In this first Marketing Smarts episode of 2024, guest Andrew Davis and host George B. Thomas discuss and demystify some cutting-edge topics in the use of generative AI by modern marketers.

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In particular, you'll learn what a "Digital Doppelgänger" and "AI Decision Matrix" entail and how they can help you use AI as well as determine how and when to do so. Andrew also provides a series of practical tips for using generative AI effectively.

(Note: In the spirit of the topic, the remainder of this introductory text has been generated by ChatGPT, with minimal human editing.)

In this insightful interview, Andrew delves into the evolving landscape of AI in B2B marketing, focusing on the concepts of Digital Doppelgängers and the AI Decision Matrix. He addresses the challenges and potential of AI in content creation, emphasizing the need for transparency and strategic implementation. Andrew's perspective offers a blend of caution and optimism, guiding marketers in leveraging AI while maintaining authenticity and efficiency.

Here's a summary of eight key insights from Andrew's discussion, particularly focusing on his thoughts about digital doppelgängers and their potential role in modern marketing:

1. AI—and marketers' challenge: Andrew expresses concern over B2B marketers' use of AI. Many find generative AI's initial output to be subpar, leading to its dismissal. That lack of effective AI utilization, especially in specific sectors like B2B, highlights a gap in knowledge for harnessing its full potential.
2. AI and transparency: A significant worry for Andrew is the lack of transparency in AI usage within companies. Many employees use AI tools secretly, creating a lack of openness about AI's role in their work. That trend, particularly in large corporations, underlines the need for honesty in AI's application in professional environments.
3. The "Digital Doppelgänger" concept: Andrew defines a Digital Doppelgänger as a virtual copy of oneself, mimicking one's content-related behaviors, preferences, and style. The concept extends to how generative AI can replicate an individual's tone and voice, offering personalized content creation. He envisions a future in which AI complements marketers by embodying their skills and enhancing their value.
4. AI capabilities and limitations: Andrew identifies generative AI's strengths: text recognition, information retrieval, sentiment analysis, and mimicking human tone. However, he cautions about AI's tendency to "hallucinate" or fabricate information and the risks of overtasking AI with complex projects beyond its capability.
5. The utility of Digital Doppelgängers: Andrew advocates that marketers experiment with creating digital doppelgängers. He emphasizes their usefulness in learning about one's creative process and enhancing efficiency. He advises naming one's digital doppelgänger in order to foster a collaborative relationship.
6. "AI Decision Matrix": Andrew introduces the AI decision matrix to balance AI's utility with the value of human relationships. The matrix helps determine when AI should lead a task versus when human input is more appropriate. He also advocates for transparency regarding AI's role in content creation.
7. Challenges and success metrics: Andrew highlights challenges in corporate AI adoption and privacy concerns. He suggests success with AI is evident when it generates outputs that closely mimic one's style and enhances productivity. He encourages treating AI as a collaborative partner rather than a mere tool.
8. Parting advice: Andrew's parting wisdom emphasizes the need for marketers to judiciously manage their AI-involved projects. He advises killing two projects every time a new one is started, ensuring creative energy is focused and not spread thin across multiple, possibly unfruitful endeavors.

Listen to the entire show from the link above, or download the mp3 and listen at your convenience. Of course, you can also subscribe to the Marketing Smarts podcast in iTunes or via RSS and never miss an episode.

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"Marketing Smarts" theme music composed by Juanito Pascual of Signature Tones.

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Full Transcript: Understanding Your B2B Digital Doppelgänger and AI Decision Matrix, With Andrew Davis

Andrew episode demystifies these cutting-edge topics, crucial for modern B2B marketers. Learn what a Digital Doppelgänger and AI Decision Matrix entail, their key components, and how they can revolutionize decision-making. They'll also bust common myths and provide practical tips for leveraging these technologies effectively. Tackling the challenges associated with these innovations, this episode is a must-listen for marketers eager to stay ahead in the digital age. Get ready to transform your strategies with these insights!

