July 8, 2025 • 34 mins
Are you feeling overwhelmed by the buzz around AI and wondering how it fits into your nonprofit's digital strategy? In this episode, I sit down with Arti Anand, an AI automation expert, to demystify the role of artificial intelligence in personalizing donor engagement and streamlining operations.
Embracing AI Without Losing the Human Touch
- How AI can enhance, not replace, genuine connections with donors
- Strategies for maintaining authenticity while leveraging automation
- The importance of transparency when implementing AI tools
Practical Applications for Nonprofits
- Using AI for efficient proposal generation and follow-ups
- Implementing AI voice agents for improved donor communication
- Leveraging ChatGPT for problem-solving and strategic planning
Overcoming Implementation Challenges
- Start small and iterate your AI strategy
- Train AI tools effectively using your organization's unique data
- Balance automation with human oversight for optimal results
Addressing Common Concerns
- Maintaining personalization in automated communications
- Ensuring AI aligns with your nonprofit's values and mission
- Communicating the benefits of AI to donors and stakeholders
Whether you're AI-curious or skeptical, this conversation offers valuable insights to help you navigate the evolving landscape of nonprofit technology. Discover how embracing AI can free up your team to focus on what matters most – making a meaningful impact in your community.
Want to Skip Ahead? Here are Some Key Takeaways:
03:31 AI as a Tool for Personal and Business Growth It is important to identify what brings joy and generates income, then using AI and automation to handle necessary tasks that don't fall into those categories. This approach allows for better time management and increased productivity.
11:05 Balancing Automation and Personalization There are concerns about AI and automation leading to depersonalization. Start with what works manually, then automate 80% of it. This approach saves time and increases productivity while still maintaining quality through human supervision. Pay attention to the iterative nature of implementing AI solutions in business.
18:20 Understanding AI Agents and Their Applications There are different types of automations, including linear, AI-powered, and AI agents. AI agents can be used in businesses, such as replacing receptionists for appointment booking. It's important to have proper training and data input for effective AI implementation.
24:26 Transparency and Practical Implementation of AI Transparency is so important when using AI in organizations. Communicate the use of AI to stakeholders, emphasizing its benefits. Attach AI implementation to specific outcomes that solve pain points for users.
28:10 Getting Started with AI in Business Start by describing the problem and desired outcome to ChatGPT, then consulting with multiple vendors. The importance of asking the right questions and starting with a proof of concept is important.
Don't miss this opportunity to gain practical knowledge on harnessing AI to enhance your nonprofit's efficiency and donor engagement. Tune in for a conversation that could transform your approach to digital strategy and fundraising.
Resources
Follow Aarti on Insta and DM her FC-Pod to receive her playbook to adopt AI.
Aarti Anand
After years of building SaaS products, Aarti saw businesses wasting time on outdated, manual prospecting and thought, “This is broken.” With AI on the rise, she knew the answer wasn't more outreach—it was smarter automation.
Now, Aarti is on a mission to help businesses ditch the grind and scale faster. No more chasing leads that go nowhere—just an AI-driven syste
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So excited to be here with another AIconversation because we all know this
is the name of the game these days,and how can we make the most of it?
There's a lot of misconceptionsaround AI and specifically
how it can be personalized.
How can we not just keepourselves outta the loop?
We're gonna lose people becausethey're gonna think we're not
connecting with them, or they're gonnaunderstand they're talking to ai.
(00:22):
So I'm really excited for thisconversation with my guest RT Anan
today as we talk through kind of.
What AI really is and how can we useit more effectively in our businesses
to not leave money on the table andfree ourselves up to be able to bring
in more money for our organization.
(00:42):
I. After years of building SaaSproducts, RT saw businesses wasting
time on outdated manual prospectingand thought this is broken.
With AI on the rise, she knewthe answer wasn't more outreach,
it was smarter automation.
Now, RT is on a mission to help businessesditch the grind and scale faster.
No more chasing leads that go nowhere.
(01:03):
Just an AI driven systemthat works while you sleep.
And now I know that's gonna make younervous, but just go with me here.
You're gonna really enjoy this episodeand the way that she brings thoughtful
conversation around AI and how you'reapproaching your donors and your
customers to make sure that you are beingauthentic, that you are being real, that
(01:24):
you are being genuine, AI's just helpingyou run more of it in the background.
So I hope you stickaround for this episode.
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(02:34):
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(02:56):
Let's get into the episode.
You're listening to the DigitalMarketing Therapy Podcast.
I'm your host, Sammy Del Mulhern.
Each month we dive deep into a digitalmarketing or fundraising strategy that
you can implement in your organization.
Each week you'll hear from guestexperts, nonprofits, and myself on
best practices, tips and resourcesto help you raise more money online
(03:19):
and reach your organizational goals.
Hey friends, please join me inwelcoming Artie Anand to the podcast.
Archie, thank you for being here today.
Thank you, Sammy.
I'm very excited.
Well, we're talking about the hottopic of today of, I mean, I feel like
everybody's talking about it, which is ai.
Uh, why is this a topic that you areso interested and passionate about?
(03:43):
Ooh, that's a good start.
So, um, I've been buildingsoftware products for 15 years.
And then, um, I got into this phase inmy life where it just doesn't seem right.
Why?
Because I'm a mom of three kids,mom, all under the age of 12.
(04:07):
And I have dogs.
I have parents who are aging.
Um, at some point in life, everybody getsto a point where they start to question.
How they're living by default.
And I think that was my, thatwas the the point where I started
(04:29):
really brainstorming, whatam I doing in a nine to five?
Is this how the rest of the life gonna be?
And as I just question it more and moreand more, I got to a point where I felt
like I can design it the way I want.
(04:49):
And that was the motivation onwhat I really wanted to figure out.
So what that, what doesthat ideal Saturday ideal
Wednesday, Thursday look like?
Right.
Um, so I quit my nine to five, uh, whichis, I understand is now for everybody.
I just, cold Turkey, I really wentcold Turkey in and I started to
(05:13):
figure out, well, what do I wanna do?
There's a LinkedIn postwhich is coming out tomorrow.
It's your moat is where the mess is.
So think about, um, where
I love it.
I'm sorry.
No, you're totally fine.
(05:34):
I love it.
Can you ask it?
Thank you, Nona.
Can you ask Daddy?
Can you ask Daddy?
I am so sorry, Sammy.
No,
please do not apologize.
I totally get it.
Yeah.
So the idea was, uh, how doyou design it the way you want?
(05:57):
Mm-hmm.
So, like I said, there is aLinkedIn post coming out tomorrow
and I really put my heart into it.
Your moat is.
Where your mess is, and that's whatmakes you different than everybody else.
Hmm.
The
thing that you've beenstruggling to figure out.
And once you do, that's the messageyou wanna put out in the world.
(06:19):
Right.
And my messy part of how I was living bydefault was I wasn't controlling my time.
I didn't have the freedom of time, money.
And that was, you know, and location.
