August 30, 2025 • 47 mins
I sit with Digital marketing expert MJ Finstrom shares practical strategies for enhancing your business's online presence through effective email marketing, social media tactics, and artificial intelligence tools. We dive deep into building meaningful customer relationships in the digital space while maintaining authenticity and the human touch in all your marketing efforts.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Christine Zito (00:05):
Hello and welcome to Arcadia FYI.
I am so happy that you're herewith me.
I just want to say thank youfor being a part of the show.
Thank you for your emails, yourquestions, your suggestions.
I wouldn't be able to do thisif it wasn't for you, the
listeners, especially those ofus here in the city of Arcadia.
(00:25):
And what I like to focus on inthis show is information.
That's why it's called FYIArcadia, for your information,
whether that be events that arecoming up, things that we can
help businesses with, thingsthat we don't even know is going
on in the city of Arcadia.
And I'm so thankful for youguys emailing me and even on
(00:51):
Facebook, you Facebook me aboutthings that I didn't even know
that were going on in the cityof Arcadia, and also things that
we can entertain.
I don't sing, I can try andsing, but maybe that would be
(01:15):
entertaining.
I don't know, but that's whatthis show is all about.
And today I have a I'm going tosay it every show and at the
end of every show you got to goout there and just check out
Longo Toyota.
It's right off the 10 freeway.
Say hi to Mike and Brooke,because they do more than just
sell cars.
Star 7 Financial with FrancineChu, who I think is one of the
(01:37):
best financial advisors in thecity of Arcadia Of course I'm
biased.
The Santa Anita Park I justtalked to Pete the other day and
he's going to be coming in likemid-September, end of September
, to talk about the things thatare going on at the park.
It's going to be very exciting.
The Le Meridien Hotel inArcadia and Pasadena next week I
(02:02):
know she was supposed to be onthis week, but next week Gaby is
going to be on with us andwe're going to take a tour of
that that hotel also.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
All right.
If you are a business owner,okay.
Or you're an in-house marketingprofessional and you're seeking
to enhance your organization'sonline presence, whether it be
(02:26):
through strategies like searchengine optimization, also known
as SEO, developing content youknow good content tailored to
your target audience on yourwebsite.
Implementing effective Nowwe're talking effective email
marketing or utilizing the crazysocial media.
(02:47):
But there's a way to utilizesocial media marketing.
We're going to be talking aboutthat and if you're interested
in that, then, for yourinformation, this podcast will
be highly informational for you.
Joining me in studio is a verygood friend and I'm going to say
this, and if you're watching onYouTube, you already see MJ
(03:07):
Finstrom.
I refer all all did I mentionall all my clients to MJ,
because I just it's, it's hardto find someone with integrity
when it comes to onlinemarketing and MJ is, and you can
.
You can judge for yourself, ofcourse, we don't judge and you
can judge for yourself, ofcourse we don't judge, but you
can judge for yourself.
(03:27):
Observe for yourself theintegrity of MJ Finstrom, the
HUTdogs of , a digital marketingservice provider, along with
your brother, David, and theyspecialize what we're going to
be talking about email marketing, social media marketing,
workshops, coaching.
That's MJ.
Welcome, MJ.
MJ Finstrom (03:45):
Thank you for having me, Christine.
This is going to be fun.
Christine Zito (03:49):
It is going to be a lot of fun.
So I do want to say, before westart, a little background on
myself.
Okay, because people probablyjust think I just host a podcast
show and make millions ofdollars Just kidding because I
don't a podcast show and makemillions of dollars just kidding
because I don't when I'm notdoing Arcadia.
(04:09):
Fyi, I am a website designer.
I build and design websites andI do work off WordPress.
I'm not an evangelist forWordPress, but WordPress gives
me the opportunity to do customwebsites and to be able to
utilize search engineoptimization effectively for the
client.
I could do that with WordPressbecause I can touch the content,
(04:30):
edit the content, optimize thecontent and I also produce award
winning.
And I just say that I want twotellies for online video and for
a television commercial.
And winning a telly is likewinning an Oscar, that's huge
it's amazing it is amazing.
It's.
It's really hard to do and Iwas I, I mean, I I cried when I
(04:50):
got my first one.
It was a television commercialand if you're interested in
doing a podcast and you want torent this studio that mj and I
are in, you can do that.
All you have to do is go topuremediamarketingcom and right
up at the top there it sayspodcast studio and you can rent
$75 an hour.
It's amazing, that's a greatprice.
(05:11):
It's a great price.
And if you and if it's $75 anhour, and if you need help with
that, then we can talk andnegotiate how you can utilize
those services.
All right, so that is what I do, and that's what we're going to
talk about is helpingbusinesses in Arcadia, or
wherever they might be, withtheir online presence.
(05:33):
But first of all, let's get toknow MJ a little bit, and you
know what?
I did forget to start my timer,so I'm going to start it right
now.
Whoops, okay, now I'm totallymessing it up and let's see here
.
This is what we do when we.
Oh, there it goes.
You just heard the beep.
Okay, so, mj, how long have you?
How long have you been inArcadia?
(05:55):
Are you an Arcadian?
Were you born here?
MJ Finstrom (05:57):
No, I was not born here, but I've been here about
25 years and I moved here when Imet my husband and got married
and it was sort of a middleground between where he lived
and where I lived and we endedup in Arcadia.
But I'm born and raised or wasborn in Colorado, grew up there.
Do you do snow ski?
Yes, yeah, not anymore.
(06:17):
That ship has sailed.
My knees are not as not likethey once were, but, yeah, I
grew up on.
Christine Zito (06:23):
I love the slopes oh my gosh, that is so
great.
I okay real fast.
I just have to say I tried snowskiing and I couldn't do it.
I bruised myself so bad I felldown that hill I don't know how
many times.
So I water ski nice, nice, sookay.
So you said you're you'remarried, you're your husband do
pets.
MJ Finstrom (06:42):
Yes, I'm a Gen Z mom of a great kid and I have a
dog, and that's me Okay so yourdaughter, where does she go to
college?
I know, it's really a terribleplace.
Somebody has to do it.
But somebody has to go to theUniversity of Hawaii in Manoa.
Christine Zito (06:58):
I can't believe it, Hawaii you get to go there.
MJ Finstrom (07:00):
Yeah, it's awesome, it's so awesome.
All right, let's talk about hotdogs.
I'm HUTdogs , it's a hut, not ahot.
How did you come up HUTdogs?
Oh, I don't know.
I think a long exhaustive me.
I wish I had a better story forit.
But my brother and I, when wewere developing this business I
think back in 2002, we wantedsomething kind of catchy and
(07:21):
that's a whole thing ofmarketing.
If somebody can remember youand remember your name, that's.
You know you got half thebattle won there.
But, um, we were just in ameeting strategizing.
You had the whiteboard outwriting all kinds of things on
it, and then my husband twohours later is kind of sick of
us.
He walks through the room, justcall it something HUTdogs and
we're like could we?
(07:41):
You know, like you think aboutKinkos?
You know how that name came tobe.
You know that's an interestingstory and and everybody knows
Kinko's.
I still call FedEx Kinko's, youknow.
So yes, I just like a name thatpeople remember.
Although I've been, they beggedon me to it was should say
something that you do in yourname.
But I'm like, no, let's have amemorable name.
Christine Zito (08:02):
So it's been a fun thing well, you know, it's
funny that you bring up nameslike that.
You think of Google.
Yeah, google doesn't havesearch in it.
No, kinko's doesn't haveprinting in it.
Nike doesn't have no shortshirts, shoes, socks, whatever,
but it has a great swish.
It does have a great and justand just do it.
Yeah yeah so, and it is funnywhen people you know when, when,
(08:24):
when I talk with marketing,with people, they always say
what kind of name should I have?
Or or should I match my namewith the url?
And I said you can, that's thebest way to go, right, but
search doesn't find you by yoururl, they find you by your
content, right?
It is most important becausesometimes, uh, you can't, you
(08:45):
can't find the exact match ofyour name with the url because
it's taken, right, you know.
So names are important, butit's in a name, yeah, what's in
a name, but it's, it's.
It is truly the content soabsolutely what is it that you?
what do you do exactly?
MJ Finstrom (09:04):
I.
I know we kind of do about fourthings.
You know, basically we helppeople get a little more
creative and now work smarterwhen they're doing their
marketing.
We come in kind of four flavorswe do it for you, we do it all
for you.
We can handle your social media, your email, help you with,
just you know, old schoolmarketing.
We do a lot of print and a lotof design rooted in graphic
(09:26):
design and then we haveeducational series.
We do a lot of coaching.
I mean we do a lot of workshopsand seminars and people love
those.
We have a good following onthat.
And then I do a lot of coachingand I love those people who
sign up for an hour or two andthey're either a work session
where we're like hammering outan email or a strategy or
(09:47):
something.
But lately, what's been reallysomething I've probably grow
into?
I've been helping people sortof empower their up-and-coming
talent in their world.
Like a small business owner acouple of times have hired me to
work with their youngermarketing teams and staff and
(10:08):
they'll do one on one sessionsand because they don't really
know how to mentor, strategizeand man, I love that work
because I'm a mom of Gen.
Z and I just love.
I love mentoring and it's funand helping them, empower them
with with skills and justpractical advice, you know,
because a lot of times peopleare trained in, oh here's how to
do this skill, but then there'sa human side of it and just a
(10:31):
business side of it.
So I really dig that part of ittoo.
Christine Zito (10:35):
Gen Z.
I was a high school teacher.
And one thing when it comes tothe younger they are, so they
want to learn.
MJ Finstrom (10:45):
You know, when I was that age, I had lots of
mentors and I was willing to bementored.
I think that there are somethat are not willing to be
mentored because they think theyknow it all.
Christine Zito (10:55):
Because the internet's true.
Yeah, they don't know what theydon't know, you know.
MJ Finstrom (10:59):
But you know, I think that I don't know, it's
kind of a cool space to be inhere.
Christine Zito (11:04):
All right.
Well, that's a great place tostart.
Let's talk about when marketing.
Yeah, okay, so you're abusiness and you may or may not
have a website.
But let's just for the sake ofthis conversation, you don't
have a website, okay.
So marketing, you come and say,first thing, okay, I want to be
(11:27):
, uh, powerbusinesscom.
So they come to me and they say, okay, I need a website.
And for very first thing, I askthem.
I'll ask them do you what?
What is it that you do?
Well, I'm a power company.
I'll go okay, power company.
Well, what do you mean?
Electricity, or you know.
So we talk about what theirdream is.
(11:50):
I want to know the dream, okay.
So we get the content, we buildthe site, I optimize the
content.
So now we need marketing.
So what do I do?
I call up MJ.
I call up MJ, and I'm glad youdo.
Thank, you.
Yeah, I do Okay.
