Paul Konrardy:
[0:17] Well, hello, everyone, and welcome to Monsters of Curiosity. Glad you joined us today. I'm Paul Conrardi, one of three very curious people who have decided that we're going to talk about stuff that we find interesting and we're curious about. Today's topic, before I introduce the next person that I'm speaking with, is about social channels. And what channels should you be on versus what everybody else might tell you? So that's going to be lively because we've already had a reaction amongst the board here. And I'll go right to the person who's had something to put her on the spot is Jen, Jenny Evans.
Jenny Evans:
[0:57] Hi. Yeah. When I looked at today's topic, I immediately experienced rage, felt a little bit sick to my stomach. And I was like, I am truly going to be a monster of curiosity today.
Paul Konrardy:
[1:12] Good.
Jenny Evans:
[1:14] Susan, how do you feel about today's topic?
Susan Evans:
[1:18] I love it. It makes me chuckle. It is a question that everybody asks all the time for a business or for your brand, if you're an influencer, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So I love it because for me, there's always a fairly easy answer, or at least a first jumping off point.
Paul Konrardy:
[1:41] Well, why don't you just dig right in? because we can then have the outrage come out later.
Susan Evans:
[1:48] Because, well, and Paul, and I think everybody, that we've all had people say, oh, you should be on this channel because it's so cool.
Susan Evans:
[1:56] And that's great for your personal stuff, but maybe not for a business. And I've always started with the assumption of if you're in business, you should probably know where your audience is and your audience dictates the channels you're on. So if you're a B2B, depending on what that is, you may not want to choose TikTok first. You'll probably choose LinkedIn. And then you go by, how old is my audience? Well, old people are on Facebook. So now I'm on LinkedIn and Facebook because I'm probably not on TikTok if I'm older. And so if you just start going that direction, say, where are my people who can pay me money? And then go from there. And then I would say move to, are my competitors on a channel I'm not? Is it because they've been told to and nobody's on it? And you can tell by looking at a competitor if they have no comments, no nothing. It's just a lot of wasted space for them then. But that's what I would do first. Where's my audience? Who can sustain my business? And then secondly, where are my competitors? Should I even consider them?
Paul Konrardy:
[3:08] Mm-hmm. I've got some additional thoughts on that, but I'd really like to hear about the rage because I always find that somewhat entertaining when it comes to social media. What do you got? What do you got for us, Jen?
Jenny Evans:
[3:20] Oh, OK.
Jenny Evans:
[3:22] When you're like, oh, there's an easy answer. I know for some people and some businesses, there is an easy, obvious answer. I am not one of those people. And I know that there's a fairly large number of people similar to me where it's not completely obvious because as a professional speaker, I really have two different audiences. I have the individuals that are in my audience, and then I have the buyer and the decision maker who's going to hire me to come in. And I need to appeal to both of those.
Jenny Evans:
[4:12] But the messaging for each one of those is not the same. And then the question becomes, okay, my buyers, my decision makers, where are they hanging out on social media? To me, the obvious place is if I'm a business looking for business transactions, it would be LinkedIn. Totally makes sense. But people don't use LinkedIn as social media. People are not just on LinkedIn, just scrolling. Oh, my gosh, two hours went by. I commented on a bunch of videos. I liked a bunch of videos. So for me, it's just been so frustrating because... The usual obvious questions that somebody I might hire to help me or I might ask myself or would seem common sense don't really apply to me.
Jenny Evans:
[5:14] Tell me I'm wrong.