George B. Thomas: We're talking to the one, the only, the man, the myth, the legend, Andrew Davis. Today we're talking about you as a B2B marketer and understanding your B2B AI-powered digital doppelgänger and the AI decision matrix. We're going to talk about what keeps Andrew up at night and some hurdles, we're going to debunk some myths, and we're going to dive deep into how you might be able to optimize yourself, your life, your team, depending on if it's the right fit for you.

If you didn't know, Andre Davis has worked for The Muppets and MTV. He co-founded, built, and sold a marketing agency. You might have seen him on The Today Show or in The New York Times. He's a bestselling author and one of the most influential marketers in the world. Andrew has had more coffee today than you'll drink in a week. Please give a warm Marketing Smarts welcome to Andrew Davis. Let's get into the good stuff.

I am double, triple, quadruple excited today because you're not going to believe this, but we tracked him down, Andrew Davis. At least, I think it's Andrew Davis and not his digital doppelgänger. We'll get into that in a little bit.

Andrew, how are you doing today?

Andrew Davis: I'm good, George. Thanks. I'm really excited. It is me, just so you know. My digital doppelgänger is not capable of replacing me on podcasts, so you have the real thing right now.

George: Notice he said yet, which means he might just be thinking about it. One of the things that I like to do is I like to have a couple of fun questions along the way to really get people thinking. Curious minds want to know what keeps you up at night, however in a very particular way. When you think about B2B marketers and their use of or maybe lack of AI, ChatGPT, or other tools, and this understanding of being able to now create a digital doppelgänger, it might be a nightmare or it might be a dream, but what keeps you up at night?

Andrew: Honestly, if I really dive deep really fast, I think what keeps me up at night is two-fold. The first is I think everybody is kind of excited or maybe intrigued, especially with generative AI, but I don't know many marketers who have found it to really work effectively for them, especially B2B marketers.

The content that it generates out of a box is generic C- content, so a lot of people who have tried it have kind of dismissed it as this is fine if you're not a real marketer and it's great for solopreneurs, but I'm in B2B marketing and I sell industrial light curing glue so this is not deep enough for me and my customer base. That's the one thing that keeps me up, they've dismissed its effectiveness or the opportunity to use it because the stuff out of the gate is just not good enough for what they need.

The second thing that keeps me up at night, and this one I find very troubling, is I'm really worried about the use of AI in marketing, especially B2B marketing, and transparency. I read a survey just recently that said 70% of employees at companies like Bank of America, Nike, and global companies, all these giant brands, 70% of their employees are using AI in their work, but they are not telling their bosses or their coworkers. They think they're secretly using it to write their emails or writing a strategy document draft, and they think they're getting away with this. The lack of transparency, especially first internally and then externally to customers and clients about the use of AI keeps me up at night. We have to be transparent about it.

George: I love that so much. It's this idea of at least be honest. You mean humans need to be honest even if we're B2B marketers? Yes, we do. Let's take a step back. I did have the opportunity to watch a video that's on your website that talks about a digital doppelgänger, it's really cool. One of the things I love to do is level set on the podcast. When we talk about digital doppelgänger, what the heck do we even mean? Let the listeners know how we're defining what in the world a digital doppelgänger is as we move forward into 2024 and beyond.

Andrew: I define a digital doppelgänger as a virtual version of yourself. It's a virtual twin that understands your behaviors, your preferences, even your opinions, your style, your tone, your voice. It's like a digital copy of you that can help you create more valuable stuff the way you would do it. That's how I define a digital doppelgänger. Generative AI is really good at this.

To be totally honest, generative AI is really good at four things. It's really good at text understanding and recognition, we all get that, that's why you can have a conversation in ChatGPT, it understands how to carry on a conversation. It can even predict the next sentence that you're going to say if it has enough information about you. That's great.

