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Welcome to "Future Proofed," the podcast for forward-thinking professionals eager to keep their career and company at the cutting edge.
Traditional go-to-market (GTM) strategies have become clunky, inefficient, and bloated. This show explores the intersection of AI and GTM strategies to ensure you cut the GTM Bloat and build a future-ready approach.
Each episode of "Future Proofed" dives deep into how AI redefines what it means to craft effective go-to-market strategies. From actionable insights on integrating AI into your sales, marketing, and product strategies, to expert interviews that shine a light on the new best practices changing industries, this podcast is an essential resource for anyone looking to upgrade their GTM playbook.
Our host, Kyle Coleman, is a seasoned expert in GTM and AI innovation. He breaks down complex concepts into practical, actionable advice. With "Future Proofed," you'll learn how to:
- Leverage AI and machine learning to supercharge your GTM strategies.
- Navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by new technology trends.
- Adapt and thrive in the fast-paced digital economy.
- Foster a culture of innovation and agility within your team or organization.
Don't let the wave of the future leave you behind. Tune into "Future Proofed" and stay ahead of the curve as you learn to leverage the power of AI for your GTM strategy.
Nathan Thompson (00:00)
All right, welcome to another episode of Future Proof. This is season two and today is a little weird. We're going a little meta because we are joined today with Vanessa, who helps us with our post podcast distribution and she is the guest today, going to walk us through what she does ⁓ both pre-AI and now post-AI, which is easier. And if she sacrifices time or quality for time, which I suspect she does not, but I'm excited to hear more about that. So Vanessa, how are you today? Please introduce yourself. Tell us who you are and why you're so awesome.
Vanessa Silva (00:29)
⁓ yeah.
Thank you for having me, Nathan. So my name is Vanessa and I'm a content creator and strategist. I have been working on these basically since 2010. So I've been since before AI was around. So I'm one of those troopers. And I have been working with a ton of brands around the world to help them get their content to the right people and bringing the right messages at the right time. So that's essentially what I do.
I know that ⁓ Opus Clip actually called me a one woman agency, which is crazy. so I'm going to use that as a description. They told me I didn't pay them to say that, so I'm going to use that.
Nathan Thompson (01:03)
That's great! The open-source clipping software, like the well-known VOTE.
I love it. The one
woman content agency. I love it. That's awesome. And doing again, it's really important that we clarify starting in 2010, you were doing this when the world of marketing, whether B2B or B2C, whatever acronym you want, was totally different than it is now. Walk me back 10 years. Let's take a trip back to 2015 and tell me what it was like to promote a podcast or a piece of an event, a piece of material, whatever you were working on back then.
Vanessa Silva (01:44)
Yeah, first of all, podcasts were not really a thing back then. Very few people actually add one, so it was not a trend. ⁓ But it was kind of hard to actually get the content out there because you had to do everything since the basic idea, the concept to the execution, then the distribution, and then even the repurposing. So you had to do everything step by step with a massive team, sometimes with only one person making all the team, basically.
Nathan Thompson (01:47)
Yeah, that's right.
Vanessa Silva (02:12)
but it took a lot of time going from the inception to the execution and even the distribution. feel that back then I had a ton of fun because I had to brainstorm things all the time by myself and actually butt heads with other people in the content teams to actually get things going. But yeah, it was kind of... It took so much of my time to do some of those tasks that right now we can actually do on the fly.
that I feel that, yeah, we had it good when it came to the brainstorming because we didn't have any tools whatsoever to aid us in there. So it was pure creativity all the time. ⁓ But yeah, we took so much time to actually get something from the ground up actually to being executed. And for people to actually see it, we had spent sometimes one month or more around those pieces of content that you have there or that you had there. So it was a massive difference from now.