Paul Konrardy:
[5:16] I think you're spot on for your situation. I truly do. I think you are in a little rarefied world where you have a component of B2C and B2B at the same time. You've got you have a portion of your business that is very much focused on the individual and you have a portion on the business that's very much focused on the people who will hire you to be a keynote speaker so you do have a unique situation but i'm gonna say
Paul Konrardy:
[5:49] I think that there's components of that that do apply to other businesses as well. And they may feel that same pinch. It's like, okay, where do I put my resources? Where do I put my time? Where do I put my energy? Because let's face it, organic use of these channels is different than the paid use of these channels. And you need to think of them differently because they have different outcomes. And in many ways you have i think of the channels as being validation
Paul Konrardy:
[6:17] And your opportunity for authentic authentic communication but i'm also aware that there are no more than 24 hours in a day and you can spend your entire time trying to figure all these little nuanced things out for organic for paid blah blah blah again it boils down to your goals and if your goals are set and pretty concrete you can then start to prioritize where you want to spend that resource whether it's time or money or even intellectual capital so i i think and i just also want to throw into the mix because we think we need to talk about how radically the channels have changed since they were created when they came online i mean i'm old enough to remember when there were no ads and you know it was all all everybody was trying to all everybody was trying to do was replicate an in-person experience online so they could reach a further bigger audience but those days are so far gone and that's another that's another part of this conversation but to get back to what you're saying is i think you have to
Paul Konrardy:
[7:25] Really dissect your goals. And as Susan said, figure out, okay, where's the majority of your audience going to be? And you may have a complimentary campaign thought process for the paid that is slightly more focused on an action than your organics are, because your organics is basically that two-way communication that you have directly with somebody. I could, again, like you said you might be wrong, I might be wrong in this but that's how I'm seeing the channels now and I'm a data driven person so that data does point towards these outcomes that are not as they just don't come as easy as they used to because you really do have to think through them differently than we did because people are using the channels differently and those are all components of our further conversation i babbled enough go for it
Susan Evans:
[8:24] I think too it may it's not one answer fits all um it may help because you've got one channel primarily well probably two, instagram for your age group and linkedin and you're not going to do the same message you may want to and this would be this This is true for, businesses that I've worked with. It's not, hey, hire me. That's like saying, hey, here's a car. You go, thank God, I saw that ad on Instagram. I'm going to go buy it now.
Susan Evans:
[9:01] It's the nurturing. It's the awareness. And so if that is the message, then the experience or the, just recently learned this.
Susan Evans:
[9:13] If you need to build visibility with those who approve the buy, then what you want to do is say, here's what you're going to get. Here's the solution I'm giving you. It's like, oh, okay, rather than here's how I do it, it's here's the solution. It's like, I just did this. I just did this. I helped them solve this. I helped them. It's like, oh, I want one of those. And so I think that may be like one editorial piece where I'm going to use these channels, but have very specific messages. And one is going to be awareness or building trust, building all this. And the other one is going to be directly to those people who are like, yeah, I want to hire her because she just did it. You may have some editorial stuff overlap, but it may be better to break it up. You're not going to have one post that fits all. You may have two editorial strategies on both of these channels. And so, it's an easier way to do it because you're not going to go to TikTok.
Paul Konrardy:
[10:15] Well, I think that's where the separation between what you're doing organically versus what you're doing paid. You have different opportunities. with both of those with organic you have a better i think or a real authentic voice you can use in a different way and it's not like at the ad side of it has to be so completely different it has to be complimentary by all means your voice has to maintain its editorial you know whatever that messaging you're doing but i think in terms of paid, you can get in front of people you never would have dreamed you could get in front of, whereas you're continuing a conversation on your organic side. And I think that goes across the channels. If you are really trying to be engaging and continuing to grow your audience. But if you're trying to sell something, that's such an ad. And it's such a different mindset than if you're helping somebody with what you're talking about.
Jenny Evans:
[11:17] Well, this brings up a good question. How do you know, or what are some good questions to ask yourself as to whether organic is enough or adding the paid route, is that where you should spend your time and energy as well?
Susan Evans:
[11:39] Your metrics are going to tell you that. What does that mean? Which means if you are posting on Instagram and getting 15, likes organically, but put money behind it and get 400, that's your answer. I mean, it doesn't negate one, but you'll start to see what resonates with the audience. And if you look back To see what worked And I think it's going to be, For any business No matter what you do You're going to go out and say This is what I want this to do Build awareness Amongst these audiences, And you're going to talk to them Not just in general And so you have to be very specific With the content and what you want it to do Because it has to fit the goal So I don't know if it's what platform to be on, but what do you want the content to do for you on that platform? And you'll know by the metrics.
Jenny Evans:
[12:50] So what you're saying is you have to do the thing before you know if you should do the thing.
Susan Evans:
[12:59] Correct. It's kind of like a diet.
Jenny Evans:
[13:01] Pre-deciding this all really has to be, to a degree, an experiment, which I find to be sometimes a little bit challenging. I'm like, can I just have the answer? Because I'm busy and I have a lot going on. So I have to experiment before I can find my answer
Susan Evans:
[13:23] Yep it's kind of like discovering on a diet I can't have sugar well I'm going to have a muffin tonight with sugar on it just to make sure nope can't have it just discovered that and so it's the same kind of thing where it's, you know it's like oh that didn't work so well okay this did work well but it's going to come out in the metrics where you are going to see people saying that
Susan Evans:
[13:46] was really interesting. And the one thing I learned is you have to give away, you have to decide what you're going to give away in terms of intellectual capital to prove you know what you're talking about. And it might be, in your case, it might be quoting from the book saying, you know what, there are three things that, because it's out there, it's public knowledge, it's just not in everybody's public knowledge. So I would use that book till the cows come home and say, CEOs ask me this question all the time. Da, da, da, da, da. Here are the three answers. If you want to know more, give me a call because this is what I do for speaking and I will help you through it. It's like, oh, okay, great. That is the answer to my question and you know more than the answer to my question. And I think it's that kind of thing, especially in service. It's like, I'm going to tell you the solution of what you want and then I'm going to show you how I do it. Instead of I do these things, guess what it is? Um.
