November 5, 2024 • 31 mins
Join us for an insightful conversation with the multifaceted Philip Blackett, a seasoned author, consultant, and entrepreneur who has expertly navigated the podcasting realm since 2013. Discover how Philip's journey from a single podcast to multiple shows reveals the dynamic evolution of the medium. Philip shares strategic tips for promoting podcasts through video reels and the enduring significance of audio formats.
As we explore the unfolding influence of AI in podcasting, we draw intriguing parallels between its impact and that of previous technological innovations like smartphones and social media. This discussion prompts a deeper reflection on the authenticity of digital interactions, particularly with AI's voice cloning abilities, and raises essential questions about the ethical implications and the necessity for thoughtful regulation similar to the early days of the internet.
Rounding off our episode, we consider the future of podcasting in the light of AI's potential impact on job markets, especially in creative fields. Philip argues that AI enhances productivity but underscores the indispensable role of human creativity and skill in complementing technology.
Philip Blackett is an author, consultant and entrepreneur who previously has worked with FedEx, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Chick-Fil-A. Philip has previously been featured in Business Insider, Entrepreneur magazine, Forbes and LinkedIn, as well as a number of podcasts. He enjoys reading, cheering on his Tar Heels, and raising his twin daughters with his wife Mayra.
Connect with Philip:
Website
https://www.philipblackett.com/
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https://www.facebook.com/PhilipBlackettFB/
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https://www.instagram.com/philipblackett/
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipblackett/
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@PhilipBlackett
X
https://x.com/PhilipBlackett
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carl Richards (00:04):
Welcome to Communication Connection
Community, the podcaster'spodcast.
This podcast takes a deep diveinto modern day communication
strategies in the podcastingspace.
We chat with interesting peoplewho make the podcasting and
speaking spaces exciting andvibrant.
We also dive into thepodcasting community with news
(00:24):
updates, latest trends andtopics from this ever-evolving
space.
So strap in, it's going to beone amazing ride.
Let's dive into today's episodeand our guest today is Philip
Blackett.
He's an author, consultant andentrepreneur who previously has
worked with FedEx, goldman Sachs, bank of America and
(00:46):
Chick-fil-A.
He got his Master's of Divinitydegree from the Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary,his MBA from Harvard Business
School and his bachelor's degreemajoring in political science
and economics from theUniversity of Northern Carolina
at Chapel Hill.
Philip has previously beenfeatured in Business Insider,
entrepreneur Magazine, forbesand LinkedIn, as well as a
(01:09):
number of podcasts.
He's a podcaster.
We are so thrilled he's heretoday.
Philip, welcome to the podcast.
Philip Blackett (01:15):
Thanks so much, carl.
Happy to be here with you.
Carl Richards (01:18):
There are so many things, my friend, I know we
are going to cover, because it'snice talking to a fellow
podcaster, because we can divedeep and also dispel myths and
rumors and things like thatabout you know what's what's
going on in the podcasting space.
I like the fact that you nowyou have not one, but soon to
have two po dcasts, correct
Philip Blackett (01:38):
Y eah, soon to be two, and I've actually done
some podcast shows in the pasttoo, so I think the first
podcast show I've done itprobably takes me back closer to
2013.
Carl Richards (01:51):
Okay, so not a veteran, not an early adopter
when there was two listeners andone podcast, but a few years
after that.
But thinking back to 2013,though, that was an interesting
time for podcasting, becausethere was still only what, maybe
half a million shows, orsomething like that then, yeah,
I think we were still trying tofigure out what this was all
about.
And the journey has since beenphenomenal for you.
(02:13):
You're embarking on the secondshow.
How does it feel soon to behaving two shows?
Philip Blackett (02:18):
Well, I'll tell you this it was something I
wasn't anticipating, especiallynot as soon as I was thinking it
was to be the case, but Ibelieve the reason why I'm
actually jumping back into thepool of hosting another podcast
show is because of what we'll betalking about soon, which is AI
, ai.
Carl Richards (02:38):
AIO.
It's a hot button topic rightnow.
It's one that I I think we'regoing to embrace.
Before we embrace that, though,we were just chatting.
This is why I wish thatsometimes the things that
happened before the show maybe Ishould start hitting record
right away, because thosesometimes are the best moments.
(02:59):
But we were talking about audioversus video and, coming from
an audio background, having 25years in radio broadcasting and
starting an audio only podcastback in 2019.
I was a little late to theparty, so to speak.
Yeah, not as late as peoplestarting today.
There's never a bad time tostart a podcast, by the way, and
the best time is now if youhaven't started one yet.
(03:19):
Anyways, there's my PSA forthat.
But starting an audio onlypodcast and then helping people
in the podcasting space, Irecognize that there's certainly
some validity to having a videoshow, but you were just saying
that you know, with all thetools that are out there now,
that it seems to make sense toyou to be jumping into the video
space.
Philip Blackett (03:39):
Yeah, I think the biggest thing, as you were
talking about this, carl, is thereason why, even with my new
show coming up, the reason why Iwould do a video version of it
is simply to get 30 to 60 secondreels out of it to promote the
show, because honestly, I don'tthink it's a very interesting
video to watch me just me and amicrophone talk to you.
(04:02):
That's kind of why when youwatch the news or if you still
do, you don't just see theanchors for a whole hour.
You're seeing like them showingB-roll, playing other videos,
doing a green screen with theweather forecast, aerial footage
, video of the traffic.
People are going to get boredreally quickly and they just see
(04:22):
two talking heads behind amicrophone.
It's just hard to watch becauseotherwise you're thinking to
yourself and I know I do do Ireally need to sit here and
watch this?
Can I take in the same amountof content on an audio version
and do something more productive, like taking a walk, doing
laundry, preparing food fordinner and that sort of thing?
(04:42):
So I think that's the kind ofangle I will look at it.
Like audio, it makes perfectsense.
That's really your content,unless you're having like video
footage and content to share.
That's outside of you talkingin a microphone.
But, yeah, the only otherreason I would think to think
about a video podcast if youdon't have those B-rolls and all
those other things that keep itinteresting and non-boring.
(05:04):
This is primarily a marketingplay to promote your podcast in
this form of getting 30-secondto 60-second video reels that
you can put out on social mediaand further get more listeners
to your podcast.
Carl Richards (05:18):
And, let's face it, without audio there is no
video audio, there is no videoright Without audio.
And I'll even go so far as tosay without good quality audio
there is no video right, BecauseI still think the most
important piece is the audio.
But to your point, I thinkyou're correct in saying that
there's an uptick in thispopularity with reels, and not
(05:40):
only on YouTube, which, at theend of the day is let's face it,
it's a behemoth of a directoryof files.
That's all YouTube is, and whenI say that to people they go
yeah, but I'm like no, let'sboil it down to what it is.
Youtube happened to be to theparty first.
That's how they got to be asbig as they are.
They're part of Google.
Google is big, YouTube's big,and it keeps getting bigger.
(06:01):
But there are other videoplatforms out there People
haven't even heard of that do asmany amazing things as YouTube
does, Maybe even more amazing.
They're just not thatwell-known, Right?
And don't ask me to quote whatthey are, because I can't even
remember what some of them are,but there are some of them, yeah
exactly Exactly, but when yousay YouTube, it's like Google.
(06:22):
Google has become not just acompany, google has become it's
a noun, it's a verb.
I'm going to Google that, right.
Youtube has become the samething.
I'm going to YouTube how tobake a cake.
I'm going to YouTube that it'sa verb, right, but at the end of
the day, it is a behemoth of adirectory.