And that was just reallyimportant to me as a mom.
I. And that's what I wanted to figure out.
And as soon as I learned aboutAI automations, I mean, I'd been
(06:42):
building software products forever,so I knew how to create a system.
I just needed a vehicle whichwould help me get to the outcome
faster than anybody else.
I. And that's why I got so passionateabout AI building systems in place,
which is the foundation beforeyou try to automate anything.
And that just became my jam.
(07:04):
And that's when I started my companyand we, they we're not looking back, I.
Yeah, I love it.
Okay.
Well, I just, just as a kind ofan anecdote, because your daughter
kind of came in and, um, I, rightbefore we recorded this, I went
downstairs and told my son, youknow, Hey, I'm recording a podcast.
We're talking about ai.
Um, so like, staydownstairs until I'm done.
(07:26):
Right.
And he's like, well, AI isgonna take your job away.
Like he, he literally like,immediately that was the thing.
He, are you worried thatAI's gonna take your job?
And I was like, no, no, no, I'm not.
And so I'm excited to kind oftalk about that here in a second.
But also then, um, a few weeks ago,so my son is 14, my daughter is 16,
and a few weeks ago I couldn't figureout what I wanted to make dinner.
(07:48):
So I used Chet GPT to help me figureout what I wanted to make for dinner.
And my daughter was so annoyed andshe's 16 and a theater major, and she's
like, AI is taking away our creativity.
So it's really interesting, evenin our home, like as we talk to our
kids about ai, who are Gen Z. Liketheir feelings and thoughts on it.
And so that's why I'm really excited tohave this conversation with you because
(08:08):
I think there is such a great placefor it, but at the same time requires
that human element in order to workwell and get you the best results.
So I would love to hear like as you kindof decided to go through this and like.
Say, okay, well I know this is,uh, a place that I feel comfortable
in, I wanna play with it.
Um, like what parts of AI do you feelmost excited about and how it helps people
(08:34):
streamline and grow their businesses?
Like where do you see thebiggest area of opportunity?
So I think it, it startswith the foundation.
So whether you're in a, in a nine tofive or you're running your own business.
But what is the ideal life that you want?
Mm-hmm.
Let's start there.
What does that ideal week look like?
(08:57):
What are you doing on that day?
You backtrack from there andyou reverse engineer what's
stopping you from getting there?
And you make a list of all the thingsthat you end up on a daily basis.
You do not enjoy.
And at the end of the day, if you wake upbut you don't have fun with what you do,
(09:20):
who you do it with and how you get thatthing done, then I mean, what's the point?
And I just, I keep going back.
And that, that's how, that'show I figured out my North Star.
That's how I figured whatI want to keep to myself.
Do it because it lights meup and also prints me money.
(09:43):
But if it doesn't light me up, but it hasto get done, then I need to delegate it.
I just need to find someone elsewho would love to do it, and
that's what they find joy in.
And it'll also bring in cash so wecan get, keep the business running,
because that's the ultimate idea.
If I'm not bringing in business.
(10:06):
Then bringing in cash intothe business, then it's sort
of a disservice to my family.
Mm-hmm.
Where I'm putting my time in.
But it's not generating the ROI, right?
Yeah.
So you figure out what you wannado on a daily basis that lights
you up and also prints you money.
That's where you spend yourtime in for some people.
(10:27):
It's getting on sales call.
For some people it's writing content.
For some people, it'sgetting on a podcast.
For some people, they just wannasit and fulfill and that's okay.
Um, and anything that you don'twanna do, but it's necessary
because it brings in cash.
You figure out someone who wantsto do it or you build an automation
(10:47):
because there is a process in place.
If someone were to sit down and followthe process manually, step 1, 2, 3.
They can get to a predictable outcome.
Now, let's put, I put AI andautomations on top of it and
get it run a hundred x faster.
Yeah, I think that's so good.
And I, I, it goes back to, um, I'lllink this up in the show notes.
(11:10):
We did a podcast a couple yearsago, I think maybe by now,
that was all about automation.
It had nothing to do with AI at thetime, but it's like the things that
you're repeating over and over andover again that you're like sending
the same email over and over again,or you're doing the same process.
Like if you do somethingmore than two or three times.
Automate it and AI just lets youkind of take that to the next level.
(11:33):
And so I think this feeling of, um,I'd like you to talk a little bit
about like this feeling of, okay,well if I automate, that's one thing.
If I take put AI in it, I'mlosing that personal touch.
Like how do we kind of removeourselves from ai and automation
means depersonalization because Idon't think those are the same thing.
That's a great question, by the way.
(11:54):
Um, the way I want people to thinkabout is you take what's working
already manually and then youautomate it, and then think about it.
It may not.
In the age of tech we are today,it may not be a hundred percent
automated without any supervision.
(12:18):
But start with the mindset of 80% done,done by someone else is way better
than a hundred percent done by you.
A, because it gives you 80% backon your calendar, and then you
multiply that by your hourly rate.
That's the amount of money you arelosing every day from your business.
(12:39):
You're taking that cash away from yourbusiness by sitting and doing it manually.
That's one and second.
Even if it gets you 80% your time back,but it also gives you productivity,
which is 10 times or a hundred x.
That's second and third.
(12:59):
Um, putting in human there tosupervise it, it's now you are
using their time for somethinghigher leverage and something that.
Is important for you, so your brand, youridentity, the way you want things to work.
(13:20):
You would still have thesame type of quality without
spending a hundred hours on it.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
So that's number three.
And in this process you'll alsolearn a lot, plus in months to
come, tech will get that better.
Mm-hmm.
And at some point you may be ableto automate a hundred percent of it,
which we do have some workflows thatare 100% automated, but we do have
(13:44):
some, which are either 50 or 60 or 70%.
And if you, those hours add up.
And that's the place I wanteverybody to start with.
Everyone thinks they have towake up tomorrow and go run
a marathon, but guess what?
It starts with running a mile at a time.
(14:04):
Yeah.
Okay.
So let's start with that.
Running a mile at a time because Ithink the other thing is we don't,
AI doesn't have to be automated.
Um, and AI doesn't have to justbe generative creating content.
It can just be a tool that you usebecause you don't have a huge team.
Maybe you only have two or threeon your team, or you have a whole,
(14:25):
you're missing a certain area ofexpertise and you need support.
And so like, I, I thinkmaybe even starting with.
Using AI as a tool to just help you.
I use it 'cause we're a small team tobrainstorm and just go back and forth and
like figure out, okay, well is this a goodidea and how do I wanna flush this out?
And things like that.
So what are some ways that maybeyou've seen people use AI creatively
(14:47):
that's not necessarily generativecontent, um, but can still help
you save time in your business?
Save time in the work that you're doing,uh, even if you're not using it to
communicate directly with your audience.
Absolutely.
So you can start with, think aboutall the things that your business
needs to get done and look at allthe departments that you have.
(15:13):
It could be a, it could startwith an SMB owner, but it could
also be a bigger business.