So now that you've got thewebsite, you've got the content,
now, what do you do, mj?
MJ Finstrom (12:10):
You know, I kind of think you know same with you.
I'll do an intake process, butI always like to ask people what
problems do you solve?
You know, because it helpspeople like narrow down who
their audience is and whothey're trying to reach.
You know, because not everybodyis for everybody let's, you
know, face it.
But what problems are yousolving?
What are you helping people do?
(12:30):
And a lot of times, mostlypeople need like a way to push
people to the website, you know.
So, really, basically, theemail marketing and social media
are ways to.
Yes, search engines great ifsomebody's searching for us for
that fancy business, butsometimes they're not.
So now we need to figure outanother angle to get them into
(12:53):
the website.
It's all channels to directtraffic over to their main hub,
which should be their websitethat is and that is so key.
Christine Zito (13:02):
I hope you heard that Number one.
You get your website.
You want to get your domain.
You want to buy your domain,buy your hosting.
Then you build your website.
Make sure you know what yourdream is so we can turn that
into a vision.
We gather your content, but Ilike what you said.
What problems do you solve?
Only you would know theconflict that people will have
(13:24):
with whatever service or productthat you have and that you want
to promote.
And search engine optimizationworks like this, and, of course,
mj and I are being condensed inour conversation.
There's a lot more conversationwhen I have a client before me,
but for the most part, I alwaystell people when it comes to
your services, when it comes toyour products, if you don't know
(13:46):
who you are, google doesn'tknow who you are, right right,
right and important to knowGoogle and to work with somebody
who's kind of experienced in it, because you know that's
important.
MJ Finstrom (13:56):
Google's changing all the time To keep up with
that.
You know you keep up with itall the time and that's amazing
and you have to right, and sothat's why it's so important to
have different, different levelsof service.
You know social media and AI ishard enough to keep up with
versus all the web stuff.
Christine Zito (14:14):
It's just it's changing all the time talk to me
about an email campaign,because when, when I'm done with
the website, that's the firstthing that the client will say
Okay, now what do I do?
MJ Finstrom (14:25):
I think for a business if businesses who build
a really good quality emaillist of people who want to get
their services or want to gettheir messaging, that's one of
the best things you can do foryour business.
Hands down.
Know it over and over and overagain.
You know we've.
When you build a good qualityemail list, there's nothing like
(14:48):
sending out a list to like12,000 people and in an hour
five or 6,000 people open it.
You cannot pay for that kind.
It takes time, it takes goodcontent.
You use social media.
You know social media is sortof like like dating.
You know it's like fast andit's, you know, furious.
(15:09):
It's quick, quick stuff.
But email is like that long-termrelationship.
You know we have people who'vebeen on our email list for years
.
We started growing ours in 2008and people will come back.
They'll see an email oh, wehaven't thought about you for a
while.
But, um, because I send them amonthly email, I need this
service or I have a referral foryou.
Um, some people get too muchinto by myself, by myself, and
(15:33):
it just comes out so crashonline and even an email.
You have to play with contentand you know there's so many
ways to build an email listonline.
You could have different hooks,like join my email list for to
download something or to getsome kind of special offer.
But then you always want tostart with your current
(15:56):
customers.
Make sure they're the firstpeople who are on your list,
because that's where your nextpoint of business usually come
from is from a referral.
You know there's.
We have all these fancy tools,but word of mouth is still the
best way to get business.
I think so.
Christine Zito (16:11):
For sure you know what is an, what is an
email campaign?
I know you kind of touched onit, but what does it consist of?
Like when?
MJ Finstrom (16:19):
when, well, you talked a bit about domain, it
starts with your email address.
You do not want to be bob ataol because people get so many
spams and you know thingsnowadays like I don't know bob
at aol, but I know christine atpure media marketing because she
has her, don't her business.
This is where you want to haveyour business name in your email
(16:41):
address mjf at hot dogs yes, weknow her, but we don't know bob
at aol, or todd at gmail.
Christine Zito (16:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah , oh god hotmail or aol.
MJ Finstrom (16:53):
I mean it's just like oh, that's so antiquated to
me, but it's funny when I seean aol.
But even at gmail, like somepeople, they'll trick it,
they'll do like hot dogs atgmailcom, but still there's.
You want to feel like you'regetting it from a legitimate
person.
So it consists of that.
And then it consists of a greatsubject line.
The first two words they'vedone statistics on it are what
(17:14):
gets you to read the rest of thesubject line.
Not open the email, but justget you to read the rest of the
subject line.
And then you hope they open it.
Yes, and then, once they openit, you don't need to send the
whole encyclopedia to people.
You can link off again to awebsite or to a video or to a
blog to read more.
(17:36):
Just tease it out and just bereally.
Don't give people a ton ofchoices either.
We find that and and it's justtrue in life in general, it's
true with Generation Z as wellyou give them too many choices,
they'll do nothing because it'stoo overwhelming.
One email or one choice, onecall to action is pretty much
(17:56):
all you need for a successfulemail campaign and a good list.
You want to make sure you'renot buying a list.
Don't go over to the ArcadiaChamber and pilfer their list
because it's spammy.
It feels you know, have peoplesign up and when you go out and
network, you know, hey, I sendout an email once a month.
Can I add you to my list?
Christine Zito (18:16):
make the ask yeah and see, and people will
say who opens those People whoare interested?
Yeah, and it's very true.
Same thing with online videowho's going to watch?
You know, 30 minutes of anonline People who are interested
?
Yeah, people who are interested, because people will.
They will ask me how longshould my video be?
Well, it depends on the content.
MJ Finstrom (18:38):
Yeah, it depends on the interest.
Christine Zito (18:38):
yeah, yeah, they'll listen and they'll watch
if it's interesting to them.
So there's absolutely.
They've stopped with theresearch, like only three
minutes, and if you do see that,just ignore it, because it is
about the content they will yeahthey will listen and they will
watch.
Um, what has been I know youhave to probably think about.
I should have asked you thisbeforehand what was your most
(18:59):
successful email campaign?
That, yeah, I know like as anexample that, oh my gosh, this
one got a huge response.
MJ Finstrom (19:12):
I don't know if it's one single one, but I'm
always amazed when people whohaven't been doing email
marketing they'll send somethingout to their current customers
and they've never done it before.
There's a photographer who iswell established and he never
sent out an email marketing ever, but he had this huge list of
(19:33):
people who loved him and anemail list and we sent out a
constant contact.
I'm a big fan of constantcontact, as most people know,
and he had like a 90 open rate,which is considered amazing.
You know, it is amazing and hewas just blown away by how fast
the responses were and just thefact that people would open
(19:53):
something from him, and it waslike a light bulb, like oh my
gosh, I haven't been staying intouch with people and that's.
That's the one thing withbusiness owners, I think they
build a website.
People will come.
It's not filled the dreams, youknow.
Christine Zito (20:07):
It just doesn't work that way Hope is not a
strategy you know that in therewill come yeah, it's a movie.
Yeah, it's a movie, it's not astrategy for your website and
your marketing.
MJ Finstrom (20:17):
They hired people to come to that field.
Christine Zito (20:19):
They hire, yeah and we paid our tickets, darn it
.
MJ Finstrom (20:22):
I know, yeah, we came because we paid for the
ticket but you know you've gotto have a strategy to get people
to your website or get peoplein your door of business, or get
them to call.
Or get them to buy your producttoo.
Exactly, exactly.
And that strategy often is notbuy my stuff, buy my stuff, buy
my stuff.
Especially on social media,when people are just blasting,
hey, buy my stuff, it takes outthe personalization.
(20:46):
Like you said, when you go tothat about section, people want
to do business you know, it's anold saying with people they
know, like and trust.
And that is where social mediacomes into play.
People start to get to know youbetter and get to know what
you're about, and then that'swhy you also have to have a
policy for your social media.
(21:06):
If you're a business owner,what is your policy for social
media?
Christine Zito (21:10):
What do you mean ?
MJ Finstrom (21:11):
Well, do you blast about politics?
Do you blast aboutcontroversial topics?
If you're a business owner,your brand is on the line and I
think that there are corners ofsocial media where they're just
creating boxing rings.
They post so they can get themost contentious fights going
(21:32):
and they think that's so muchfun, and at the cost of
community immunity, and I meanall kinds of things.
You know, but there are peoplewho just live and breathe for
that and you see it all the time.
You see it even in our sweettown of arcadia, um, but the
thing is, if you're a businessowner, you have to have a policy
about that.
You know, stay clear of that,unless you want, unless that's
(21:57):
your business, of course, andthat's a whole other, whole
other topic and subject.
But your brand is on the lineand and what you say matters and
how you say it matters.
Words mean something, wordsmean something and, if you know,
you've got to remember customerservice, because if you, if you
see somebody like you're gonnatake your dog to the dog groomer
(22:18):
and that business owner is overhere causing a big ruckus on
social media and saying allkinds of nasty things or
blasting, like Yelp is anotherone of those areas where, if
they're giving a nasty Yelpreview or something, does that
make you want to do businesswith that business owner?
You know, that's sort of what Imean.
Have a policy online and stickto it, even when you have to sit
(22:39):
on your hands.
Christine Zito (22:41):
Yeah, and stick to it, even when you have to sit
on your hands.
Yeah, this is good information.
I hope you're taking notes.
I'm in studio with me as MJFinstrom.
Am I saying your name right?
Finstrom finstrom?
Okay, I just want to say Ialways, just, I just know you as
MJ mj's cool owner of HUT dogsnot hot dogs, even though she is
hot.
She is a digital marketingcompany and we are talking about
(23:07):
helping you to be effectiveonline with your website.
And we just finished with emailmarketing.
And now I want to talk about howbusinesses can get social with
their brands or their productsor their services.
When, when, again, after Ifinish a website, one of the
things I like to do on theirwebsite is put their Instagram
(23:29):
feed on there, because anytimethat you post on Instagram, it
automatically updates on yourwebsite or you and you could do
that with with Facebook also.
So they'll say now what do I do?
Because I don't do any outsidemarketing.
I only I optimize the websiteand I fully optimize a website
and also ADA compliant.
(23:49):
I wish I can go into ADAcompliancy and shorten to the
point.
It's making your websiteaccessible to those with
disabilities, blind, deaf andthings like that, and when we're
done, that's, they'll say nowwhat do I do?
And I say, if you want to havean effective way of drawing
people to your website otherthan an email campaign is social
(24:10):
media.
So I say, let's call MJ, mj.
What do you now?
You got a client.
MJ Finstrom (24:17):
Well, you determine .
You know where their bestaudience is, you, I mean,
there's so many choices, but thebig boys are obviously facebook
, instagram, tiktok, um, x, allthose.
But does everybody need all ofthose, or do you just start
where you think the audience isgoing to be?