What's interesting, though, isthe quantity versus the quality
(06:44):
of these video shorts and reelsthat are out there and you've
seen them, philip, I'm sure theones where the host is looking
down on the guests, like they'reshining down from above, or
they're looking up their littletiny bottom of the screen their
screen or the captions are goingtoo fast, or the captions are
covering their faces.
That's again.
(07:05):
Hopefully it's good audio,because the video certainly
isn't that great.
So when we're putting thingsout there, we still want to make
sure that and I'm sure you'lldo this I'm sure your video
content will be spot on, becauseI think you already understand
this that the content thatyou're putting out there as a
marketing tool, it needs to be areflection of who you are,
needs to be a reflection of whoyou are, your brand, your
business, but also yourcredibility.
Philip Blackett (07:29):
Right, no, it makes perfect sense.
It's like if your video iscrappy, that's going to share a
certain type of message to thepeople that say I don't know if
I should watch this, because ifthis is the video, I don't know
how the audio is when I actuallytake a listen to it.
But, to your point, audio isdefinitely king on this one.
That's primarily what theywanted to see.
You know, imagine if you justsaw a video of a person and no
audio is coming out, just weird,you know.
So it's more so about whatyou're saying.
(07:50):
But yeah, to your point, youknow, you want to be careful,
you want to be professional, youwant to be considerate the type
of videos and reels that you'reusing to promote your show,
because if they're not effectivein promoting your show, then
it's not going to be effectivein getting listeners to your
show.
Carl Richards (08:06):
And let's face it , even though we say we don't
judge, we say, well, I'm not ajudgy person, yeah, we are.
We're always looking at a video.
There are people judging thisepisode right now.
Philip Blackett (08:15):
Philip, you're phenomenal.
Carl Richards (08:16):
They're probably judging mostly me and saying, oh
, what a crackpot he is.
Philip Blackett (08:19):
Well, that's part of the reason why I'm glad
this is an audio podcast, right?
Because if they took a look atme, they might switch the
channel.
Carl Richards (08:27):
No, it's me.
They always switch the channelfrom no it's you, no it's me.
But no, it's so true that it'sputting out the best version of
yourself and I attune it to.
I'll take it back a step andthen I do want to go into this
deeper dive into AI.
I attune it to speaking on astage as well, but I also tune
it to business in general.
You wouldn't take your car to anauto mechanic who would say you
know what?
I'm just going to put on threetires instead of four when I
(08:49):
change your tires over fromspring to winter.
I live in Canada, where we getwinter.
You, I'm assuming, get winterin Boston, right?
Same kind of thing Change yoursummer tires over to winter
tires.
I'm just going to put on threeinstead.
That's good enough.
Right?
There's this good enoughmentality.
That I don't think is.
I'm hoping it doesn't last thatlong, because good enough.
(09:10):
In a lot of business examples,when you go to the doctor, you
go to a surgeon who's going toperform a surgery on you.
You don't want your physicianor your surgeon to say well,
that operation is good enough.
I may have left a tool or twoinside, but that's okay, it's
all good.
No, we really have to emphasizethat in business, especially
when you're paying for a servicethat good enough isn't good
(09:31):
enough.
So why would you want goodenough to only be going out
there as far as your marketingand promotion for your business?
Philip Blackett (09:39):
Yeah, I mean only unless good enough is
better than nothing at all.
Carl Richards (09:43):
I'm going to challenge you on that at some
point, maybe not now, maybe onthis show, maybe at another
forum.
We're going to put the gloveson, but I will agree that
getting something out there toat least take the first step,
I'll agree with you there.
Fine, I'll retract that.
Philip Blackett (09:58):
We all have to start somewhere, Carl.
Carl Richards (10:01):
Yeah, there we go .
Thank you for keeping me inline Somewhere, carl.
Yeah, there we go.
Thank you for keeping me inline.
I appreciate that.
All right, let's talk about AI,because it is such a hot button
topic.
It's one that I think a lot ofpeople are afraid of.
What's your take in general andthen we'll break it down into
the podcasting space but what'syour feeling or what's your take
in general on this, the wholeAI?
Philip Blackett (10:29):
Can we call it a movement?
Can we call it a movement or isit something else?
Even I think when you live longenough, carl, you start to see
how history repeats itself andit gets to a point where
nothing's new under the sun, soto speak.
So I would ask you, hey, carl,do you remember the time when
you were raised and your parentswould tell you never to get in
the car with strangers?
Yes, I do, by all means neverget in the car with someone you
don't know Yet.
And still we now have rideshare apps that people get into
(10:53):
cars and trucks with people theynever heard of before, never
met, to take them todestinations that is public
knowledge to that driver.
It went through a stage wherepeople freaked out, early
adopters got to it and at somepoint it crossed the chasm where
it became more mainstream andpeople were like oh, yeah, yeah,
(11:14):
uber became a verb, lyft becamea verb right, more so than taxi
, right.
It's just like now.
People are accustomed to it,and you can make that same
argument for when the smartphonecame out, when social media
premiered, when the firstautomobile came out Any new
technology or innovation that'sgoing to be widespread,
(11:36):
mainstream.
A lot of people are going to beskeptical about it.
A lot of people can be fearfulof it because they don't truly
understand it, and I thinkthat's the same parallel we have
here with artificialintelligence.
It's something that's new.
Everyone's talking about it.
You only got a limitedunderstanding of what it is.
However, I would venture to sayAI is here to stay, and, more
(11:59):
than anything else, you eitherare going to learn how to drive
that car or get from point A topoint B a lot slower on a horse
and carriage, and so I thinkthat that's part of the thing is
, we have to take on that samesort of mentality as before of
curiosity, being proactive,taking the initiative to learn
(12:19):
what you can and then figure outhow we can adopt it in what
we're currently doing, I thinkthe other fear, or the other
piece of this is also the factthat currently there's not a lot
of, shall we say, regulationaround it, Just like when the
internet came out, you know,when the World Wide Web, the
information superhighway it wasbeing billed as back in the 90s,
(12:42):
when it came into being, therewere no rules, there was no
regulation.
Carl Richards (12:48):
And now, of course, there is a certain
amount of regulation, there is acertain amount of control, and
it's not Big Brother controllingit so that you can be
controlled.
It's putting safeguards inplace to protect children, to
protect vulnerable sectors, toprotect what needs to be
protected.
Basically and I see that thesame with AI that yes, there's a
(13:09):
lot of trepidation and thereare a lot of things that people
are saying about it.
We're seeing examples where, byway of example that you can put
into AI, create a comedymonologue of Carol Burnett, for
example.
Well, we know, well I do.
I can tell from listening to it,because it's not quite perfect,
(13:30):
it's getting good, but I cantell it's not Carol Burnett.
And who's to say that CarolBurnett, who's still alive God
love her at the recording ofthis episode, who's to say that
she's going to allow that tohappen right.
So there's still a lot ofunknowns, there's still a lot of
things that haven't come.
We haven't figured out how tonot control it, but we haven't
figured out what we're going toallow AI or how we're going to
(13:50):
allow AI to coexist with us Notus with it, but it with us, if
that makes any sense.
Philip Blackett (13:57):
Yeah, no, it makes perfect sense.
We're going to have a worldwhere it's humans and pets, and
soon it'll be humans, pets and.
Carl Richards (14:06):
AI Almost like the Jetsons, basically.
Philip Blackett (14:09):
Yeah, absolutely.
Carl Richards (14:11):
How do you see it playing a role in, for example,
in the podcasting space?
