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- [00:00]
A
While many people think that AI is on the horizon and that it's affecting businesses, but it's really going to affect them in the future, that's not the case. It's not coming. It's here now and it's affecting us. Right now.
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B
A lot of photographers are spending so much time on SEO and thinking about all that, but they aren't getting ready for being visible to AI and being AI friendly, which that's what's going to put them out of business because they're not ready.
- [00:25]
C
I think that if people are having that debate about whether AI is going to replace me as a photographer, it's very small thinking.
- [00:33]
D
It's just moving so quick. You are already behind if you haven't started, but it's not too late. And it's a really important thing that you have to embrace AI and you have to embrace it for every part of your business and you have to embrace it for client communication because if you don't, you won't be in the game.
- [00:52]
C
Hey, Difference Maker. Welcome back to the Difference Maker Revolution podcast. Today we have the four Amigos again. We have Steve in Melbourne, Australia. We have Janine in Tampa, Florida. We have Ronan in Clane, Ireland. And we have Jono in Clayne, Ireland. You're all very welcome to listen to this podcast again. What are we talking about today, Janine?
- [01:11]
A
We are talking about AI. It's our favorite topic. And specifically we are talking about the fact that while many people think that AI is on the horizon and that it's affecting businesses, but it's really going to affect them in the future, that's not the case. It's not coming. It's here now and it's affecting us right now.
- [01:29]
C
So AI is for writing captions, right?
- [01:31]
D
I thought it was just for asking us what restaurant I should eat in or what I should. Can you give me a recipe for homemade ice cream?
- [01:38]
A
I thought it was just for making funny little clip art videos. I like making little pictures and stuff like that with my AI.
- [01:46]
D
The funny thing is, like, I was reading some information recently and we've always talked about speed to lead, right. But there's just been a survey done, an industry survey of consumers, and 60% of those consumers said that they expect an answer to an inquiry within an hour. Right. So most, most studio owners aren't available 247 to be able to give a response within an hour. So that's just one simple shift that AI can help you with. But the second one is that Google has reported that a large percentage of People now, you know when you go into Google and it gives you an AI overview. So if you haven't done stuff to make sure that you appear friendly to AI in that you're not going to appear there either, no matter how good your SEO is. So, you know, it's, it's not, it's not that it's coming, that stuff that's already here, but what's going to happen in the future? I know we're going to talk about across these series of podcasts, but you have to get going now. Like, Steve, if you go back two years, right, if you want wanted something, what did you do? Like, if you wanted to find out some information, what did you typically do?
- [02:56]
B
You'd go, you'd Google it. Call a friend. Google it and call a friend.
- [03:03]
D
When was the last time you Googled a search?
- [03:06]
B
I don't remember. I don't, honestly don't remember. It's been over a year. Over a year. I don't, I don't go to Google at all. AI is the go to now. And I think, you know, a lot of photographers are spending so much time on SEO and thinking about all that, but they aren't getting ready for being visible to AI and being AI friendly, which that's what's going to put them out of business, because they're not ready. Not the fact that AI is going to take their business, it's just that they're not getting ready for it, which is scary.
- [03:41]
A
They're so focused on the debate on if AI is going to replace them as a photographer, they're not seeing what the actual relevance of AI is in their business and what it can be used for and how it's going to be used, whether they want to admit it or not. You can stick your head in the sand, doesn't mean it's not happening. You can deny it all you want, but it's here. And it's not just a debate of is AI going to replace you as a photographer. That's. That's not what this is, Janine.
- [04:14]
C
I gotta be blunt and honest about this because I think that if people are having that debate about whether AI is going to replace me as a photographer, it's very small thinking.
- [04:25]
A
Yeah.
- [04:26]
C
The reason why is because the reality is AI is going to replace everyone eventually. Like, the speed at which it's moving is insane. It's moving faster than anything else we've ever seen. Like, it's moving at what's called an exponential rate. And humans don't think exponentially. They they're just not programmed or wired to think exponentially. Humans think in steps, and they learn in steps, and they do in steps. But the reality is like there's, there's AI companies working with, with law firms, with accountancy firms, to basically with consulting firms to replace a lot of their employees with agents. And I'm not saying we have to be afraid of this, but the reality is that AI can be used hugely to our advantage if we use it in the right ways. And debating about whether an AI photo or editing a photo with AI or doing something with AI, whether that's good enough is a waste of your time, because that's not where the value is for the consumer. So stop spending hours and hours and hours editing and doing the stuff that brings little to no value, and instead spend that time utilizing the tools available to you to make you more productive so you can actually do the things that are important to your clients, like picking up the phone and calling them. That's my two cents on it.
