AI, Authenticity and the Future of Marketing with Mark de Grasse

Mark: [00:00:00] My purpose is really to help people realize that they could be going through the same thing and it might not be the pain and the really obvious problems, but it could be as simple as, like, just when you find yourself going through Carl Jung's shadow work. I always talk about that where it's like, "Hey, just identify your triggers, delve into those triggers. Like why did that situation make you upset or make you react the way you did?" And then just, well, I did it through meditation where I was able to think of a concept like, "Oh man, that thing bugged me. Like that situation really bothered me. I don't understand why."
Think about the situation or the concept behind the situation. And then now I can delve into all my memories that actually involved and developed into my reaction. And now it could be like, "Oh, that's stupid. That's from the seventh grade. That's why I think like that. So, so now you just identify it. Like, okay, I understand where that came from."
Dustin: [00:01:00] All right. Welcome back to another episode of the seven figure leap. once again, I have a phenomenal guest. I'm very blessed to continue to, uh, be able to bring you these amazing people from my life.
Mark is joining us today. And I met Mark actually, when he had a different role, and I'm really excited to hear his updates about his own entrepreneurial journey, but I used my own methods to land a spot on the digital marketer podcast, I believe in November, 2022.
Mark and I got to know each other through that experience and really stayed in contact through LinkedIn and other ways.
And he blessed me with an invitation to apply to speak at Traffic and Conversion Summit. So just a month ago, we were hugging in person in the hallway in Vegas at TNC. I said, "Hey man, I got my own podcast now. Would you return the favor and please come on and share updates." So Mark, please share a little bit about you and what you're all about and what you're up to [00:02:00] nowadays.
Mark: One of the best blessings from being a Digital Marketer is meeting people like you where it's like, you know, and the thing is people think it's like, "Oh, you're just friends with them," and that's why you give 'em a fun stage or have them on the podcast. I'm like, "Now, now, they kind of bring something to the table like it wouldn't be a relationship unless it was like that, but Digital Marketer, I was able to talk to so many people and I'd come up with so many systems.
It was like the time when I got into AI and was able to take frameworks and learn how to kind of convert them into prompts and standardize them. So people could, you know, you could teach so much more with them.
So my transition was, you know, I loved marketing, I loved being a digital marketer and I love what we were teaching there, but, you know, at the end of the day, I'm, I'm more of an entrepreneur, I always have been, I've just gone through these cycles of having a position, I've basically done the same thing for about 20 years where I have a company and I get a position and I have a company and I get a position.
And so this cycle though, I'm trying to break where I'm like, you know what, I think I've learned as much as I can, yeah, working for other people so now it's time for me to put it [00:03:00] all to use And have some guts and go out there. So This is the latest iteration of that So i'm kind of you know, my time is split between building my own personal brand Which is the primary focus right now.
I have new magazine called magazine mark. I have a new podcast called podcast mark don't know if anybody can see that the theme The company is called media mark It's very simple but what I kind of learned, what I realized with my time at digital marketer, because we, you know, we didn't just teach strategy. We taught social media and content and paid media and community building and all these different aspects. Well, I realized all of them were essentially branding.
First thing I'm doing, I launched a AI branding bootcamp, which is taking all that information about AI was all that information about every single type of marketing method that you could think of. Mushing them together and then creating a kind of central philosophy around, you know, what does it mean to be a good brand?
And what does it mean to have a real purpose and real principles and and not just this show because my perception of marketing has been kind of I can't think of better words, but perverted over the [00:04:00] last 10 to 15 years Where we basically gave up on all essential components of both business and marketing and we said, you know What we just need paid media like let's just Plow money into ads. We'll take the money out. We'll plow money into ads. We'll take the money out.
And it became this really commoditized, generic, methodology where it just didn't matter. You didn't need to have a good product. You didn't need to have good customer service. You didn't need to have product development and new things coming out because essentially we said we could find buyers anywhere and I don't care about the buyer because I'll just find more every time it doesn't.
And that was so wrong. not to say anybody is wrong or that the industry is wrong or whatever it is, but I think there's much more honest way to do it. And I think that we're coming into the age where that is not only possible thanks to the automation and everything that's happening with AI, but essential because people have less money.
They're going to be less tolerant with things that aren't good and don't last a long time. And honestly, that's a good thing. I'm tired of buying a dishwasher every like three [00:05:00] years because planned Obsolescence, is good for GE's business model. I'm like man, all that stuff is bad. It's just bad We need to fix it and it's going to start with marketers. And so that's, what I'm doing now.
Dustin: Well, you and I so many, uh, mindsets in common, much agreement around some of these topics. I'm sure you will recall, Mark, that my whole journey into all the things I've done, but specifically podcast guesting was through fire creek snacks, which is an e commerce company. And so it's very much put 25 cents in and take 30 out.
Be anonymous to your customers, have a consumer package. Good. That can, you basically sit on a shelf and sell itself. Like that's very much the approach and it's very much not the approach I wanted to take with my role in the brand. And it wasn't even my own story. I was actually telling the founder's story. I was just his partner in it. we grew that, quickly to seven figures with no paid ads. And I kind of wore that as a badge of honor, not just cause it was a
cool story,
Dustin: but because we did it through storytelling, human connection, a lot of in person events and sampling. And yeah, it's not as.
Dustin: quote unquote scalable, but felt like it [00:06:00] was the better way to do it. And we have, you know, like, uh, your money back, plus we'll buy your next snack sort of guarantee. So we definitely stand behind the product. So even in my journey into this whole podcasting world, that was a big part of it.