How do you see it making itsomething that podcasters will
embrace?
Philip Blackett (14:21):
Yeah.
So you have to look at it likea spectrum, Carl, where it's
just like you could have minimalinvolvement with AI with your
podcast and you could have itall the way on the opposite end
of the spectrum, where it's fullinvolved, right.
So everything from like theminimum being like okay, I
record a audio podcast and therein that podcast I have a number
(14:44):
of ums, you know, like likefiller words, right, and I want
this to be a little moreprofessional, so you can use a
tool that looks for those typeof filler words or those gaps,
right, and they'll just go aheadand just take those out.
So it sounds like oh, wow, likePhilip actually knows what he's
talking about.
You know he's talking about.
He's straight to the point, hetells you what it is and that's
(15:06):
that.
Oh, I like that, I can listento that.
That's on one end.
But now, as you move a littlebit towards the right side of
things, now you have thingswhere it's making the whole
process of making a podcast andproducing one much easier than
it was for me 10 years ago.
You know it's to the point nowthat I've seen tools that you
(15:28):
can put a podcast, that just araw footage, video into a tool
and in a matter of a minute orso it'll come up with a
transcript.
Now think about it If you did anhour-long podcast, how long
would it take you or somebody onyour team to come up with a
transcript of an hour-longconversation?
Now you're getting that done inlike a minute.
(15:50):
That same tool I've seen youcan come up with table of
contents.
So if you put it on YouTube now, you already know what
timestamps you can use tosegment that particular section,
Like it already does.
That Another part of it wouldbe now I could actually grab
certain snippets of the videopodcast, for example and come up
(16:11):
with those clips for YouTubeand Reels and Instagram and that
sort, Take all that and go tothe very far end of the spectrum
now.
Now we got into the point, Carl, where it's a question that I
like to joke with people and askhow do you know you're really
talking to the real Philip rightnow?
Carl Richards (16:28):
I don't know if I'm talking to the real Philip
right now.
I'm hoping I'm talking to thereal Philip right now, but I
don't know I could be talking tofor lack of a better word a
clone.
Philip Blackett (16:48):
I could be talking to AI.
You could be talking to AI,philip, and here's the far end
of the spectrum.
I've now seen tools where theycan have Carl and Philip talking
to one another, and Carl andPhilip are not in the room.
Their voices have been clonedand it's been programmed that
they can do a full length, 30minute audio podcast, and Carl
and Philip were never on therecording the actual, real ones
and you can even do it on videoto a certain degree too.
So now it could be the sensethat somebody can do a full
podcast episode without evenphysically being involved.
(17:11):
So I think what's going onthere is the sense that if you,
like you said before Carl if youare thinking about doing a
podcast, ai has made it so thata lot of the barrier to entry
has gone away.
If you're willing to invest inyourself here and at the same
time, makes it a lot easier,that, yeah, I would say now is
(17:32):
the best time to do a podcast,because it's so much easier,
depending on how involved youwant AI to be.
Carl Richards (17:39):
I think there's a fear associated with AI because
of the prospect of jobelimination.
If I start using AI, I'm goingto eventually AI myself out of a
job, even in the podcastingspace.
I mean, we run a full-serviceproduction agency.
We use existing AI tools, weuse transcription services.
(17:59):
We use other tools as well.
I'm going to gaze into mycrystal ball and say that, as
good as AI will get, I stillthink it'll still need a human
to check it.
It'll still need a human tomake sure that.
Yes, that's the version of me.
I want to put out there yourthoughts on that.
Philip Blackett (18:15):
Yeah, you're right, because here's the thing.
What I talked to businessowners before is we've now
gotten to the point, carl, wherea small business doesn't have
to have a marketing team of nineanymore because of AI.
When you talk about jobelimination, that's sort of like
creative destruction.
We are in a great era of thatcoming up for sure, because if I
(18:37):
can do just as muchproductivity with two people as
opposed to nine, if I'm abusiness owner, I'm going to do
it.
That makes sense, becausehere's the thing about AI.
Ai doesn't take days off.
Ai doesn't get sick.
Ai doesn't say, hey, I'm goingon leave for a month, four
months.
Ai doesn't wake up in themiddle of the night and say, hey
(18:58):
, I really don't feel like goingto work right now.
Is there any way I could dosomething different?
Or halfway my way through workat 50% effort.
So what essentially happens,carl, is you have these tools
that are at your beck and callat any point in time on demand.
That can do a lot of what yourteam was doing in a nine person
(19:19):
team, but do it just as good, ifnot better, with less time
committed, where now it becomestwo-person team, primarily for
your point.
Yeah, it won't take everyone'sjob.
The person that knows how tomanage the AI, that knows how to
follow up on it, check and makesure, like hey, there's about
80% there.
Okay, let me just add asentence here.
(19:40):
Take a word out, put some moreof the personality in there, put
the trademark and the brandingstatement on there.
Okay, let me just, you know,add a sentence here.
Take a word out, put some moreof the personality in there, put
the trademark and the brandingstatement on there.
Okay, good to go.
Took you probably like 10minutes to do.
Yeah, that person's going to beneeded what I call, like, the
chief marketing human right, thechief operating human, the
chief podcast human right, butessentially what goes on their
crawl is, yeah, it's going totake a lot of the productivity
(20:04):
to a whole nother level.
We don't need as many peopleand all you need is just that
one or two people that canmanage it and that can come with
those high level thinking andtasks that involve critical
thinking.
You know emotional intelligence, if you want to call it that,
as far as interacting withpeople.
But yeah, you just don't needas many people to do the same
job, if not better now.
Carl Richards (20:26):
So I guess my question then is how can people
who are and this is maybe aboveand beyond the podcasting space,
but maybe in other sectors buthow can, let's say, normal
people, how can they use AI to,let's say, future-proof their
jobs or their careers?
What are some steps that theycan take to do that?
Philip Blackett (20:45):
Yeah.
So I think the first thing,carl, is we have to get our
mindset right.
Carl Richards (20:51):
I like that.
Philip Blackett (20:52):
If we don't have the right approach to it,
it's not gonna work for us,right?
If you don't know how to use acar, when you get behind the
wheel, you'll crash it everytime, right?
That's true.
So think about AI as, like thatnice 69 Corvette out in the
driveway, pristine, hey, youwant to make sure you know how
to drive that thing and keep itin good condition before you
(21:15):
drive off the driveway.
Now I think it's somethingsimilar here with AI.
This is like a Ferrari in yourgarage, but make sure you know
how to use it.
So the first thing is understandthat AI is actually an
opportunity to serve you, tohelp you become more productive
in your job, help you to be moreefficient, more effective in
your job and career.
(21:35):
However, the challenge is areyou going to actually learn it?
How are you going to approachit?
Because you know, I remember aquote that the CEO of NVIDIA
once said, and he said that it'snot AI that's going to take
your job, philip, it's theperson that knows AI is going to
take your job.
So we don't have to worry abouta takeover of the robots.
(21:56):
It's, more so, a takeover ofthe people that take the time to
learn how to use AI, and thenthey start using AI, right.
So the question then becomesare you going to be one of those
people, or are you going to beone of those ones that say, hey,
I wish I these physical things.
Carl Richards (22:11):
back then, computers were individuals who
(22:31):
could crank out the formulas andwhatever numbers needed to be
used in this case at NASA, inorder to come up with the
formulas to launch the rocketinto space.
Great movie, by the way.
If you haven't seen it,definitely watch it.
Well, a computer now is thisbox that basically fits in our
pocket.