If you have an older audience,most likely people are on
facebook, yeah, um, you know, ifyou have really young audience,
(24:39):
that's going to be um, tiktok,and, and even snapchat I was's
going to be TikTok and evenSnapchat.
Christine Zito (24:45):
I was just going to ask you about Snapchat.
MJ Finstrom (24:46):
Okay, yeah, like the kids are all over on that,
but I haven't done a lot onSnapchat.
I don't know I must be agingout or something.
I don't know, but I watch myother younger people use it.
But Instagram is always a goodbet.
And Facebook?
What's cool about Instagram?
Facebook?
Facebook owns Instagram so youcan sync them up together.
But if you have no reach likeif you are posting the greatest
(25:10):
content, the greatest videos,the best picture in the world,
but you have nobody to reach toyou're just posting pictures,
pixels in the wind.
You know it's like um.
So you need to find a way tobuild your audience online as
well, and you can do pay forplay and that's where you know
that's how facebook, instagrammakes their money.
(25:31):
But you can target as creepy asit is.
I mean, they're measuring allof our behaviors, so they know
that christine's a runner, theyknow she's likes bikes and
that's right, you probably getserved up ads for bikes and
running stuff.
Christine Zito (25:45):
And you know what?
I actually click on some ofthose ads because they relate to
me, yep, so I don't mind it toomuch, I just don't.
Yeah, I don't.
I'm not a tea drinker, so I youknow, when I see that I don't.
MJ Finstrom (26:04):
But yeah, that's how they.
You know that's kind of howthey target and what what's
great is that it's affordable,like you can do something
effective for 50 100 bucks.
Obviously, if you spend 500bucks you'll get more eyeballs
right, but that's sort of howyou want to build your.
If you're, if you're startingfrom zero, if you're starting
and you just haven't posted fora while, that's another problem.
I see people posted before 2020and that was their last post.
People come to your facebookpresence saying, oh, they must
(26:25):
be out of business so that'sanother thing to consider is
like how important it is to.
That's my fault.
Keep up with it you know?
Christine Zito (26:32):
yes, it is so true, and, being a business
owner, it's like you needsomeone to help you.
MJ Finstrom (26:38):
Yeah with that, and that's why there's.
Christine Zito (26:40):
That's why there's mj and dave, that's why
they're here, so you can have aplace to to help you with that,
um, with social media.
Let there's so many things Iwant to talk.
Talk to you about let's.
Let's dive into video real fastokay um, now, online social
media video is different fromthe online video that I do.
Mine is professionally done andI do it strictly for strategic
(27:04):
reasons for a client and it'susually for promotions.
Yeah, and we will all puttogether a really nice.
I like docu stories.
I don't care what any Somemarketers don't believe in this.
I believe in story.
Marketing is about the storyAbsolutely.
I am the story I own thebusiness Marketing is about the
story.
Absolutely, I am the story, Iown the business, I want to know
and I can turn that story intoa docu-story or a full-on, you
(27:26):
know.
Rated G movie.
Yeah, that's how I or PG.
MJ Finstrom (27:31):
That's as far as I go.
You do a great job with yourvideos.
They're amazing.
Christine Zito (27:34):
And people love that.
MJ Finstrom (27:37):
Mm-hmm.
Christine Zito (27:37):
Because if you want to sell the product, tell
the story about the product, thestory about the service, right,
okay, so that's what I do.
Social media is it?
Is it basically?
MJ Finstrom (27:48):
on that?
It's probably.
Yeah, definitely it's.
On that it just might beshorter snippets of that story
served out different timesinstead of the whole big chunk
served at once.
Yes, you can serve portions ofthat story like one component
could be like hi, I'm so, and sothis is why I started my
(28:09):
business.
Next one this is this is megiving you a tour of my business
.
There you go this is theproblems I solve.
I always tell people whatproblems do you solve?
What's the solution?
You know, and you know, if youown a grooming store, we'll go
back.
I love dogs, so your dog stinks.
We got five point, it'savailable.
You know, I mean that's thesolution.
Problem solution.
(28:30):
It's just like a great match.
You know when you can do that.
But video online and video onsocial media very important, oh,
it's very important.
It's that's where you actuallyon Instagram, the reels.
If you have good reels, theyget the most attention.
And if you're tagging and nowInstagram, you can share things.
(28:50):
For the first time, you gotthat little share button now.
That's great, oh.
Christine Zito (28:54):
I love to share.
I do do a lot of sharing, sothat's helpful.
MJ Finstrom (28:57):
But if you tag somebody that you have a reel on
, it just goes really viral.
I mean, we had a and that'sorganic reach that can help you
with your organic meaning.
You're not paying for it andthen if you had a pay model to
it, then you're really reachingpeople.
But the videos and the reelsare where it's at, especially on
Instagram.
Christine Zito (29:16):
Okay.
So MJ said something I want youto remember Organic is
something you don't pay for,Right, and non-organic is what
you're paying for.
So remember that you could dothings organically.
So online video how about this?
Online video gives you the bigstory.
Social media online video givesyou the journey of the story.
MJ Finstrom (29:36):
Great, I love how that sounds.
Yeah, absolutely.
Christine Zito (29:39):
Because you just said it, here I am.
I'm the about.
This is how I got started.
Yeah, so here are my serviceshere.
This is how I cook spaghetti.
Yes, next video I'll show youhow to cook pasta right it
shares the journey, right?
Why?
Because it's about relationship.
Yep, that's what.
So people don't understand thatit is about the relationship,
so I do agree is being carefulhow what you say on social media
(30:01):
.
Yeah, well.
MJ Finstrom (30:01):
And then it's also about being social, and that's
the part people miss too.
If there's a when we're social,like you and I are having this
exchange, let's pretend likewe're at lunch we I listen to
you, you listen to me and thepart that people are missing is
they're not listening.
They're not listening to theircustomers, and you want to go to
(30:24):
your customers, your vendors,your best people who give you
your referrals, and listen tothem and comment on their stuff.
That's just being polite,that's being social, that is
yeah Right.
So I think that's part ofsocial media.
It's not about you.
You know, it's like going tolunch with a bad friend and just
they just talk about themselvesthe whole freaking time.
You know that's not a funfriend, you know, and this is
(30:46):
building friends andrelationships.
That is so gosh.
Christine Zito (30:50):
So I've never believed meet me halfway and
I'll meet, and I'll meet youhalfway.
I'm like, right, you meet meall the way, you meet me all the
way, and let's just that's how.
I've always, yeah, believed onthat.
You know, when it comes to thattype of journey, social journey
, love it on a website, peopleyou know you have.
You have your main navigation,which is your about page, your
(31:12):
services, your products, yourshop, your e-commerce shop, your
contact page, yeah, yourtestimonial page, blogging.
People always ask me what's thebest way to draw traffic to my
website.
I say blogging.
And now I know, I say that andeverybody's all like I can't, I
don't have time for blogging,which is true If you're a
business owner, I totally get it.
(31:32):
And now you know, likeArcadiaFYIcom, I can blog
because I just I blog my podcast.
But blogging you could do thatwith your social media, I can't.
You know blogging.
Why is blogging the number oneway to draw traffic to your
website?
Because it's content Right.
(31:52):
Search loves content, content,content, content.
MJ Finstrom (31:56):
Yes.
Christine Zito (31:58):
Google doesn't search you by your pictures.
Google doesn't necessarilysearch you by your videos.
Doesn't necessarily search youby your videos, but they will
search you by your content.
Yeah, because it's content theyneed.
They need content, right.
Did I mention content?
MJ Finstrom (32:09):
I think you did a couple times that.
What was that called?
What?
Christine Zito (32:13):
was that?
So, yeah, content, and but whensomeone's, when I say that,
they say well then, how do Icreate content?
Okay, I know what I would say.
What would you say?
MJ Finstrom (32:27):
MJ, how to create content?
Yeah, how to create content.
Start with your FAQs.
What are the frequently askedquestions that you get asked all
the time?
Thank you, and start with thoseand then start I don't know, I
don't know, I don't know.
Is there anything else?
Christine Zito (32:42):
yeah, I would think, write out each of your
services, you know, and peoplesay well, how, what can I write
about?
Uh, a broken toilet.
Oh, you right, when I talk to aplumber, they can't stop
talking about a broken put thatyeah, that's great.
MJ Finstrom (32:56):
I mean people love to watch like mishaps and
failures and how they're doingthings and how they make things
or how they fix a pipe or youknow they love that stuff and
then how it fits in relevance totoday's world and remember this
, that with any videos, thatthat you either do with with me,
(33:22):
pure media marketing, or withmj, which she would probably do
a lot more when it comes tosocial media marketing.
Christine Zito (33:27):
you can all videos have a transcript.
Yeah, and that could be.
And you could take thattranscript, copy and paste it
onto your, your blog, which isseparate from your content, your
main content, and you've justtaken care of not only your blog
but ADA compliancy.
(33:48):
Yeah for sure, because you haveyour video, a little bit of
maybe an introduction into thecontent, and then your
transcript.
Right, you've just taken careof everything and then click
publish.
MJ Finstrom (34:00):
Yeah, there's so many ways to do it, and the
thing is, technology is gettingbetter and better all the time.
I'm a tech geek, I mean I Ianything that makes my life
easier.
Technology wise.
I'm there.
I've got these glasses.
Christine Zito (34:13):
They listen for me and I I even have shoes that
I don't.
MJ Finstrom (34:16):
I don't tie my shoes anymore.
No, I'm not filming you.
I should, I could.
I wear slip-in shoes all thetime.
Oh, okay, I have slip-ins.
I like my slip-ins, yeah.
Yeah, are those slip-ins?
Yeah they're.
Hey, dudes, I love it, you knowso, anything that makes my life
easier.
And so, with content, and I'vetalked to writers and people.
(34:37):
I've been around the editorsfor a long time.
They're loving AI and that kindof stuff as well.
But I did during the fires.
I interviewed one of my bestfriends who was a fire survivor
from a Colorado fire and do youknow, on our phones you can
record a phone conversation.
Yes, and that phoneconversation will transcribe
(35:02):
into copy and then you can putthat copy and have a.
I clean it up and that could bea blog, like if you're
interviewing somebody.
I interviewed her about whatare the best ways we can help
fire survivors and she gave allthis great information and just
did this Q and a with herBrilliant.
And I said clean that up, chat,gpt or whatever I was using and
(35:23):
it created this amazing kind ofblog-like thing.
I use LinkedIn sometimes fornewsletter stuff, but technology
can help you now with contentmore than ever, you know, I mean
more than ever.
I just want to say one thingabout your website.
You talked about the wholenavigation thing, and I feel
(35:44):
like I'm just talking about whatpeople are missing and what
they're doing wrong.
And I'm not.
But one of the things I findout there is people in business
have no way to collect money fortheir business.
It drives me bananas.
I'm like put that on a cart onyour website, yes, and I find
that.
Find that.