So think the, Audience caught that, you were a digital marketer. Now you're not, and that was like very recent things. year in new chapter, you've got the A. I. Branding boot camp. anything else you want to tell us about kind of the snapshot of where you're at today? And then we'll start talking more about where you're heading.
Mark: sure. Yeah. so that was two weeks ago, left digital marketer. And, I wanted to practice marketing, as kind of the face of digital marketer. I was doing the hosting of the podcast. I was recruiting faculty helping put, you know, programs together. but I wanted to do more and essentially the marketing side was its own department within scalable.
And so it wasn't necessarily connected to the content. And that's just a different, way of managing. But for me, I'm kind of the exact opposite where I think marketing needs to be integrated into every facet in every department of a business.
And if you're not doing that, then you're losing opportunities that you would have otherwise [00:07:00] just by reinforcing the brand and everything that you do. So I think it's, conflicting philosophy, but at the end of the day, I'm more of an entrepreneur. So this is. what I do. So I'm doing, the AI branding course, building courses all the time. I'm putting out free content all the time.
And then I have contract with carparts. com. I'm host of the Indie Garage podcast. And I consult with the CEO in regards to marketing strategy. And then I also work for another company called Paso El Exito, which is a Spanish speaking e learning platform that sells a lot in South America. So they actually, I spoke for them few months ago on Medellin. Colombia, and actually I think I met them in Costa Rica and I actually have a background with the Hispanic community Because I'm half Mexican.
I'm actually a second generation, immigrant my grandfather immigrated from esplanade And then my grandmother from Mexico city into east la so i'm I have a What's funny though is the cultural side my grandfather wanted us to be American it was just his kids that ended up not speaking Spanish and not really knowing The culture which is kind of a bummer because
Dustin: [00:08:00] because I'm afraid I'm going to say it wrong. How do you pronounce your last name?
Mark: Oh, that's that's French
Dustin: Oh, that's the French.
Mark: that's the other side
Dustin: day. And I thought it was digressing digressing or
Mark: Oh, no, no as a giant French Irish catholic family married a giant, Mexican catholic family and so I have a million cousins It's kind of funny because it's I don't know if it was just intended, but all of my white relatives married other, races or whatever you want to call it and then the opposite was true on the other side and so it's like both families are incredibly mixed you know in these days you actually hear about racism more than you heard in the last 10 to 15 years maybe and I was always perplexed by it because I grew up and I'm just like everybody's everything right
Mark: like
Dustin: right.
Mark: I'm the normal one So so it's been great.
Mark: So I've had this opportunity to helping the Spanish speaking community and thanks to AI, I used hey gen to actually translate myself into speaking Spanish so the first thing I did on stage was I showed a video of me speaking Spanish and then I came out on [00:09:00] stage and said I don't speak Spanish and, uh, that tripped everybody out.
Mark: And then I gave the speech in English and talked way too fast. but yeah, so it's it's been a mix I'm doing consulting and I'm doing, courses, and then really trying to make my podcast thing podcast mark, cause it's, Basically The confluence of personal development, professional development, and business development, and how all three of those aspects actually intersect all the time.
Mark: And so I have guests on and we kind of say like, Hey, you that's awesome how you, managed to manage your company like that. Like how do those management principles apply to how you manage your family? then you start to get into like, oh, actually I came up with this concept based on raising my four year old to blah blah blah Whatever it is, but yeah, it's been great. I'm just sharing everything and talking to everybody.
Dustin: it's fun to talk to you in the infancy of it all. And I'm sure we'll do another follow up interview and you'll have the next evolution of those activities, uh.
Mark: Dog god
Dustin: those activities, uh,
Mark: What else can I do I don't know,
Dustin: it will evolve because that's what we do. Right. As entrepreneurs, that's the coolest part because once you stop trying to control things and you [00:10:00] just kind of evolve with how things are happening like it makes everything way easier way less failure really because the objective was to grow, right.
Yeah. It's not really failure. It's just growth. Right. So one thing I like to do, it's a little different than a lot of the interviews you probably, giving, uh, is really take a little space here to talk more about the why, and sometimes this will talk about your family, your family of origin. You just kind of started getting into some of that and how it's.
Consulting and relationships in Costa Rica. And so you've already started, opening up a little bit, but when you think about this moment in time and you had business, then role, then business, then role as an employee. And now again, as of the last two weeks, back into
Mark: is this
Dustin: who do you love to serve? And why do you think that is? Why do you feel called to that?
Mark: Oh, that's a great question and I probably wouldn't have even understood it before because basically all this current situation is due to a I call it the awakening that happened about a year and a half ago when I was at like a really low point Everything I thought I knew, was [00:11:00] wrong based on who I was around and I was just broken my whole ego was just shot and then I combined that with Physical transformations that I've been going through for probably two or three years, where at that point, I had become the president of digital marketer.
It had achieved all these things that had made goals for. I bought the house that wanted my dream house and I had all this stuff. And then I took a look at myself one day. I was like, I should be happy at this point. I did all the things that I was told to do and I'm still not happy what the heck is going on And so once I had that acknowledgement then I started going through actual work and so ran a marathon and I gave up alcohol and I Changed my entire diet and I started cold dipping and I started meditating and reading the bible every day and going to church and going to therapy and sungazing and You know grounding and and basically anything I said, you know what?