Now it doesn't even sit on ourdesk much anymore, like it used
(22:53):
to, but that's the evolution.
So computers aren't thesepeople anymore, they are devices
.
That's not to say thatcomputers still aren't created
or managed or repaired orwhatever by people.
Yep, Because they are.
They have to be right, theyhave to be maintained by
(23:14):
individuals.
Every now and again, yourcomputer's on the fritz.
Where do you take it?
You take it to somebody thatknows how to fix it right.
So it's the people who know howto work with or program or fix,
repair, manage that become veryactive parts.
Same as transcription repair,manage that become very active
parts, Same as transcription,Transcription for a podcast.
(23:38):
Can you imagine going back 20years or 30 years when a
transcriber literally wouldlisten word for word to a
recording?
Stop the recording, write stuffdown.
Stop the recording, write stuffdown.
And did that, that ominous taskwhich now, as you said, takes
seconds to do.
What it spits out isn't 100%.
It might be 92% or even 95%,but it still needs a human to
scan over it and make sure that,for example, Philip's name is
(24:01):
spelled correctly or his titleis spelled correctly.
So it's still a very importantplace for us to be.
It's just evolved it's theworld we live in now An
evolution, so to speak.
So it's about learning how tolive harmoniously, then, I guess
, is maybe a good way to put itLive harmoniously with it,
(24:21):
because, to your point earlier,AI isn't going anywhere.
It's not going away, it's onlygoing to get bigger than it is
today.
Philip Blackett (24:35):
It's almost silly to ask that question now,
because it's like you do realizethat artificial intelligence
how it is today, it essentiallyis getting better by the day.
It takes us one year to be from39 years old to 40.
Like I can't rush that, ittakes one year, but yet we have
AI tools that can go fromversion 2.0 to version 4.0 in a
matter of months, if not weeks,and so, essentially, what the
(24:56):
question is is why would you nottry to learn this?
Because this is a technologythat's getting better, quicker
than we can as humans, and soit's almost like a
non-negotiable now right?
Because essentially, what'sgoing on is that by the time you
learn about certain tools thistime next month, there may be a
whole other iteration of them.
(25:16):
That if you're not at leasttrying to stay abreast about
what's going on, you can veryquickly get overwhelmed if you
ignore this for six to 12 months, you know, and so I think the
big part of it is, you know, onemaking a commitment to learn
what this is.
Take it step by step, piece bypiece, and really focus on,
(25:37):
first and foremost, what are thejob duties in your job
description per se that you knowfor sure.
You have to do.
No one else can do it.
No one can do it as good as you.
That's your sphere of genius.
Now, I would imagine 100% ofyour job duties and tasks aren't
all in your sphere of genius.
(25:58):
There's probably some things inthere that you recognize.
I wouldn't mind if an interncould do this.
There's probably somebody thatif they did it 80% as well, I'd
be fine with it and it wouldfree me up to do more of what I
know I do best.
Right, those type of tasks arethe ones I would say, which are
those tasks or something thatyou'd be open to delegating, not
(26:18):
to another person, but todelegate to AI.
And at that point it's takingthe time to figure out what
those tasks are and to seewhat's available that can do the
type of job that you usually doon these tasks, and then just
experiment, see which ones work,which ones don't.
It's a trial and error process.
(26:39):
Just understand.
It is what it is.
It's like dating right, youmight have to kiss a number of
frogs before you find yourprince or princess.
I get it, just commit to it.
It is what it is, butnonetheless, if you do that,
you're going to be in a muchbetter place because you're at
least putting yourself out there, you're learning, you're
figuring out what things workfor you, you're growing in the
process, you're keeping up todate with things.
(27:00):
Now you can start to be seen assomebody that is more of a
thought leader locally becauseyou're taking the time to learn
this stuff.
So people are saying, hey, carl, what's that tool that you use
to do X, y, z?
Can you show me how to do that?
Well, hey, carl, can youactually train the whole team on
how we do this?
And while you're training them,after the training, you're not
(27:21):
only just staying and resting onyour laurels, you know, because
I believe that in the land ofthe blind, the one eyed man is
king.
You're trying to stay a stepahead.
If you want to future-proofyour job and career, you want to
be able to try to stay one stepahead of your organization so
that you're always a resourcefor them.
You're always going to besomeone of value to them and
(27:42):
you're always increasing yourskill set and your knowledge
base.
That even God forbid.
If something happens and theyhave to make a tough decision
and let you go, they're going tobe kicking themselves because
they know you have a skill setthat is highly valuable, highly
transferable, that theircompetition would be dying to
get a hold of if you had theopportunity to be with them.
Carl Richards (28:06):
Wow, phillip, this has been a phenomenal
conversation.
I think what I'm going to do isI'm going to leave it there,
because I think that there's somany ways we can take this, but
I'm going to leave it there.
Before I turn you loose, though, the best way for people to get
ahold of you and find out moreabout what you do where can
people go?
Philip Blackett (28:23):
Yeah, so I've actually authored and published
a couple of books on artificialintelligence one that's focused
on employees and other focusedon entrepreneurs and business
owners.
Both of those are available onAmazon to check out, if you like
.
Just go on Amazon.
Look up my name Philip Blackett.
P-h-i-l-l-i-p-b-l-a-c-k-e-t-t.
You can also go to my website,philipblackettcom, or connect
(28:45):
with me on social media.
I'm on Facebook, linkedin,instagram, twitter, youtube and
TikTok.
Just look up my name, philipBlackett.
Carl Richards (28:55):
Happy to have a conversation with you and we'll
make sure we put all of Philip'slinks in the chat.
Philip, this has been aphenomenal conversation.
I like that.
You've actually put my mind atease a little bit.
Not that I was too trepidatiousabout AI, because it's
something that we use all thetime, but it is evolving so
quickly that sometimes it's hardto keep up.
And when that evolution happensso quickly, sometimes it's very
(29:15):
easy to get bogged down by ohmy goodness, it's taking my job.
So thank you for putting mymind at ease and sharing with
everyone that's listening.
If this has been of interest toyou, definitely check out the
resources that Philip mentioned.
You definitely check out theresources that Philip mentioned.
Before I turn you loose Philipto when everyone else is mind at
ease on the next show about AI,I'll give you the final thought
.
Philip Blackett (29:35):
Yeah, I think the big thing, carl, I would
share with everyone listening isthis we covered a lot of great
topics here, and some topicsthat you know are absolutely
mind-blowing and some that yousay, okay, I can work with this.
So what I would venture to sayis what's one takeaway or one
lesson learned that you can takefrom this episode and apply it
(29:58):
today?
Don't let this be an episodethat you listen to and you put
it on the shelf and you move onand forget about what we just
talked about.
This stuff is here to help you,but I can't force you to apply
it in your lives, right?
So my call to action for you iscome up with at least one thing
that we talked about and sayyou know what?
(30:18):
Today is a day I'm going toapply this.
Whether it's to learn moreabout artificial intelligence,
or to consider creating apodcast or getting a book to
learn more, I'm going to dosomething that's going to move
my life forward in a betterdirection than how it started as
a result of listening to Carl'sshow today.
Carl Richards (30:36):
Who has been joined by Philip Blackett, and I
think that's a great place toleave it.
Philip, thank you so much forbeing my guest today.
Philip Blackett (30:42):
My pleasure.
I enjoyed it, happy to havethis conversation and would love
to do it again.
Thanks so much.
Carl Richards (30:48):
And thank you for joining us today.