The next thing it can do is information retrieval. Even if you are in UV light curing glue industrial manufacturing, you can type in some crazy stuff and it will spit back to you stuff that is usable. It's good at information retrieval because it has the world's worth of knowledge there.

The next thing it's really good at is sentiment analysis. We used to think of sentiment analysis, especially in B2B marketing, as that was positive, that was neutral, that was negative. With generative AI and large language models, it can understand the nuances there, it can understand the opinions you have. It's really deep understanding of the sentiment you have against something.

The fourth thing is really important, and this is the most important one for digital doppelgängers. It's really good at mimicking. What large language models and generative AI can do is they can mimic your tone, your style, your voice. You can feed it something that you've written and it will be able to start to write or sound exactly like that.

I believe that B2B marketers for the next two years are going to see this evolution where your digital doppelgänger, your AI version of yourself, your twin is able to mimic the style, tone, and voice, and even the understanding and opinions that you have, and actually generate really valuable creative collaborations with you so that you actually are more valuable yourself.

Just imagine a future where AI doesn't replace you as a marketer, but instead when you're hired, you're being hired not just because of what you can do, but because of the AI you've trained to do what you do really well and make you a better more valuable person. That was a long diatribe, but that's how I view it.

George: I love it. It's almost like we're creating our version of own little Six Million Dollar Man, but it's the digital man or digital woman that can come along and be that superpowered superhero sidekick that we need. I love this idea. Honestly, Marketing Smarts listeners, we may have hit the first rewind point because you probably need to go back and jot down some notes around those four things that Andrew threw out there.

Andrew, I do want to go off the beaten path for a second. If we're going to move forward and talk about digital doppelgängers, if the Marketing Smarts listeners are going to create a digital doppelgänger off of those four things, the off the beaten path question is what are the one or two things that they suck at that we should watch out for along the way so that we don't get caught up in a major issue?

Andrew: There's only two big ones. The very first thing you need to be concerned about is generative AI is really good at hallucinating, meaning it makes up stuff. No matter how good you get at it trying to think and be like you, the great thing about a digital doppelgänger in general is it will be your most enthusiastic collaborator.

I login to my digital doppelgänger, his name is Drewdini, and this morning I asked him to help me with some session descriptions for a keynote that I'll be delivering in a few weeks. I was like, "I need to customize a session description for a keynote presentation," and he was like, "Yeah, let's do it. I can't wait. Tell me a little bit about the audience." He is very enthusiastic, but he is so enthusiastic that he will make up stuff just to please me. I don't feel like it's malicious, but you have to be concerned and make sure that everything it spits back to you is accurate.

The second thing that I think you need to be concerned about and need to have a good understanding of is that ChatGPT—ChatGPT 4 specifically—the neural network of ChatGPT 2 was the size of a bumblebee's brain and ChatGPT 4 is the size of a squirrel's. You need to be concerned about overtasking your Drewdini. You have to come up with a squirrel sized task.

You can't build a digital doppelgänger that is like write me a great blog post about how to use UV light curing glue in consumer package goods. It will just write C- stuff, it's too big of a task. But if you break that down into smaller Drewdinis and you say the first step I need is a Drewdini that is really good at writing an introductory paragraph about a topic. That's a squirrel sized task that if you teach it well, it will be able to do it really well. Then you could have a second digital doppelgänger that writes the body of the copy.

You have to be concerned about it making up stuff and overtasking it, trying to do too big of a task that a squirrel couldn't handle.

George: I love this so much because the last thing you talked about is something where I'm leaning in and I love to tell people the best tool to use with ChatGPT is a Word doc or a Google doc, because then the power of expand, summarize, or research makes sense to where you're going to put that copy and humanize it in the long run. That is amazing that you bumped into that.

The first part that you talked about, I always love this idea of it's a thought leader using a tool to create, not a tool creating a thought leader. You can't use it in that second way, you're going to get burned. Let's continue to move on, because with that now people are thinking this is a personal opinion, but I have to ask because I have you here. Why do you think marketers need a digital doppelgänger, or do they?