Susan Evans:
[14:45] I would be interested if I'm, if I'm the person who job it is to hire you and then go get the, okay, I do want to know how you, I come in, I do this. I will talk with you. Here's my process. Okay, good. I know that process. Now I'm going to call you because the pre-qualification now with AI is everywhere. I don't have to call you. I can look everything up and go, yeah, no, yet, no, yet, no, without even talking to you. So the information you're going to have start putting out there is going to be probably more than you or any other business is used to because the search isn't going to come back the same way, it's going to ai things say these are the top three top three may not be anywhere near what i'm looking for i may not have the time to look further so there there's some things and i would absolutely use claude, to look at this i i would ask these questions of every social platform compare contrast and say what do you think have them look at your social channel and say this is what i'm getting what am i missing here's my audience what am i getting.
Paul Konrardy:
[15:47] I think an llm audit of your feed is a really smart yeah it's a really smart tactic
Susan Evans:
[15:53] That'd be the first thing i would tell any business it's like yeah you know and if need somebody to help you and you want to bounce it off a human for instance yeah um i i would do that but, honestly everything i'm doing now is first draft or way beyond first draft, sometimes finished product with the ai the lms i'm using it's it's like oh i didn't think of that i should do this and what am i missing what am i not missing what are my competitors doing that i'm not doing and it'll come back and tell me and i'm like site sources here's the source so it's it's great, so i i think they're smart questions but i would, i would always go back to where is my audience and you can break it out where's the audience that checks the box to yeah this is you can pay this budget and where's the other audience that is looking for me to get the approval to pay for me.
Paul Konrardy:
[16:51] I think we're in a situation, sorry, Jen, but we're in a situation now where the platforms are changing, but how they're changing is based on user behaviors and the influence that AI is having on deciding what you're going to see when you're on those channels. And that AI component is still...
Paul Konrardy:
[17:13] Is formulating an outcome in my opinion that is going to continue to change and so we have to watch these channels so carefully what are they doing what's happening and what are what's what's the user behavior changing as a result let me give you an example of that so linkedin there used to always be this um one of the one of the better and more successful types of ads is a lead gen form that's native within the wall garden of linkedin and if you remember any of these channels are considered now a walled garden you have to get into them you have to have an account and that's how you maintain that relationship with that individual that you made a connection with you stay on that platform so within the walled garden of linkedin lead gen forms used to be easy you could throw a white paper up or you know say you know i'll give you this and you give me that and they fill out the form and everybody's happy well that has dramatically changed now you have to give away the store in order to get somebody to use that um so you have to use more engagement tools like some kind of a
Paul Konrardy:
[18:21] Whatever that is it has to provide real value whether that's like a score or something that that make them feel good about their business or tell them where they are in some kind of a transition into a new regulation that's that's a recent example of something i've been working on but you really have to be more you have to give more put more resource into it in order to get any value out of it now because people are just not going to give you their contact information without a real payoff and it used to be fairly easy payoff now it isn't and that's a user behavior change because they know they don't have to give you anything to still get something of value So it is a kind of an old tactic. But that means that that tool that's within the wall garden is also going to have to start changing. So we're going to see new products coming out of the platforms themselves.
Paul Konrardy:
[19:18] You're also seeing from an advertising standpoint with these platforms they're they're really finding different people based on all of those audience messages and signals that you're giving them so if you haven't uploaded a customer list to these to these channels for whatever reason you're missing out because that is like your gold from your ownership all of your context is your gold that then the whatever channel it is whether it's tick tock or or instagram or linkedin or any of the social channels that you're advertising on can take that list and find people that are very similar to the attributes of the people on your list so it really broadens in a much more fine-tuned way than it used to so i kind of rambled on with that but bottom line is the impact of ai on these and these the back end of these platforms is also profoundly changing how they're used and that's from both behavior as well as from what the platforms are providing
Susan Evans:
[20:23] I would add to that it wouldn't be a bad idea, to have one of the llms do a a quick look at a LinkedIn or just say, go through just my general, just look at these channels and figure out, What is that platform doing to decide what to show? What content are they like? I'm going to pull this because this is what people are responding to. So there's that other leg.