Special thanks to our producerand production lead, om Coriglio
, our music guru, nathan Simon,and the person who works the
arms all of our arms, actuallymy trusty assistant, stephanie
Gafor.
If you like what you heardtoday, leave us a comment and a
review, and be sure to share itwith your friends.
If you don't like what youheard, please share it with your
(31:08):
enemies.
Oh, and if you have asuggestion of someone who you
think would make an amazingguest on the show, let us know
about it.
Drop us an email, ask Carl atcarlspeaksca.
Don't forget to follow us onLinkedIn and Twitter as well.
You'll find all those links inthe show notes, and if you're
ready to take the plunge andjoin the over 3 million people
who have said yes to podcasting,let's have a conversation.
(31:31):
We'll show you the simplest wayto get into the podcasting
space, because, after all, we'repodcast.
Solutions made simple.
We'll catch you next time.
Welcome to Communication Connection
Community, the podcaster'spodcast.
This podcast takes a deep diveinto modern day communication
strategies in the podcastingspace.
We chat with interesting peoplewho make the podcasting and
speaking spaces exciting andvibrant.
We also dive into thepodcasting community with news
(00:24):
updates, latest trends andtopics from this ever-evolving
space.
So strap in, it's going to beone amazing ride.
Let's dive into today's episodeand our guest today is Philip
Blackett.
He's an author, consultant andentrepreneur who previously has
worked with FedEx, goldman Sachs, bank of America and
(00:46):
Chick-fil-A.
He got his Master's of Divinitydegree from the Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary,his MBA from Harvard Business
School and his bachelor's degreemajoring in political science
and economics from theUniversity of Northern Carolina
at Chapel Hill.
Philip has previously beenfeatured in Business Insider,
entrepreneur Magazine, forbesand LinkedIn, as well as a
(01:09):
number of podcasts.
He's a podcaster.
We are so thrilled he's heretoday.
Philip, welcome to the podcast.
Philip Blackett (01:15):
Thanks so much, carl.
Happy to be here with you.
Carl Richards (01:18):
There are so many things, my friend, I know we
are going to cover, because it'snice talking to a fellow
podcaster, because we can divedeep and also dispel myths and
rumors and things like thatabout you know what's what's
going on in the podcasting space.
I like the fact that you nowyou have not one, but soon to
have two po dcasts, correct
Philip Blackett (01:38):
Y eah, soon to be two, and I've actually done
some podcast shows in the pasttoo, so I think the first
podcast show I've done itprobably takes me back closer to
2013.
Carl Richards (01:51):
Okay, so not a veteran, not an early adopter
when there was two listeners andone podcast, but a few years
after that.
But thinking back to 2013,though, that was an interesting
time for podcasting, becausethere was still only what, maybe
half a million shows, orsomething like that then, yeah,
I think we were still trying tofigure out what this was all
about.
And the journey has since beenphenomenal for you.
(02:13):
You're embarking on the secondshow.
How does it feel soon to behaving two shows?
Philip Blackett (02:18):
Well, I'll tell you this it was something I
wasn't anticipating, especiallynot as soon as I was thinking it
was to be the case, but Ibelieve the reason why I'm
actually jumping back into thepool of hosting another podcast
show is because of what we'll betalking about soon, which is AI
, ai.
Carl Richards (02:38):
AIO.
It's a hot button topic rightnow.
It's one that I I think we'regoing to embrace.
Before we embrace that, though,we were just chatting.
This is why I wish thatsometimes the things that
happened before the show maybe Ishould start hitting record
right away, because thosesometimes are the best moments.
(02:59):
But we were talking about audioversus video and, coming from
an audio background, having 25years in radio broadcasting and
starting an audio only podcastback in 2019.
I was a little late to theparty, so to speak.
Yeah, not as late as peoplestarting today.
There's never a bad time tostart a podcast, by the way, and
the best time is now if youhaven't started one yet.
(03:19):
Anyways, there's my PSA forthat.
But starting an audio onlypodcast and then helping people
in the podcasting space, Irecognize that there's certainly
some validity to having a videoshow, but you were just saying
that you know, with all thetools that are out there now,
that it seems to make sense toyou to be jumping into the video
space.
Philip Blackett (03:39):
Yeah, I think the biggest thing, as you were
talking about this, carl, is thereason why, even with my new
show coming up, the reason why Iwould do a video version of it
is simply to get 30 to 60 secondreels out of it to promote the
show, because honestly, I don'tthink it's a very interesting
video to watch me just me and amicrophone talk to you.
(04:02):
That's kind of why when youwatch the news or if you still
do, you don't just see theanchors for a whole hour.
You're seeing like them showingB-roll, playing other videos,
doing a green screen with theweather forecast, aerial footage
, video of the traffic.
People are going to get boredreally quickly and they just see
(04:22):
two talking heads behind amicrophone.
It's just hard to watch becauseotherwise you're thinking to
yourself and I know I do do Ireally need to sit here and
watch this?
Can I take in the same amountof content on an audio version
and do something more productive, like taking a walk, doing
laundry, preparing food fordinner and that sort of thing?
(04:42):
So I think that's the kind ofangle I will look at it.
Like audio, it makes perfectsense.
That's really your content,unless you're having like video
footage and content to share.
That's outside of you talkingin a microphone.
But, yeah, the only otherreason I would think to think
about a video podcast if youdon't have those B-rolls and all
those other things that keep itinteresting and non-boring.
(05:04):
This is primarily a marketingplay to promote your podcast in
this form of getting 30-secondto 60-second video reels that
you can put out on social mediaand further get more listeners
to your podcast.
Carl Richards (05:18):
And, let's face it, without audio there is no
video audio, there is no videoright Without audio.
And I'll even go so far as tosay without good quality audio
there is no video right, BecauseI still think the most
important piece is the audio.
But to your point, I thinkyou're correct in saying that
there's an uptick in thispopularity with reels, and not
(05:40):
only on YouTube, which, at theend of the day is let's face it,
it's a behemoth of a directoryof files.
That's all YouTube is, and whenI say that to people they go
yeah, but I'm like no, let'sboil it down to what it is.
Youtube happened to be to theparty first.
That's how they got to be asbig as they are.
They're part of Google.
Google is big, YouTube's big,and it keeps getting bigger.
(06:01):
But there are other videoplatforms out there People
haven't even heard of that do asmany amazing things as YouTube
does, Maybe even more amazing.
They're just not thatwell-known, Right?
And don't ask me to quote whatthey are, because I can't even
remember what some of them are,but there are some of them, yeah
exactly Exactly, but when yousay YouTube, it's like Google.
(06:22):
Google has become not just acompany, google has become it's
a noun, it's a verb.
I'm going to Google that, right.
Youtube has become the samething.
I'm going to YouTube how tobake a cake.
I'm going to YouTube that it'sa verb, right, but at the end of
the day, it is a behemoth of adirectory.
What's interesting, though, isthe quantity versus the quality
(06:44):
of these video shorts and reelsthat are out there and you've
seen them, philip, I'm sure theones where the host is looking
down on the guests, like they'reshining down from above, or
they're looking up their littletiny bottom of the screen their
screen or the captions are goingtoo fast, or the captions are
covering their faces.
That's again.
(07:05):
Hopefully it's good audio,because the video certainly
isn't that great.
So when we're putting thingsout there, we still want to make
sure that and I'm sure you'lldo this I'm sure your video
content will be spot on, becauseI think you already understand
this that the content thatyou're putting out there as a
marketing tool, it needs to be areflection of who you are,
needs to be a reflection of whoyou are, your brand, your
business, but also yourcredibility.