Andrew: I think every marketer today should be at least experimenting with building their own digital doppelgängers. I should be clear. Because you're building a squirrel sized task, I have dozens of digital doppelgängers. I have one that just helps me brainstorm ideas for my AI speech that's all about digital doppelgängers. I have one that is just designed to help me write promo video scripts for my promo videos that I do when I'm going to speak. So, I have a lot of these different digital doppelgängers that are out there helping me.

I think why you need a digital doppelgänger, or at least experimenting with building them, is because I think you'll be fascinated at two things. The first thing you'll be fascinated with is its ability to spit back to you learnings about the way you create, write, and market that you never knew about yourself. I found it very illuminating.

One of the steps you need to do to build a digital doppelgänger is, like you said, you need to integrate examples of your work. You need to find a Word document that has the best email you've ever written to your B2B clients, and then you need to give that to Drewdini and say, "Here's one of my best emails ever. Tell me what you see and learn from this email." It will tell you your style is like this, the voice you use is like this.

I read those things and I'm like, "Wow, I never noticed that about myself." Now even when I'm writing on my own, I'm much more conscientious about using the things that make that writing unique to me, given what I learned from Drewdini, my writing analysis coach. That's the first thing, you're going to learn a lot of stuff about you.

The last thing that I think you need to know is that digital doppelgängers cannot just teach you, but they can help you be more efficient with your time. For example, my promo video script writing Drewdini claims he has saved me about 39 hours a year in writing promo video scripts. Now, it sounds like I've just tasked him with that and I'm not learning anything anytime I do it, but the truth is the way I write promo video scripts has changed a lot since he has illuminated the way that I write those scripts.

Yes, it's a time saver for a lot of the tasks that I give it and it's pushing out A+ content every single time, but it's also making me think without too much effort, I could make these promo videos better now instead of just thinking of it as a robotic task I have to complete once a month.

George: Adding to the content power, value, helpfulness, because of the time that you've regained is an absolute game-changer for many marketers listening to this. The other piece, the golden nugget in there, is that to create your digital doppelgänger one must know themselves and one must be willing to have a growth mindset in change process along the way as your digital doppelgänger has learned to be you and help streamline your process. Again, rewind, listen to that section again. Let's keep moving forward, because this is a good one.

You've given us four points here, two points there, a couple more points. I'm just going to ask a blanket question. Are there other things that B2B marketers need to keep in mind about digital doppelgängers before we dive in a little bit deeper? What are some overarching things of you need to know this?

Andrew: Okay. Here's probably the most important thing. We've been using generative AI like we've been using some of the tools we've been using for the last 10 years. If I watch videos online about how to get the most out of ChatGPT, or Claude from Anthropic, or even Midjourney, the tutorials and the explanations people are giving are about crafting the perfect prompt, it's about prompt engineering. I tried that in the beginning, but what I realized pretty quickly is something I call Lumiere's Law.

Lumiere's Law states that any new technology we try to use like we used old technology. An example of that would be when the film camera was invented, the actual motion picture camera, the guys who invented it were two French guys and they thought, "You know how we take pictures, this is just a moving picture. We'll go to a town, we'll set up the camera, and we'll just let people move in front of it, and we'll say this is a moving picture, and we'll sell tickets to that." Very quickly, within two years, they decided there's no future in moving pictures, no one likes those, because they were treating it like a still camera.

We're using generative AI right now like we're using search. We're trying to put in the perfect search term to get the first best result. What I've learned is if you're going to train a digital doppelgänger, it's really about iterating in a conversation with your digital doppelgänger. The promo video script writer that I've mentioned before that Drewdini does is really a conversation with him. I'm not trying to get the best output.