Paul Konrardy:
[20:52] It's a reverse engineering. Yeah. I like that.
Susan Evans:
[20:55] Yeah. What signals do these different platforms use in this moment, at this week, in this hour, to decide what content to show in my industry? And so it would and then once you do that you can say here's the content here's the link to the my page where i talk about it give me three linkedin posts and it'll write it for you with the appropriate text so so i would absolutely do it that way.
Jenny Evans:
[21:25] Paul since this is really your wheelhouse and you know you've talked about how much things have changed are constantly changing You know, so as of June of 2026, what do you think are the big things that people should keep in mind as they are deciding what platforms should I be on?
Paul Konrardy:
[21:57] Um, the very first thing that comes to mind is related to Susan's metrics comment. You have got to be able to track what's going on with your channel before you dig in. And that goes organically as well as with paid. You need to make sure that you have all of your ducks in a row. Like if you have a profile on a channel, make sure that profile includes everything you need to tell the world about you and your business. And make sure that the link works. Make sure that you have appropriate contact information on it.
Paul Konrardy:
[22:35] You can't just glide over that. That's really critical data to include in that channel. When you're doing ads, make sure that you can track where that ad goes. If you have a website make sure the website can track when you have an ad coming to your website that it's tracking that that is such a fundamental infrastructure piece you would think that this comes second nature and i cannot tell you i've done three audits of websites in the last month of established businesses and they all were missing something uh and they were planning to advertise on a channel and they couldn't track what was going on once they started the ads whether they're good or ill the channel will lovely they will love to take your money but the way to make that money work for you is to ensure that you are tracking what's going on with it you can run the ads without tracking no problem they'll take your money but they will not be as effective for you and it will not be a good investment unless you make sure that that infrastructures in place those are my really basic things is making sure you fill out all your all your fields and making sure that you can track whatever you're doing from a paid perspective
Susan Evans:
[23:55] Hmm. That's, that is actually one of the biggest problems. I mean, it's, it's otherwise your strategy is hope and hope is not a good strategy. And it's like, gosh, I hope this works. And it's like, unless you have a billion dollars to lose or spend, or some of it might work, some of it not. You do want to make sure your house is in order before you go out and do a lot of this stuff. Um, and yeah. You need to have a team that understands how that the architecture of your digital and social talk to each other so you can track that. But I think one thing is I'm hearing us talk. It sounds like it's so much harder. And I would ask because Paul, Jen, you're right. Paul does this every day. What has gotten easier in all of this, Paul?
Paul Konrardy:
[24:53] I think honestly content content creation has gotten easier and that's largely because of llm you can go in and throw in okay these are my outcomes i want give me give me three recommended campaigns that i could run for these and they can give you a checklist of things if you're not an expert you're running this on your own it can give you a checklist of things that you need to do in order for that to work and and then if along the way if you don't understand it it's nobody gonna they're not gonna be you're not gonna be embarrassed asking the question of an llm what does that mean yeah i mean that i have to say that is what that is one thing that's made it a lot easier for people to enter that field if they know how to use the tool itself like a Claude or Chad or whatever. They're all, you know, Gemini's pretty good with Google Ads exclusively, but you move beyond that. They're not so hot. But, you know, Claude is probably the best right now, I think, in terms, if I'm giving an endorsement, I don't know if that's not really an endorsement.
Susan Evans:
[26:00] It's an endorsement, not because of a sponsorship.
Paul Konrardy:
[26:03] No, there's no sponsorship. It's just my day-to-day. And it, but I do appreciate the fact that it looks beyond the what you don't know and can help you elevate it can increase and improve your game and make you more efficient so that has gotten easier before you used to trial and error now you've got some help out there that can help you write this stuff can help you make sure that you're filling in on your fields and when i say filling fields i mean as you are creating an ad there's fields that you have to put in like a headline a title a subtitle whatever you know description all each channel has their own words for the same thing. But make sure you fill them all in. Don't leave them blank. There's find something to put in there that makes sense. And that's where an LLM can really help you. Because in the past, oftentimes we left fields blank because we didn't know what to put in. Well, they end up having a compounding value when you do fill them all in. I think of Google ads. I forget where I saw this. There's a statistic that I can't remember. But if you're filling out a google ad for a search ad and while that's not technically a social platform it is a digital marketing tactic um
Paul Konrardy:
[27:19] You have 15 headlines you can add most people only put like the minimum three and you've left 12 opportunities to get your message mixed into it because let's face it the ad doesn't run just exactly as you put it out there ai within the platform is mix and matching the message based on who's going to see it. So that that's across the board. Meta does that. LinkedIn is getting, they're a little late to the game, but they're starting to do it. TikTok, definitely. I mean, you run the ad, It's certainly, they're kind of moving towards this concept of a black box. And a black box is you just throw something in there and something comes out the other end and you don't really know what's coming out. You just throw it all in the black box. They're moving more and more towards that because of AI. But you have to give it the ingredients for the sausage to come out. So make sure you fill in all of your fields. That's a simple little tactic.