Philip Blackett (07:29):
Right, no, it makes perfect sense.
It's like if your video iscrappy, that's going to share a
certain type of message to thepeople that say I don't know if
I should watch this, because ifthis is the video, I don't know
how the audio is when I actuallytake a listen to it.
But, to your point, audio isdefinitely king on this one.
That's primarily what theywanted to see.
You know, imagine if you justsaw a video of a person and no
audio is coming out, just weird,you know.
So it's more so about whatyou're saying.
(07:50):
But yeah, to your point, youknow, you want to be careful,
you want to be professional, youwant to be considerate the type
of videos and reels that you'reusing to promote your show,
because if they're not effectivein promoting your show, then
it's not going to be effectivein getting listeners to your
show.
Carl Richards (08:06):
And let's face it , even though we say we don't
judge, we say, well, I'm not ajudgy person, yeah, we are.
We're always looking at a video.
There are people judging thisepisode right now.
Philip Blackett (08:15):
Philip, you're phenomenal.
Carl Richards (08:16):
They're probably judging mostly me and saying, oh
, what a crackpot he is.
Philip Blackett (08:19):
Well, that's part of the reason why I'm glad
this is an audio podcast, right?
Because if they took a look atme, they might switch the
channel.
Carl Richards (08:27):
No, it's me.
They always switch the channelfrom no it's you, no it's me.
But no, it's so true that it'sputting out the best version of
yourself and I attune it to.
I'll take it back a step andthen I do want to go into this
deeper dive into AI.
I attune it to speaking on astage as well, but I also tune
it to business in general.
You wouldn't take your car to anauto mechanic who would say you
know what?
I'm just going to put on threetires instead of four when I
(08:49):
change your tires over fromspring to winter.
I live in Canada, where we getwinter.
You, I'm assuming, get winterin Boston, right?
Same kind of thing Change yoursummer tires over to winter
tires.
I'm just going to put on threeinstead.
That's good enough.
Right?
There's this good enoughmentality.
That I don't think is.
I'm hoping it doesn't last thatlong, because good enough.
(09:10):
In a lot of business examples,when you go to the doctor, you
go to a surgeon who's going toperform a surgery on you.
You don't want your physicianor your surgeon to say well,
that operation is good enough.
I may have left a tool or twoinside, but that's okay, it's
all good.
No, we really have to emphasizethat in business, especially
when you're paying for a servicethat good enough isn't good
(09:31):
enough.
So why would you want goodenough to only be going out
there as far as your marketingand promotion for your business?
Philip Blackett (09:39):
Yeah, I mean only unless good enough is
better than nothing at all.
Carl Richards (09:43):
I'm going to challenge you on that at some
point, maybe not now, maybe onthis show, maybe at another
forum.
We're going to put the gloveson, but I will agree that
getting something out there toat least take the first step,
I'll agree with you there.
Fine, I'll retract that.
Philip Blackett (09:58):
We all have to start somewhere, Carl.
Carl Richards (10:01):
Yeah, there we go .
Thank you for keeping me inline Somewhere, carl.
Yeah, there we go.
Thank you for keeping me inline.
I appreciate that.
All right, let's talk about AI,because it is such a hot button
topic.
It's one that I think a lot ofpeople are afraid of.
What's your take in general andthen we'll break it down into
the podcasting space but what'syour feeling or what's your take
in general on this, the wholeAI?
Philip Blackett (10:29):
Can we call it a movement?
Can we call it a movement or isit something else?
Even I think when you live longenough, carl, you start to see
how history repeats itself andit gets to a point where
nothing's new under the sun, soto speak.
So I would ask you, hey, carl,do you remember the time when
you were raised and your parentswould tell you never to get in
the car with strangers?
Yes, I do, by all means neverget in the car with someone you
don't know Yet.
And still we now have rideshare apps that people get into
(10:53):
cars and trucks with people theynever heard of before, never
met, to take them todestinations that is public
knowledge to that driver.
It went through a stage wherepeople freaked out, early
adopters got to it and at somepoint it crossed the chasm where
it became more mainstream andpeople were like oh, yeah, yeah,
(11:14):
uber became a verb, lyft becamea verb right, more so than taxi
, right.
It's just like now.
People are accustomed to it,and you can make that same
argument for when the smartphonecame out, when social media
premiered, when the firstautomobile came out Any new
technology or innovation that'sgoing to be widespread,
(11:36):
mainstream.
A lot of people are going to beskeptical about it.
A lot of people can be fearfulof it because they don't truly
understand it, and I thinkthat's the same parallel we have
here with artificialintelligence.
It's something that's new.
Everyone's talking about it.
You only got a limitedunderstanding of what it is.
However, I would venture to sayAI is here to stay, and, more
(11:59):
than anything else, you eitherare going to learn how to drive
that car or get from point A topoint B a lot slower on a horse
and carriage, and so I thinkthat that's part of the thing is
, we have to take on that samesort of mentality as before of
curiosity, being proactive,taking the initiative to learn
(12:19):
what you can and then figure outhow we can adopt it in what
we're currently doing, I thinkthe other fear, or the other
piece of this is also the factthat currently there's not a lot
of, shall we say, regulationaround it, Just like when the
internet came out, you know,when the World Wide Web, the
information superhighway it wasbeing billed as back in the 90s,
(12:42):
when it came into being, therewere no rules, there was no
regulation.
Carl Richards (12:48):
And now, of course, there is a certain
amount of regulation, there is acertain amount of control, and
it's not Big Brother controllingit so that you can be
controlled.
It's putting safeguards inplace to protect children, to
protect vulnerable sectors, toprotect what needs to be
protected.
Basically and I see that thesame with AI that yes, there's a
(13:09):
lot of trepidation and thereare a lot of things that people
are saying about it.
We're seeing examples where, byway of example that you can put
into AI, create a comedymonologue of Carol Burnett, for
example.
Well, we know, well I do.
I can tell from listening to it,because it's not quite perfect,
(13:30):
it's getting good, but I cantell it's not Carol Burnett.
And who's to say that CarolBurnett, who's still alive God
love her at the recording ofthis episode, who's to say that
she's going to allow that tohappen right.
So there's still a lot ofunknowns, there's still a lot of
things that haven't come.
We haven't figured out how tonot control it, but we haven't
figured out what we're going toallow AI or how we're going to
(13:50):
allow AI to coexist with us Notus with it, but it with us, if
that makes any sense.
Philip Blackett (13:57):
Yeah, no, it makes perfect sense.
We're going to have a worldwhere it's humans and pets, and
soon it'll be humans, pets and.
Carl Richards (14:06):
AI Almost like the Jetsons, basically.
Philip Blackett (14:09):
Yeah, absolutely.
Carl Richards (14:11):
How do you see it playing a role in, for example,
in the podcasting space?
How do you see it making itsomething that podcasters will
embrace?
Philip Blackett (14:21):
Yeah.
So you have to look at it likea spectrum, Carl, where it's
just like you could have minimalinvolvement with AI with your
podcast and you could have itall the way on the opposite end
of the spectrum, where it's fullinvolved, right.
So everything from like theminimum being like okay, I
record a audio podcast and therein that podcast I have a number
(14:44):
of ums, you know, like likefiller words, right, and I want
this to be a little moreprofessional, so you can use a
tool that looks for those typeof filler words or those gaps,
right, and they'll just go aheadand just take those out.
So it sounds like oh, wow, likePhilip actually knows what he's
talking about.
You know he's talking about.
He's straight to the point, hetells you what it is and that's
(15:06):
that.