So for a small business owner,you get on sales calls, they show
interest, and you have to sell,you have to send the proposal.
Typically when I talk to people, they'respending anywhere between one to three
(15:33):
hours writing their proposal down.
If you have a product that you're able tosell, shouldn't that proposal generation
and sending be automated already?
And that's if you start there.
I, I personally, am taking closeto 30 sales calls every month.
I have a really good close rate.
(15:54):
If people ask me to send a proposal,I don't wanna spend two hours of
my time of the CEO's time writingand sending those proposals.
So I have it all automated, and thereason why it works is because it
gives me easily 20 hours back, andthat's a lot of time on my calendar.
So that's where I would start.
(16:16):
You could also figure out.
This is where the world is getting to.
This is what we are alsoimplementing in our business.
Anything that people used to havedepartments, now you think about,
um, replacing them as one person.
I. To supervise and to put thesystem in place, plus an AI agent
(16:40):
that now becomes your whole team.
You can get a lot of things done with it.
It could be one for content,it could be one for sales.
It could be one for another part of yourbusiness, but don't, what I'm trying to
say is don't stay stuck at the same level.
Mm-hmm.
You need to make sure you'remaking one to two or to 5%.
(17:04):
Improvements in your systems every day,and it's always an iterative process.
Going back to the same example, peoplethink they need something so robust
and so predictable from day one.
No business was created like that.
We all had to go throughiterative processes.
(17:24):
That's how you use AI tools as well.
Just think about them as.
And in turn that costs youclose to 20, $30 a month.
Yeah.
And like that's a powerfulage of tech to live in.
Mm-hmm.
And I don't understand why PEeverybody's not jumping on it.
(17:45):
The, the best use case I stillsee them doing is using it to
write emails can do so much more.
It cannot create AI agents for you.
But that's not.
What everybody needs.
Yeah.
Most of the businesses wouldeither be 70, 80% better if they
(18:07):
just has linear automations.
Yeah.
Step 1, 2, 3.
They have to be followed in a sequence.
If you just had that, most ofthe businesses will be doing far
better than they're doing today.
Okay, so AI agents is a term that is a,I mean, a little bit newer ish to me.
Um, so I know that it's probablysomething that my audience and
(18:30):
listeners aren't super familiar with.
So could you explain what an AI agent is?
Of course.
So we, in, in the term of automation andAI and the type of business I'm in, um,
I talk about three types of automations.
So one is, like I said, linear, which isalso called traditional automations, which
(18:53):
is someone filled a form and then a newrole got attached to the Google sheet.
And then from there.
An email was drafted and then anew lead was added to your CRM.
So that's a very linear, you go fromleft to right and it gives you an outcome
and you don't have to sit and it, thatlead could come from a Facebook ad. And
(19:16):
then it's saves you hours every month.
So that's one.
Second is when you put AI on top, when youneed to personalize and you need to enrich
your leads, that's where you plug in ai.
So you, you use open AI or any other LLMs.
You use them in a couple of timesin your automation, and that
becomes an AI powered automation.
(19:37):
The third is, which you said isthe newer term, which is AI agent.
Where the whole workflow has to workin a way, it has to make decisions,
and it could be customer facing.
So I'll give you an example.
We install AI voice agents in businesses.
So anybody who has a receptionisttoday, and we all know they could.
(19:59):
Feel more valuable and usefulin your business if they were
doing higher leverage tasks.
So we replace it, we replace those,um um, help desk receptionists.
With AI agents where it could be aphone call, someone calls in, they
want an appointment, the AI agentpicks up the call and it remembers
(20:20):
the context of the conversation.
It can also, we can also give it access tothe tools, your CRM, so they could see the
background, how many times you have servedthem in the past, or is it a new customer,
and they can also access your calendarand then they can book an appointment.
So at that point.
That workflow is automating a partof your business, and that piece of
(20:45):
AI that you installed as a softwareis making autonomous decisions
without a human in the loop.
Yeah.
And that's when it becomes an agent.
And at no point you have tobe stuck with the AI agent.
We can also configure a setting wherewe say, I just wanna talk to a human.
And at that point, the AIagent will very politely.
(21:08):
Route the call to a human agentand they can connect them directly.
Yeah.
And I know this is like really bigand like something that everybody
just immediately is like, oh, likethis kind of makes me nervous.
I can't do this.
Um, but I think chatbots have beenaround for years and that is a kind of.
Maybe like beginning stage of what youwould consider now to be an AI agent
(21:31):
and we have all, um, engaged with them.
Good, better or ugly.
And I think the thing here is not doesthe technology work and is it good?
I think it's, I mean, I.
I mean, this is my question to you.
It's more about the data and the systemsthat we put in on the backend, the way
that we kind of populate it, like thework we do as individuals, as humans,
(21:53):
as, um, business owners to give theAI agents the information they need to
support us in the way we need them to do.
Right?
Like, if they're not doing whatthey need to do, that's not on
them, that's on us and how we'rekind of collecting information.
Right?
Absolutely.
And I love the way you touchedit, so it goes back to.
The basics of entrepreneurship.
(22:13):
Mm-hmm.
You were doing sales calls in yourbusiness at some point you got
tired of them because you justwanted to do more things and you
were growing and you were scaling.
So you hired a sales agent, right.
They mess up, they make mistakeand you get mad at them.
Well, the question I wanna askyou is, did you train them?
(22:36):
Yeah.
If yes, what does the training look like?
Did they follow the script orwas there no training in place?
So it all boils down to is it a systemsproblem or is it a people problem?
That's the starting point.
The same way when you try to train asoftware, which is AI, in this case.
(22:57):
To do that job.
My question is, what isthe training material?
Mm-hmm.
How are you training it?
What do you want it to say?
Does it know you want it to say?
That's the knowledge base.
Anybody who's a graduate today,they're all at the same level, and then
someone goes and works for Deloitte,someone goes, works for Google.
(23:18):
Five years later, they're completelydifferent human beings because
they were part of different teams.
That's how they were trained in,right, and that's how I want you to
think about installing an AI agent.
The LLM is the brain.
It's like a fresh graduate out of college.
Everybody starts at that same baselinebecause everybody's using the same LLM.
(23:40):
Now from there, it needs acontext and that context is
whatever they are talking about.
But then where are theypulling that knowledge from?
That's the knowledge base, andthat's all your training material.
If you want it to replace you in a salescall, you need all the transcripts from
the sales calls you have held before.
(24:01):
Or you create a training, youcreate an SOP, you feed it to
it, and then go in a trial.
Yeah, for 15 days, for 20days, and then see what breaks.
And then you make sure you promptit and you feed those prompts.
And based on those prompts, youhave more content that's generated
that makes sure that the agent knowshow to handle those situations.