Susan Evans:
[28:22] I think also as you decide what platform to be on you have to, Look at what your competitors are doing and say, look at what platforms they are on. Then I would ask an LLM, how are we alike? How are we different? And what are my competitors saying? And where is the gap that I can fit in? So you can get a lot of industry research out of any almost, well, I would do Claude. I would do Gemini too, because it will cite things. And you can say, give me, this is not a perfect prompt, but I am an architectural firm. I'm an influencer. I'm an executive speaker. I, you know, et cetera, whatever it is, this is who I am. Give me my top three competitors, analyze their channels, and now tell me where's the gap and where can I fit in? What are they not talking about? And source it, but I only want the last six months. Okay, great. And so it's sort of a who, what, when, where, why, how. Prompt that you can do. And that helps you then determine what I want to write about for the next 30 days.
Paul Konrardy:
[29:37] Well, I want to take that answer, though, that you've got. You've got to research that answer. You have to make sure that that fits because, you know, LMs are getting better and better and better. And there's no doubt that it's a great tool. But you actually have to do some of the homework yourself. You know, when you've been given this list of competitors that they've identified. Go and look to see if they truly are. They may not be. But in looking at them, you're going to learn tips of how they're communicating that you may want to adopt. Or you may say, oh, that is really ridiculous. And then you get a good chuckle out of it. So that, you know, you got to find some humor in life. But at the same time, it's really helpful to start. I feel like it's a boost. It's like it gets you started towards that direction. And making the changes you need to make. Jen, are you still mad?
Jenny Evans:
[30:37] Of course, but...
Paul Konrardy:
[30:38] Excellent.
Susan Evans:
[30:40] I want to work at this.
Jenny Evans:
[30:41] When all of that was
Jenny Evans:
[30:44] Coming out of my mouth, and I'm like, I want somebody to just tell me what to do. I did have that flash of... It's the same as when people just say, Jenny, just create a diet for me. Just tell me what to eat. I know. And I was like, I can't do that because it is a process of trial and error.
Jenny Evans:
[31:07] But I think like my really big takeaway so far from this is being able to use AI as that research tool to not only even point you in a good direction, but to even give you an idea as to how you should be using that channel. And I think, like, that's a game changer of, like, having something that can crunch that data for you and use those analytics. Because even, you know, sometimes I'm not a big analytics person. I don't like numbers. And, you know, like, Susan, that's your whole business of, like, let's look at the data. Because even sometimes when I look at the data, it still doesn't tell me exactly what it like. Was it the title? Was it the thumbnail? Was it the content? You know, like I still tell myself I don't know.
Jenny Evans:
[32:09] So just using AI to just really leverage your experience with the different channels.
Paul Konrardy:
[32:19] Here's a fun little prompt to consider. is when you do get up against that data that you're like, I don't even know what this really means. How am I going to tell me what really works? Throw in there,
Paul Konrardy:
[32:35] Explain, look at these and tell me what report is missing and how can I get that report out of this platform? So you're, you know, the generic dashboard that you're going to get from any of these channels, there's lots of levels within them in which you can get additional information is going to really fine tune your ask. So if you're curious about okay what you can tell which host or whatever is more engaged with but you can ask the llm to say is there another report within the platform that can tell me more about this or can explain that i can use to figure out what is more effective and then they can share you share with you a pathway a lot of times they're wrong i gotta tell you that but stick with it because when you start to say well that particular prompt or that link is not here on my on my screen then it will come back and recalculate okay well they've changed this now so let's try this let's try this so work with it as a partner it's a thinking partnership that allows you to figure out that question the answer to that question you're trying to find out And,
Paul Konrardy:
[33:52] You know, all the platforms have great reporting, but it's a matter of finding it. Because what the platform decides is your default is not the end story. There's so much more data there that's available to you. And how would you know without clicking into every one of them? So use LLN as a thought partner, and the person can help guide you through all the craziness of those dashboards.