Oh, I like that, I can listento that.
That's on one end.
But now, as you move a littlebit towards the right side of
things, now you have thingswhere it's making the whole
process of making a podcast andproducing one much easier than
it was for me 10 years ago.
You know it's to the point nowthat I've seen tools that you
(15:28):
can put a podcast, that just araw footage, video into a tool
and in a matter of a minute orso it'll come up with a
transcript.
Now think about it If you did anhour-long podcast, how long
would it take you or somebody onyour team to come up with a
transcript of an hour-longconversation?
Now you're getting that done inlike a minute.
(15:50):
That same tool I've seen youcan come up with table of
contents.
So if you put it on YouTube now, you already know what
timestamps you can use tosegment that particular section,
Like it already does.
That Another part of it wouldbe now I could actually grab
certain snippets of the videopodcast, for example and come up
(16:11):
with those clips for YouTubeand Reels and Instagram and that
sort, Take all that and go tothe very far end of the spectrum
now.
Now we got into the point, Carl, where it's a question that I
like to joke with people and askhow do you know you're really
talking to the real Philip rightnow?
Carl Richards (16:28):
I don't know if I'm talking to the real Philip
right now.
I'm hoping I'm talking to thereal Philip right now, but I
don't know I could be talking tofor lack of a better word a
clone.
Philip Blackett (16:48):
I could be talking to AI.
You could be talking to AI,philip, and here's the far end
of the spectrum.
I've now seen tools where theycan have Carl and Philip talking
to one another, and Carl andPhilip are not in the room.
Their voices have been clonedand it's been programmed that
they can do a full length, 30minute audio podcast, and Carl
and Philip were never on therecording the actual, real ones
and you can even do it on videoto a certain degree too.
So now it could be the sensethat somebody can do a full
podcast episode without evenphysically being involved.
(17:11):
So I think what's going onthere is the sense that if you,
like you said before Carl if youare thinking about doing a
podcast, ai has made it so thata lot of the barrier to entry
has gone away.
If you're willing to invest inyourself here and at the same
time, makes it a lot easier,that, yeah, I would say now is
(17:32):
the best time to do a podcast,because it's so much easier,
depending on how involved youwant AI to be.
Carl Richards (17:39):
I think there's a fear associated with AI because
of the prospect of jobelimination.
If I start using AI, I'm goingto eventually AI myself out of a
job, even in the podcastingspace.
I mean, we run a full-serviceproduction agency.
We use existing AI tools, weuse transcription services.
(17:59):
We use other tools as well.
I'm going to gaze into mycrystal ball and say that, as
good as AI will get, I stillthink it'll still need a human
to check it.
It'll still need a human tomake sure that.
Yes, that's the version of me.
I want to put out there yourthoughts on that.
Philip Blackett (18:15):
Yeah, you're right, because here's the thing.
What I talked to businessowners before is we've now
gotten to the point, carl, wherea small business doesn't have
to have a marketing team of nineanymore because of AI.
When you talk about jobelimination, that's sort of like
creative destruction.
We are in a great era of thatcoming up for sure, because if I
(18:37):
can do just as muchproductivity with two people as
opposed to nine, if I'm abusiness owner, I'm going to do
it.
That makes sense, becausehere's the thing about AI.
Ai doesn't take days off.
Ai doesn't get sick.
Ai doesn't say, hey, I'm goingon leave for a month, four
months.
Ai doesn't wake up in themiddle of the night and say, hey
(18:58):
, I really don't feel like goingto work right now.
Is there any way I could dosomething different?
Or halfway my way through workat 50% effort.
So what essentially happens,carl, is you have these tools
that are at your beck and callat any point in time on demand.
That can do a lot of what yourteam was doing in a nine person
(19:19):
team, but do it just as good, ifnot better, with less time
committed, where now it becomestwo-person team, primarily for
your point.
Yeah, it won't take everyone'sjob.
The person that knows how tomanage the AI, that knows how to
follow up on it, check and makesure, like hey, there's about
80% there.
Okay, let me just add asentence here.
(19:40):
Take a word out, put some moreof the personality in there, put
the trademark and the brandingstatement on there.
Okay, let me just, you know,add a sentence here.
Take a word out, put some moreof the personality in there, put
the trademark and the brandingstatement on there.
Okay, good to go.
Took you probably like 10minutes to do.
Yeah, that person's going to beneeded what I call, like, the
chief marketing human right, thechief operating human, the
chief podcast human right, butessentially what goes on their
crawl is, yeah, it's going totake a lot of the productivity
(20:04):
to a whole nother level.
We don't need as many peopleand all you need is just that
one or two people that canmanage it and that can come with
those high level thinking andtasks that involve critical
thinking.
You know emotional intelligence, if you want to call it that,
as far as interacting withpeople.
But yeah, you just don't needas many people to do the same
job, if not better now.
Carl Richards (20:26):
So I guess my question then is how can people
who are and this is maybe aboveand beyond the podcasting space,
but maybe in other sectors buthow can, let's say, normal
people, how can they use AI to,let's say, future-proof their
jobs or their careers?
What are some steps that theycan take to do that?
Philip Blackett (20:45):
Yeah.
So I think the first thing,carl, is we have to get our
mindset right.
Carl Richards (20:51):
I like that.
Philip Blackett (20:52):
If we don't have the right approach to it,
it's not gonna work for us,right?
If you don't know how to use acar, when you get behind the
wheel, you'll crash it everytime, right?
That's true.
So think about AI as, like thatnice 69 Corvette out in the
driveway, pristine, hey, youwant to make sure you know how
to drive that thing and keep itin good condition before you
(21:15):
drive off the driveway.
Now I think it's somethingsimilar here with AI.
This is like a Ferrari in yourgarage, but make sure you know
how to use it.
So the first thing is understandthat AI is actually an
opportunity to serve you, tohelp you become more productive
in your job, help you to be moreefficient, more effective in
your job and career.
(21:35):
However, the challenge is areyou going to actually learn it?
How are you going to approachit?
Because you know, I remember aquote that the CEO of NVIDIA
once said, and he said that it'snot AI that's going to take
your job, philip, it's theperson that knows AI is going to
take your job.
So we don't have to worry abouta takeover of the robots.
(21:56):
It's, more so, a takeover ofthe people that take the time to
learn how to use AI, and thenthey start using AI, right.
So the question then becomesare you going to be one of those
people, or are you going to beone of those ones that say, hey,
I wish I these physical things.
Carl Richards (22:11):
back then, computers were individuals who
(22:31):
could crank out the formulas andwhatever numbers needed to be
used in this case at NASA, inorder to come up with the
formulas to launch the rocketinto space.
Great movie, by the way.
If you haven't seen it,definitely watch it.
Well, a computer now is thisbox that basically fits in our
pocket.
Now it doesn't even sit on ourdesk much anymore, like it used
(22:53):
to, but that's the evolution.
So computers aren't thesepeople anymore, they are devices
.
That's not to say thatcomputers still aren't created
or managed or repaired orwhatever by people.
Yep, Because they are.
They have to be right, theyhave to be maintained by
(23:14):
individuals.
Every now and again, yourcomputer's on the fritz.
Where do you take it?
You take it to somebody thatknows how to fix it right.
So it's the people who know howto work with or program or fix,
repair, manage that become veryactive parts.
Same as transcription repair,manage that become very active
parts, Same as transcription,Transcription for a podcast.
(23:38):
Can you imagine going back 20years or 30 years when a
transcriber literally wouldlisten word for word to a
recording?
Stop the recording, write stuffdown.