- [05:51]
D
So, Jonathan, I think we just need to talk a little bit about the speed of change, because you're absolutely right, it's happening so fast, it's nearly impossible to keep up with it. Right. And that's part of my role in our businesses on strategy and seeing where technology is going and trying to predict the future with it, which is becoming really, really, really, really difficult at the speed it's going. Only today, Perplexity announced Computer. We were just talking, coming home in the car, talking about what a great name it is. Right. But Computer is something they've just launched, which effectively, and this is something that AI couldn't really do or wasn't released to us. We're folk as to what it can do. But this computer can now work consistently on a project and has, I think, how many different agents has it, Jonathan? 11. Is it 11 different agents across different capabilities where you give it a task and they organize themselves, right. To go and do it and it and they'll work like before an AI agent is working. It could only work for a period of time and would have to stop. This now has memory that it can work for weeks at a time. That wasn't possible to us a week ago, you know, a week, you know, even when they were saying that it was starting to. Oh, it can now work 24 hours a day on coding, you know, just by itself. Right. That was a big breakthrough a month ago, you know, and now they're talking about being able to work on something for weeks with multiple agents doing multiple things. And all coordinating with each other.
- [07:20]
C
So I think one of the key things, because I know we're going to talk about search as well, right? And how we're shifting into that AI search era. So one of the big things is that the reality is if you have someone who's just looking for a pretty photo, they can get AI to do it and they'll probably do it better than anyone else. Um, but the opportunity for photographers is in solving emotional problems that people don't even realize. A photographic experience, actually let me correct that a difference maker photographic experience can help them solve. And that's where the opportunity lies. Because let's just. I hate using this example. Steve will give better examples, Janine will give better examples because we use this over and over again. But if you take an example of a boudoir photographer and they have an avatar who is maybe looking to rediscover their inner confidence, right? And they are, that avatar, which is a person is searching on AI and looking for ways, they feel down, they feel they've lost their zest for life, they want to regain their confidence and they feel now is the right time. They're searching for solutions. That avatar probably has no idea that a difference maker photographic experience is a solution, right? So you're actually able to, what we talk about with Facebook ads, attract the people who are blissfully unaware that a difference maker photographic experience is even a solution for their problem. There's many other examples of that, but that's why, you know, we talk about, and Janine and Steve can talk to this in a second about optimizing for this. But that's why we talk about speaking emotionally, writing emotionally, focusing on the emotional problems and the emotional solutions. Because you're not trying to attract people who are searching for children's photography. In my area, pet photographer in my area, you're looking to attract people who, you know, have an emotional problem. They're searching for solutions to that and you can help them solve it. That's the opportunity and that's a whole
- [09:08]
B
other client when they're looking for help to find a solution to that sort of problem. And if somebody was, you know, doing a search, using AI to search for that, you know, there might be a number of different things. It could be a trip to something or a three day retreat somewhere else. And you know, if you're set up, you would be a suggestion too. I think what has to happen even before that is really understanding the mindset of that client and understanding that avatar before you even get to that point, really understanding Your why? And I really think that those photographers that really understand their why and then really take the time to understand their clients are going to be more capable of creating that solution, but also speaking to that solution, understanding what these clients are looking for and really making themselves more attractive to AI, recommending them as a solution because it's matching and they're really honed into what's important, what are those clients secret desires. And so I think becoming attractive as the solution. As you said before, the client's blissfully unaware that this is even a solution for them. And I think that's where the gold clients are coming from, really.
- [10:30]
D
So Janine, we delivered six weeks of training to all of our inner circle members in the difference maker revolution prior to the Christmas New Year break, right? And when you think about that training, it's still, it's still very relevant, right? But like we weren't even talking about agentic AI at that time, right? In terms of like all the training was around making sure that OpenAI and clouds and Perplexity and Gemini and kind of all see you, right? And understand you in the way that Jonathan and Steve just talked to. Now, not only do you have to, not only is there that interaction between them and the human, but now humans are having AI agents going off and doing the research for them. Right. And coming back with solutions. So the good news is, Janine, as you know, is that everything we taught people before the break is relevant for the Agentix search as well. Right. And with just a few little tweaks, it's all relevant. So Janine, why don't you talk to us just a little bit, a little hint about, you know, all the SEO stuff for Google search has now changed for what you need to do. Not just for OpenAI or ChatGPT and Claude and all of those that we might be interacting with, but also for those of us who already have agents who are going away and doing the research for us.