(24:26):
Well, and I think, I mean, how importantif we're getting started out, whether
it's we're creating blog posts or we'rewriting emails or social media posts,
or we're creating scripts for ourboard members to be able to reach out
to people like that transparency, likeeven for organizations that are nervous
about it, to just even say, Hey, as anonprofit, we're trying to make the most
(24:48):
out of the dollars that are donated.
So we are using AI to help usgenerate some of this content.
We know it's not gonna be perfect.
We know we're gonna make mistakes, butplease know that, like please help us
as we continue to work through this.
Like that transparency canreally go a long way in that, um.
What's the word?
(25:09):
Not generosity, but um, like patiencefrom our donors or the people that
we're communicating with for them tounderstand like, we're on this learning
curve, so please give us some grace.
That's the word I'm looking for.
Give us some grace aswe work through this.
But this is gonna allow us to make themost of the dollars that you're giving
to us because we're not going to have toinvest so much into overhead and we can
(25:29):
get more done with the money you give us.
Like, uh, I, I mean like thatcan be a really impactful.
Storytelling piece tothis whole AI transition.
Exactly.
And contrary to the popular belief, whenyou tell someone that, and I'm gonna use
the voice agent as an example, becausepeople are really averse to talking to
(25:49):
ai like phone to phone, uh, because theyjust want human to human connection.
If it solves a pain point, that'swhat you wanna attach that process to.
If I'm installing an AI voiceagent, say in a dental office,
what does that buy the patients in?
(26:13):
That also means that if someonehad a root canal yesterday and then
they wake up in the middle of thenight with an excruciating pain
and they call the dental office andthe off and the staff is not there.
AI can pick up the call andgive them the next seven o'clock
appointment in the morning.
Yeah, and I don't think the patientwould complain about it because
(26:34):
they got their pain points solved.
So I 100% agree where you're coming from.
I just, the point I'm trying tomake is attach it to an outcome that
would make a no-brainer for them.
What, with the use of ai, whatare you trying to do and how
does that connect the dots?
(26:55):
With where the donations are coming fromand where you are trying to take them.
Like you might not, you, you wouldn'tuse AI for one-on-one outreach to your
high level sponsors, but you mightuse AI agents to help you with ticket
sales for an event that you have comingup to handle the calls for people
coming in to just purchase tickets.
Right.
Like Exactly.
That's kind of the, yeah.
(27:15):
Right.
And then you and I both know, you know,I mean the, the follow ups, excuse me.
The follow ups is where the money's at.
Right.
If you don't follow up, they may.
I mean, life gets in the way.
They may got, they may havegotten busy with something else.
If you put AI voice and SMS or textor any email marketing powered by
(27:39):
ai, all three of them are in place.
They're following up with someone whoshowed interest even five months ago.
Um, and then just make sure whenyou are trying to give it a roll.
Make sure the demographics that it'sreaching out to you are adjusting the tone
(27:59):
based on is it reaching out to elderly?
Is it reaching out to senior citizens?
Yeah.
Or young donors.
It just, it makes that simple tweakmakes so much of a difference.
Okay.
So as we wrap this up, if we're thinkinglike, okay, this is great, this all sounds
wonderful, we are not tech savvy enough.
We have no idea where to kindof go and start with this.
(28:21):
Um, how, like, how would we wanna tackle,like what would we wanna tackle first and
where do we go to kind of figure out what.
Tools, systems, which AI platforms, likeI always say, go to the existing CRM
that you're already using and see whatAI systems they have in place there.
But like, what would you advisepeople as they're kind of dipping
(28:41):
their toe in and starting to jump in?
Where, where should they start?
So I'm gonna tell you something,which is gonna sound so silly,
but it's gonna be very useful.
Love it if you, if you have a. Two tofive sentence description of your exact
problem, where you are today, what isthe outcome you're trying to get at?
(29:05):
Just feed that into chat gpt. Like really that simple?
Start there.
Yeah.
I love that.
Um, if you're not ready to invest,then that's where you start.
And second advice I always give when you.
Have a problem.
You're trying to solve it.
You don't just go to a vendor and youjust hire the first person you talk
(29:31):
to, you go talk to five differentpeople and then bring in the the
responses that you got from the LLM.
You take it to them.
Jump on a 15 minute discoverycall, see how many questions they
ask you before they give you theprescription of what you need.
The better questions they ask becausethey're trying to understand your
(29:54):
business, your problem, your outcome,not the thing they have already baked in,
and they're just trying to sell you that.
That's a good starting point.
The better questions they ask, meaningthey have helped other people and
they also have the best interestin helping you get to the outcome.
And that's where you start and you startwith a simple discussion of, this is the
(30:17):
CRM I'm using, this is the outcome I want.
Give me the missing piece and howmany steps is, is it gonna be?
Is it gonna be a hundred percentautomated or 80% automated?
And then what type of training the humanwould need, who's supervising this system?
And then how long before we can getthe first version ready and I, we
(30:40):
just wanna try E one and see if weeven wanna build the whole thing.
Just do a POC with them and thenhave them give you that thing for
free, for trial for 15, 20 days.
You go play with it.
You go give it to your friendsand families and other past
clients you've worked with.
They'll give you the realfeedback and you start, yeah.
(31:02):
I love that and what yousaid at the beginning.
Just, you know, ask.
At bt what you need.
Yeah.
I think the great thing about that iseven just asking what questions you should
ask potential vendors, like Exactly.
You know, it's such a huge opportunityfor you to just play with and learn
from as you continue to grow and expand.
So I, I love that.
(31:23):
Um.
Well, Artie, this has beenan amazing conversation.
I think we could probably talkabout this for hours 'cause AI just
is like the topic of the moment.
Um, but if people wanna connect with you,learn more about what you do, uh, and
learn from you, how can they do that?
Absolutely.
So we're all on all, all social platforms,but one we are really going after is
(31:44):
we're connecting with our audience is.
On Instagram, so if you go followme on it, my handle is RT Anand 82.
If you just go follow me there andtell me that you came from Sammy's
podcast, I would love to send you myplaybook, which would be the AI readiness
score, and that's under three minutes.
(32:05):
I can literally give you the blueprint ofwhere your business is suffering today,
and just because you're not jumping on ai.
What does that dollar amount looklike in terms of the cost of inaction?
And it could even be worth threedream family vacations for you if you
just go and install that one system.
(32:26):
Yeah, no, that's so good.
I love the, what is thecost of your inaction?
Uh, 'cause I do think thatthat's incredibly important and
we will have all of the links.
Um, so you can connect with Artie inthe show notes@thefirstclick.net slash
3 0 9, so you can grab those there.
Um, Artie, thank you so muchfor the conversation today and
all of your amazing insights.
This was fantastic.
(32:47):
Thank you, Sammy.
It was wonderful and I hopeyour audience finds value in it.
Um, and I would love to stay connected.
Thank you for having me.
So I wanna thank Artieagain for joining me today.
Such a great conversation.
There's still so many things thatwe could talk about and address with
regards to misconceptions around ai.