Mark: i'm doing a transformation I'm not going to limit Anything. I'm just going to go for it and I'll see what happens. And so eventually the big catalyst and I think they all had a really good effect because I still [00:12:00] do most of them but was the I got biome check and so I went to viome. com My friend leno beckles actually said I went with his workout program and he's like take the food test
Dustin: you spell that?
Mark: Yeah, it's v like victor. I o m e so like biome except it's via it takes about two weeks, you send in a sample and then it gives you your gut biome. I've been in fitness for 10 or 12 years, you know, I had a gym, rent certifications, built commercial fitness brands and supplement brands. And, you know, I've worked on it. That was another job. And so I knew about all the things, but I never really believed it because I was like, ah, you know I did the diet there and I did the cleanse there and it did it all kind of was like, yeah It sort of works, but whatever but once I had the numbers once I had the facts like here is your gut and here's what it says
About the food that you eat. Here's your super foods and here's 100 foods that you shouldn't have and it was beef and it was pork and it was eggs and it was broccoli and Bell peppers and spinach and like all these things I had [00:13:00] thought were good and I was like Okay, so then I did that so I'm like, okay.
Well, I'm just gonna cut out the big ones I'll see what happens and within a month that change combined with the ego death that I had was just like an awakening where I'm like, oh my gosh, I have everything I have everything I needed and I Always had everything I needed and and what I did was I just realized like how grateful I was that I hadn't screwed it all up Because guys our age a lot of times, you know, your things are going wrong You're a problem solver.
Mark: Well, I guess I just need to grenade this situation
Mark: and so
Dustin: Of course, blow up my business.
Mark: Yeah, yeah, you buy the sports car and do all the stupid, middle aged kind of tropes that you see out there Or you could just be like, I guess I don't know anything and I need to start from scratch. And so that's what I did. And so, now I'm kind of like, man, how many people out there have gone through the same thing where essentially what they got thing did for me was I realized that I had essentially IBS or like I was [00:14:00] bloated and nauseous and uncomfortable, literally.
All the time that was a normal day I was just used to it for so long and I I have the kind of discipline where i'm just like well You know one foot in front of the other keep going which sounds great Except I didn't address the problem. And so once I fixed the problem i'm like Everybody feels like this all the time. Like they're just there and they could appreciate things that are going on around them without
Dustin: Would you say as an I'm really glad I asked this question. I'm quite fascinated by it. We're going to go straight into the health thing because I'm really interested in it. it's a big part of your, like you phrased it, your awakening. So would you say, like, you take this test, figure out what foods to eliminate, you eliminate the big ones, you've obviously given up alcohol and different other things that maybe we wouldn't have.
Dustin: Mess with all that, but then like a month later, when you say like you had an awakening, you say like physically, there was a mental fog that you didn't realize was there and you had inflammation and the bloating and stuff that was also just their thinking.
Mark: every sense of the word basically in pain constantly. And then I wasn't, I had a [00:15:00] fog that was affecting the way I think. And then it was. It was like, it was like opening my eyes. It was like I had been completely blind. But what, the biggest thing that I realized was that my entire personality was a shell that I made.
Mark: And so I was presenting the shell person where I was like, Oh yeah, he's professional and he's smart enough and he says the right things and he's polite and all the things you're supposed to be, and that's what I was presenting. And what I found was that I thought everybody was super boring. I was like, man, I never have good conversations.
Mark: I used to envy movies where they'd have good conversations. I was like, Oh, that's such a good conversation. That's just a script. Nobody talks like that. And so, so what I realized was that I had put this shell out. That was essentially nothing that represented me. And so I just stopped.
Mark: So I just was like, okay, well, I'll just start saying the things that I think. And what I realized was that my entire thought processes had been thrown in an incubation chamber where they were completely alone with no outside input, because I never shared anything. And so then I started sharing things.
Mark: I'm like, Oh, [00:16:00] here's what I think about this. And then people are like, Oh, what's no one's ever said that before. And I'm like. I should have started sharing this stuff sooner and then And then the cool thing that happened was that everybody else started sharing interesting things, too and so the big awakening was
that I was not the person that I had presented as to be for Essentially most of my life.
Mark: I mean there were aspects and if you went deep enough like my wife, you know My wife didn't marry this This shell, she married actually me because she could see that, but that was so buried that only somebody very special who really, really loved me wouldn't be able to see. And that was my wife and that's why that worked out.
Mark: but, yeah, to everybody else, I was like a non person and they were non people to me. So it's not even something that like feel bad about like, oh, I mistreated a bunch of people. I'm like now The shell mark treated them. Okay
Dustin: podcast, Mark and. Magazine mark, and they have
Mark: Oh shell marks the worst oh so
Mark: boring.
Mark: well so Getting back to the purpose question [00:17:00] now you know the my purpose is really Hopefully help people realize that they could be going through the same thing and it might not be the pain and the Really obvious problems, but it could be as simple as like, just wind yourself went through Carl young's, shadow work.
I always talk about that where it's like, Hey, just identify your triggers, delve into those triggers. Like why did that situation make you upset or make you wreck the way you did? And then just, well, I did it through meditation where I was able to think of a concept like, Oh man, that thing bugged me. Like that situation really bothered me.
Mark: I don't understand why. Think about the situation or the concept behind the situation. And then now I can delve into all my memories that actually involved and developed into my reaction. And now it could be like, Oh, that's stupid. That's from the seventh grade. That's why I think like that. So, so now you just identify it.