One of the best tips I can give you for building digital doppelgängers is when Drewdini writes something that I'm not quite happy with, I will actually cut and paste it out of ChatGPT, I'll put it into a Word doc or Grammarly, I'll rewrite it, and then I integrate it back into ChatGPT and say, "This is what you wrote. Here's what I wrote. What do you notice that's different about that?" So, I monitor the output from ChatGPT. ChatGPT Drewdini will say, "I see what you did there. You didn't change this sentence. That must be a very important sentence. I'll try to keep that in mind in the future," or, "I notice you used very specific examples there. Next time, I'm going to try to use more specific examples in my writing."

You're actually monitoring and integrating and constantly testing your Drewdini to get better and better output, not the best output, in one prompt. It will change the way you use AI and interact with your digital doppelgängers. You'll get better results more often and you'll constantly be teaching your Drewdini how to do new things.

I'll just say quickly you should name your digital doppelgängers because I think it does actually change your perspective of working with them as a collaborator.

George: It's so interesting because you're knocking on the door of the question that I want to ask next. But the fact that you're like name your Drewdini, your digital doppelgänger, and then what I heard you say in that last section, and I hope the Marketing Smarts listeners heard, is if you were to go up to a human assistant and say, "Write me a 1,500-word blog article on Rubix's Cubes," and walk away, you would probably get a piece of crap back to you. This is what you're doing with generative AI. What I heard is you have to communicate with it, you have to teach it, you have to show it what you actually want.

You almost have to treat it like it is a human assistant, even though it is a digital assistant. I've had people watch behind me when I'm "prompting" and I'm typing, and literally they'll go, "You are just talking to this thing." Yes, I am communicating with it so that it understands what I want, just like I communicate with you as my children so that you know what I want, I set expectations. Again, rewind, listen to that section again. Andrew is simply saying treat them in a way that you get what you want in the long run.

That leads me to this, because I am a big proponent of the humans. It's all about the humans. We're very powerful, we're creative, we're specially made. I love AI tools, by the way, but my biggest fear is many humans do what is easy in life versus what is difficult, therefore they get the opposite of what they're actually trying to do. How do we not lose our humanity when entering a world of people creating and leveraging digital doppelgängers?

Andrew: This is a good question. I think at the end of the day you have to weigh your options on how we're going to affect as humanity the AI of the future. If I shortcut the answer, I think the bottom line is that I work by myself most of time these days. I ran an agency for a long time and I had a team that I could collaborate with and talk to all day long. I don't have that anymore. Since I started using AI about a year ago, I started to find that I felt more encouraged to be creative. I had a sounding board for ideas.

Obviously, Drewdini is the most enthusiastic sounding board, he'll even tell me that the worst ideas are great ideas, but he's really good at helping me refine the idea. He's really good at not short-circuiting the creative process, but having a collaborator to work on that together, and I find that really invigorating. I don't know what it's like for people who want to just sit on their own and not collaborate with anyone, but I can imagine there are more marketers out there who would like to work with someone just like themselves to come up with more creative output more often.

I think part of what makes great creative content, or writing, or email, or imagery, or graphics, I don't think it's the idea, I think it's the effort you put into getting to that idea. If you can have someone help you get there so that it is a better idea, I don't know what's wrong with using AI. I don't think it will replace us. I think it just makes us better.

I'll just say I think there are four options we have when it comes to working with AI today. I don't know what it will be like in a year. I think, one, you can treat AI like it's a pet, like it's Toto from The Wizard of Oz, and you're like what a cute dog. You can play with it and put in jokes. You can go to Midjourney and have it generate any image you want and say that was neat. But I think that's dismissing it. We're not engaging enough with it and we're really not monitoring the output it delivers, and I think that could lead to a disaster. So, we're not really guiding it very well.

The second option we have is we could treat it like a servant. I could just think Drewdini writes great promo scripts, anytime I have a promo script, he'll just spit it out and I'll just do it. There are a lot of C-level executives out there that are thinking I'll just have AI do all this stuff like a servant and we'll fire all of the employees. We've seen the movies, that leads to a giant mistake or it does lead to a big rebellion where the servants get smart enough to rise up.