Susan Evans:
[34:18] Yeah.
Susan Evans:
[34:21] The other thing, and you may want to, and I've been talking with some nonprofits about this, is looking at a completely different place to market yourself because people go, like-minded people of a particular nonprofit go there, would be like a substack. Do something there where it's like a, or advertise on Reddit to a specific group that talks about. So not only just social, but start looking at where are these, because you want to go to a place where you're not creating completely new content and you could plug something in and say, create a post for me on, on Substack or something I can comment to.
Susan Evans:
[35:06] But you're always looking for where are the smart people engaging, not just where are my people scrolling but where are they engaging and actually commenting and getting to be part of it and so that might be something too, and again it goes back to it's kind of like what you said Jen with the diet, you're going to have to it's going to take a little bit of time to figure out what really works for you just because the human body. And it would be the same thing with a business just because of the business. When you do find those people.
Susan Evans:
[35:44] And you find the two or three channels you can have the llm adjust your topic, to those channels so you're not having to go god i gotta write it for this and i gotta write for that now you can say write it for my sub stack column, now take that and i'd love to put this on linkedin the link to my sub stack column yeah and so you start doing this in a way where i'm gonna to, promote myself with everything i do and say or and decide where do i want them to go back to is it substack or is it my website on my website i better have a substack you read my latest you know that kind of thing um, but i but i would ask llms just as a research say these, these are the people i want fortune 500 this this and this and for any business, these are the people who can sustain my business and here's the industry they're in, and here are the places those industries are east coast west coast top 15 cities top 50 cities where are these headquarters or you know where are they based, and then you can start figuring out audiences yeah, kind of the audience's intellect and interest and go oh you know what the smart people from my industry are on reddit or substack or LinkedIn or TikTok, depending on your industry.
Paul Konrardy:
[37:10] That's where the LLM turns into the best intern you could ever have. And they always want to make you happy and they never argue with you, really. Can push back but they don't you know you can whip them in his shape pretty quickly
Susan Evans:
[37:22] And you can put in prompts that say like be the devil's advocate and break everything i do and it'll tell you you're not doing these 27 things and it's like, that's all i needed to know because it gives me a list of something i need to do so it's i always say what are we missing who's beating us, um what aren't i asking what are the six things i always put in numbers what are the six things i should be asking rather than what should i be asking for a couple i'm like i need 10 and then i will judge the 10, yeah it's so well.
Paul Konrardy:
[37:52] Having worked with susan she's always used that with people llms pets it doesn't matter give me three things that yeah it's always there was always a number attached it's very effective but it's like the llms are like yeah i'll be happy to happy to i want to make you happy it's fantastic it's fantastic
Jenny Evans:
[38:18] We glossed over this i can't i think somebody said and i don't remember who it was and as i was thinking about this topic i'm like here's the most important thing i would share with people in figuring out well like what channels should i be on in Anybody that you create contact with, getting those people's information on your,
Jenny Evans:
[38:49] you know, in your CRM, on your newsletter of like, own your list. I feel like as an entrepreneur, a business like that is probably one of my most valuable assets in that it doesn't matter if tick tock goes down or, you know, it goes away of that was just a tool for me to grow my list that I control.
Paul Konrardy:
[39:18] And can i just add to that because i think i mentioned that earlier that is the goal that you have as a business owner is your first party they call first party data and it's your contact list it's your crm data i'm just gonna put a word of warning out there for everybody understand the privacy policies that your business has to meet before you do anything
Susan Evans:
[39:44] Especially
Susan Evans:
[39:44] In California and in.
Susan Evans:
[39:45] Massachusetts.
Paul Konrardy:
[39:47] It's gotten state by state. It's crazy. It's a little bit different across the board, but make sure that you are well aware of the privacy requirements in order for you to use that data where it's most effective. And what that boils down to is making sure your privacy policy on your website and your app or anything else has.
Paul Konrardy:
[40:09] What the channel requires you to disclose. And so, example, if you're running Google Ads, there is a full disclosure. You have to say, this is what we do with your data when you visit our website. Same with Instagram and Meta. Same with TikTok. Same with LinkedIn. All of them have some requirements. So just be aware of them and implement them into your privacy policy. And I got to say, that's where the LLMs succeed as well. However, do not just take the LLMs words for it, run it by your attorney, protect yourself because the price you're going to pay when you don't take care of that privacy issue is excessive. And depending on the jurisdiction, it can be five figures for a violation for one person. So add that up with all of your different contacts. I know that that's extreme. It rarely happens, but it is possible. So if you're under risk mitigation, be sure that you just are covering yourself off on that.