Mark: Like, okay, I understand where that came from. That's dumb. And now I could act as a. intelligent human adult and react in the situation as the present version of me and now we're being honest. So, [00:18:00] it's complicated, but if I could help anybody understand that process and essentially wake up and save their lives, in the process, then, I'll feel really good about that.
Mark: So don't know how that's going to happen, but I'm doing it through content right now.
Dustin: Yeah, that's awesome. I'm definitely going to go check out Viome. com and,Mark: Do it.
Mark: Now, I will say,
Mark: I've had the worst test of anybody I've recommended. I've recommended this to like hundreds of people at this point. And everybody's like my wife. She's like, Oh, I'm allergic. I shouldn't have cabbage. And I'm like, Let me see that. Let me see your thing.
Dustin: you're like
Mark: Oh, and look at my super foods. Oh, and her super food list was like a hundred things. I'm like, Oh, I have like 17 foods I'm supposed to eat. This
Dustin: the like red light, definitely don't eat this, but also the green light. Like if you eat more of this, you'll feel
Mark: Yeah, yeah, so it's your super foods It's your enjoy foods and then your minimize foods and your avoid and so my minimize and avoid are about like a hundred items And they're like super common items. And so I'm just like but I mean I was lucky I mean, that's a that's an easy fix compared to you know, somebody who has I don't know a childhood full of horrible trauma like the amount of willpower you need to overcome that situation and Realize how much it's impacted your life.
Dustin: Yeah. Well, I'm more in the latter category. did overcome a lot of that stuff. And we've unpacked it in a previous episode here. for the audience and the idea. And I think there's some of this with, some of the things you mentioned through your meditation that oftentimes when you really start to live into your values and, you're able to express them through your business as entrepreneurs, you can actually almost always find a direct link from the highest values into the lowest vacuums, like the things that you really lacked as a kid, or at some point in your development.
Dustin: whole like authenticity thing is, really emerged as a high value for you. And I think physically it's been a transformation. obviously emotionally it would be and mentally, but, I wonder if there's connections back to maybe you wore a mask for some reason and they kind of like kept going or maybe someone close to you turned out they were kind of fake or, there's a theme there.
Dustin: So
Mark: Mm did realize that honesty has always been a major theme for me and it's kind of funny because actually tie It with efficiency, which is kind of weird because you think like how's honesty tied to efficiency? but Lying is super inefficient if you think about it You're like man you tell a lie then you got to remember the lie then you gotta maintain the lie and then you gotta hope that isn't conflict with another lie and it's just like I think I was around 14 or 15 when I was like man.
Mark: This is this is so much work I'm, just gonna stop like i'm just gonna Just tell the truth as much as I can I don't even care about the consequences. They were always going to be the consequences. I'm just going to address them now. And then I don't have this building thing over my head of, potential consequences.
Mark: So that was a good realization because you see
Mark: people wrap themselves up so much work.
Dustin: transparency and honesty are things I've really tried to do, but I was, to an audio book today that it turns out some British woman and someone recommended it to me. It's I think it's called the unbridled joy of sobriety or something like that. But it's like her journey from, having trouble with alcohol to becoming sober.
Dustin: And I'm in the. Beginning parts where she's really laying into the lowest spots that she found herself in. And it's kind of what you just said, she's like, one of the worst things for her about drinking was, of course, there's the physical issues and hangovers and all that, but like, kept requiring her to tell lies, to her employer or her boyfriend or whatever, like to cover up what was really going on.
Dustin: And then eventually like her whole life was. A cobweb of lies and she was trapped in it and she could never actually be truthful because it would conflict with all the lies. And I totally resonate when you're like, lying is inefficient. Like our honesty is more efficient. Totally makes sense.
Mark: Yeah, well and it goes way deeper than that in terms of like, you know Because you lie to yourself if you make a habit of lying to other people like the person you're probably lying to the most Is you and it could be about things that really matter, about your interests your hobbies your friends your Every relationship you have could be, you know skewed by this self lying that you do to make everything Okay, where you're just like, okay Well this person I know they're bad and they're really not good for me But you know what?
Mark: I can handle it Like, yeah, I deserve that, kind of treatment anyways. And so, and you can see just with that one example, you're like, Oh, no, like
Dustin: I really wanna have this kind of business, but I'm not the type of person that could do that. Or, you know, or like, I, could never achieve what this person has achieved or,
Mark: Oh, I'm an introvert. I'm not good at camera. I'm embarrassed in front of people, you use these as excuses and you're like, no, be honest. You're shy and you haven't done this before and it makes you scared. And that's fine. Just, accept that because if you accept the, the excuses, then who won here?
Mark: The excuses it's definitely not you You know and now you have this lie that you now convinced yourself that you're just not a good on camera And so you'll never be good on camera. It's like It was good at anything Really, you know, I always started and it was just amazing. It's like
Mark: yeah, it's the unicorns unicorns don't really exist so Let's get real you suck because you haven't practiced enough Oh no,
Mark: So practice more
Dustin: So we're gonna transition here in a minute to a smart strategy session and let do some teaching, which I know you love to teach. but before we do that, we've got, I know this is, this may be a tough question 'cause you're only two weeks into this new role. running your own thing again, but you got the A.
Dustin: D. Branding boot camp. You're doing the consulting. We've got a good snapshot of, what your business looks like today. But if you think one year, even five years in advance, do you have more of vision for this is headed?
Mark: Yeah. I mean, ideally I love working with people like you where I'm like, man, you got a great product. You're passionate about what you do. Like if I could just promote you somehow, that would actually give me the most satisfaction. And so I think long term would probably be, and that's why I call it media markets.