And I know there's a lot of technicalterms that we talked about, like LLMs,
(33:08):
which is large language models, uh, whichis the platform that chat GPT is built on
in a lot of the major, uh, AI platforms.
But just remember, even if you'rejust getting started with ai, ask it.
Ask it, what types of tasksit could take off your plate.
Ask it what steps you shouldtake to start automating things.
(33:29):
Ask it.
What platforms would be great for youto use for systems in your organization?
It can be the great place to goto for conversations that you need
to have when, when you're feelingstuck or confused or just don't know
which next steps to take with ai.
I love using AI to brainstorm, to kind ofbe that employee that's sitting next to me
in my office that I don't have access to.
(33:51):
Because we're a small team, I lovethat it allows me to stay a small
team so that we can still createhigh quality content and support you
as small to medium sized nonprofitswithout having to increase our prices.
But for now, make sure you check out theshow notes@thefirstclick.net slash 3 0 9.
You'll have all of the links to connectwith RT there, uh, and make sure
(34:13):
you subscribe wherever you listen.
And while you're at it, head on over toYouTube at Digital Marketing Therapy and
drop us a comment on what your favoritekey takeaway was from this episode.
We're also going live once a month onwebsite Wednesday in our YouTube channel
and on LinkedIn to, uh, give you somestrategies and support with your website.
(34:34):
So make sure you checkus out there for now.
Thank you so much for listening.
And again, uh, check out the shownotes@thefirstclick.net slash 3 0 9
and we'll see you in the next one.
So excited to be here with another AIconversation because we all know this
is the name of the game these days,and how can we make the most of it?
There's a lot of misconceptionsaround AI and specifically
how it can be personalized.
How can we not just keepourselves outta the loop?
We're gonna lose people becausethey're gonna think we're not
connecting with them, or they're gonnaunderstand they're talking to ai.
(00:22):
So I'm really excited for thisconversation with my guest RT Anan
today as we talk through kind of.
What AI really is and how can we useit more effectively in our businesses
to not leave money on the table andfree ourselves up to be able to bring
in more money for our organization.
(00:42):
I. After years of building SaaSproducts, RT saw businesses wasting
time on outdated manual prospectingand thought this is broken.
With AI on the rise, she knewthe answer wasn't more outreach,
it was smarter automation.
Now, RT is on a mission to help businessesditch the grind and scale faster.
No more chasing leads that go nowhere.
(01:03):
Just an AI driven systemthat works while you sleep.
And now I know that's gonna make younervous, but just go with me here.
You're gonna really enjoy this episodeand the way that she brings thoughtful
conversation around AI and how you'reapproaching your donors and your
customers to make sure that you are beingauthentic, that you are being real, that
(01:24):
you are being genuine, AI's just helpingyou run more of it in the background.
So I hope you stickaround for this episode.
It is brought to you by, oh, my High.
Oh, my High is an amazing websiteplatform that can help you build the
website of your dreams in minutes.
And you have the training and the supportbehind you of live q and a calls, website
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(02:56):
Let's get into the episode.
You're listening to the DigitalMarketing Therapy Podcast.
I'm your host, Sammy Del Mulhern.
Each month we dive deep into a digitalmarketing or fundraising strategy that
you can implement in your organization.
Each week you'll hear from guestexperts, nonprofits, and myself on
best practices, tips and resourcesto help you raise more money online
(03:19):
and reach your organizational goals.
Hey friends, please join me inwelcoming Artie Anand to the podcast.
Archie, thank you for being here today.
Thank you, Sammy.
I'm very excited.
Well, we're talking about the hottopic of today of, I mean, I feel like
everybody's talking about it, which is ai.
Uh, why is this a topic that you areso interested and passionate about?
(03:43):
Ooh, that's a good start.
So, um, I've been buildingsoftware products for 15 years.
And then, um, I got into this phase inmy life where it just doesn't seem right.
Why?
Because I'm a mom of three kids,mom, all under the age of 12.
(04:07):
And I have dogs.
I have parents who are aging.
Um, at some point in life, everybody getsto a point where they start to question.
How they're living by default.
And I think that was my, thatwas the the point where I started
(04:29):
really brainstorming, whatam I doing in a nine to five?
Is this how the rest of the life gonna be?
And as I just question it more and moreand more, I got to a point where I felt
like I can design it the way I want.
(04:49):
And that was the motivation onwhat I really wanted to figure out.
So what that, what doesthat ideal Saturday ideal
Wednesday, Thursday look like?
Right.
Um, so I quit my nine to five, uh, whichis, I understand is now for everybody.
I just, cold Turkey, I really wentcold Turkey in and I started to
(05:13):
figure out, well, what do I wanna do?
There's a LinkedIn postwhich is coming out tomorrow.
It's your moat is where the mess is.
So think about, um, where
I love it.
I'm sorry.
No, you're totally fine.
(05:34):
I love it.
Can you ask it?
Thank you, Nona.
Can you ask Daddy?
Can you ask Daddy?
I am so sorry, Sammy.
No,
please do not apologize.
I totally get it.
Yeah.
So the idea was, uh, how doyou design it the way you want?
(05:57):
Mm-hmm.
So, like I said, there is aLinkedIn post coming out tomorrow
and I really put my heart into it.
Your moat is.
Where your mess is, and that's whatmakes you different than everybody else.
Hmm.
The
thing that you've beenstruggling to figure out.
And once you do, that's the messageyou wanna put out in the world.
(06:19):
Right.
And my messy part of how I was living bydefault was I wasn't controlling my time.
I didn't have the freedom of time, money.
And that was, you know, and location.
And that was just reallyimportant to me as a mom.
I. And that's what I wanted to figure out.
And as soon as I learned aboutAI automations, I mean, I'd been
(06:42):
building software products forever,so I knew how to create a system.
I just needed a vehicle whichwould help me get to the outcome
faster than anybody else.
I. And that's why I got so passionateabout AI building systems in place,
which is the foundation beforeyou try to automate anything.
And that just became my jam.
(07:04):
And that's when I started my companyand we, they we're not looking back, I.
Yeah, I love it.
Okay.
Well, I just, just as a kind ofan anecdote, because your daughter
kind of came in and, um, I, rightbefore we recorded this, I went
downstairs and told my son, youknow, Hey, I'm recording a podcast.
We're talking about ai.
Um, so like, staydownstairs until I'm done.
(07:26):
Right.
And he's like, well, AI isgonna take your job away.
Like he, he literally like,immediately that was the thing.
He, are you worried thatAI's gonna take your job?
And I was like, no, no, no, I'm not.
And so I'm excited to kind oftalk about that here in a second.
But also then, um, a few weeks ago,so my son is 14, my daughter is 16,
and a few weeks ago I couldn't figureout what I wanted to make dinner.
(07:48):
So I used Chet GPT to help me figureout what I wanted to make for dinner.
And my daughter was so annoyed andshe's 16 and a theater major, and she's
like, AI is taking away our creativity.