Susan Evans:
[41:19] Paul and I have seen it happen.
Paul Konrardy:
[41:21] Yeah, we have. Millions. Yeah, unfortunately, it can add up quickly. But I don't want to say that to scare anybody into it. I do. Just be aware. Yeah, you're into frightening. I'm much, I don't want to say I'm loosey-goosey with it at all. It's an important consideration. But make sure that you take care of what you need to do to protect yourself. And if that costs you an hour or two with an attorney, that is such cheap insurance. And if people want a referral on that, I've got some attorneys I've used in the past. So just drop us a line and I'll let you know who they are.
Jenny Evans:
[42:08] Okay, so the episode started with rage and ended with depression. Smash that like and subscribe button.
Paul Konrardy:
[42:17] That's monsters of curiosity, isn't it?
Susan Evans:
[42:21] No, but I think I would say if you don't know, I wouldn't say no to a sub stack at this stage of the game. And I wouldn't say no to LinkedIn. And then the question is, how much do you want to put out there? I mean, if you're like, I can't sustain the amount of content that would be. Then make a different decision. And that's where you just go in and say, what should I do? And I would, this, this is what I would ask the LLMs, you know, go to my website, look at it. Here are my, here are my social channels. Look at them. Here's what I'm willing to do. You tell me what I should be thinking of going forward. And it gets your head moving. It's not the answer of all answers, but it gets you going, I can't do that. Well, I just figured out what I can't do. It's like, but I could do this. Oh, I could do that. And so that's kind of where the discussion with the LLM goes.
Susan Evans:
[43:14] And that piece of it for me has been very helpful because, it makes you think, okay, wait a minute, if the competition's doing this and we've got this, that means we can go out with this message. Okay, now I got my message. Okay, where do I put that message? And it's like, okay, now that I've got this, where do I go with it? And it tells me, think this way, think that way. And it's, it's kind of like an advisory board, all these LLMs where you go, well, you all said the same thing there. I should consider that. So I think it's, it's, it's, it's not depressing as much as a thoughtful opportunity. Because if you tell it what I don't want to do, it'll say, oh, okay, well then I do it this way. So you don't have to feel like, God, I'm going to do nothing my entire life but video and writing on some stack. It's like, no, don't do it that way then. It'll tell you a good way to think about it.
Paul Konrardy:
[44:10] Well, and I think that opportunity is to also simplify what you are going to do without thinking you have to be everywhere at all times for everyone. Because I'm seeing more and more brands are pulling back from some of the channels that they were previously on thinking that they had to be everywhere for everyone. And that isn't always the case. No, never has been. So it, well, reality is, no, it doesn't have to be that way because you're not going to capture your most profitable people everywhere if you're such like a chicken with its head cut off running around. Boy, that was graphic, sorry. But we got to stop the bleed sometimes. How's that for a segment? Uh and one of the ways to do that is to pull back from some of the channels you thought you had to be on when you don't really need to be on them i mean frankly the channels are changing and sometimes it doesn't make sense to be on them anymore so um be okay with being on one or two channels. There's nothing wrong with that.
Jenny Evans:
[45:16] This is going to be a whole nother topic, but I think what's been rubbing me the wrong way, too, as we're talking about this, is we keep using that word should. I hate that word. Should is a flag for me. You know, like, if I wanted to, I would, you know? So, like, you're right, Like balancing where do you think you're supposed to be or should be versus what am I actually willing to do? Whether that's I'm willing to spend the time or I'm willing to invest in maybe the emotional frustration of, you know, doing these experiments. But, yeah, of saying I don't have to be everywhere. What if I just start with one and do it intentionally do it in a way that feels good because that's what's going to keep you in it instead of this thing that this task that just feels like you have to do we've fallen into that before and then when we are making content I'm like okay okay get ready to videotape okay hide the rage that I'm pissed off that I'm even doing something that's not going to,
Jenny Evans:
[46:32] You know, so there, I don't know. I think that's something for all of us to think about too, is the shoulds versus what's strategic, what's intentional, what do I want?
Susan Evans:
[46:46] Yeah. I've got a prompt, thank you to my interns, that we can post that talks about.