Mark: It's probably gonna turn into like an expansive content platform where I get to promote my friends and awesome services and, and honestly, and this is kind of ambitious and I, did this with the last business. And it didn't quite work. Cause the last goal of my last business, my, agency that I built websites and brands and essentially tried to create marketing ecosystems for small companies, was to fix the internet.
Mark: That was the objective and the, goal or the methodology was going to be okay. Most of the content you find online was generated by marketers. Marketers are not doctors and they're not lawyers and they're not landscapers and they're not plumbers and they're not all these things. And so I thought, man, if I could just train.
Mark: The business owners to make content and to do marketing, then they could represent their brand authentically. They'll put out good content. That's real because they're doing the thing and we fix the Internet. So that didn't really work because nobody likes marketing except for marketers.
Mark: Uh, so I have a digital marketer.
Mark: I got to teach marketers all the stuff, which is awesome. But this goal I have is actually to fix marketing. So the goal is to elevate the profession and the practice of marketing that is kind of the end goal where I say man if we could just show up authentically and if we could do that through our brands and we and every element of our brand is consistent with that Based philosophy of what you're trying to do, then that's authentic marketing.
Mark: It's not tricking people into buying something. It's not saying, Hey, I have this giant target market, and I know that only a portion of that target market actually needs to buy right now, but I need more money.
So I'm going to sell to everybody. I'm going to convince everybody that they need the solution right now because I've got a scale And i'm like no just sell the people who need the thing Do a good job all of the business problems that we have today If you just take it back to like hey I'm providing a solution to people who have a problem and I really care about them getting the solution You've just fixed business.
Mark: You fixed marketing. You, started eliminating all the lies that we've built over so many years to convince ourselves that this is the only way to get business. and it's pretty ambitious, but I network with people like you, you're doing it already. there's quite a community of people working towards this goal.
Mark: And I think if I can just highlight those people and highlight that information, then there you go. And now all the new marketers coming online, I'll say, Oh my gosh, you don't trick people into buying You just do a good job. Oh, fixed. It was so easy.
Dustin: I love
Dustin: that. I love the vision. And I think to bring the audience into my perspective and what I've witnessed, the initial steps in this way, like magazine mark is, uh, I came off the stage at traffic and conversion. Mark was there to greet me and he handed me and a couple of people around me a magazine, right?
Dustin: And I was like, well, this is really well done. Just I have it actually behind me in a different desk, but very, beautiful. Like it's very, creative looking imaging and, but also informative. And there's like sponsorship call outs and QR codes throughout it. it was like, to me, the ultimate, Physical lead magnet. It's like this really high produced magazine. That's Mark.
And it's like, so I can see like Dustin magazine where it's like, Hey, here's all the things I care about. Here's my values. Here's my programs. Or Here's my most trusted network and the things that they do.
Dustin: Like just thinking through how do you create these. empowered assets that are pieces and expand and versions of our personal brand. they're also just really cool. And, they leave an impression. know the people that I was with that didn't know you yet that met you.
Dustin: They were guy that had the magazine, man, he was really like really smart and all that with AI and like, yeah. So where do you see like. if this is getting into what you want to teach, we can just jump to that. But do you feel like you're choosing AI as an application just because it's something you really enjoy and it's fun?
Dustin: Or do you feel like it's literally necessary now? Like you're not going to do anything without AI, so you might as well just marry it right now because you're going to be with it anyway. So where's the Space operas, and I'm very fond of British authors. So I'll star Reynolds and guys like him so I it's instant that AI started getting good.
Mark: I was like, oh my gosh. I've actually read 500 [00:28:00] instances of the development of AI like they're fictional, of course, but I was like, I have all this experience. I know exactly the potential way that all these things could go. And so then I was super interested and I was always into marketing and I was always in the content generation, but like the AI component was like, Oh, my gosh, yeah.
Mark: This is the key. This is the key to consistent content generation and consistent marketing and consistent guidelines for branding. And I was like, this could fix all of these problems.
And then all these, you know, and you really, what you see with most brands and why you don't remember most brands and you only remember the Nike's and the apples and companies that have their branding done is because they're so consistent and there's a central vision that they're telling everybody about.
Mark: And they're bringing people into it like a religion, essentially. Without AI, it just wasn't possible. You have to get too many people involved. You have to get too many applications involved. It's just so much work. But now that's how I described before. Now I'm like, no saying you use AI is going to be like saying you have a cell phone.
Mark: Or [00:29:00] you sent an email on a computer, it's just base technology is just there and you have to have it like you got to drink water. And so that's why, like, I only put the AI part of the branding bootcamp because, yeah, we're doing a ton of AI stuff. Like I'm teaching 10 different applications and how to apply consistent AI branding to it.
Mark: But it's really just because it's a thing right now and 90 percent of the population doesn't even understand how significant it is. So you have to say like this is AI powered or whatever but yeah, it's just Tool is just another, it's an awesome tool. And honestly, you know, we both went through the development of the internet, and we saw how powerful that was.
Mark: And it was like, man, this is at least as big and probably bigger because what it's going to do is completely transform the way we consume information. Because if you think about the way you get information right now, you go to Google, you type in some crap, you get 300 million results, and then you do another search, but it's, walking through a stupid warehouse full of boxes, that's what.