in which you can actually have the brand guidelines, have an AI sort of helping you, guiding you through the process, or having someone that already is really proficient in an AI tool to actually help you with that, especially with those types of content that don't need as much brainstorming or as much creativity. ⁓ Because, for example, for campaigns, you still need the creativity, the pure creativity. So AI cannot help in there. You need to be really, really awesome. We see in the biggest and the best campaigns out there
Those are pure creativity. Those are crazy ideas that were shot during a meeting and everyone was looking at them thinking, why? And then that actually clicked. So when it comes to creativity itself, I would say you can't replace it right now and you still could not replace it back then. But when it comes to menial tasks and the things that repeat themselves, I feel that back then it took so long to actually get something out there. For example, if we create a blog, let's say,
a podcast episode, because this takes longer. We need to actually think about the script. If we have a script, so someone has to write the script. ⁓ Another person has to review the script. Then when the script is approved, someone has to record the script, which may take a couple of takes. And if you have guests, you need to actually guide the guests as well. So it takes a long time. Then when we get all of that recorded, you'd need to take the recording and shoot it to an editor. The video editor is going to see the video actually
make the notes, edit following the guidelines and it takes a long time. Let's say a 30 minute video takes, I would say around 4 to 5 hours to edit without AI whatsoever. And if we think about the short videos which people usually say, oh you can create a 30 second video on the fly, you cannot. It takes almost 2 to 3 hours to actually get one created from the ground up without AI. So...
Yeah, it makes a ton of difference when we look at that because you would take around one to two days to create a podcast episode. say, assuming that people are approving things and not sending those back for another review, ⁓ you are getting two or three days to approve that and get that going and get that for the first review of the final version. Right now, can actually do almost everything in one day. And that's a massive difference.
I would say that's, yeah, it's wild, really.
Nathan Thompson (05:29)
And I want to
talk about that. So I have a follow-up question, but before we jump into, because I do want to talk about the trade-off between creativity and fun and then time. But first I want to talk about, so we've got the old process. I mean, even just walking through it verbally gives me a headache. And like you said, let's say like this 30 minute clip, you send it to the video editor so they can find the right clips. And you send it to the social media person so they can get the LinkedIn, tweet, Facebook post, the Instagram, the TikTok.
Vanessa Silva (05:40)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Nathan Thompson (05:59)
Then you send it over to the newsletter person so they could send it into the anyway, all that stuff. Walk me through how you and I are doing this now and how long it takes roughly.
Vanessa Silva (06:04)
Yeah.
Right now I would say this is a dream when it comes to the organization itself of the call of the content So we only need a sort of a guide how to do the workflows that we create basically So we use a guy let's say a workflow from copy AI created from the ground up to guide me through the process and This is pretty much automated. Everything is pretty much automated So I only need the really good stuff that copy AI already has let's say a blog article. Let's say a podcast episode and shoot it there
And from there we can create tons of pieces of content based on it, basically. So we are already creating, we have already a really strong piece of content from the ground up and then we are just repurposing in so many different ways. Sometimes with only one click and when it comes to then the scheduling, of course, the scheduling is still something that we cannot automate, which is a pity. I would love for anyone, someone to create a tool for that because that's the worst.
that content creator has, it's basically to schedule everything because... Yeah, that's not the fun thing, that's not the fun stuff. you are only staring at the screen and yeah, time, yeah, post, yeah, schedule, yeah, where is the image? ⁓ the image, add the image. So that's boring as heck. But everything else you can automate in some way that it is so fast to get those pieces of content that I would take the...
Nathan Thompson (07:11)
gonna vibe code the shit out of the crap out of this later. I'm gonna vibe code this.
Vanessa Silva (07:37)
twice or thrice as much time to actually create those, let's say. ⁓ And those are already reviewed because those follow the guidelines, those follow the brand guidelines. So those follow the tone of voice, those follow everything you need. So we no longer need those back, that basically the back and forth to review content, to approve the content, because from the ground up, the piece of content is already approved. We follow the guidelines because those are already on copy AI. So we can use those brand guidelines from the ground up.
the content that we get in the final version is already suited or really perfected to match those so we don't have any problems whatsoever with sonar voice or branding or anything mismatching because we already have that in build basically in the workflow let's say.
Nathan Thompson (08:24)
And what I loved is, I mean, even yesterday, what was cool is as you were working, you can say like, hey, the meta description, like, hey, we've got all the posts, we've got this stuff like that, can we just add a meta description to, you know, a little piece of text that's an annoying headache that you have to do for every landing page or blog post. And now it can just kind of be, and let's not, sorry, I also need to be clear. I don't want to pretend like meta descriptions require creativity. They don't.