Oh no, I don't know.
Well, we'll get to that later.
(36:04):
I'm like no, no, that's thefirst thing you should be doing
if you have a business is howpeople pay you you know what?
Christine Zito (36:11):
on my website I have that.
Yeah, if you want websitemaintenance, you can buy it on
my website.
If you want to rent this studio, you can buy it on my website.
Yeah, and it is important yougotta.
That is so true in today, intoday's uh technology, it makes
it a little bit simple.
MJ Finstrom (36:26):
I don't use the word easy because it's not
always easy, but it is simple,you okay I know we could go on
forever, but I want to touch onartificial intelligence.
Christine Zito (36:37):
Okay, ai, I do want to.
May I work in it every, everysingle day.
You work in it every single day.
You work in it every single day.
But I do want to remindeverybody it is artificial, yep,
okay.
People always ask me is itgoing to take over the world?
It's already taking over theworld, but it doesn't have to
control you.
MJ Finstrom (36:52):
No.
Christine Zito (36:53):
AI will always and be forever, whether it turns
into robots or whatever, it'sgoing to be controlled by human
beings.
So, in saying that, let's useit and have fun.
Let's use it.
You know, I always sayartificial is a tool, not the
rule, so let's have fun with it.
You know, when I work inartificial intelligence to
create content for clients, Iwill use Copilot and I will also
(37:18):
use Gemini.
I love Gemini.
Do you, it just takes you.
All of them have theirweaknesses and their strengths.
MJ Finstrom (37:26):
Yes.
Christine Zito (37:27):
And so it's hard for me to say one is better
than the other.
But I do like Gemini, becauseit just gives you a longer
version of things.
MJ Finstrom (37:33):
Interesting.
Christine Zito (37:34):
Yeah, it just does, anyway.
So artificial intelligence andhow I use it with websites is to
create content, and then I addthe human touch, because I'll
say this Google is the one thatinvented artificial intelligence
for for online.
So, in saying that, even theyGoogle finds it hard sometimes
(37:58):
to know what's real and what'snot real.
Even they have that problem andthey will tell you that on
their blog.
Yeah, yeah.
So when they crawl your website,that's why your about page is
so important and a picture ofwho you are, 100%, yeah, and
that's why I'm a stickler whenit comes to the about page.
And remember, on the about page, you don't have to be revealing
(38:20):
, but at least be transparent.
Right, that's it?
Okay, you don't have to talkabout you know all your past
life and things like that, andno, just talk about who you are
and who you are in the business.
And so, when it comes toartificial intelligence, just
make sure that you're alwaysusing it on the human level,
(38:42):
because that's what Google islooking for.
That's what search is beingSearch Yahoo, because Yahoo
still has their search engine.
They're looking for the humanelement, and when they can't
find it, they will spam it, andyou just need to fix that
content 100%.
So how do you approachartificial?
MJ Finstrom (39:02):
intelligence.
Well, I think humanizing it'slike that seems to be a theme
all over.
We were attending these, thePasadena the talks you know, I
forget the name of it, butthey're wonderful and there was
Sanjay Gupta and the Economist Imean all these great people,
but they always talk about ai inevery one of them and it's been
(39:25):
fascinating, but they all kindof have a thread.
You got to make sure you'rehumanizing it, because that's
where it's at, and in marketingin particular, um, I always tell
people ai is never going toreplace you, it's never going to
replace your relationships thatyou build.
that's the most important thingin business, that's the thing,
Say that again, let me writethat down AI will never replace
you, will never replace me Willnever, replace your
(39:47):
relationships, never replace,will never replace your
expertise and your skill set,will never replace your
creativity.
Are you listening to this?
You still own that.
What it will do to all of us,which is a good thing.
It should sharpen our criticalthinking skills.
(40:08):
Of every piece of content thatwe see.
We should use our criticalthinking skills in judgment to
say, hmm wonder if that's realor not.
And you see it like on Facebookall the time there's a picture
of a lion with a cute babydangling out of its mouth and
their best friends and you'relike that is not real people.
You know, um, it's not real.
(40:28):
When in in actually Sanjay Gupta, that's happened to him.
There's the kind of thing theyput him out promoting some
product and he looks a littleweird and movement.
That is not real.
Just it more.
Question it more.
And, on the reverse end, makesure, if people are questioning
you, that you can prove you arereal and that you are human and
(40:51):
always know how to humanize yourbrand.
I mean this was beforeartificial intelligence.
Everybody talked about theimportance of humanizing your
brand.
That mean this was beforeartificial intelligence.
Everybody talked about theimportance of humanizing your
brand that's why I believe instory.
Yeah, yeah nothing can take awaynothing in this world.
Christine Zito (41:08):
No, can take away from your story and bring
that into your marketing and,like you said, it's about having
fun.
MJ Finstrom (41:13):
You know, we started um an ai user group.
We meet once a month on.
I think it's the second Mondaywe just met yesterday.
Oh my God, we're learning somuch from each other when?
Christine Zito (41:24):
Second, I didn't know this, it's online.
MJ Finstrom (41:26):
It's a hot dogs AI users group.
Christine Zito (41:29):
So much fun.
I'm going to put that Francineis part of it.
MJ Finstrom (41:32):
She always has great things to offer, and so
it's spearheaded by hot dogs.
But we are just, we're talking,we're showing how we're using
it.
I'm always showing the fun Ihave with AI.
I mean, we went to Breckenridgeto talk about the ski slopes and
I planned an AI.
I planned a day trip toBreckenridge with AI just to see
(41:52):
what would happen if we weregoing to end up in Nebraska or
whatever, and then made a videoand that's on HUTd ogs' Facebook
page If you want to check thatout.
But so fun and it was reallygreat to plan that way.
Made me think of things.
But one of the key takeawaysfrom our AI user group and this
was just in the last week it'sjust like massive light bulb
(42:14):
going on Ask AI to give beforethey generate, generate ask
whatever ai tool.
Ask me qualifying questions.
Now that is a game changer whenit comes to ai.
So what I mean by that isbefore I asked ai and I I'm a
co-pilot fan.
Um, before you give me myitinerary for my day trip to
(42:36):
Breckenridge asked me qualifyingquestions and they asked me do
you need any specialaccommodations?
well, yeah, we're taking my mom.
We need wheelchair access.
Do you have any food preference?
Well, yeah, we're taking my mom.
She wants a cinnamon roll.
Uh, do you have any?
Um other needs do you want?
What kind of stops do you wantto that?
(42:57):
I love waterfalls and I lovereal scenic things and it pulled
out an itinerary that was justfantastic, right and so that
that's what was cool.
Yeah, yeah, that.
So there's so much fun to playand I'm always playing like I
probably have pictures for myhusband right now because we're
always co-piloting each otherwhere we make each other into
cartoons.
He, we laugh at that.
(43:18):
Everything is the funniestthing on earth.
It is an.
Christine Zito (43:20):
Artificial intelligence is fun and I use it
and I and I did a.
You know I'm part of the arcadiachamber of commerce and at the
breakfast I was showing howartificial intelligence has
evolved and is going to involveand how you can manipulate
pictures yes I said you know, II showed this one where, um, I
just pulled a picture off stock,a stock photo of sheep, because
(43:42):
sheep are my favorite animal,and I said this is what happens
when I can manipulate thatpicture with artificial
intelligence.
Well, all the sheep in thepicture came alive and they were
walking around.
And I said now, if I were topost that on Instagram because
it was, these sheep are fromIreland, if I were to post that
on Instagram, I can say anywherewhere I'm at.
I say here, I am in Ireland, I'mhere with the sheep.
(44:03):
You know how many people wouldbelieve me?
Yeah, 100% yeah.
And so I said just be carefulwho you hire as a marketing
company using artificialintelligence on the behalf of
your brand.
You just got to be careful.
Yeah, and YouTube has strictrules too, that when you upload
a video, you have to answer thequestion if it's if it's
artificial or not.
Yeah, and and if you say no andyou get caught, you are not.
(44:25):
They will make it verydifficult for you to upload
another instagram is that way aswell.
MJ Finstrom (44:30):
Yeah, for sure you.
Oh my gosh, MJ there's so manycareful and so many things we
could talk about right now.
It's so much fun you know whatwe?
Christine Zito (44:37):
you'll have to come back more towards the
holidays, all right becausethere will be things marketing
wise that you and I wellactually you, you well, me too
because we work together.
And and do you see why I referMJ, all my clients to MJ?
Because she, we work together.
And especially when it's awebsite that I build, she will
say or a video that I did,she'll say, okay, send me some
(44:58):
cuts, send me some, you know,edits and stuff that she can use
for social media.
And the thing I love workingwith MJ is that we can be
consistent with the brandthere's.
I don't want you know, whenpeople go to social media, they
can, they can also see that onthe website.
MJ Finstrom (45:13):
So yeah, and you want to pull stuff from your.
If you have a really, reallygood website, it makes the
social media that much easier,because you can take that
website apart and have athousand posts based on a great
website.
You know just one snippet at atime and that's.
Christine Zito (45:27):
That's a beautiful thing yeah, and she'll
give me some ideas too.
Hey, christine, can you do thison the website?
I'm all, absolutely you know.
MJ Finstrom (45:33):
So we trust each other because we know each other
.
So MJ.
Christine Zito (45:37):
thank you so much, you're welcome.
MJ Finstrom (45:39):
Thanks for having me oh my gosh.
Christine Zito (45:40):
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for letting us knowwhat more we can do with email
marketing, social mediamarketing, artificial
intelligence and we just touchedthe surface 100%.
MJ Finstrom (45:53):
Yeah, there's so much Just touched the surface.
Well, the thing is, it's allchanging all the time, probably
right now as we speak.
I know it Well.
Christine Zito (46:00):
The thing is it's all changing all the time,
probably right now as we speak.
I know it's like buying a brandnew car you take it off the lot
it's already depreciated.
MJ Finstrom (46:04):
Already done yeah.
Christine Zito (46:05):
So, all right, All the information that we
talked about here on Arcadia FYIwith MJ, it's going to be on
arcadifyi.
com in the resource tab or evenon the blog with her and I'll
have on there.
The link so you can is the AIgroup that you have on there.
MJ Finstrom (46:26):
Oh, just go to hutdogs.
com and our user group will beup there.
Christine Zito (46:29):
Okay, and so I'll have that link for you if
you want to join and learn moreabout artificial intelligence
and using it in your brand, inyour company.
And gosh, I wanted to ask youanother question, but we have to
go.
I mean it's great.
I'd like to thank our sponsors,Our sponsors Toyota Longo,
(46:51):
Toyota Lexus in El Monte.
Again, you got to go by there.
Say hi to Mike and Brooke.
They do more than just sellcars.
It's a huge, this huge lot, andthere's things inside of it.
It's great you got to go see it.