So it's really interesting, evenin our home, like as we talk to our
kids about ai, who are Gen Z. Liketheir feelings and thoughts on it.
And so that's why I'm really excited tohave this conversation with you because
(08:08):
I think there is such a great placefor it, but at the same time requires
that human element in order to workwell and get you the best results.
So I would love to hear like as you kindof decided to go through this and like.
Say, okay, well I know this is,uh, a place that I feel comfortable
in, I wanna play with it.
Um, like what parts of AI do you feelmost excited about and how it helps people
(08:34):
streamline and grow their businesses?
Like where do you see thebiggest area of opportunity?
So I think it, it startswith the foundation.
So whether you're in a, in a nine tofive or you're running your own business.
But what is the ideal life that you want?
Mm-hmm.
Let's start there.
What does that ideal week look like?
(08:57):
What are you doing on that day?
You backtrack from there andyou reverse engineer what's
stopping you from getting there?
And you make a list of all the thingsthat you end up on a daily basis.
You do not enjoy.
And at the end of the day, if you wake upbut you don't have fun with what you do,
(09:20):
who you do it with and how you get thatthing done, then I mean, what's the point?
And I just, I keep going back.
And that, that's how, that'show I figured out my North Star.
That's how I figured whatI want to keep to myself.
Do it because it lights meup and also prints me money.
(09:43):
But if it doesn't light me up, but it hasto get done, then I need to delegate it.
I just need to find someone elsewho would love to do it, and
that's what they find joy in.
And it'll also bring in cash so wecan get, keep the business running,
because that's the ultimate idea.
If I'm not bringing in business.
(10:06):
Then bringing in cash intothe business, then it's sort
of a disservice to my family.
Mm-hmm.
Where I'm putting my time in.
But it's not generating the ROI, right?
Yeah.
So you figure out what you wannado on a daily basis that lights
you up and also prints you money.
That's where you spend yourtime in for some people.
(10:27):
It's getting on sales call.
For some people it's writing content.
For some people, it'sgetting on a podcast.
For some people, they just wannasit and fulfill and that's okay.
Um, and anything that you don'twanna do, but it's necessary
because it brings in cash.
You figure out someone who wantsto do it or you build an automation
(10:47):
because there is a process in place.
If someone were to sit down and followthe process manually, step 1, 2, 3.
They can get to a predictable outcome.
Now, let's put, I put AI andautomations on top of it and
get it run a hundred x faster.
Yeah, I think that's so good.
And I, I, it goes back to, um, I'lllink this up in the show notes.
(11:10):
We did a podcast a couple yearsago, I think maybe by now,
that was all about automation.
It had nothing to do with AI at thetime, but it's like the things that
you're repeating over and over andover again that you're like sending
the same email over and over again,or you're doing the same process.
Like if you do somethingmore than two or three times.
Automate it and AI just lets youkind of take that to the next level.
(11:33):
And so I think this feeling of, um,I'd like you to talk a little bit
about like this feeling of, okay,well if I automate, that's one thing.
If I take put AI in it, I'mlosing that personal touch.
Like how do we kind of removeourselves from ai and automation
means depersonalization because Idon't think those are the same thing.
That's a great question, by the way.
(11:54):
Um, the way I want people to thinkabout is you take what's working
already manually and then youautomate it, and then think about it.
It may not.
In the age of tech we are today,it may not be a hundred percent
automated without any supervision.
(12:18):
But start with the mindset of 80% done,done by someone else is way better
than a hundred percent done by you.
A, because it gives you 80% backon your calendar, and then you
multiply that by your hourly rate.
That's the amount of money you arelosing every day from your business.
(12:39):
You're taking that cash away from yourbusiness by sitting and doing it manually.
That's one and second.
Even if it gets you 80% your time back,but it also gives you productivity,
which is 10 times or a hundred x.
That's second and third.
(12:59):
Um, putting in human there tosupervise it, it's now you are
using their time for somethinghigher leverage and something that.
Is important for you, so your brand, youridentity, the way you want things to work.
(13:20):
You would still have thesame type of quality without
spending a hundred hours on it.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
So that's number three.
And in this process you'll alsolearn a lot, plus in months to
come, tech will get that better.
Mm-hmm.
And at some point you may be ableto automate a hundred percent of it,
which we do have some workflows thatare 100% automated, but we do have
(13:44):
some, which are either 50 or 60 or 70%.
And if you, those hours add up.
And that's the place I wanteverybody to start with.
Everyone thinks they have towake up tomorrow and go run
a marathon, but guess what?
It starts with running a mile at a time.
(14:04):
Yeah.
Okay.
So let's start with that.
Running a mile at a time because Ithink the other thing is we don't,
AI doesn't have to be automated.
Um, and AI doesn't have to justbe generative creating content.
It can just be a tool that you usebecause you don't have a huge team.
Maybe you only have two or threeon your team, or you have a whole,
(14:25):
you're missing a certain area ofexpertise and you need support.
And so like, I, I thinkmaybe even starting with.
Using AI as a tool to just help you.
I use it 'cause we're a small team tobrainstorm and just go back and forth and
like figure out, okay, well is this a goodidea and how do I wanna flush this out?
And things like that.
So what are some ways that maybeyou've seen people use AI creatively
(14:47):
that's not necessarily generativecontent, um, but can still help
you save time in your business?
Save time in the work that you're doing,uh, even if you're not using it to
communicate directly with your audience.
Absolutely.
So you can start with, think aboutall the things that your business
needs to get done and look at allthe departments that you have.
(15:13):
It could be a, it could startwith an SMB owner, but it could
also be a bigger business.
So for a small business owner,you get on sales calls, they show
interest, and you have to sell,you have to send the proposal.
Typically when I talk to people, they'respending anywhere between one to three
(15:33):
hours writing their proposal down.
If you have a product that you're able tosell, shouldn't that proposal generation
and sending be automated already?
And that's if you start there.
I, I personally, am taking closeto 30 sales calls every month.
I have a really good close rate.
(15:54):
If people ask me to send a proposal,I don't wanna spend two hours of
my time of the CEO's time writingand sending those proposals.
So I have it all automated, and thereason why it works is because it
gives me easily 20 hours back, andthat's a lot of time on my calendar.
So that's where I would start.
(16:16):
You could also figure out.
This is where the world is getting to.
This is what we are alsoimplementing in our business.
Anything that people used to havedepartments, now you think about,
um, replacing them as one person.
I. To supervise and to put thesystem in place, plus an AI agent
(16:40):
that now becomes your whole team.
You can get a lot of things done with it.
It could be one for content,it could be one for sales.
It could be one for another part of yourbusiness, but don't, what I'm trying to
say is don't stay stuck at the same level.
Mm-hmm.
You need to make sure you'remaking one to two or to 5%.
(17:04):
Improvements in your systems every day,and it's always an iterative process.
Going back to the same example, peoplethink they need something so robust
and so predictable from day one.
No business was created like that.
We all had to go throughiterative processes.
