if you're using it for content, which most marketing, people are trying to write blogs, but I think that they're really short-sighted because I think SEO is dead and content marketing is dead, which I'm happy to go into.
Speaker 2:Right, I want to ask you about the technology piece. So like looking at the three areas that you outlined number one mindset. Number two strategy Three is tactics. Three is tactics yeah, in your enterprise marketing organization that are redundant. Don't you at some point have to get operations or IT involved? Because when I've gone through these discussions with chat and others, ultimately it might come down to them saying great, to do what you're asking, you need these products.
Speaker 3:Oh, a hundred percent. I think the key is it depends on your role and your responsibility. The goal is to use it as a tool to help you solve that problem. Every company is different. Some companies have managed IT, some companies have internal IT companies, some have the privacy policies. So we want people to use common sense here.
Speaker 3:But if your role is to do X, if you're a CMO chief marketing officer and your role is to generate opportunities, well, ai can help you evaluate the performance of your marketing. It can help you look at the. It can deduce high-level key performance indicators. It can look at customer lists. It can do now. You want to set your privacy settings up. We'll get into that in a second but you can use AI to find out where are you now. It can help you do heat maps and help you understand the dynamics of where people look on a page and how to improve, whether it's digital marketing or not.
Speaker 3:So, at the end of the day, marketing comes down to three areas. Right, if you want to increase business and I don't care if business to business, business to consumer, global brand doesn't matter there's only three ways You're going to create it borrow it or buy it. You're going to create it with content, which is what we're doing today. We're creating an episode of Marketing 911. This is content. I'm on this, which brings me to level two. You're borrowing Well, me being a featured guest on Marketing 911, I am now borrowing your audience People. I'm getting introduced into new people that didn't know who I was 10 seconds before this episode started or before they saw the post on social media about the episode. So it's borrowing before this episode started or before they saw the post on social media about the episode. So it's borrowing. And that's traditional media TV, radio and then digital media who are the influencers in your industry. And then number three is you're paying for it.
Speaker 3:So AI can help you with the create part. It can help you with the borrow part. It can help you with the buy part. It can help you write the best, most compelling SEO, optimized pay-per-click ads and narratives, as long as you have the right message in the market and the method. So AI is really a multi-purpose Swiss army knife that can help you do all those things, but at the end of the day, you still need the people involved, like you said, brian, you know, depending upon how to actually get it implemented.
Speaker 3:But I want to give the listeners the two different places they should go. If they're interested in level four, which is robotic process automation, zapiercom, which has been around for years, but I recommend they check out makecom. So again, do your own due diligence. We're not endorsing anything here on the show, but I would go to makecom and look at a tutorial or go to YouTube and say what's this whole makecom? And look at a tutorial or go to YouTube and say what's this whole makecom, and that will open their eyes up if they're new to robotic process automation and what it can do.
Speaker 1:And we're talking about the word make M-A-K-E makecom M-A-K-Ecom correct. Yeah, and we've seen this automation before. The AI entered Automation Anywhere. Is a company out there. Uipath is a company out there. These are companies that have been focused on the enterprise level of automation. Do we see and we've only got a minute or two here do we see an enhancement to those automation tools that have already been out there? Zapier, like you said, has been out there forever? Is the AI turbo boosting those or is it introducing a whole new level?
Speaker 3:It's a whole new level and it's turbo boosting it. The capabilities are continuing to grow dynamically, they're getting more powerful on a regular basis and I think, as you get ready to wrap up the show, I would say you know everybody listening. Be a critical thinker, you know. Use AI to help you deduct the decision-making. Make sure you set your privacy policies. Make sure you have acceptable use policies for your organization so that people on your team are using AI within the boundaries of what the company is, so you don't have brand damage. Yeah right.
Speaker 1:And Brian, you've often found that right. One of the biggest challenges is kind of encouraging the participation of the company's employees, but then some type of guidelines to keep them within the brand so that they're not just running amok. And certainly AI could exacerbate that problem.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2:No, I was just going to say 100% running global marketing organizations. Previously, the biggest concern was okay, are they going to create their own campaign with an agency and the messaging's off it, or the wrong pictures? Now, with AI, there's so much at their fingertips that putting in place across the season checkpoints for, in our case, asia-pac or Western or Eastern Europe, where you're not sitting with them and it's easy for them to go off brand it's now critical. This is just one more the grade of AI and the issues that can rise from having AI within a company, and you need to really focus on number two.
Speaker 3:And I would say closing, if someone said well, where can I learn more? I have a free hour training that people can take at ProfitRichResultscom forward. Slash ai-training, there's nothing to buy, you can go there. I do a video every month for 60 minutes. It has a brand guide, it has downloads, it has templates, it has 60 ways to use AI. It's a bunch of bonuses. So again, it's profitrichresultscom forward slash.
Speaker 1:We're just going to slow down your fast pace Profit.
Speaker 2:Rich Results. Rich or rich Profit R-I-C-H-R-E-S-U-L-T-S.
Speaker 1:Yep Profitrichresultscom. There we go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you can go there. But I would go to forward slash AI dash training and that's the direct link to the page where they can get it. Or your listeners can just go to LinkedIn and connect with me and say, hey, what's the training?
Speaker 3:And I'll send them a link, I'll put it out there and, uh, and you said, this is an hour that you go out and once a month, once a month I put a new episode up on AI training and they can go on YouTube and watch the previous ones, so it really lets them know from an executive standpoint private equity group marketing. I have a lot of CMOs that watch it and it's just how to. It's AI innovations what you need to know now how to actually implement. So I don't just talk about AI and AI news. I talk about from a business standpoint. Is this going to help you increase your influence, increase the average transaction, increase the frequency of purchase, or help you improve?
Speaker 1:operations. Ford, thank you very much for this. This has been kind of a crash course for a lot of our listeners that are just going to be able to step back and rethink how they're approaching this AI, because they've all been patting themselves on the back oh yeah, I use ChatGPT, right? And it's like, yeah, I hear that all the time, Right. And then you're like great, You've stepped through the door of this whole new world right Through the wardrobe, back of the wardrobe. Now it's time to kind of see what the world can offer. So this has been awesome, Ford. Again, we're going to just let people know that was. If they want to go find out some more information, it was ProfitRichResultscom slash AI-training. That's where they can go and find this out. Ford Sakes has been our guest today with Brian and I here on Marketing 911. Covered a lot of material in a very short amount of time. I know I always learn something, Brian, isn't that true? With every one of our guests we learn something new, don't we?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's an additional benefit to doing this, and I've certainly learned a lot from you today for it, so thank you for your time.
Speaker 1:Thank you, you've been listening to 9-1-1. Thank you very much. We appreciate the feedback that you've all been sending us and particularly the chance to listen with us and join us every other week as we have our little show to get to talk to some fascinating people. Take care.