They have restaurants,everything Star 7 Financial with
Francine Chu, the Santa AnitaPark and the Hotel in Arcadia
(47:12):
and Pasadena.
Until next time, just beblessed and make it a great day.
Hello and welcome to Arcadia FYI.
I am so happy that you're herewith me.
I just want to say thank youfor being a part of the show.
Thank you for your emails, yourquestions, your suggestions.
I wouldn't be able to do thisif it wasn't for you, the
listeners, especially those ofus here in the city of Arcadia.
(00:25):
And what I like to focus on inthis show is information.
That's why it's called FYIArcadia, for your information,
whether that be events that arecoming up, things that we can
help businesses with, thingsthat we don't even know is going
on in the city of Arcadia.
And I'm so thankful for youguys emailing me and even on
(00:51):
Facebook, you Facebook me aboutthings that I didn't even know
that were going on in the cityof Arcadia, and also things that
we can entertain.
I don't sing, I can try andsing, but maybe that would be
(01:15):
entertaining.
I don't know, but that's whatthis show is all about.
And today I have a I'm going tosay it every show and at the
end of every show you got to goout there and just check out
Longo Toyota.
It's right off the 10 freeway.
Say hi to Mike and Brooke,because they do more than just
sell cars.
Star 7 Financial with FrancineChu, who I think is one of the
(01:37):
best financial advisors in thecity of Arcadia Of course I'm
biased.
The Santa Anita Park I justtalked to Pete the other day and
he's going to be coming in likemid-September, end of September
, to talk about the things thatare going on at the park.
It's going to be very exciting.
The Le Meridien Hotel inArcadia and Pasadena next week I
(02:02):
know she was supposed to be onthis week, but next week Gaby is
going to be on with us andwe're going to take a tour of
that that hotel also.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
All right.
If you are a business owner,okay.
Or you're an in-house marketingprofessional and you're seeking
to enhance your organization'sonline presence, whether it be
(02:26):
through strategies like searchengine optimization, also known
as SEO, developing content youknow good content tailored to
your target audience on yourwebsite.
Implementing effective Nowwe're talking effective email
marketing or utilizing the crazysocial media.
(02:47):
But there's a way to utilizesocial media marketing.
We're going to be talking aboutthat and if you're interested
in that, then, for yourinformation, this podcast will
be highly informational for you.
Joining me in studio is a verygood friend and I'm going to say
this, and if you're watching onYouTube, you already see MJ
(03:07):
Finstrom.
I refer all all did I mentionall all my clients to MJ,
because I just it's, it's hardto find someone with integrity
when it comes to onlinemarketing and MJ is, and you can
.
You can judge for yourself, ofcourse, we don't judge and you
can judge for yourself, ofcourse we don't judge, but you
can judge for yourself.
(03:27):
Observe for yourself theintegrity of MJ Finstrom, the
HUTdogs of , a digital marketingservice provider, along with
your brother, David, and theyspecialize what we're going to
be talking about email marketing, social media marketing,
workshops, coaching.
That's MJ.
Welcome, MJ.
MJ Finstrom (03:45):
Thank you for having me, Christine.
This is going to be fun.
Christine Zito (03:49):
It is going to be a lot of fun.
So I do want to say, before westart, a little background on
myself.
Okay, because people probablyjust think I just host a podcast
show and make millions ofdollars Just kidding because I
don't a podcast show and makemillions of dollars just kidding
because I don't when I'm notdoing Arcadia.
(04:09):
Fyi, I am a website designer.
I build and design websites andI do work off WordPress.
I'm not an evangelist forWordPress, but WordPress gives
me the opportunity to do customwebsites and to be able to
utilize search engineoptimization effectively for the
client.
I could do that with WordPressbecause I can touch the content,
(04:30):
edit the content, optimize thecontent and I also produce award
winning.
And I just say that I want twotellies for online video and for
a television commercial.
And winning a telly is likewinning an Oscar, that's huge
it's amazing it is amazing.
It's.
It's really hard to do and Iwas I, I mean, I I cried when I
(04:50):
got my first one.
It was a television commercialand if you're interested in
doing a podcast and you want torent this studio that mj and I
are in, you can do that.
All you have to do is go topuremediamarketingcom and right
up at the top there it sayspodcast studio and you can rent
$75 an hour.
It's amazing, that's a greatprice.
(05:11):
It's a great price.
And if you and if it's $75 anhour, and if you need help with
that, then we can talk andnegotiate how you can utilize
those services.
All right, so that is what I do, and that's what we're going to
talk about is helpingbusinesses in Arcadia, or
wherever they might be, withtheir online presence.
(05:33):
But first of all, let's get toknow MJ a little bit, and you
know what?
I did forget to start my timer,so I'm going to start it right
now.
Whoops, okay, now I'm totallymessing it up and let's see here
.
This is what we do when we.
Oh, there it goes.
You just heard the beep.
Okay, so, mj, how long have you?
How long have you been inArcadia?
(05:55):
Are you an Arcadian?
Were you born here?
MJ Finstrom (05:57):
No, I was not born here, but I've been here about
25 years and I moved here when Imet my husband and got married
and it was sort of a middleground between where he lived
and where I lived and we endedup in Arcadia.
But I'm born and raised or wasborn in Colorado, grew up there.
Do you do snow ski?
Yes, yeah, not anymore.
(06:17):
That ship has sailed.
My knees are not as not likethey once were, but, yeah, I
grew up on.
Christine Zito (06:23):
I love the slopes oh my gosh, that is so
great.
I okay real fast.
I just have to say I tried snowskiing and I couldn't do it.
I bruised myself so bad I felldown that hill I don't know how
many times.
So I water ski nice, nice, sookay.
So you said you're you'remarried, you're your husband do
pets.
MJ Finstrom (06:42):
Yes, I'm a Gen Z mom of a great kid and I have a
dog, and that's me Okay so yourdaughter, where does she go to
college?
I know, it's really a terribleplace.
Somebody has to do it.
But somebody has to go to theUniversity of Hawaii in Manoa.
Christine Zito (06:58):
I can't believe it, Hawaii you get to go there.
MJ Finstrom (07:00):
Yeah, it's awesome, it's so awesome.
All right, let's talk about hotdogs.
I'm HUTdogs , it's a hut, not ahot.
How did you come up HUTdogs?
Oh, I don't know.
I think a long exhaustive me.
I wish I had a better story forit.
But my brother and I, when wewere developing this business I
think back in 2002, we wantedsomething kind of catchy and
(07:21):
that's a whole thing ofmarketing.
If somebody can remember youand remember your name, that's.
You know you got half thebattle won there.
But, um, we were just in ameeting strategizing.
You had the whiteboard outwriting all kinds of things on
it, and then my husband twohours later is kind of sick of
us.
He walks through the room, justcall it something HUTdogs and
we're like could we?
(07:41):
You know, like you think aboutKinkos?
You know how that name came tobe.
You know that's an interestingstory and and everybody knows
Kinko's.
I still call FedEx Kinko's, youknow.
So yes, I just like a name thatpeople remember.
Although I've been, they beggedon me to it was should say
something that you do in yourname.
But I'm like, no, let's have amemorable name.
Christine Zito (08:02):
So it's been a fun thing well, you know, it's
funny that you bring up nameslike that.
You think of Google.
Yeah, google doesn't havesearch in it.
No, kinko's doesn't haveprinting in it.
Nike doesn't have no shortshirts, shoes, socks, whatever,
but it has a great swish.
It does have a great and justand just do it.
Yeah yeah so, and it is funnywhen people you know when, when,
(08:24):
when I talk with marketing,with people, they always say
what kind of name should I have?
Or or should I match my namewith the url?
And I said you can, that's thebest way to go, right, but
search doesn't find you by yoururl, they find you by your
content, right?
It is most important becausesometimes, uh, you can't, you
(08:45):
can't find the exact match ofyour name with the url because
it's taken, right, you know.
So names are important, butit's in a name, yeah, what's in
a name, but it's, it's.
It is truly the content soabsolutely what is it that you?
what do you do exactly?
MJ Finstrom (09:04):
I.
I know we kind of do about fourthings.
You know, basically we helppeople get a little more
creative and now work smarterwhen they're doing their
marketing.
We come in kind of four flavorswe do it for you, we do it all
for you.
We can handle your social media, your email, help you with,
just you know, old schoolmarketing.
We do a lot of print and a lotof design rooted in graphic
(09:26):
design and then we haveeducational series.
We do a lot of coaching.
I mean we do a lot of workshopsand seminars and people love
those.
We have a good following onthat.
And then I do a lot of coachingand I love those people who
sign up for an hour or two andthey're either a work session
where we're like hammering outan email or a strategy or
(09:47):
something.
But lately, what's been reallysomething I've probably grow
into?
I've been helping people sortof empower their up-and-coming
talent in their world.
Like a small business owner acouple of times have hired me to
work with their youngermarketing teams and staff and
(10:08):
they'll do one on one sessionsand because they don't really
know how to mentor, strategizeand man, I love that work
because I'm a mom of Gen.
Z and I just love.
I love mentoring and it's funand helping them, empower them
with with skills and justpractical advice, you know,
because a lot of times peopleare trained in, oh here's how to
do this skill, but then there'sa human side of it and just a
(10:31):
business side of it.
So I really dig that part of ittoo.
Christine Zito (10:35):
Gen Z.
I was a high school teacher.
And one thing when it comes tothe younger they are, so they
want to learn.
MJ Finstrom (10:45):
You know, when I was that age, I had lots of
mentors and I was willing to bementored.
I think that there are somethat are not willing to be
mentored because they think theyknow it all.
Christine Zito (10:55):
Because the internet's true.
Yeah, they don't know what theydon't know, you know.
MJ Finstrom (10:59):
But you know, I think that I don't know, it's
kind of a cool space to be inhere.
Christine Zito (11:04):
All right.
Well, that's a great place tostart.
Let's talk about when marketing.
Yeah, okay, so you're abusiness and you may or may not
have a website.
But let's just for the sake ofthis conversation, you don't
have a website, okay.
So marketing, you come and say,first thing, okay, I want to be
(11:27):
, uh, powerbusinesscom.
So they come to me and they say, okay, I need a website.
And for very first thing, I askthem.
I'll ask them do you what?
What is it that you do?
Well, I'm a power company.
I'll go okay, power company.
Well, what do you mean?
Electricity, or you know.
So we talk about what theirdream is.
(11:50):
I want to know the dream, okay.
So we get the content, we buildthe site, I optimize the
content.
So now we need marketing.
So what do I do?
I call up MJ.
I call up MJ, and I'm glad youdo.
Thank, you.
Yeah, I do Okay.
So now that you've got thewebsite, you've got the content,
now, what do you do, mj?
MJ Finstrom (12:10):
You know, I kind of think you know same with you.
I'll do an intake process, butI always like to ask people what
problems do you solve?