(17:24):
That's how you use AI tools as well.
Just think about them as.
And in turn that costs youclose to 20, $30 a month.
Yeah.
And like that's a powerfulage of tech to live in.
Mm-hmm.
And I don't understand why PEeverybody's not jumping on it.
(17:45):
The, the best use case I stillsee them doing is using it to
write emails can do so much more.
It cannot create AI agents for you.
But that's not.
What everybody needs.
Yeah.
Most of the businesses wouldeither be 70, 80% better if they
(18:07):
just has linear automations.
Yeah.
Step 1, 2, 3.
They have to be followed in a sequence.
If you just had that, most ofthe businesses will be doing far
better than they're doing today.
Okay, so AI agents is a term that is a,I mean, a little bit newer ish to me.
Um, so I know that it's probablysomething that my audience and
(18:30):
listeners aren't super familiar with.
So could you explain what an AI agent is?
Of course.
So we, in, in the term of automation andAI and the type of business I'm in, um,
I talk about three types of automations.
So one is, like I said, linear, which isalso called traditional automations, which
(18:53):
is someone filled a form and then a newrole got attached to the Google sheet.
And then from there.
An email was drafted and then anew lead was added to your CRM.
So that's a very linear, you go fromleft to right and it gives you an outcome
and you don't have to sit and it, thatlead could come from a Facebook ad. And
(19:16):
then it's saves you hours every month.
So that's one.
Second is when you put AI on top, when youneed to personalize and you need to enrich
your leads, that's where you plug in ai.
So you, you use open AI or any other LLMs.
You use them in a couple of timesin your automation, and that
becomes an AI powered automation.
(19:37):
The third is, which you said isthe newer term, which is AI agent.
Where the whole workflow has to workin a way, it has to make decisions,
and it could be customer facing.
So I'll give you an example.
We install AI voice agents in businesses.
So anybody who has a receptionisttoday, and we all know they could.
(19:59):
Feel more valuable and usefulin your business if they were
doing higher leverage tasks.
So we replace it, we replace those,um um, help desk receptionists.
With AI agents where it could be aphone call, someone calls in, they
want an appointment, the AI agentpicks up the call and it remembers
(20:20):
the context of the conversation.
It can also, we can also give it access tothe tools, your CRM, so they could see the
background, how many times you have servedthem in the past, or is it a new customer,
and they can also access your calendarand then they can book an appointment.
So at that point.
That workflow is automating a partof your business, and that piece of
(20:45):
AI that you installed as a softwareis making autonomous decisions
without a human in the loop.
Yeah.
And that's when it becomes an agent.
And at no point you have tobe stuck with the AI agent.
We can also configure a setting wherewe say, I just wanna talk to a human.
And at that point, the AIagent will very politely.
(21:08):
Route the call to a human agentand they can connect them directly.
Yeah.
And I know this is like really bigand like something that everybody
just immediately is like, oh, likethis kind of makes me nervous.
I can't do this.
Um, but I think chatbots have beenaround for years and that is a kind of.
Maybe like beginning stage of what youwould consider now to be an AI agent
(21:31):
and we have all, um, engaged with them.
Good, better or ugly.
And I think the thing here is not doesthe technology work and is it good?
I think it's, I mean, I.
I mean, this is my question to you.
It's more about the data and the systemsthat we put in on the backend, the way
that we kind of populate it, like thework we do as individuals, as humans,
(21:53):
as, um, business owners to give theAI agents the information they need to
support us in the way we need them to do.
Right?
Like, if they're not doing whatthey need to do, that's not on
them, that's on us and how we'rekind of collecting information.
Right?
Absolutely.
And I love the way you touchedit, so it goes back to.
The basics of entrepreneurship.
(22:13):
Mm-hmm.
You were doing sales calls in yourbusiness at some point you got
tired of them because you justwanted to do more things and you
were growing and you were scaling.
So you hired a sales agent, right.
They mess up, they make mistakeand you get mad at them.
Well, the question I wanna askyou is, did you train them?
(22:36):
Yeah.
If yes, what does the training look like?
Did they follow the script orwas there no training in place?
So it all boils down to is it a systemsproblem or is it a people problem?
That's the starting point.
The same way when you try to train asoftware, which is AI, in this case.
(22:57):
To do that job.
My question is, what isthe training material?
Mm-hmm.
How are you training it?
What do you want it to say?
Does it know you want it to say?
That's the knowledge base.
Anybody who's a graduate today,they're all at the same level, and then
someone goes and works for Deloitte,someone goes, works for Google.
(23:18):
Five years later, they're completelydifferent human beings because
they were part of different teams.
That's how they were trained in,right, and that's how I want you to
think about installing an AI agent.
The LLM is the brain.
It's like a fresh graduate out of college.
Everybody starts at that same baselinebecause everybody's using the same LLM.
(23:40):
Now from there, it needs acontext and that context is
whatever they are talking about.
But then where are theypulling that knowledge from?
That's the knowledge base, andthat's all your training material.
If you want it to replace you in a salescall, you need all the transcripts from
the sales calls you have held before.
(24:01):
Or you create a training, youcreate an SOP, you feed it to
it, and then go in a trial.
Yeah, for 15 days, for 20days, and then see what breaks.
And then you make sure you promptit and you feed those prompts.
And based on those prompts, youhave more content that's generated
that makes sure that the agent knowshow to handle those situations.
(24:26):
Well, and I think, I mean, how importantif we're getting started out, whether
it's we're creating blog posts or we'rewriting emails or social media posts,
or we're creating scripts for ourboard members to be able to reach out
to people like that transparency, likeeven for organizations that are nervous
about it, to just even say, Hey, as anonprofit, we're trying to make the most
(24:48):
out of the dollars that are donated.
So we are using AI to help usgenerate some of this content.
We know it's not gonna be perfect.
We know we're gonna make mistakes, butplease know that, like please help us
as we continue to work through this.
Like that transparency canreally go a long way in that, um.
What's the word?
(25:09):
Not generosity, but um, like patiencefrom our donors or the people that
we're communicating with for them tounderstand like, we're on this learning
curve, so please give us some grace.
That's the word I'm looking for.
Give us some grace aswe work through this.
But this is gonna allow us to make themost of the dollars that you're giving
to us because we're not going to have toinvest so much into overhead and we can
(25:29):
get more done with the money you give us.
Like, uh, I, I mean like thatcan be a really impactful.
Storytelling piece tothis whole AI transition.
Exactly.
And contrary to the popular belief, whenyou tell someone that, and I'm gonna use
the voice agent as an example, becausepeople are really averse to talking to
(25:49):
ai like phone to phone, uh, because theyjust want human to human connection.
If it solves a pain point, that'swhat you wanna attach that process to.
If I'm installing an AI voiceagent, say in a dental office,
what does that buy the patients in?
(26:13):
That also means that if someonehad a root canal yesterday and then
they wake up in the middle of thenight with an excruciating pain
and they call the dental office andthe off and the staff is not there.