Data collection is right [00:30:00] now, but with AI, now we could get good at data and we can make, cause really whole concept behind everything I do is actually surrounds databases for so many years, especially with SEO or social media marketing, we were only worried about viral content, right?
Mark: Like, Oh, how do I get that one piece that just triggers a million hits and blah, blah, blah. It's like, no, forget that. Those are unicorns again. You can't make a unicorn that just happens sometimes but what you can do is make a useful resource of information on your website On a topic that your potential customers would find useful. And so for me when I started doing marketing had a fitness magazine and I literally made it because my friend who was a trainer at the time Sent me a workout and it said do this many push ups this many squats this many hindu squats.
Mark: Okay, what the heck is that? This many arrow push ups and you're like, oh crap I don't even know what these terms are. So I went to YouTube, looked it up and got 500 different answers from a bunch of jerks who wanted to talk for five minutes rather than just showing me the exercise. And so I was like, I just want a list of exercises.
Mark: [00:31:00] Like what the hell? And so I was like, I guess I'm going to make it. And so I came up with the method of making 15 second videos, just demonstrating an exercise and that's all it was. And then we made a post for every single exercise. And then what I started doing, cause. I'm neurotic is I made a syntax for how the exercises are named because when I looked up push up Do you spell push up with two words?
Mark: Is it one word? Is it push dash up? And so how do you name it? So I was like, oh, well i'll be the authority that decides how these things are named. And so I came up with a method for okay I'm going to look up which one people look up the most And that's how we're going to spell it from now on because that's how most people are spelling it very simple Things, but so then I developed a list of exercises.
Mark: Then I said, okay, well, I want workouts too So I'll do the workouts and I'll connect them to the exercises So now I don't have to explain every single exercise in the workouts and then I'll make a workout plan And then I'll get the workout plan so people could see the exercises understand the value see the workouts understand the value and then want the [00:32:00] plans that puts it all together and And then I need your email for that.
Mark: so it was actually like an early form of like, I think modern content marketing, but it's all based on very simple aspects, just build lists of information, decide how you're going to style that information. So it's the unique to you and then just keep doing it. It's just not rocket science.
Mark: You just keep doing stuff and then everything else happens.
Mark: And so that's, core philosophy of the behind both A. I. And A. I. Generation and really my theory for what's going to happen in regards to like, are we going to have websites in the future? I don't think so. I think what you'll have is a central database. I call it the organizational knowledge interface, an oaky, you know,
And so the okie is essentially all of the information from your company, all the public facing and probably the private facing information in one spot, and it's all licensed.
Mark: So literally nobody could use this information, but your company, and it's powered by your AI, which the customer queries. And so the only place to get your unique flavor of content would be from [00:33:00] your AI. And so now what else is going to happen is we'll all have AIs on our phone. Those two AIs will interact.
Mark: Your information will be seen by the customer. And then now it's a much more organic process of finding information and how you could find information that you'll like, but don't necessarily know where to get it. Which is now curated by the brands that you follow essentially marketing the future is going to be a war between communities and Data centers who has the best information who delivers that information the best and then you get into content structure and a bunch other more nothing I say is complex.
Mark: It's just a
Mark: lot
Dustin: that's really fascinating. Actually, I'd never heard that description. I would say I'm not resistant to AI at all. And, you know, I use chat, GPT and basic stuff, but, I also. We probably fall more in the bucket of like a little fearful of it. Cause I, you know, it sounds like we can get out of hand quickly.
Dustin: Um, I can't control that. I might as well use it.
Mark: ai was going to get out of hand It's probably already happened, and it's probably controlling everything you see already, and you don't realize [00:34:00] it, because if I was a super smart computer, I could hide myself in the computer that you're all accessing. So, if it happened, it's probably already
Mark: done,
Mark: we're part of the we're already in the system.
Mark: Just move forward and be happy and tell people, Oh,
Dustin: think one of the reasons you invited me to talk was. Yeah, I talked a little bit about AI and how to like scale podcast guesting, opportunities, but I opened my whole talk by talking about the power of human story and the fact that our brains are wired for story.
Dustin: And it's a sense making device and that I don't personally see. removing the desire and attractiveness of, like, real human to human connection. there was this part of the presentation that you probably saw or you were already familiar with from Roland Frazier. He basically showed up, like, hey, I'm, the AI version of Roland.
I'm the AI version of Ryan Dice. Here's a chat GPT script. And then they, like, literally are creating interview based [00:35:00] podcasts between the two of them without them showing up, which, you know, was clever. It was like, oh, that's kind of cool.
Dustin: But also like super boring to listen to because it's like a prescriptive nuance. There's no like emotion. And so you're big on podcasting still, obviously, where do you see AI and podcasts or do you see podcasts going away because of AI? Do you think podcasts will actually become more important because people really want to hear other humans talk about their own story?
Dustin: That's more of the camp I'm in, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
Mark: I think you're, you're totally right. You're spot on. I think podcasting is going to get more important. I think relationships are going to get more important. I think in person stuff is going to get more important because once everybody realizes, How much you can lie using AI and how you really can't tell who actually exists anymore.
Mark: it's going to be really important. And it's actually the protection for humanity too. If you are one of those people are like, Terminator is going to take over and take all the stuff. It's like, no, we're the information source. We're the ones that create new stuff. And the thing that an AI needs is new stuff [00:36:00] constantly.
Mark: Otherwise it turns into a boring mess that nobody wants to listen to. So. I think yeah, it's great. It's great for everything people ruining content using ai is actually good for podcasting Because it's like yeah, I hope you do make an ai Podcast that sounds like crap and everybody hates. and maybe I think you could do it in a way that it doesn't but We're all people We know how we act.