- [11:57]
A
Yeah. So this is where it's interesting because there's been a shift as we've been discussing with, with, with AI now, right? So people aren't going into Google and doing searches, they're having conversations with AI and looking for answers, right? Conversation. They're asking questions and they're looking for answers. So when we're working on our website, our website has to be very clear, right? So whereas before with SEO, you just cluttered it up with a bunch of SEO words and all the things that people might search and you found ways like there was always tricks and it changed all the time too. Right. So this isn't something new. That thing, you do something and then it changes. I mean, that's the way it was with SEO before. Like, you would perfect it and then you'd have to change it and then you'd perfect it and then you'd have to change it. It's just that happened like every year or so now. It's like every week, right? And every week you're having to modify a little bit. But here's the wonderful thing. And like you said, Ronan, what we, what we taught right before the break is still true now. And then you're just going to have little tweaks along the way. And that is that AI is looking to recommend what it understands. And it has to be able to understand who you are and what you stand for and the transformational what you're, what you're before and after, emotionally, physically, looks like for the person it's talking to. And so that's what has to happen on your website now. And that's going to be on every page. It's going to be blog posts, it's going to be how you write. And so you have to write for these transformations. You have to write for the things that people are going to be asking their AI companion or like you said, once it gets agent to agent, you know, what are they going to be asking each other, right? So, but here's the thing. If you don't start now, you're going to be so far behind, you're already behind if you haven't started. To be honest, like I, I think our members are very fortunate that they took part in this six week journey we went on before the holiday break. Because now everything is set up. They're all set up. They're ready to go. Now when you just have to make little tweaks and little changes. You're just making little tweaks and little changes. You're not having to start total. Right? And here's the thing too, because it's changing so fast and everything keeps updating. When you're on top of it, then you're on top of it. And if you fall, if you fall behind, you're going to fall very behind, Very behind.
- [14:21]
D
So you said earlier, Janine, like, it's just moving so quick. You are already behind if you haven't started. But it's not too late, right? And it's never too late. Well, it can be too late, but you do need to get. This is, this is not like. See, we're used to things changing Slowly, right? Even when we had to move from and film analog to digital. Like it was a slow thing. It happened over years and years and years. This is happening like that. It's like a rocket ship taken off.
- [14:49]
A
Well, I had said to you, like I had seen the, I had seen this podcast. Now I listen to every week they tell you what's happened in headlines of the last week in AI and these headlines are what would have been like years, right? Like how did this happen in a week and every Friday? That's what it is. Like here's what's happened this week and, and it's massive. We're not talking like subtle changes, we're talking like you said, this didn't exist yesterday, now it exists and this is happening every single week, every day.
- [15:23]
D
It feels like now.
- [15:25]
B
Janine, when I'm thinking about the coaching, the coaching call last night and in accountability and you were saying it's great that our members are set up and participated in that six week course. Just real as you said that I'm think thinking all the people that stood up and said they've had their best month and their best start to the year were all those people that were part of that. And I think now with what we've produced in helping people understand their why it's, you can hear there's a difference in how they talk about their client and how they talk about what they, what their purpose is. And I think it's the first time I've heard a lot of photographers, so many photographers actually be really clear about it. So I think AI has really helped them. You know, we've talked about avatars for years and we've talked about all this stuff for years. But it wasn't until we created the AI coach to help them get work all that out that they really began, became clear about what their purpose was and what their why was. So it was great to see so many people in the accountability call say that they've had the best start of the year that they've ever had, which is great. And there's a lot of people in fear at the moment.
- [16:44]
D
It's always been proven that the research is there well before AI, that the company or the business that responds first generally wins the business. Right. And even if you think about that, when I'm buying, it's generally the first company that actually comes back to me because so many don't. Right. But here's the thing with AI now even this, that even makes that first contact more important, but also easier for you to make an early first contact. And here's the critical thing about that. This isn't about replacing the personal touch. It's making sure that you're actually there for the first touch that it happens at all. Right. Because that's a critical thing if you're not in the game, but then you can't play. And it's a really important thing that you have to, you have to embrace AI. You have to embrace it for every part of your business and you have to embrace it for client communication because if you don't, you won't be in the game.
- [17:48]
A
Mine has an interesting point too, Ronan. Talking about the aspects of your business that you should be right now using AI for. And this kind of goes to what we discussed in the beginning of the podcast as a joke, but it's so true. Whereas so many photographers and all people in general, I think the mass think that AI is for writing cute captions and for helping write little notes to your kids and looking up a restaurant or helping with your workout routine or what should I make for dinner tonight? You know, and things like that. When reality, it's a tool that can transform your business. If you look at how you build the systems in. And that to me is the really. I mean, I know we talked about the search versus conversations aspect, but we also have the systemization of your business aspect too, which I don't think we can leave off. And I think that's a very critical part of how AI is here now. And if you're not using these systems and you're not creating systems to be able to communicate with your clients, communicate with your potential clients, speed to lead, like you were saying. But all of these aspects that we automate but use AI to do, you have to be doing them and you have, otherwise the studios that are, are going to take your business.
