Welcome back to the Small Business Summary…and APRIL FOOLS DAY! I had an elaborate plan to take a picture with a wig or show up in a Packers jersey (shudder), but no, I’ll be the annual reminder that you need to be on your guard for shenanigans. With that said, perhaps this reminder will give you the advantage to get someone good.

In this week’s episode:

• Better Understand Your Customers to Make More Sales

• How Taking a Rest Can Help Your Business Grow

• And, the Ultimate 80’s Lovable Dork

Oh, and don’t forget, we’re hanging out with bestselling author Seth Godin, podcasting god Mark Asquith and the productivity queen Julie Miller Davis at the Small Business Owners Community Virtual Summit presented by Horicon Bank on 4/29. Did you get your ticket, yet? We’re on track for our biggest event EVER! Don’t miss it!

OK, on with the show….

Pat

AI Made Me a Muppet And Woke Me Up

In case you’ve missed it, Chat GPT unrolled a massive image upgrade and it can do, welp, just about anything. In the past few days, the Studio Ghibli Style images (as seen on the right) and other creatively modified pictures have been flying across our feeds. I couldn’t help myself with the technology. I asked it to replace Ringo Starr with my face to put me in the Beatles. What’s scary - I DIDN’T TELL IT WHICH ONE WAS RINGO.

If you’d like to try it, here are the steps:

1) Upload image in ChatGPT 4o
2) Prompt: "restyle image in (studio Ghibli) / Muppet / other) style keep all details"
3) Wait 2 - 5 min
4) Download and share

And is image generation working for Open AI? Check out this tweet from CEO Sam Altman:

This is a pivotal point of AI adoption and I’m a little freaked…

Since the big reveal in the Spring of 2023, I believed that the AI Adoption tipping point would be when “AI Agents” became mainstream. An AI Agent will be when AI will autonomously perform tasks on our behalf with little to no direction. When AI agents can consistently handle outreach, management, reporting, tracking, organization, optimization and more with an acceptable (and improving) error rate, I felt that we would see a rapid adoption in small business. It’s still true, the arrival of AI Agents will change everything. I expect them to begin arriving later this year.

But, becoming a Muppet with one keystroke has sent off some alarm bells in my head. Even though I’ve been passionate about playing with the creative tools AI has presented it never really clicked with me that the work required to turn ideas into reality is on its way to zero.

• Text to Music and Video

• “Vibe Coding” entire apps and websites

• Virtual influencers, accounts, and spokespeople…

The effort for “doing creative work” is evaporating and those of you ghostwriting books, creating social media posts, making art and videos…you need to pause and see how you can get into the Ideas Business, not the Doing Business.

Isn’t it fascinating? The old adage is that ideas are cheap and execution is everything. Now, I can daydream a December Small Business Retreat (hint) and in one afternoon build the website, agenda, sales collateral, promo video, social media accounts, and still have time to go hit a bucket of golf balls. All of that work used to take weeks.

And, don’t get too comfortable in other areas, too. If you provide a service that generates revenue, it’s only a matter of time until an AI tool is tuned and GOOD ENOUGH to perform your service for faster and way cheaper than you will. From tax preparation to investing, legal advice, and more - it’s all coming.

“AI will never replace me.” Famous last words.

So Pat, What Should I do about it?

• Specialize - You’re not a website builder, you’re a website builder exclusively for speakers. (Shoutout to Kristin and Crash Design) Become not only a website builder, but an irreplaceable expert in the industry that connects, innovates, and leads in one narrow space.

• Synthesize - Run to areas in your business where you can connect the information dots and extract value from chaos for your clients. Your insights and observations are critical and they’ll be some of the last pillars to fall. Help them find the answers and let technology help with the fixes. Where are you doing this for your clients?

• Optimize - Every facet of your workflow can be made simpler by adopting these tools. Planning, writing, execution, analysis, research, recaps, everything is made better once you figure out a way to more faster and deliver more value using AI. The tools aren’t going away so explode the value your provide for your clients in a hyper-efficient way.

AI made me a Muppet and it reminded me of the mass market adoption and acceleration of these tools. In about August, we’re going to see a wave of now-sleeping small business owners realize that “Hey, I’m getting fewer clients,” because they aren’t paying attention.

Get on board with this technology AND reflect on the products and services you’re offering your clients before one day you’re completely replaced in an overnight update.

Tweet of the Week:

80’s Song of the Week:
Huey Lewis - The Heart of Rock ‘n Roll

WTM: Let’s salute the big ‘ol dork of the 80’s, Huey Lewis! This video is so great because they act out the words, have some tongue in cheek humor, and it just reminds me how Huey was just so…Huey Lewis. But, let’s not play around - the song still rocks.

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