Mark: We know what we say. You know, you're not going to be able to trick too many people in that and eventually may get advanced enough because I always have like my retirement goal is to generate a I mark and then I license out a I mark to consult with any company I want and it's going to be my content base and I licensed everything.
Mark: So, you know, I don't actually need to show up or instead of hiring me for 10, 000 a month or 20, 000 a month, whatever it is, you could, pay 500 bucks a month and you get access to AI mark. And he'll tell you the exact same thing that I probably would say. And every once you get the information, I get paid.
Mark: I don't have to work problem solved now,
Mark: but that doesn't solve the [00:37:00] new information problem because
Dustin: Yeah,
Mark: to be an issue.
Dustin: I feel like the podcasting space and then, my delivery model is primarily like in a mastermind experience. I also feel like, I could help enhance that, but like still having humans with different histories and insights and experiences and emotions and values like that's the juice, right?
Dustin: And
Dustin: so, like. As long as you can symbol humans a, smart way and curate that, still think that grows more and more importance. Like you said, in the face of increased fakeness and, weirdness and things that, can't tell her if they're real or not. just the value of the realness and the human connection, I think we'll continue to
Mark: Oh yeah. Well, and I will say too, that because if you want, did you watch Westworld?
Dustin: No.
Mark: Okay, if you want to understand AI like Westworld is actually a pretty good way to conceive of how it could develop because they go through this evolutionary path of the AI, and in that show, they, try to get rid of the people and it's kind of funny because they, they make people seem the simplest things in the world.
Mark: They say that basically all of you could fit into a [00:38:00] book. That's like 150 pages and it's like, it is book. We contain every decision you'll ever make because we understand you based on how you reacted to shooting somebody in the park. That's how, how Westworld, like how they, the reason why they made Westworld.
Mark: And I'm like, that's not true. I changed daily. I'm not the same person I was even last week, maybe last night, based on the conversations I had today, like I have revelations. I actually have a list in my phone where it's called revelations and they're nothing crazy most of the time, but it's things that I have now internalized.
Mark: So it might be a lesson that I've heard a thousand times, but I never internalized it or could understand it properly based on my current experience. And then I have the experience and I can have that understanding. And now I'm like, Oh my gosh. Letting things go is really a powerful tool
Dustin: That's awesome.
Mark: So it's like i'm way different yeah, you don't have to worry we're so insanely complex that it's No, no, sorry
Mark: There's not a
Dustin: stuff.
Mark: power for that,
Dustin: I'm glad we went down that wormhole a little bit. That was [00:39:00] fun. So I'll bring us back.
Dustin: did you have a specific smart strategy that you would like for the audience here? It's, it's really the intent is people are in this period of growth they're looking, six figure to seven figure entrepreneur.
Dustin: You have so much of a well to draw from, but I kind of tee it up for you and, let Mark teach the audience something that they may find useful today. It
Mark: okay, tied up in AI, since we've been on AI, but, uh, for TNC, I talked about a framework called LogoCraft, and basically what LogoCraft does is it takes your logo and it extracts all the meaning out of it, using GPT 4.
It has to be four. You can't do it in a free one. So you load in your logo, you load in this prompt that I made, and then it spits out everything about your brand, your voice, your tone, your, font type and what it says about what you're trying to communicate with your logo, and so it extracts all this, perception of your brand from, an unbiased third party, which is, that's what AI is.
Mark: And now you can get a real view of what you are communicating or the perception that your audience is having of your brand, because I think as [00:40:00] business owners and entrepreneurs, like we get really passionate about stuff, Like, Oh, my gosh, this is incredible. I made the most amazing thing. And you need to have that kind of confidence.
Mark: Otherwise, you're never going to sell anything. So it's good. However, it's not real to everybody. And so what AI does is allows you to use it as a sounding board to say, okay, what do people actually see when they see my brand and using logo craft, you just load in your logo and say, what does this say to people?
Mark: And then it'll tell you. And, some cases, what you'll find is that what you think you're communicating is way off. just so far off and you just had no ability to see it because your perception of the color Yellow was yellow was happy and that's why I have yellow and everybody's like man Your logo just stresses me out just even looking at it.
Mark: It stresses me out is
Dustin: makes me,
Mark: about happiness
Dustin: it makes me think of urine. Yeah.
Mark: Or whatever it is and people, you know, based on their own perception, they're going to come up with an answer for that. Oh, it looks like an emergency to me. Like, Oh, all the cars in my [00:41:00] town are yellow or, taxis, whatever it is, but you know, you don't know.
Mark: So I think, you know, one of the things I try to do and why I made the AI branding bootcamp was that I realized I'm like, Oh crap. even if I have, all the evidence saying that my brand is saying this. Thing. If I just run it by a few people other benefit of AI is that you can't do this as a business owner.
Mark: You're going to talk to your friends, your friends, love you. They're going to say like, oh yeah, that's a great logo. Dustin, you did a good job.
Mark: It's
Dustin: We're going to say, I think it speaks this to me, but really what they're reflecting back is what you speak to them and nothing to do with your logo.
Mark: friends love you. They're going to love your logo because you made it.
You know, and they might, legitimately love it because of that and not even understand that there's a difference between liking something, abstractly or, unbiasedly and, the fact that they like you and that's why they like your stuff.