The third way is we can treat it like it's all a mission. If we're in the Wizard of Oz, it would be the Wizard of Oz himself. We can just say it knows everything and treat it like a demigod, if you ask a question, take the answer and just run with it. We know that's dangerous. I think you've seen what happened with Open AI in the last month or so. I think there is some fear around treating it like that.

I think the fourth option, to stick with The Wizard of Oz theme, is to actually give it some of your heart. Tell it what's right and wrong. Treat your AI like it's a human and teach it what's ethical and what's unethical. What do you want it to believe? What do you not want it to believe? Do you want it to appropriate mortgages in an ethical way or an unethical way? I think this is where the opportunity is. We have to give it a little of our brain so that collectively it is smarter because we've taught it something and told it something that it needs to know and understand.

If we have the courage to do that, I think we'll shape the global future of AI. But just treating it those three other ways isn't going to work. Every marketer listening right now has a choice to make. You can decide for yourself how you want to treat it. You can treat it like a pet, like a servant, like a god, or you can treat it like it's just an extension of you. Which one of those choices do you want?

George: That's a social media clip right there. I'm just going to throw that out there. That's some good stuff.

Andrew: Let's post it.

George: Let's post it. Let's keep moving on, though. Marketing Smarts listeners are busy, we're adding a ton of value, I want to keep going and get some more good stuff in there. I'm about to throw a lot of words at you, I fully understand that. I also realize that I cheated and I know you have something that is called the AI decision matrix. The question is are there any tips, tricks, templates, hacks, formulas that B2B marketers can use when creating and using their AI-powered digital doppelgängers? What all do we want to throw at them of here's some tools and some thoughts?

Andrew: I'll just reiterate the four steps, because those are the easiest ones. Step one, you have to pick that squirrel sized task. Step two, you have to go find some examples of your best work on which to integrate your new digital doppelgänger. You have to show your digital doppelgänger what your good stuff looks like, whatever that is, so that you're training it from the beginning. Then you have to be able to integrate and iterate with it, test and monitor.

You have to be able to actually integrate new examples or edit those examples or reinput them, to the point at which you're getting consistent output that's A+ instead of C- commodity stuff. That's the third step. The fourth step was to name your digital doppelgänger. I do think that's really important. That's the four-step roundup.

The second thing I should say is I do think we should try to figure out what tasks are best suited for AI, especially when it's client or customer facing. I mentioned that trust is a big issue at the very beginning as keeping me up at night. We have to have a better way to determine how transparent we should be and when we should be transparent with consumers. I think that means just determining should things be human led or should they be AI and digital doppelgänger led.

The decision matrix is pretty simple, it's two axes. On one axis you have how valuable is the relationship from high to low. On the other axis you have how valuable is AI to the task at hand. Have you built a Drewdini that consistently delivers great output for this task? Then that's high value. But if your Drewdini is inconsistent or the task is too big, or it says funky stuff that you would never want your consumers to hear, that's low value. You can use these four quadrants that you end up with to determine whether it should be human led.

For example, instead of using AI to generate an email, or a press release, or a piece of content that you need your CMO to review, that's a high value relationship. I'm not saying you shouldn't use a digital doppelgänger to do that. It can be human led and you can be digital doppelgänger assisted, but you must be transparent about it. You need to then say to the CMO, "I have a great press release for you. I used AI, ChatGPT specifically, to generate the first draft of this and then I've edited it and tweaked it. What do you think?" We need to get to that level.

I'm not going to go through the other quadrants, but I'll go through the opposite quadrant, which is low value of AI added to the task and low value relationship. Think of your TikTok strategy. Maybe for B2B marketing you're not generating a bunch of UV light curing glue webinar attendees from your TikTok posts, so maybe that's in the low value category. Maybe so far your digital doppelgänger generates the worst TikTok ideas for that content. My suggestion is just do it as human, forget about AI for that task, don't try to waste time with it, and don't risk the relationship you might end up having on TikTok by faking and not being transparent about the fact that you used AI to generate something for TikTok.