You know, because it helpspeople like narrow down who
their audience is and whothey're trying to reach.
You know, because not everybodyis for everybody let's, you
know, face it.
But what problems are yousolving?
What are you helping people do?
(12:30):
And a lot of times, mostlypeople need like a way to push
people to the website, you know.
So, really, basically, theemail marketing and social media
are ways to.
Yes, search engines great ifsomebody's searching for us for
that fancy business, butsometimes they're not.
So now we need to figure outanother angle to get them into
(12:53):
the website.
It's all channels to directtraffic over to their main hub,
which should be their websitethat is and that is so key.
Christine Zito (13:02):
I hope you heard that Number one.
You get your website.
You want to get your domain.
You want to buy your domain,buy your hosting.
Then you build your website.
Make sure you know what yourdream is so we can turn that
into a vision.
We gather your content, but Ilike what you said.
What problems do you solve?
Only you would know theconflict that people will have
(13:24):
with whatever service or productthat you have and that you want
to promote.
And search engine optimizationworks like this, and, of course,
mj and I are being condensed inour conversation.
There's a lot more conversationwhen I have a client before me,
but for the most part, I alwaystell people when it comes to
your services, when it comes toyour products, if you don't know
(13:46):
who you are, google doesn'tknow who you are, right right,
right and important to knowGoogle and to work with somebody
who's kind of experienced in it, because you know that's
important.
MJ Finstrom (13:56):
Google's changing all the time To keep up with
that.
You know you keep up with itall the time and that's amazing
and you have to right, and sothat's why it's so important to
have different, different levelsof service.
You know social media and AI ishard enough to keep up with
versus all the web stuff.
Christine Zito (14:14):
It's just it's changing all the time talk to me
about an email campaign,because when, when I'm done with
the website, that's the firstthing that the client will say
Okay, now what do I do?
MJ Finstrom (14:25):
I think for a business if businesses who build
a really good quality emaillist of people who want to get
their services or want to gettheir messaging, that's one of
the best things you can do foryour business.
Hands down.
Know it over and over and overagain.
You know we've.
When you build a good qualityemail list, there's nothing like
(14:48):
sending out a list to like12,000 people and in an hour
five or 6,000 people open it.
You cannot pay for that kind.
It takes time, it takes goodcontent.
You use social media.
You know social media is sortof like like dating.
You know it's like fast andit's, you know, furious.
(15:09):
It's quick, quick stuff.
But email is like that long-termrelationship.
You know we have people who'vebeen on our email list for years
.
We started growing ours in 2008and people will come back.
They'll see an email oh, wehaven't thought about you for a
while.
But, um, because I send them amonthly email, I need this
service or I have a referral foryou.
Um, some people get too muchinto by myself, by myself, and
(15:33):
it just comes out so crashonline and even an email.
You have to play with contentand you know there's so many
ways to build an email listonline.
You could have different hooks,like join my email list for to
download something or to getsome kind of special offer.
But then you always want tostart with your current
(15:56):
customers.
Make sure they're the firstpeople who are on your list,
because that's where your nextpoint of business usually come
from is from a referral.
You know there's.
We have all these fancy tools,but word of mouth is still the
best way to get business.
I think so.
Christine Zito (16:11):
For sure you know what is an, what is an
email campaign?
I know you kind of touched onit, but what does it consist of?
Like when?
MJ Finstrom (16:19):
when, well, you talked a bit about domain, it
starts with your email address.
You do not want to be bob ataol because people get so many
spams and you know thingsnowadays like I don't know bob
at aol, but I know christine atpure media marketing because she
has her, don't her business.
This is where you want to haveyour business name in your email
(16:41):
address mjf at hot dogs yes, weknow her, but we don't know bob
at aol, or todd at gmail.
Christine Zito (16:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah , oh god hotmail or aol.
MJ Finstrom (16:53):
I mean it's just like oh, that's so antiquated to
me, but it's funny when I seean aol.
But even at gmail, like somepeople, they'll trick it,
they'll do like hot dogs atgmailcom, but still there's.
You want to feel like you'regetting it from a legitimate
person.
So it consists of that.
And then it consists of a greatsubject line.
The first two words they'vedone statistics on it are what
(17:14):
gets you to read the rest of thesubject line.
Not open the email, but justget you to read the rest of the
subject line.
And then you hope they open it.
Yes, and then, once they openit, you don't need to send the
whole encyclopedia to people.
You can link off again to awebsite or to a video or to a
blog to read more.
(17:36):
Just tease it out and just bereally.
Don't give people a ton ofchoices either.
We find that and and it's justtrue in life in general, it's
true with Generation Z as wellyou give them too many choices,
they'll do nothing because it'stoo overwhelming.
One email or one choice, onecall to action is pretty much
(17:56):
all you need for a successfulemail campaign and a good list.
You want to make sure you'renot buying a list.
Don't go over to the ArcadiaChamber and pilfer their list
because it's spammy.
It feels you know, have peoplesign up and when you go out and
network, you know, hey, I sendout an email once a month.
Can I add you to my list?
Christine Zito (18:16):
make the ask yeah and see, and people will
say who opens those People whoare interested?
Yeah, and it's very true.
Same thing with online videowho's going to watch?
You know, 30 minutes of anonline People who are interested
?
Yeah, people who are interested, because people will.
They will ask me how longshould my video be?
Well, it depends on the content.
MJ Finstrom (18:38):
Yeah, it depends on the interest.
Christine Zito (18:38):
yeah, yeah, they'll listen and they'll watch
if it's interesting to them.
So there's absolutely.
They've stopped with theresearch, like only three
minutes, and if you do see that,just ignore it, because it is
about the content they will yeahthey will listen and they will
watch.
Um, what has been I know youhave to probably think about.
I should have asked you thisbeforehand what was your most
(18:59):
successful email campaign?
That, yeah, I know like as anexample that, oh my gosh, this
one got a huge response.
MJ Finstrom (19:12):
I don't know if it's one single one, but I'm
always amazed when people whohaven't been doing email
marketing they'll send somethingout to their current customers
and they've never done it before.
There's a photographer who iswell established and he never
sent out an email marketing ever, but he had this huge list of
(19:33):
people who loved him and anemail list and we sent out a
constant contact.
I'm a big fan of constantcontact, as most people know,
and he had like a 90 open rate,which is considered amazing.
You know, it is amazing and hewas just blown away by how fast
the responses were and just thefact that people would open
(19:53):
something from him, and it waslike a light bulb, like oh my
gosh, I haven't been staying intouch with people and that's.
That's the one thing withbusiness owners, I think they
build a website.
People will come.
It's not filled the dreams, youknow.
Christine Zito (20:07):
It just doesn't work that way Hope is not a
strategy you know that in therewill come yeah, it's a movie.
Yeah, it's a movie, it's not astrategy for your website and
your marketing.
MJ Finstrom (20:17):
They hired people to come to that field.
Christine Zito (20:19):
They hire, yeah and we paid our tickets, darn it
.
MJ Finstrom (20:22):
I know, yeah, we came because we paid for the
ticket but you know you've gotto have a strategy to get people
to your website or get peoplein your door of business, or get
them to call.
Or get them to buy your producttoo.
Exactly, exactly.
And that strategy often is notbuy my stuff, buy my stuff, buy
my stuff.
Especially on social media,when people are just blasting,
hey, buy my stuff, it takes outthe personalization.
(20:46):
Like you said, when you go tothat about section, people want
to do business you know, it's anold saying with people they
know, like and trust.
And that is where social mediacomes into play.
People start to get to know youbetter and get to know what
you're about, and then that'swhy you also have to have a
policy for your social media.
(21:06):
If you're a business owner,what is your policy for social
media?
Christine Zito (21:10):
What do you mean ?
MJ Finstrom (21:11):
Well, do you blast about politics?
Do you blast aboutcontroversial topics?
If you're a business owner,your brand is on the line and I
think that there are corners ofsocial media where they're just
creating boxing rings.
They post so they can get themost contentious fights going
(21:32):
and they think that's so muchfun, and at the cost of
community immunity, and I meanall kinds of things.
You know, but there are peoplewho just live and breathe for
that and you see it all the time.
You see it even in our sweettown of arcadia, um, but the
thing is, if you're a businessowner, you have to have a policy
about that.
You know, stay clear of that,unless you want, unless that's
(21:57):
your business, of course, andthat's a whole other, whole
other topic and subject.
But your brand is on the lineand and what you say matters and
how you say it matters.
Words mean something, wordsmean something and, if you know,
you've got to remember customerservice, because if you, if you
see somebody like you're gonnatake your dog to the dog groomer
(22:18):
and that business owner is overhere causing a big ruckus on
social media and saying allkinds of nasty things or
blasting, like Yelp is anotherone of those areas where, if
they're giving a nasty Yelpreview or something, does that
make you want to do businesswith that business owner?
You know, that's sort of what Imean.
Have a policy online and stickto it, even when you have to sit
(22:39):
on your hands.
Christine Zito (22:41):
Yeah, and stick to it, even when you have to sit
on your hands.
Yeah, this is good information.
I hope you're taking notes.
I'm in studio with me as MJFinstrom.
Am I saying your name right?
Finstrom finstrom?
Okay, I just want to say Ialways, just, I just know you as
MJ mj's cool owner of HUT dogsnot hot dogs, even though she is
hot.
She is a digital marketingcompany and we are talking about
(23:07):
helping you to be effectiveonline with your website.
And we just finished with emailmarketing.
And now I want to talk about howbusinesses can get social with
their brands or their productsor their services.
When, when, again, after Ifinish a website, one of the
things I like to do on theirwebsite is put their Instagram
(23:29):
feed on there, because anytimethat you post on Instagram, it
automatically updates on yourwebsite or you and you could do
that with with Facebook also.
So they'll say now what do I do?
Because I don't do any outsidemarketing.
I only I optimize the websiteand I fully optimize a website
and also ADA compliant.
(23:49):
I wish I can go into ADAcompliancy and shorten to the
point.
It's making your websiteaccessible to those with
disabilities, blind, deaf andthings like that, and when we're
done, that's, they'll say nowwhat do I do?
And I say, if you want to havean effective way of drawing
people to your website otherthan an email campaign is social
(24:10):
media.
So I say, let's call MJ, mj.
What do you now?
You got a client.
MJ Finstrom (24:17):
Well, you determine .
You know where their bestaudience is, you, I mean,
there's so many choices, but thebig boys are obviously facebook
, instagram, tiktok, um, x, allthose.
But does everybody need all ofthose, or do you just start
where you think the audience isgoing to be?
If you have an older audience,most likely people are on
facebook, yeah, um, you know, ifyou have really young audience,
(24:39):
that's going to be um, tiktok,and, and even snapchat I was's
going to be TikTok and evenSnapchat.
Christine Zito (24:45):
I was just going to ask you about Snapchat.
