Make Your Long Story Short, Says Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson shows us why getting to the point isn't just good songwriting – it's good business sense, especially when your audience's attention span is shorter than a country music chorus.

John Cleese reveals why creativity loves company (as long as it's the right company) and why the Japanese might be onto something with their "juniors first" approach to meetings.

LinkedIn's quiet data collection for AI training has us wondering if we should be getting premium memberships in exchange for our digital breadcrumbs.

Steve conducts a cheeky experiment with fake business awards that has everyone (except one sharp-eyed Rotarian) fooled.

Get ready to take notes.

Talking About Marketing podcast episode notes with timecodes

01:30 Person This segment focusses on you, the person, because we believe business is personal.
Willie Nelson's Guide to Not Wearing Out Your Welcome

Drawing from his new book Energy Follows Thought: The Stories Behind My Songs, Willie Nelson shares why sometimes eight lines are better than eighty. His approach to songwriting – get the story right first, then worry about the melody – offers a fresh perspective on business communication. As Steve and David unpack Willie's philosophy, they reveal why "less is more" isn't just a cliché when you're fighting for attention in a world of information overload.

The hosts explore how this meshes with their own experiences in business communication, noting that while verbose marketers might love the sound of their own voice, their audiences rarely share the enthusiasm.

07:15 Principles This segment focusses principles you can apply in your business today.
John Cleese and the Art of Group Think (The Good Kind)

When John Cleese talks creativity, our hosts lean in – especially when he outlines why the best ideas often come from collaboration, provided you're not sharing the room with idea-killers. David and Steve explore how this mirrors their own experiences in marketing mentorship, highlighting the value of creating spaces where people feel safe to contribute without fear of judgment.

The discussion takes an intriguing turn through Japanese business culture, where letting junior staff speak first isn't just polite – it's strategic. As our hosts note, this approach might just be the antidote to the "but we've always done it this way" syndrome that plagues many businesses.

15:15 Problems This segment answers questions we've received from clients or listeners.
LinkedIn's Data Harvest (Or: Why Your Professional Profile Is Training Someone Else's AI)

In a revelation that had both hosts raising their eyebrows, we learn about LinkedIn's practice of using member data to train AI models. Steve and David dig into the implications, noting how European privacy laws forced a different approach across the pond while the rest of us clicked "agree" without reading the fine print.

The discussion evolves into a broader examination of digital privacy and corporate transparency, with David suggesting that if companies want to use our data, maybe they should at least buy us dinner first (or at least a Premium membership).

Here are the LinkedIn Scraping Opt Out Instructions, as shared by PerplexityAI:

To opt out of LinkedIn using your data for AI training, follow these steps:

1. Access your LinkedIn settings:
   • On desktop: Click on your profile picture and select "Settings & Privacy"
   • On mobile: Tap your profile picture and then tap "Settings" in the bottom-left corner
2. Navigate to the "Data Privacy" section
3. Look for "Data for Generative AI improvement"
4. Toggle off the option "Use my data for training content creation AI models" 1 3

It's important to note a few key points:

• This setting is switched on by default for users outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland1
• Opting out will prevent LinkedIn and its affiliates from using your personal data or content for future AI model training1
• However, opting out does not affect AI training that has already taken place using your data 1