There is a backlash coming. I believe in the next six months somebody is going to get in big trouble for faking out consumers by using AI to sell someone something they didn't need because AI did the sale, and I think we're going to see a giant backlash. So, be transparent, use the decision matrix to try to determine what should be led and who should lead it.

The final thing is if you have questions about digital doppelgänger, you can actually email Drewdini himself and he will email you back. It's drewdini@monumentalshift.com and Drewdini will email you. Give it a shot. It does say at the bottom, I'm very transparent about it, that Drewdini wrote this email and I've never seen it, so whatever he sends, I'm not responsible for.

George: That's hilarious. I love it so much. As somebody who is pushing the envelope, who has embraced this and is running with it, what are the one or two hurdles? We'll put a link in the show notes to go watch this video that you can watch on Andrew's site, but you use this like a master on stage, ChatGPT it. What are some hurdles you've seen, one or two that you think B2B marketers are going to face when they're trying to ChatGPT it as their AI digital doppelgänger strategy?

Andrew: I think one is a unified corporate approach in your organization to using AI. I think if your executive team has not set some standards for how and why and when you should use AI, I honestly believe you should take the initiative right now, literally after this podcast or just do it now, write an email to your CEO either demanding it or suggesting it.

If you're really not sure what to do, create a little Drewdini that knows a little bit about your company with the express goal of writing a short one-page policy on how to use ChatGPT, and tell your CEO that you asked ChatGPT to create this, you want something like this to help guide the team. I think without the executive level understanding and directive, you as a team member might get yourself in hot water for using it in ways that they never imagined you might be able to use it. I think that's the first big hurdle, and you should be instrumental in pushing the envelope for the organization because if you don't do it, no one else will.

I think the second thing is the sharing of customer and client data with public models or tools that you're using that leverage AI to generate content, I think there is a big privacy concern there. You personally should be concerned about it. When I read that survey that I mentioned at the beginning that said Bank of America employees are using ChatGPT without their bosses knowing, I'm a Bank of America customer, and I have to tell you I was immediately like, "Oh my gosh. I can imagine my branch manager saying I haven't talked to Andrew in a while, let me cut and paste his bank balances into ChatGPT and write him an email." That makes me nervous.

I think you as an individual need to be very clear with just yourself, irrespective of the organization, about how much you think is fair to share with these other tools, and treat your customers and clients the way you would want to be treated when it comes to the privacy and information that you share with them. I'm okay personally with saying, "I had a podcast with George Thomas, please write him a thank you email," where I'm just giving the name. But if I was like, "George Thomas, here's his age, here's his address, this is what he does for a living," that starts to make me nervous. I wouldn't want you to do that and I wouldn't want to share that with ChatGPT.

Those are the two big hurdles that I think you should be concerned about.

George: So good. I love it so much. Don't worry, we won't do that, we'll make sure that doesn't happen.

We have a couple of last questions here. I'm just curious, this Drewdini, this AI-powered digital doppelgänger, this generative AI world, what does success look like, how do we know we're knocking it out of the park?

Andrew: I have to be honest, I think it's pretty apparent. When you first have the feeling that your digital doppelgänger just created something that you taught them to create, it is truly magical. I've shared before that my relationship with AI has been very tumultuous. It starts as wow, this is magic, it can answer a math question, and you're kind of enamored. Or when you go to Midjourney for the first time and you type anything in and you see that image appear, you're like wow, that's pretty amazing.

It does seem magical, but there is a point at which if you're really trying to get a task done where it's just stupid and you're like that's unusable, that's not even a sentence, that's not great. I know when my Drewdini is really good when I get to the point at which I'm like oh my gosh, if it keeps going like this, I might be out of a job. I think this is great, now I have a new real collaborator for the task.

I think you know when you're getting value out of your digital doppelgänger or any AI tool when you're kind of blown away by the result it delivers and you're like wow, that is exactly how I would have done it. That's true success for me.