MJ Finstrom (24:46):
Okay, yeah, like the kids are all over on that,
but I haven't done a lot onSnapchat.
I don't know I must be agingout or something.
I don't know, but I watch myother younger people use it.
But Instagram is always a goodbet.
And Facebook?
What's cool about Instagram?
Facebook?
Facebook owns Instagram so youcan sync them up together.
But if you have no reach likeif you are posting the greatest
(25:10):
content, the greatest videos,the best picture in the world,
but you have nobody to reach toyou're just posting pictures,
pixels in the wind.
You know it's like um.
So you need to find a way tobuild your audience online as
well, and you can do pay forplay and that's where you know
that's how facebook, instagrammakes their money.
(25:31):
But you can target as creepy asit is.
I mean, they're measuring allof our behaviors, so they know
that christine's a runner, theyknow she's likes bikes and
that's right, you probably getserved up ads for bikes and
running stuff.
Christine Zito (25:45):
And you know what?
I actually click on some ofthose ads because they relate to
me, yep, so I don't mind it toomuch, I just don't.
Yeah, I don't.
I'm not a tea drinker, so I youknow, when I see that I don't.
MJ Finstrom (26:04):
But yeah, that's how they.
You know that's kind of howthey target and what what's
great is that it's affordable,like you can do something
effective for 50 100 bucks.
Obviously, if you spend 500bucks you'll get more eyeballs
right, but that's sort of howyou want to build your.
If you're, if you're startingfrom zero, if you're starting
and you just haven't posted fora while, that's another problem.
I see people posted before 2020and that was their last post.
People come to your facebookpresence saying, oh, they must
(26:25):
be out of business so that'sanother thing to consider is
like how important it is to.
That's my fault.
Keep up with it you know?
Christine Zito (26:32):
yes, it is so true, and, being a business
owner, it's like you needsomeone to help you.
MJ Finstrom (26:38):
Yeah with that, and that's why there's.
Christine Zito (26:40):
That's why there's mj and dave, that's why
they're here, so you can have aplace to to help you with that,
um, with social media.
Let there's so many things Iwant to talk.
Talk to you about let's.
Let's dive into video real fastokay um, now, online social
media video is different fromthe online video that I do.
Mine is professionally done andI do it strictly for strategic
(27:04):
reasons for a client and it'susually for promotions.
Yeah, and we will all puttogether a really nice.
I like docu stories.
I don't care what any Somemarketers don't believe in this.
I believe in story.
Marketing is about the storyAbsolutely.
I am the story I own thebusiness Marketing is about the
story.
Absolutely, I am the story, Iown the business, I want to know
and I can turn that story intoa docu-story or a full-on, you
(27:26):
know.
Rated G movie.
Yeah, that's how I or PG.
MJ Finstrom (27:31):
That's as far as I go.
You do a great job with yourvideos.
They're amazing.
Christine Zito (27:34):
And people love that.
MJ Finstrom (27:37):
Mm-hmm.
Christine Zito (27:37):
Because if you want to sell the product, tell
the story about the product, thestory about the service, right,
okay, so that's what I do.
Social media is it?
Is it basically?
MJ Finstrom (27:48):
on that?
It's probably.
Yeah, definitely it's.
On that it just might beshorter snippets of that story
served out different timesinstead of the whole big chunk
served at once.
Yes, you can serve portions ofthat story like one component
could be like hi, I'm so, and sothis is why I started my
(28:09):
business.
Next one this is this is megiving you a tour of my business
.
There you go this is theproblems I solve.
I always tell people whatproblems do you solve?
What's the solution?
You know, and you know, if youown a grooming store, we'll go
back.
I love dogs, so your dog stinks.
We got five point, it'savailable.
You know, I mean that's thesolution.
Problem solution.
(28:30):
It's just like a great match.
You know when you can do that.
But video online and video onsocial media very important, oh,
it's very important.
It's that's where you actuallyon Instagram, the reels.
If you have good reels, theyget the most attention.
And if you're tagging and nowInstagram, you can share things.
(28:50):
For the first time, you gotthat little share button now.
That's great, oh.
Christine Zito (28:54):
I love to share.
I do do a lot of sharing, sothat's helpful.
MJ Finstrom (28:57):
But if you tag somebody that you have a reel on
, it just goes really viral.
I mean, we had a and that'sorganic reach that can help you
with your organic meaning.
You're not paying for it andthen if you had a pay model to
it, then you're really reachingpeople.
But the videos and the reelsare where it's at, especially on
Instagram.
Christine Zito (29:16):
Okay.
So MJ said something I want youto remember Organic is
something you don't pay for,Right, and non-organic is what
you're paying for.
So remember that you could dothings organically.
So online video how about this?
Online video gives you the bigstory.
Social media online video givesyou the journey of the story.
MJ Finstrom (29:36):
Great, I love how that sounds.
Yeah, absolutely.
Christine Zito (29:39):
Because you just said it, here I am.
I'm the about.
This is how I got started.
Yeah, so here are my serviceshere.
This is how I cook spaghetti.
Yes, next video I'll show youhow to cook pasta right it
shares the journey, right?
Why?
Because it's about relationship.
Yep, that's what.
So people don't understand thatit is about the relationship,
so I do agree is being carefulhow what you say on social media
(30:01):
.
Yeah, well.
MJ Finstrom (30:01):
And then it's also about being social, and that's
the part people miss too.
If there's a when we're social,like you and I are having this
exchange, let's pretend likewe're at lunch we I listen to
you, you listen to me and thepart that people are missing is
they're not listening.
They're not listening to theircustomers, and you want to go to
(30:24):
your customers, your vendors,your best people who give you
your referrals, and listen tothem and comment on their stuff.
That's just being polite,that's being social, that is
yeah Right.
So I think that's part ofsocial media.
It's not about you.
You know, it's like going tolunch with a bad friend and just
they just talk about themselvesthe whole freaking time.
You know that's not a funfriend, you know, and this is
(30:46):
building friends andrelationships.
That is so gosh.
Christine Zito (30:50):
So I've never believed meet me halfway and
I'll meet, and I'll meet youhalfway.
I'm like, right, you meet meall the way, you meet me all the
way, and let's just that's how.
I've always, yeah, believed onthat.
You know, when it comes to thattype of journey, social journey
, love it on a website, peopleyou know you have.
You have your main navigation,which is your about page, your
(31:12):
services, your products, yourshop, your e-commerce shop, your
contact page, yeah, yourtestimonial page, blogging.
People always ask me what's thebest way to draw traffic to my
website.
I say blogging.
And now I know, I say that andeverybody's all like I can't, I
don't have time for blogging,which is true If you're a
business owner, I totally get it.
(31:32):
And now you know, likeArcadiaFYIcom, I can blog
because I just I blog my podcast.
But blogging you could do thatwith your social media, I can't.
You know blogging.
Why is blogging the number oneway to draw traffic to your
website?
Because it's content Right.
(31:52):
Search loves content, content,content, content.
MJ Finstrom (31:56):
Yes.
Christine Zito (31:58):
Google doesn't search you by your pictures.
Google doesn't necessarilysearch you by your videos.
Doesn't necessarily search youby your videos, but they will
search you by your content.
Yeah, because it's content theyneed.
They need content, right.
Did I mention content?
MJ Finstrom (32:09):
I think you did a couple times that.
What was that called?
What?
Christine Zito (32:13):
was that?
So, yeah, content, and but whensomeone's, when I say that,
they say well then, how do Icreate content?
Okay, I know what I would say.
What would you say?
MJ Finstrom (32:27):
MJ, how to create content?
Yeah, how to create content.
Start with your FAQs.
What are the frequently askedquestions that you get asked all
the time?
Thank you, and start with thoseand then start I don't know, I
don't know, I don't know.
Is there anything else?
Christine Zito (32:42):
yeah, I would think, write out each of your
services, you know, and peoplesay well, how, what can I write
about?
Uh, a broken toilet.
Oh, you right, when I talk to aplumber, they can't stop
talking about a broken put thatyeah, that's great.
MJ Finstrom (32:56):
I mean people love to watch like mishaps and
failures and how they're doingthings and how they make things
or how they fix a pipe or youknow they love that stuff and
then how it fits in relevance totoday's world and remember this
, that with any videos, thatthat you either do with with me,
(33:22):
pure media marketing, or withmj, which she would probably do
a lot more when it comes tosocial media marketing.
Christine Zito (33:27):
you can all videos have a transcript.
Yeah, and that could be.
And you could take thattranscript, copy and paste it
onto your, your blog, which isseparate from your content, your
main content, and you've justtaken care of not only your blog
but ADA compliancy.
(33:48):
Yeah for sure, because you haveyour video, a little bit of
maybe an introduction into thecontent, and then your
transcript.
Right, you've just taken careof everything and then click
publish.
MJ Finstrom (34:00):
Yeah, there's so many ways to do it, and the
thing is, technology is gettingbetter and better all the time.
I'm a tech geek, I mean I Ianything that makes my life
easier.
Technology wise.
I'm there.
I've got these glasses.
Christine Zito (34:13):
They listen for me and I I even have shoes that
I don't.
MJ Finstrom (34:16):
I don't tie my shoes anymore.
No, I'm not filming you.
I should, I could.
I wear slip-in shoes all thetime.
Oh, okay, I have slip-ins.
I like my slip-ins, yeah.
Yeah, are those slip-ins?
Yeah they're.
Hey, dudes, I love it, you knowso, anything that makes my life
easier.
And so, with content, and I'vetalked to writers and people.
(34:37):
I've been around the editorsfor a long time.
They're loving AI and that kindof stuff as well.
But I did during the fires.
I interviewed one of my bestfriends who was a fire survivor
from a Colorado fire and do youknow, on our phones you can
record a phone conversation.
Yes, and that phoneconversation will transcribe
(35:02):
into copy and then you can putthat copy and have a.
I clean it up and that could bea blog, like if you're
interviewing somebody.
I interviewed her about whatare the best ways we can help
fire survivors and she gave allthis great information and just
did this Q and a with herBrilliant.
And I said clean that up, chat,gpt or whatever I was using and
(35:23):
it created this amazing kind ofblog-like thing.
I use LinkedIn sometimes fornewsletter stuff, but technology
can help you now with contentmore than ever, you know, I mean
more than ever.
I just want to say one thingabout your website.
You talked about the wholenavigation thing, and I feel
(35:44):
like I'm just talking about whatpeople are missing and what
they're doing wrong.
And I'm not.
But one of the things I findout there is people in business
have no way to collect money fortheir business.
It drives me bananas.
I'm like put that on a cart onyour website, yes, and I find
that.
Find that.
Oh no, I don't know.
Well, we'll get to that later.
(36:04):
I'm like no, no, that's thefirst thing you should be doing
if you have a business is howpeople pay you you know what?