Susan Evans:
[46:57] Get it's like three pieces and it says it focuses on the buyer not a demographic or a person and then talks about the capacity that a business, can handle and it doesn't default to conventional wisdom so it's like, where does my buyer not the demographic actually spend attention not just hold an account be specific about titles decision making and then what content format does my business naturally produce well? And then where does that get rewarded algorithmically and culturally? And so it's just stuff where you can kind of go, okay, here's what we're looking for. And it's a start, not the prompt of all prompts, but one of the things, and this came from a woman I used to work with, and she had a really good, as she would write in prompts to research, her last sentence was, ask me any clarifying questions before you begin. Because then the prompt will say, well, I need to know these 47 things before I can give you a good answer. And you're like, oh, good, because it would have taken four hours of me going back and forth with you to get to those clarifying questions. So it's a really good prompt for research before you begin researching. Ask me any clarifying questions before you begin. And I always get like six or seven. I'm like, God damn it.
Paul Konrardy:
[48:18] That's so reflective of a good conversation with the coworker too. Yeah. Because you do that. If you're assigning the project to someone on your team, adding that at the end is really that getting permission to ask the questions to get a better result.
Jenny Evans:
[48:36] Yeah. Six clarifying questions
Jenny Evans:
[48:39] Do you have? Y
Paul Konrardy:
[48:40] eah, exactly. Exactly. You want seven? Give me seven examples of where this will be used.
Susan Evans:
[48:45] Yes. Well, and I think this prompt is good because it rules out the, I should be on everything. Because it's like, who is my buyer? What are they doing? And then it goes into, given my capacity of two hours a week, where should I go? And it's like, oh, if you only have two hours a week, or two hours maybe more time than you need, it'll be like, oh, you should go on this and this then and see what happens. It'll give you a starting place from some sense of, kind of a realistic context. So you can at least, it's a place to jump from.
Paul Konrardy:
[49:28] I have a last question because I know we're kind of heading into a longer session than we wanted to. But Susan, in your estimation, do you ever use your LLMs to help you write a prompt? As in, to help you write a prompt?
Susan Evans:
[49:44] I just did.
Susan Evans:
[49:44] Yeah, I just did. I said, what is a good prompt for a business to figure out what social channels to be on? Look, here's a prompt designed to do real strategic work, not just the obvious answer.
Paul Konrardy:
[49:55] That's another way to use your thinking partner.
Susan Evans:
[49:58] Yeah.
Paul Konrardy:
[50:01] And also don't get stuck on one because you can get another one. So if you're using Claude for one thing, use a similar prompt on chat or Gemini or whatever you're using and compare the results. I think that's a very fascinating outcome yeah because you you it's it's like talking to three different people then and they each have a different opinion or a different viewpoint of something because some of them have more contacts than others but anyway just throwing that out there is more thinking partner helpful tips yeah that you should do
Jenny Evans:
[50:41] Well susan you're on like when You wanted to start this podcast. It was all about how do we help people ask better questions? And I think like that's a great example. Also, probably what we should end on because we have gone long. But I just want to remind people, make sure you find us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok.
Jenny Evans:
[51:07] All of them were there.
Paul Konrardy:
[51:09] That's so funny.
Susan Evans:
[51:11] You know what, though? I think you can find us on those, but we won't be posting on all of them. So TikTok will probably give you back to a sub stack or some LinkedIn. I don't know.
Paul Konrardy:
[51:25] Well, you can always go to the website.
Jenny Evans:
[51:28] Even better.
Jenny Evans:
[51:29] Or just give us your email, and then we'll just own you.
Susan Evans:
[51:32] Yes.
Paul Konrardy:
[51:35] Oh, my God.
Jenny Evans:
[51:37] All right. Look at me. I'm smiling. I'm not raging. All right. We're getting the wrap-up signal from over here.
Paul Konrardy:
[51:44] Yeah, I appreciate it, and I really do appreciate you sharing your rage, because I think that makes for better outcomes for all of us.
Susan Evans:
[51:51] That was so funny. Rage about it.
Jenny Evans:
[51:54] All right. Thanks, you guys.
Susan Evans:
[51:56] Thank you, guys.
Paul Konrardy:
[51:58] See you next time.
[51:59] Before you go, a friendly reminder that the people on this podcast are curious, not certified. Nothing you just heard is professional legal, financial, or business advice. It was a conversation, a good one, but still just a conversation. And if something they said makes you want to rethink your entire business model, maybe you should sleep on it first and then call someone with a license. The hosts bring the ideas and you bring the judgment. And if it all works out, they'd love to hear about it. If it doesn't, well, then they've never met you. All content is copyright monsters of curiosity and may not be reproduced or distributed without permission.
