Some topics are beaten to death and yet evolving so fast that it’s worth to keep following continuously.
These include: making money online, productivity, losing weight, relationship advice, raising kids, self-improvement, common tech troubleshooting tips. There’s always more you can learn – a new hack, system, diet, efficiency framework, parenting book, and that’s why people keep cycling through more of them.
Some repetitive topics are time-bound – like launching a new social network and all the buzz for a few months, or Bitcoin, or the NFTs. They come and go or stick around for a year and disappear.
I’m discussing AI robots and how AI is changing conversations, networking, relationships, and transactions today with James Schramko. As a mentor of mine, James has ran tech and marketing agencies like 20 years ago, and his background brings some fresh insights on AI adoption and use here.
(I also share a personal story about “MBA Disrupted” I hadn’t shared before in this one.)
Unlike other hypes like crypto, NFTs, the Metaverse, AI has been the one buzz in the recent years I’ve taken far more seriously. NFTs may be a thing in a decade from now, but we’re far too early, can’t solve a whole lot of problems yet, it’s easy to build hype or cause crypto schemes, raise money with ICOs and disappear, and so forth. In other words – the risk far exceeds the possible future reward for now.
AI, however, differentiates in several ways.
First, the concept has been around for 50 years – we’ve been implementing machine learning for about 15 years in different forms already. Second, the GPT generation is ran by established and large organizations, not non-existing actors (who found Bitcoin again?)
Microsoft invested as much as $13 billion in Open AI – if something goes south, you know where to go, complain to, file a class action lawsuit to, etc.
Second, AI has very practical use for free or almost for free. It solves A LOT of problems for hundreds of millions of people right away. That’s the difference when compared to NFTs or the Metaverse. I have an Oculus Rift, but not too many people do, so we can’t Zoom there regularly or do teaching sessions or organize events.
Third, there’s clear, legal use for businesses, and that will get adoption immediately. Most Fortune 500 can use AI to optimize costs and refine processes – and it would be legal. If they do NFTs, that would be crazy. If they screw banks over with crypto, and then the SEC decides it’s illegal, goodbye. They also don’t need to gift away hundreds of thousands of VR devices to their clients and get sued about health issues.
That list goes on, but case in point – AI is here to stay and continuously learning about its applications will be the smarter bet. And what we’ve tried and done so far, dive into my episode with Schramko today.
Last but not least, AI’s side effect on massive outreach at scale has been pretty brutal lately.
We do implement RB2B and SiteStop campaigns with warm outreach for prospects on our site. We know the intent and have the signal and that’s valid. But the ability to just sign up for Apollo or buy a list and personalize pitches at scale with AI for a commodity service, being used by 15,000 other freelancers doing the same, is cluttering inboxes hard, and impacting the space like crazy.
Some outreach people are pretty persistent. If I engage, I keep getting lectured on why I need to run ads to specific campaigns or how viral videos work. F*ck that, it’s context-specific. Or they pitch free X leads or a sequence and a couple calls later, there’s a $8K initiation fee for tooling setup or CRM onboarding or whatever.
Extremely annoying and misleading – and exactly why cold outreach is getting such a bad rap. It’s not that all services suck; it’s the fact that 99% of the calls and emails are spam, irrelevant, commodity, not relevant to the buying cycle or technographics or firmographics, low quality, and sifting to all of that crap is risking missing on the 1 out of a 100 good offers coming up.
Most people just give up early on and never use social or look at DMs or have gatekeepers to save their time and nerves. Who can blame them?
I’ll be moving back to the drawing board here – and potentially working on some videos for my channel. I’ll post a poll soon as we’re moving to Beehiiv, but the current AI makes it cumbersome so that’s still work in progress.
If you have great YouTube business channels you follow, hit “Reply” and send them my way for inspiration on format, length, topic structure, even gear and staging.
If you want to scale up your martech channels for Q3, DevriX’s EaaS service is here for you (starts at $3k/mo, average plans $5K – $10K for a full service approach)
Want to work with me directly? My flat $1,800/mo async plan will be your fractional CXO resource going forward.
Now, let’s jump back into market news and business trends you need to follow.
Yours,
Mario
My Take
Can Humans Defeat AI Robots in Content Marketing – 2023 can be characterized as the year of AI. Constant talks of artificial intelligence replacing and deleting jobs have raised questions for the future. In this episode, we talk with James Schramko about the role of AI in content marketing and its impact on the industry.
Pivoting Your Business – The biggest B2B hurdle over 500+ of our B2B peers faced this year was: “Our current sales process no longer works.” Experienced startup-first enterprises are pivoting and going customer-first this year.