Mark: So AI doesn't care. And so you could feed it information, you could get the feedback, you don't have to have awkward conversations with people that you know, you just have to, you don't even have to put together group of people and pay [00:42:00] everybody to give their opinion, which is also a skewed way of getting information, and so there you go, now you could know for sure, and you could question it, you could say, okay, well, you said that my logo is, stressful, and I don't want to be stressful, how would you change my logo to be less stressful?
Mark: And it'll say, Oh, well, based on the research, the color blue, specifically light blue will actually have a calming effect on your audience. So you may want to incorporate blue into the logo. Oh, okay. Yeah. That's not a big deal. I do that. And then there you go. So, yeah, it's a
Mark: local crap.
Dustin: specific Xcode that optimizes the feeling of calm and it'll spit that out for you too. So yeah.
Mark: Yeah, well and you could do this on an I didn't do this yet and I probably should but you could do this with ads So let's say that you made a series of ads and you're like, I don't know which ads to use I don't want to make sure they communicate this you could just feed the ad in and say what does this communicate to an Unbiased audience or was this communicate to my audience that i'm trying to target and it'll say like, oh well I work with car parts. com.
So you put a mechanic and [00:43:00] his hands were dirty and based on your target avatar, which is a 45 year old successful man, he might not be attracted to getting his hands dirty. So I suggest that you change that to a clean, polished mechanic with gloves on, and that'll communicate more of what you're trying to say, and so you can use it.
Everywhere just use it as a sounding board just literally the next step before you present a new You know add campaign to a client just feed a couple images into it. I I call it a core creative which is essentially like the visual elements of what you're trying to communicate feed that in there and see what it tells you Boom, you just may have saved yourself and your client millions of dollars and all it took you was a free prompt So
Dustin: love it. this is a prompt you created, correct? and
Mark: That's on my website
Dustin: our audience, so they can go play around with it.
Mark: Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's free.
Dustin: Mark DeGrasse is, M A R K D E G R A S S E dot com slash logo craft, correct?
Dustin: Awesome. Well, that's a cool resource. I [00:44:00] love that as a very practical application of AI, even for me, I'm like that I'm comfortable with like
Dustin: that and I can go to that part to get pulled into the, system a little bit more with all the different applications of AI, well, Mark, this has been awesome.
Dustin: So you just gave us an amazing free resource, anywhere else people should be. reaching out to connect with you and get to know you in a deeper way.
Mark: yeah, you know if you're a professional or you want network i'm on linkedin all the time i'm also looking for podcast guests So if somebody wants to come on and just so everybody knows we do talk about ai and marketing and business But it always relates back to personal development so as long as you're totally
Honest with yourself and you understand that because I I haven't actually caught too many people off guard where i'm like, hey, and how does that relate to how you raise your kids?
Mark: and because we all know it We all know that there's no separation between work and play and family and friends and all these different things It's all just you And if you want to make your life inconvenient by lying all the time then go for it, but[00:45:00]
Dustin: Honest because it's efficient.
Mark: It is it's
Dustin: but I think that's a, that's a, great, that's a great point though, is like your self awareness and your identity, trying to have a different one at work versus home versus friends versus
Dustin: church or whatever, like. That's also inefficient. and by default, you cannot be operating at your highest and best self because you're showing up in different ways to different groups and different people.
Mark: Well worst case scenario, you don't know who you are that's what ends up happening and it's like you don't want to get there because then you have to have a Break.
Dustin: Then you have to like, yeah, go quit eating meat and,
Mark: Oh, you gotta start from scratch is what
Mark: I did.
Dustin: So, yeah, that was one I've heard of all the other practices you talked about in a sun gazing, I'm like, I'm gonna have to look that one up.
Mark: Oh man. Well, be careful with it. But like, I swear it corrected my night vision. Like after just like a little bit, I was like, Oh my gosh, I could see clearly at night. This is odd. I was always told not to stare at the sun, but the way I do it, I don't actually stare at the sun. I stare below the sun. So
Dustin: got it. You're, You're, full of amazing [00:46:00] knowledge and tidbits and wisdom. And so I'm really excited for your next chapter here. Really grateful that, digital marker played the role it did in getting us connected.
And, yeah, just now I'll continue on with some of the stuff on, that ecosystem. And now you're creating a whole nother ecosystem to be plugged into and have a great connection.
Dustin: So yeah, markdegrasse. com markdegrasse. com slash. Logo craft to grab the free resource. But, if you are listening to this and you know that you would jive with, Mark, it sounds like a great thing to do is reach out and see if they'd be a good fit for a guest, to be on your show and, obviously connect with you on LinkedIn as well.
Dustin: So, again, my friend, very grateful that you took the time to be here. I can't wait to be on your, podcast, Mark here real soon.
Mark: I think it's tomorrow
Dustin: Unpack my weirdness. So that'd be fun.
Mark: Nice love it. Well, thank you so much. Dustin. I really appreciate you and I think you do a great job and just so everybody knows like I don't even if I like somebody i'm only gonna Help you if I think it's gonna help other people so make good stuff and that's what Dustin did
Dustin: well, I appreciate that. So, all right, man. Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow. [00:47:00] So
Mark: Yes.
Dustin: for everyone else, check us out at seven figure leap. com. If you're interested in podcast guesting and growing the things I taught at traffic and conversion summit where Mark was witness, please go to seven figure leap.
Dustin: com. There's a button right there to book a call and we can talk about.
What this would look like as a marketing system for your business. So peace and goodwill. And I'll see you guys on the next episode.