AI can pick up the call andgive them the next seven o'clock
appointment in the morning.
Yeah, and I don't think the patientwould complain about it because
(26:34):
they got their pain points solved.
So I 100% agree where you're coming from.
I just, the point I'm trying tomake is attach it to an outcome that
would make a no-brainer for them.
What, with the use of ai, whatare you trying to do and how
does that connect the dots?
(26:55):
With where the donations are coming fromand where you are trying to take them.
Like you might not, you, you wouldn'tuse AI for one-on-one outreach to your
high level sponsors, but you mightuse AI agents to help you with ticket
sales for an event that you have comingup to handle the calls for people
coming in to just purchase tickets.
Right.
Like Exactly.
That's kind of the, yeah.
(27:15):
Right.
And then you and I both know, you know,I mean the, the follow ups, excuse me.
The follow ups is where the money's at.
Right.
If you don't follow up, they may.
I mean, life gets in the way.
They may got, they may havegotten busy with something else.
If you put AI voice and SMS or textor any email marketing powered by
(27:39):
ai, all three of them are in place.
They're following up with someone whoshowed interest even five months ago.
Um, and then just make sure whenyou are trying to give it a roll.
Make sure the demographics that it'sreaching out to you are adjusting the tone
(27:59):
based on is it reaching out to elderly?
Is it reaching out to senior citizens?
Yeah.
Or young donors.
It just, it makes that simple tweakmakes so much of a difference.
Okay.
So as we wrap this up, if we're thinkinglike, okay, this is great, this all sounds
wonderful, we are not tech savvy enough.
We have no idea where to kindof go and start with this.
(28:21):
Um, how, like, how would we wanna tackle,like what would we wanna tackle first and
where do we go to kind of figure out what.
Tools, systems, which AI platforms, likeI always say, go to the existing CRM
that you're already using and see whatAI systems they have in place there.
But like, what would you advisepeople as they're kind of dipping
(28:41):
their toe in and starting to jump in?
Where, where should they start?
So I'm gonna tell you something,which is gonna sound so silly,
but it's gonna be very useful.
Love it if you, if you have a. Two tofive sentence description of your exact
problem, where you are today, what isthe outcome you're trying to get at?
(29:05):
Just feed that into chat gpt. Like really that simple?
Start there.
Yeah.
I love that.
Um, if you're not ready to invest,then that's where you start.
And second advice I always give when you.
Have a problem.
You're trying to solve it.
You don't just go to a vendor and youjust hire the first person you talk
(29:31):
to, you go talk to five differentpeople and then bring in the the
responses that you got from the LLM.
You take it to them.
Jump on a 15 minute discoverycall, see how many questions they
ask you before they give you theprescription of what you need.
The better questions they ask becausethey're trying to understand your
(29:54):
business, your problem, your outcome,not the thing they have already baked in,
and they're just trying to sell you that.
That's a good starting point.
The better questions they ask, meaningthey have helped other people and
they also have the best interestin helping you get to the outcome.
And that's where you start and you startwith a simple discussion of, this is the
(30:17):
CRM I'm using, this is the outcome I want.
Give me the missing piece and howmany steps is, is it gonna be?
Is it gonna be a hundred percentautomated or 80% automated?
And then what type of training the humanwould need, who's supervising this system?
And then how long before we can getthe first version ready and I, we
(30:40):
just wanna try E one and see if weeven wanna build the whole thing.
Just do a POC with them and thenhave them give you that thing for
free, for trial for 15, 20 days.
You go play with it.
You go give it to your friendsand families and other past
clients you've worked with.
They'll give you the realfeedback and you start, yeah.
(31:02):
I love that and what yousaid at the beginning.
Just, you know, ask.
At bt what you need.
Yeah.
I think the great thing about that iseven just asking what questions you should
ask potential vendors, like Exactly.
You know, it's such a huge opportunityfor you to just play with and learn
from as you continue to grow and expand.
So I, I love that.
(31:23):
Um.
Well, Artie, this has beenan amazing conversation.
I think we could probably talkabout this for hours 'cause AI just
is like the topic of the moment.
Um, but if people wanna connect with you,learn more about what you do, uh, and
learn from you, how can they do that?
Absolutely.
So we're all on all, all social platforms,but one we are really going after is
(31:44):
we're connecting with our audience is.
On Instagram, so if you go followme on it, my handle is RT Anand 82.
If you just go follow me there andtell me that you came from Sammy's
podcast, I would love to send you myplaybook, which would be the AI readiness
score, and that's under three minutes.
(32:05):
I can literally give you the blueprint ofwhere your business is suffering today,
and just because you're not jumping on ai.
What does that dollar amount looklike in terms of the cost of inaction?
And it could even be worth threedream family vacations for you if you
just go and install that one system.
(32:26):
Yeah, no, that's so good.
I love the, what is thecost of your inaction?
Uh, 'cause I do think thatthat's incredibly important and
we will have all of the links.
Um, so you can connect with Artie inthe show notes@thefirstclick.net slash
3 0 9, so you can grab those there.
Um, Artie, thank you so muchfor the conversation today and
all of your amazing insights.
This was fantastic.
(32:47):
Thank you, Sammy.
It was wonderful and I hopeyour audience finds value in it.
Um, and I would love to stay connected.
Thank you for having me.
So I wanna thank Artieagain for joining me today.
Such a great conversation.
There's still so many things thatwe could talk about and address with
regards to misconceptions around ai.
And I know there's a lot of technicalterms that we talked about, like LLMs,
(33:08):
which is large language models, uh, whichis the platform that chat GPT is built on
in a lot of the major, uh, AI platforms.
But just remember, even if you'rejust getting started with ai, ask it.
Ask it, what types of tasksit could take off your plate.
Ask it what steps you shouldtake to start automating things.
(33:29):
Ask it.
What platforms would be great for youto use for systems in your organization?
It can be the great place to goto for conversations that you need
to have when, when you're feelingstuck or confused or just don't know
which next steps to take with ai.
I love using AI to brainstorm, to kind ofbe that employee that's sitting next to me
in my office that I don't have access to.
(33:51):
Because we're a small team, I lovethat it allows me to stay a small
team so that we can still createhigh quality content and support you
as small to medium sized nonprofitswithout having to increase our prices.
But for now, make sure you check out theshow notes@thefirstclick.net slash 3 0 9.
You'll have all of the links to connectwith RT there, uh, and make sure
(34:13):
you subscribe wherever you listen.
And while you're at it, head on over toYouTube at Digital Marketing Therapy and
drop us a comment on what your favoritekey takeaway was from this episode.
We're also going live once a month onwebsite Wednesday in our YouTube channel
and on LinkedIn to, uh, give you somestrategies and support with your website.
(34:34):
So make sure you checkus out there for now.
Thank you so much for listening.
And again, uh, check out the shownotes@thefirstclick.net slash 3 0 9
and we'll see you in the next one.
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