4th of July – Many of my peers in Europe and Asia use today to catch up on email and DMs, work on strategy, browse some newsletters or do some deep thinking. 4th of July is US-centric, but also an international holiday most of the world is tied to.
Newsletter Recommendations
Market Briefs – Traditional financial news & education has long been defined by Wall Street Suits – at Briefs Media, we’re ditching the suits, but leaving the Briefs. Briefs Media is a Detroit-based financial media company and the team behind Market Briefs, Briefs Academy and Market Briefs Pro. Join their free newsletter today!
Grit Capital – Gain a finance edge in 5 minutes. Market insights from a former +$100MM portfolio manager and her team. Grit is one of my primary sources of financial info that I follow religiously.
Business Strategy
Etsy’s new policies – Etsy has been grappling with an influx of generic “junk” and AI-generated products on its platform. The service revised its seller policy on Tuesday, introducing new labels that clarify whether a seller made, designed, sourced or handpicked an item. This marks the first time it has dealt directly with artificial intelligence in its seller policy, with the addition of clear guidelines around what the site does and doesn’t accept.
TikTok’s new ads restrictions – TikTok has implemented some new restrictions on ads targeted at teens in the app, while it’s also adding more data controls, and updated disclosure elements, in order to improve transparency within its ad targeting process.
S&P 500’s new records – The S&P 500 rose 0.1% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.3%, with each index managing to notch fresh records. The Dow Jones Industrial Average erased earlier session gains to slip 0.1%.
Boeing to plead guilty – Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge after the US found the company violated a deal meant to reform it after two fatal crashes by its 737 Max planes that killed 346 passengers and crew. The Department of Justice (DoJ) said the plane-maker had also agreed to pay a criminal fine of $243.6m (£190m).
Salesforce’s 9th State of Marketing report – Discover this year’s latest marketing trends in the 9th edition of our “State of Marketing” report. Salesforce surveyed nearly 5,000 marketing leaders worldwide to discover how marketers are doing business.
Global News
it green for July thus far, the S&P 500 SPX faces a big economic and earnings week, kicking off with Fed Chair Jerome Powell this morning.
Blain says while markets “seem unstoppable,” history is full of mean reversions as he sees U.S. politics feeding a “volatile” four months ahead.
- S&P 500: $5,576(+0.07%)
“With [the June 12] announcement, the Fed confirms its higher-for-longer position on interest rates,” says Dr. Selma Hepp, chief economist at CoreLogic. “But the stance is looking more untenable as more American households continue to pull back on spending. As more economic indicators begin to confirm this and unemployment begins to rise, the Fed will then look to cut rates. What’s not clear yet is when exactly the disinflation signs will be consistent enough for the first rate cut — we hope it’s still this year.”
- 30-year mortgage rate: 7.07%(+0.00)
- 15-year mortgage rate: 6.56%(-0.03)
Fed News
- Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday expressed concern that holding interest rates too high for too long could jeopardize economic growth.
- “Reducing policy restraint too late or too little could unduly weaken economic activity and employment,” Powell said in remarks for appearances this week on Capitol Hill.
Here are some of the most prominent headlines this week:
- The White House has released a letter by President Biden’s personal physician, Kevin O’Connor, explaining multiple visits to the White House by a Parkinson’s expert.
- France’s left-wing parties are projected to finish first in the parliamentary elections, keeping the far right at bay.
- The U.S. economy added 206,000 jobs last month and unemployment inched above 4% for the first time in over two years, new government data shows.
Investing Updates
- Ambr – extends its pre-seed round with €100,000 to accelerate the onboarding of its global customers. Co-invest next to Fuel Ventures, APX VC, Loyal VC, and Plug & Play.
- MyTeam – raising up to €2M to help sports clubs to become profitable.
- Klarsicht – raising €590,000 to scale its digital marketplace connecting opticians, manufacturers, and customers. Backed by ProSieben/Sat1 Group and GMPVC, offering €20.8M in marketing volume for equity after the round.
Note: Got a round going that you want to feature – your own business or a portfolio company? Get in touch.
Now let’s have a look at the latest top Flippa offers
Outbound Sales Consulting Firm – This business offers AI outbound sales acquisition systems for agencies and B2B businesses.
- Monthly profit: $22,151
- Profit margin: 74%
- Business age: 5 years
Classroom Timetable SaaS – This SaaS platform offers scheduling features for teachers and students and is used by enterprise-level clients such as BAE Systems and Sunway University.
- Monthly profit: $12,506
- Churn rate: <1%
- Business age: 4 years
Digital Marketing and Development Agency – This agency offers services including SEO, social media, and web development.
- Monthly profit: $3,713
- Average order value: $257
- Business age: 5 years
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