Vanessa Silva (08:32)
Yeah.
No, no,
no.
Nathan Thompson (08:52)
like a sentence
and 10 minutes of typing it out and they are so annoying to do having written hundreds of them myself is so annoying to do. Okay, so my question to you now is we've got all of this, it's going faster. Are you concerned about the loss of creativity and fun in the process or do you think it's freeing you up for more? And I'm not trying to lead you because we work on this stuff together. I'm genuinely curious as a one woman agency.
Vanessa Silva (08:59)
Yeah.
Nathan Thompson (09:22)
how you're handling that trade off of creativity and
Vanessa Silva (09:24)
Yeah, being a one-woman agency basically, what it makes it so is that sometimes I don't have time for everything. So ⁓ I need to actually think, and I've said this countless times before, for example, on LinkedIn, that I need to find tools to help me take some of the weight off of me. And if there are some tools which use AI in some capacity, let's say copy AI in this case, I will use those to actually bring those pieces of content faster to consumption.
then I would do if I would actually sit with those, look at those and then try to summarize things and try to create let's say repurposed content on the fly which actually saves me a ton of time. For example, when it comes to the video content I create tons of video content for other clients and that video content let's say someone records a one hour and 30 minute long video which is for example a workshop or something like that I'm going to scrape that of course to see if there's any gems in there
that's done manually of course, but I will trust for example tools like Opus Clip. I don't know if I can say the names of the tools, but I will trust, yeah, I will trust tools like Opus Clip to actually find those nuggets for me because I will not see through a one hour and 30 minutes long real estate webinar or something like that because I don't understand anything about real estate, so.
Nathan Thompson (10:31)
Yeah, all of
Thank you.
Thank you.
Vanessa Silva (10:47)
I will trust AI on that. Of course, I will still review the content to see if it makes any sense or if it touches on points that the client actually said that I need to touch upon. But other than that, that saves me so much time. I would have to actually spend one hour and 30 to understand, take notes and then watch it again to actually make the cuts. So it would take so much time to actually do that. When it comes to the creativity trade-off when it comes here, I would say...
I use AI more as an assistant to me, more than a creative person. So whenever it is something that requires my creativity, it is in my head, basically. I come up with ideas, I come up with the concepts, with the strategies, so that's my ⁓ creative side. But when it comes to the execution, if there are some, let's say, tasks that take more time to get there, some things that are so basic but take so long to do, AI is there to help me as a second Vanessa, basically.
So I will shoot the information there and it will actually do stuff for me which I would take twice as long to get there. But I would actually get there, but still. That's not a question of losing creativity here because the creativity is there at the start. I only use the AI to actually speed up the process in some tasks basically.
Nathan Thompson (12:04)
Okay, so now I'm gonna hit you with a real challenge, because I totally agree with that. You get to choose when you're creative, and you get to choose when you're... It's not like AI is forcing you to use it for certain things. You get to choose. You pick and choose. How do you... I'm gonna throw myself under the bus. Last year, I saw firsthand how tempting and how easy it can be with AI to make shortcuts.
Vanessa Silva (12:15)
Yeah. Yeah.
Hahaha
Nathan Thompson (12:31)
And that did scare me because I was like, it is so easy to just think this is good when it comes out of the box and then just kind of shoot it off. But then I realized, but that's obviously not the right approach. And so we have a human in the loop at every phase. What do you do to keep yourself disciplined enough to not just say good enough click? How do you keep quality high when it can be so tempting to just kind of rush through it because it's all set up and automated?
Vanessa Silva (13:00)
Yeah, I usually think from the viewer or the audience side what I wanted to actually see. And usually the audience is pretty, let's say, pretty good at spotting AI. So we need to think that when we are creating content, as tempting as it can be to actually use AI and just write some stuff and, well, me something, that will easily be noticeable to other people. So we need to think...
in ⁓ an interesting way, or let's in the first point, we need to actually have that creative input, for sure. Then we need to actually, let's say, brainstorm, because we still have teams, even if we use AI for some tasks, we still have teams, and it is in that time that we actually get the good ideas. Then, if we feel that something is repetitive, let's say the client only has one content pillar that they use, and it is overdone.