- [19:07]
D
And here's the other thing. Not only do we need to have to create quality content in the way that AI understands, we have to create consistent, quality content, which takes time. Right. So, Jonathan, like this is something Steve's already talked about, KCB and Accelerator AI. But this, this is why we've put so much resource, time and effort. Right. To launch Accelerator AI to help photographers with this ability to create quality, consistent content that's talking to their ideal client.
- [19:43]
C
Yeah, I mean, what's really important to note is that, you know, a lot of people just don't understand economics and that's totally fine. But it's impossible for us as a mentor team to like, scale support and give you high quality support at scale, especially in the photography industry alone, it's just not possible economically. It's not feasible financially. And despite that economic impossibility, people, I feel, expect, you know, a lot of handholding and a lot of support. So the only way that we can actually do that, humans can't do that, the only way we can do that is using AI. And that's why we spent so much time programming and prompting KCB with the knowledge of the mentor team here, because what it will do for you, as Ronan said, is it will consistently create for you. And an example of that is we had a member who came in and used the Facebook ads module. So she had created her avatar, her brand foundation, her client avatar, and was now creating her Facebook ad. And I read over the offer and the ad that KCB created, and obviously it's prompted with, you know, our expertise and experience in Facebook ads.
- [21:01]
D
Right, okay.
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C
Just to get that down, right? No, not a generic AI won't be able to do this, but KCB wrote ad copy better than anyone on this call could write ad copy. And I've written ad copy that has scaled to $5,000 a day in spend profitably. So I know how to write ad copy. And I can tell you that KCB probably did a better job than I could. The key thing is the consistency, because if I was in a flow state and I was having the best day ever, and my mind was so creative and so active and it was just switched on, I'd eaten the right things, I'd gone to the toilet at the right time, drank the right things, I had the right inspiration. Then, yes, I could probably write one day out of 60 days ad copy as good as what KCB wrote. KCB can do it every single time, without fail. And that's the key.
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D
All right. Wasn't expecting that.
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B
KCB writes better than you, Jonathan.
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D
That's a.
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B
A mean feat. Mean feet.
- [22:04]
C
All of us, Steve. Right? It's better than all of us.
- [22:07]
A
Now, I have a question for Ronan. So, Ronan, most photographers are the CEO of their own company, right? So in your opinion or fact, however you want to phrase this, what is the main role of the CEO of a business?
- [22:22]
D
The main role of a CEO in a business is to strategically look at what's happening in the world and position their business for the future. But, Janine, you know, that's a hard thing to do even for a business of our size, right? You know, as if I'm a solopreneur. Like, that's really difficult to do, even if I have A team of four or five, that's really difficult to do, right. Because it's a skill set that you have to learn over time, right. And there's models you have to use to do it and you know, everything from Porters 5 principles. We've had a podcast on this and all the different models that you can use for strategy development. Well, here's the thing. Like companies in the past, you would create a business plan, a five year business plan, you know, and you'd sort of say, right, here's what we're going to do this year in the business plan. Now that business plan is out of date. When you've written it, that's how fast this is moving. It's literally out of date when you've written it, when you, when your printer is printed out, it's out of date. And that's never happened before. I'm in business in 1989. I've never seen anything move so quick. So the great thing is, is that our Difference Maker members, right, we're bringing the research to them, right, so they don't have to wait for the research. We are translating the strategic research into not only what you need to do, but here's the tools to do it with you and for you, right? And I think that's a key, a key differentiator for small businesses, not just for photographers, but it's something that, not that you don't have to worry about it or you don't have to spend time on it, but we're going to do it for you anyway. And I think because it's difficult, Janine, like I can't tell you how more difficult my role has got in the last 24 months for no other reason but how fast things are changing.
- [24:22]
C
It's frightening. And this is a good segment because what's appropriate now is if you don't already realize this by now, what the are you doing? Click the link below and apply to join Inner Circle today. You need to be in this inner circle because as Ronan said and the rest of the team said, we're staying on top of this for you and helping you and figuring out ways that we can help you better to achieve your version of success. So first thing you need to do is the SEC is click the button below, apply to join Inner Circle today. The second thing, I have a very important question, Janine. My question is, will AI kill the photography industry? And to find out, you're just going to have to join next week's podcast.
- [25:06]
A
We'll see you then.
- [25:07]
C
Bye for now.
- [25:08]
D
See you then.
- [25:11]
B
See you then.