Christine Zito (36:11):
on my website I have that.
Yeah, if you want websitemaintenance, you can buy it on
my website.
If you want to rent this studio, you can buy it on my website.
Yeah, and it is important yougotta.
That is so true in today, intoday's uh technology, it makes
it a little bit simple.
MJ Finstrom (36:26):
I don't use the word easy because it's not
always easy, but it is simple,you okay I know we could go on
forever, but I want to touch onartificial intelligence.
Christine Zito (36:37):
Okay, ai, I do want to.
May I work in it every, everysingle day.
You work in it every single day.
You work in it every single day.
But I do want to remindeverybody it is artificial, yep,
okay.
People always ask me is itgoing to take over the world?
It's already taking over theworld, but it doesn't have to
control you.
MJ Finstrom (36:52):
No.
Christine Zito (36:53):
AI will always and be forever, whether it turns
into robots or whatever, it'sgoing to be controlled by human
beings.
So, in saying that, let's useit and have fun.
Let's use it.
You know, I always sayartificial is a tool, not the
rule, so let's have fun with it.
You know, when I work inartificial intelligence to
create content for clients, Iwill use Copilot and I will also
(37:18):
use Gemini.
I love Gemini.
Do you, it just takes you.
All of them have theirweaknesses and their strengths.
MJ Finstrom (37:26):
Yes.
Christine Zito (37:27):
And so it's hard for me to say one is better
than the other.
But I do like Gemini, becauseit just gives you a longer
version of things.
MJ Finstrom (37:33):
Interesting.
Christine Zito (37:34):
Yeah, it just does, anyway.
So artificial intelligence andhow I use it with websites is to
create content, and then I addthe human touch, because I'll
say this Google is the one thatinvented artificial intelligence
for for online.
So, in saying that, even theyGoogle finds it hard sometimes
(37:58):
to know what's real and what'snot real.
Even they have that problem andthey will tell you that on
their blog.
Yeah, yeah.
So when they crawl your website,that's why your about page is
so important and a picture ofwho you are, 100%, yeah, and
that's why I'm a stickler whenit comes to the about page.
And remember, on the about page, you don't have to be revealing
(38:20):
, but at least be transparent.
Right, that's it?
Okay, you don't have to talkabout you know all your past
life and things like that, andno, just talk about who you are
and who you are in the business.
And so, when it comes toartificial intelligence, just
make sure that you're alwaysusing it on the human level,
(38:42):
because that's what Google islooking for.
That's what search is beingSearch Yahoo, because Yahoo
still has their search engine.
They're looking for the humanelement, and when they can't
find it, they will spam it, andyou just need to fix that
content 100%.
So how do you approachartificial?
MJ Finstrom (39:02):
intelligence.
Well, I think humanizing it'slike that seems to be a theme
all over.
We were attending these, thePasadena the talks you know, I
forget the name of it, butthey're wonderful and there was
Sanjay Gupta and the Economist Imean all these great people,
but they always talk about ai inevery one of them and it's been
(39:25):
fascinating, but they all kindof have a thread.
You got to make sure you'rehumanizing it, because that's
where it's at, and in marketingin particular, um, I always tell
people ai is never going toreplace you, it's never going to
replace your relationships thatyou build.
that's the most important thingin business, that's the thing,
Say that again, let me writethat down AI will never replace
you, will never replace me Willnever, replace your
(39:47):
relationships, never replace,will never replace your
expertise and your skill set,will never replace your
creativity.
Are you listening to this?
You still own that.
What it will do to all of us,which is a good thing.
It should sharpen our criticalthinking skills.
(40:08):
Of every piece of content thatwe see.
We should use our criticalthinking skills in judgment to
say, hmm wonder if that's realor not.
And you see it like on Facebookall the time there's a picture
of a lion with a cute babydangling out of its mouth and
their best friends and you'relike that is not real people.
You know, um, it's not real.
(40:28):
When in in actually Sanjay Gupta, that's happened to him.
There's the kind of thing theyput him out promoting some
product and he looks a littleweird and movement.
That is not real.
Just it more.
Question it more.
And, on the reverse end, makesure, if people are questioning
you, that you can prove you arereal and that you are human and
(40:51):
always know how to humanize yourbrand.
I mean this was beforeartificial intelligence.
Everybody talked about theimportance of humanizing your
brand.
That mean this was beforeartificial intelligence.
Everybody talked about theimportance of humanizing your
brand that's why I believe instory.
Yeah, yeah nothing can take awaynothing in this world.
Christine Zito (41:08):
No, can take away from your story and bring
that into your marketing and,like you said, it's about having
fun.
MJ Finstrom (41:13):
You know, we started um an ai user group.
We meet once a month on.
I think it's the second Mondaywe just met yesterday.
Oh my God, we're learning somuch from each other when?
Christine Zito (41:24):
Second, I didn't know this, it's online.
MJ Finstrom (41:26):
It's a hot dogs AI users group.
Christine Zito (41:29):
So much fun.
I'm going to put that Francineis part of it.
MJ Finstrom (41:32):
She always has great things to offer, and so
it's spearheaded by hot dogs.
But we are just, we're talking,we're showing how we're using
it.
I'm always showing the fun Ihave with AI.
I mean, we went to Breckenridgeto talk about the ski slopes and
I planned an AI.
I planned a day trip toBreckenridge with AI just to see
(41:52):
what would happen if we weregoing to end up in Nebraska or
whatever, and then made a videoand that's on HUTd ogs' Facebook
page If you want to check thatout.
But so fun and it was reallygreat to plan that way.
Made me think of things.
But one of the key takeawaysfrom our AI user group and this
was just in the last week it'sjust like massive light bulb
(42:14):
going on Ask AI to give beforethey generate, generate ask
whatever ai tool.
Ask me qualifying questions.
Now that is a game changer whenit comes to ai.
So what I mean by that isbefore I asked ai and I I'm a
co-pilot fan.
Um, before you give me myitinerary for my day trip to
(42:36):
Breckenridge asked me qualifyingquestions and they asked me do
you need any specialaccommodations?
well, yeah, we're taking my mom.
We need wheelchair access.
Do you have any food preference?
Well, yeah, we're taking my mom.
She wants a cinnamon roll.
Uh, do you have any?
Um other needs do you want?
What kind of stops do you wantto that?
(42:57):
I love waterfalls and I lovereal scenic things and it pulled
out an itinerary that was justfantastic, right and so that
that's what was cool.
Yeah, yeah, that.
So there's so much fun to playand I'm always playing like I
probably have pictures for myhusband right now because we're
always co-piloting each otherwhere we make each other into
cartoons.
He, we laugh at that.
(43:18):
Everything is the funniestthing on earth.
It is an.
Christine Zito (43:20):
Artificial intelligence is fun and I use it
and I and I did a.
You know I'm part of the arcadiachamber of commerce and at the
breakfast I was showing howartificial intelligence has
evolved and is going to involveand how you can manipulate
pictures yes I said you know, II showed this one where, um, I
just pulled a picture off stock,a stock photo of sheep, because
(43:42):
sheep are my favorite animal,and I said this is what happens
when I can manipulate thatpicture with artificial
intelligence.
Well, all the sheep in thepicture came alive and they were
walking around.
And I said now, if I were topost that on Instagram because
it was, these sheep are fromIreland, if I were to post that
on Instagram, I can say anywherewhere I'm at.
I say here, I am in Ireland, I'mhere with the sheep.
(44:03):
You know how many people wouldbelieve me?
Yeah, 100% yeah.
And so I said just be carefulwho you hire as a marketing
company using artificialintelligence on the behalf of
your brand.
You just got to be careful.
Yeah, and YouTube has strictrules too, that when you upload
a video, you have to answer thequestion if it's if it's
artificial or not.
Yeah, and and if you say no andyou get caught, you are not.
(44:25):
They will make it verydifficult for you to upload
another instagram is that way aswell.
MJ Finstrom (44:30):
Yeah, for sure you.
Oh my gosh, MJ there's so manycareful and so many things we
could talk about right now.
It's so much fun you know whatwe?
Christine Zito (44:37):
you'll have to come back more towards the
holidays, all right becausethere will be things marketing
wise that you and I wellactually you, you well, me too
because we work together.
And and do you see why I referMJ, all my clients to MJ?
Because she, we work together.
And especially when it's awebsite that I build, she will
say or a video that I did,she'll say, okay, send me some
(44:58):
cuts, send me some, you know,edits and stuff that she can use
for social media.
And the thing I love workingwith MJ is that we can be
consistent with the brandthere's.
I don't want you know, whenpeople go to social media, they
can, they can also see that onthe website.
MJ Finstrom (45:13):
So yeah, and you want to pull stuff from your.
If you have a really, reallygood website, it makes the
social media that much easier,because you can take that
website apart and have athousand posts based on a great
website.
You know just one snippet at atime and that's.
Christine Zito (45:27):
That's a beautiful thing yeah, and she'll
give me some ideas too.
Hey, christine, can you do thison the website?
I'm all, absolutely you know.
MJ Finstrom (45:33):
So we trust each other because we know each other
.
So MJ.
Christine Zito (45:37):
thank you so much, you're welcome.
MJ Finstrom (45:39):
Thanks for having me oh my gosh.
Christine Zito (45:40):
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for letting us knowwhat more we can do with email
marketing, social mediamarketing, artificial
intelligence and we just touchedthe surface 100%.
MJ Finstrom (45:53):
Yeah, there's so much Just touched the surface.
Well, the thing is, it's allchanging all the time, probably
right now as we speak.
I know it Well.
Christine Zito (46:00):
The thing is it's all changing all the time,
probably right now as we speak.
I know it's like buying a brandnew car you take it off the lot
it's already depreciated.
MJ Finstrom (46:04):
Already done yeah.
Christine Zito (46:05):
So, all right, All the information that we
talked about here on Arcadia FYIwith MJ, it's going to be on
arcadifyi.
com in the resource tab or evenon the blog with her and I'll
have on there.
The link so you can is the AIgroup that you have on there.
MJ Finstrom (46:26):
Oh, just go to hutdogs.
com and our user group will beup there.
Christine Zito (46:29):
Okay, and so I'll have that link for you if
you want to join and learn moreabout artificial intelligence
and using it in your brand, inyour company.
And gosh, I wanted to ask youanother question, but we have to
go.
I mean it's great.
I'd like to thank our sponsors,Our sponsors Toyota Longo,
(46:51):
Toyota Lexus in El Monte.
Again, you got to go by there.
Say hi to Mike and Brooke.
They do more than just sellcars.
It's a huge, this huge lot, andthere's things inside of it.
It's great you got to go see it.
They have restaurants,everything Star 7 Financial with
Francine Chu, the Santa AnitaPark and the Hotel in Arcadia
(47:12):
and Pasadena.
Until next time, just beblessed and make it a great day.
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