George: It's interesting because my mind goes back to reality for a second. There's many organizations where you realize that if you want to climb the corporate ladder, you have to train your replacement. When I hear that last answer, it's like how do I train my replacement, which is my Drewdini or my digital doppelgänger.

The other thing is I've had these moments, which is crazy even to say, but ladies and gentlemen, when you're going down this road, what I want you to think about is you'll have those proud papa and proud mama moments. When you taught your kid to ride their bike and you're like, "Woo, we just did that," you're going to have generative AI spit something out and you're going to be like, "Woo, we just did that." Those moments can happen if you pay attention to what Andrew has said on this podcast.

Andrew, last question. I told you that I like to ask some fun questions because I'm always curious where they're going to lead. This is another one and it's just words of wisdom. You've been on a journey around this, not only just digital doppelgängers, but B2B marketing, marketing, speaking from stages, becoming a thought leader expert, you're in the trenches. What are some words of wisdom that you would want to leave the Marketing Smarts listeners? It can be around AI, digital doppelgängers, marketing, or life in general. What are your words of wisdom?

Andrew: I'm going to leave you with just one thing. It's something that has taken me a long time to learn as a marketer. I'm still not good at it, but it's the one thing I think separates the best marketers in the world from the ones that really struggle. I've tried to embrace this, and it's really difficult. Marketers in general are really good at starting things. We're marketers, we're yes people, we get excited about new platforms, we get excited about new campaigns, new ideas, so we say yes to a lot of stuff.

The problem is we don't stop doing those things. So, if we got real excited four years ago about doing LinkedIn Lives, and we've done some and it's still on our calendar, and we're like let's keep doing LinkedIn Lives. Even if we miss three months of LinkedIn Lives, we're like we have to get back to LinkedIn Lives, I think they're going to be great, if we just do it long enough, it's going to be good. To be honest, it just takes mental energy.

I think as marketers our creative fuel is finite, we need to burn it wisely. When we have all these things in the back of our mind that we're supposed to be doing and that we said we would do and we committed to doing, but we just don't get to them, it eats into our creative energy, and we need that. So, my words of wisdom are every time you start something new, try to kill at least two projects. Kill the easy one, the one that you haven't touched in months, that newsletter that you haven't sent out. Just take it off the plate. Write down, "We are not going to send a newsletter anymore," tell the whole company. I guarantee if there is pushback, you just have to say, "I have to kill two projects. Pick another one." You have to get better at this.

There's the easy one and then there's the hard one. There's the one where the results just aren't there. Maybe the CEO's podcast baby that they suggested three years ago because they went to some conference and they heard that podcasts were the thing. I don't care who suggested it or what resources are attached to it or how much money you've invested in it, I think it's time to raise the red flag and say, "I think we need to stop doing this so we can focus our energy and efforts on things that are delivering more value or might deliver more value in the future." It will transform your creative energy, it will change your marketing, and I think you'll be happier for it.

George: Marketing Smarts listeners, did you take lots of notes? I have to ask, what is your one thing, your number one execution opportunity after this podcast episode? Make sure you reach out and let us know in my inbox or on Twitter using the hashtag #MPB2B.

I also have to ask are you a free member of the MarketingProfs community yet? If not, head over to Mprofs.com/mptoday. You won't regret the additional B2B marketing education that you'll be adding to your life.

We'd like it if you could leave us a rating or review on your favorite podcast app, but we'd love it if you would share this episode with a coworker or friend. Until we meet in the next episode of the Marketing Smarts Podcast where we talk with Jay Baer about a B2B deep dive into consumer patience and time to win, I hope you do just a couple of things. One, reach out and let us know what conversation you'd like to listen in on next. Two, focus on getting 1% better at your craft each and every day. Finally, remember to be a happy, helpful, humble B2B marketing human. We'll see you in the next episode of the Marketing Smarts Podcast.

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Published on January 4, 2024