Stop the recording, write stuffdown.
And did that, that ominous taskwhich now, as you said, takes
seconds to do.
What it spits out isn't 100%.
It might be 92% or even 95%,but it still needs a human to
scan over it and make sure that,for example, Philip's name is
(24:01):
spelled correctly or his titleis spelled correctly.
So it's still a very importantplace for us to be.
It's just evolved it's theworld we live in now An
evolution, so to speak.
So it's about learning how tolive harmoniously, then, I guess
, is maybe a good way to put itLive harmoniously with it,
(24:21):
because, to your point earlier,AI isn't going anywhere.
It's not going away, it's onlygoing to get bigger than it is
today.
Philip Blackett (24:35):
It's almost silly to ask that question now,
because it's like you do realizethat artificial intelligence
how it is today, it essentiallyis getting better by the day.
It takes us one year to be from39 years old to 40.
Like I can't rush that, ittakes one year, but yet we have
AI tools that can go fromversion 2.0 to version 4.0 in a
matter of months, if not weeks,and so, essentially, what the
(24:56):
question is is why would you nottry to learn this?
Because this is a technologythat's getting better, quicker
than we can as humans, and soit's almost like a
non-negotiable now right?
Because essentially, what'sgoing on is that by the time you
learn about certain tools thistime next month, there may be a
whole other iteration of them.
(25:16):
That if you're not at leasttrying to stay abreast about
what's going on, you can veryquickly get overwhelmed if you
ignore this for six to 12 months, you know, and so I think the
big part of it is, you know, onemaking a commitment to learn
what this is.
Take it step by step, piece bypiece, and really focus on,
(25:37):
first and foremost, what are thejob duties in your job
description per se that you knowfor sure.
You have to do.
No one else can do it.
No one can do it as good as you.
That's your sphere of genius.
Now, I would imagine 100% ofyour job duties and tasks aren't
all in your sphere of genius.
(25:58):
There's probably some things inthere that you recognize.
I wouldn't mind if an interncould do this.
There's probably somebody thatif they did it 80% as well, I'd
be fine with it and it wouldfree me up to do more of what I
know I do best.
Right, those type of tasks arethe ones I would say, which are
those tasks or something thatyou'd be open to delegating, not
(26:18):
to another person, but todelegate to AI.
And at that point it's takingthe time to figure out what
those tasks are and to seewhat's available that can do the
type of job that you usually doon these tasks, and then just
experiment, see which ones work,which ones don't.
It's a trial and error process.
(26:39):
Just understand.
It is what it is.
It's like dating right, youmight have to kiss a number of
frogs before you find yourprince or princess.
I get it, just commit to it.
It is what it is, butnonetheless, if you do that,
you're going to be in a muchbetter place because you're at
least putting yourself out there, you're learning, you're
figuring out what things workfor you, you're growing in the
process, you're keeping up todate with things.
(27:00):
Now you can start to be seen assomebody that is more of a
thought leader locally becauseyou're taking the time to learn
this stuff.
So people are saying, hey, carl, what's that tool that you use
to do X, y, z?
Can you show me how to do that?
Well, hey, carl, can youactually train the whole team on
how we do this?
And while you're training them,after the training, you're not
(27:21):
only just staying and resting onyour laurels, you know, because
I believe that in the land ofthe blind, the one eyed man is
king.
You're trying to stay a stepahead.
If you want to future-proofyour job and career, you want to
be able to try to stay one stepahead of your organization so
that you're always a resourcefor them.
You're always going to besomeone of value to them and
(27:42):
you're always increasing yourskill set and your knowledge
base.
That even God forbid.
If something happens and theyhave to make a tough decision
and let you go, they're going tobe kicking themselves because
they know you have a skill setthat is highly valuable, highly
transferable, that theircompetition would be dying to
get a hold of if you had theopportunity to be with them.
Carl Richards (28:06):
Wow, phillip, this has been a phenomenal
conversation.
I think what I'm going to do isI'm going to leave it there,
because I think that there's somany ways we can take this, but
I'm going to leave it there.
Before I turn you loose, though, the best way for people to get
ahold of you and find out moreabout what you do where can
people go?
Philip Blackett (28:23):
Yeah, so I've actually authored and published
a couple of books on artificialintelligence one that's focused
on employees and other focusedon entrepreneurs and business
owners.
Both of those are available onAmazon to check out, if you like
.
Just go on Amazon.
Look up my name Philip Blackett.
P-h-i-l-l-i-p-b-l-a-c-k-e-t-t.
You can also go to my website,philipblackettcom, or connect
(28:45):
with me on social media.
I'm on Facebook, linkedin,instagram, twitter, youtube and
TikTok.
Just look up my name, philipBlackett.
Carl Richards (28:55):
Happy to have a conversation with you and we'll
make sure we put all of Philip'slinks in the chat.
Philip, this has been aphenomenal conversation.
I like that.
You've actually put my mind atease a little bit.
Not that I was too trepidatiousabout AI, because it's
something that we use all thetime, but it is evolving so
quickly that sometimes it's hardto keep up.
And when that evolution happensso quickly, sometimes it's very
(29:15):
easy to get bogged down by ohmy goodness, it's taking my job.
So thank you for putting mymind at ease and sharing with
everyone that's listening.
If this has been of interest toyou, definitely check out the
resources that Philip mentioned.
You definitely check out theresources that Philip mentioned.
Before I turn you loose Philipto when everyone else is mind at
ease on the next show about AI,I'll give you the final thought
.
Philip Blackett (29:35):
Yeah, I think the big thing, carl, I would
share with everyone listening isthis we covered a lot of great
topics here, and some topicsthat you know are absolutely
mind-blowing and some that yousay, okay, I can work with this.
So what I would venture to sayis what's one takeaway or one
lesson learned that you can takefrom this episode and apply it
(29:58):
today?
Don't let this be an episodethat you listen to and you put
it on the shelf and you move onand forget about what we just
talked about.
This stuff is here to help you,but I can't force you to apply
it in your lives, right?
So my call to action for you iscome up with at least one thing
that we talked about and sayyou know what?
(30:18):
Today is a day I'm going toapply this.
Whether it's to learn moreabout artificial intelligence,
or to consider creating apodcast or getting a book to
learn more, I'm going to dosomething that's going to move
my life forward in a betterdirection than how it started as
a result of listening to Carl'sshow today.
Carl Richards (30:36):
Who has been joined by Philip Blackett, and I
think that's a great place toleave it.
Philip, thank you so much forbeing my guest today.
Philip Blackett (30:42):
My pleasure.
I enjoyed it, happy to havethis conversation and would love
to do it again.
Thanks so much.
Carl Richards (30:48):
And thank you for joining us today.
Special thanks to our producerand production lead, om Coriglio
, our music guru, nathan Simon,and the person who works the
arms all of our arms, actuallymy trusty assistant, stephanie
Gafor.
If you like what you heardtoday, leave us a comment and a
review, and be sure to share itwith your friends.
If you don't like what youheard, please share it with your
(31:08):
enemies.
Oh, and if you have asuggestion of someone who you
think would make an amazingguest on the show, let us know
about it.
Drop us an email, ask Carl atcarlspeaksca.
Don't forget to follow us onLinkedIn and Twitter as well.
You'll find all those links inthe show notes, and if you're
ready to take the plunge andjoin the over 3 million people
who have said yes to podcasting,let's have a conversation.
(31:31):
We'll show you the simplest wayto get into the podcasting
space, because, after all, we'repodcast.
Solutions made simple.
We'll catch you next time.
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