⁓ And they don't longer know what to write about that content pillar because they already have a ton load of stuff that they did in the past But they don't want to repeat themselves. That's where AI basically comes in I would say when you have that I would say writers block creative block. Let's say you have used let's it's you never use everything but you have that that feeling of having
really done everything about that topic. You no longer have anything else to add. So I feel that at least for brainstorming, even if the content is not that really good that you get in the output of the AI, you can actually get some ideas coming from there and some stuff that you can actually think, well, let's go to the drawing board again, because we have some ideas here that we can actually try to see if they work and then back and forth between those. ⁓
That's what I've done in agencies in the past and that works pretty well. I would say don't lean too much on AI to do everything for you. It is an assistant. It is not replacing you. And that's that discussion we have online of AI replacing people. It is only going to replace people that don't know how to brainstorm, how to come up with ideas that are not creative enough because AI is only there to help you. It is your crutch, basically. It is there to help you when a task is boring, when a task is actually
hitting the wall and you don't know where to go from there. But otherwise, if you rely too much on there, you risk having your content sounding like everyone else's because most people are actually not even putting the effort into personalizing the content or going into detail with the prompts and everything else in between. We've talked a couple of weeks ago, actually outside of here, to write a white paper for a client.
and the client didn't have any idea whatsoever what they wanted to do besides the topic. Yeah. Which is crazy. You don't go to the AI saying, have this topic, write it for me. Because you are cop- First of all, you are copying other people online and you risk having problems when it comes to copyright. Then you risk having the problem of something like everyone else. So good for you. You are going to sound generic and you are not going to make any sales whatsoever.
And then it doesn't follow your brand guidelines whatsoever, your tone of voice is nowhere to be found, and then you wonder why it sounds bad, why it is weird and it feels weird, because it is AI, it is a copy-paste of AI. Your prompt was, write me about X. Which is... not a prompt. Let's say.
Nathan Thompson (16:35)
You're totally right though and it's I have seen people do that where they're they're outsourcing their thinking and that's where the problem comes in. It's whereas I really I really admire how you use it because we it's from what I've gathered and I loved what I asked question the first two words were I think and I was like yeah that's where it starts. Human brain does some thinking go figure crazy thought.
Vanessa Silva (16:42)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nathan Thompson (17:00)
But what's so cool about AI is it's allowing people who understand strategy and who have a spark of creativity to execute against that creativity and strategy without waiting for other people to wake up in the morning or to cook. You can actually move yourself forward now, which is amazing. Okay, we're coming up on time here. So I just want to make sure that we let you pitch yourself because Vanessa is working for Copy AI a bit. So you'll get all of her time. However,
Vanessa Silva (17:18)
Yeah.
Nathan Thompson (17:29)
Hopefully, do you have free time for clients? Do you have more time for clients? Do want to pitch yourself? How can people reach you?
Vanessa Silva (17:34)
Yeah,
I'm going to pitch myself. So right now I am working freelance at the same time that I have an agency focused on web development. I'm going, I have two fronts here. So I'm working freelance as a content writer and content creators for any type of, let's say, field, but more specifically, HR, entertainment, and let's say, basic social media for everyone else in this case. And then I have,
a web development agency called Uzumibi Agency and we focus on web development for ⁓ specifically Webflow websites. So that's a thing that I have on the side in which I help mostly when it comes with client prospecting. So it is a bit different here than actually what I do usually with content creation and strategy. So yeah, I would say if anyone is actually interested in ⁓ getting in touch when it comes to content creation,
and strategy I'm available right now and also if you want to actually create a really awesome fast as heck website on Webflow or even WordPress, ⁓ shoot us a message to Uzumibi Agency.
Nathan Thompson (18:46)
That's awesome. Thank you so much. People can find you on LinkedIn. It will be linked in everywhere that we post this. ⁓ Vanessa, thank you not only for this conversation, but for all the hard work on the podcast. This is awesome. Thank you very much.
Vanessa Silva (18:57)
Thank
you very much. Yeah, thank you.