77: How to leverage AI as small business with special guest Phil Pallen
Making AI Work for Your Small Business (Without Losing Your Personal Touch)
Let's talk about that never-ending to-do list every small business owner knows all too well. While AI and ChatGPT seem to be dominating every conversation these days, figuring out how to actually make them work for your business – especially without compromising your values – can feel like trying to solve a puzzle with missing pieces. That's why I was thrilled to sit down with Phil Pallen, a brand strategist and AI expert who's made it his mission to demystify AI for small business owners like us.
Phil isn't your typical tech guru. As an internationally recognized brand strategist who's been featured on CNN, Access Hollywood, and Entertainment Tonight, he brings a refreshingly practical approach to AI. His newly released book, "AI for Small Business," cuts through all the confusing jargon to give us real, actionable ways to implement AI in our businesses.
The Smart Way to Start: Know Where Your Time Goes
Here's what surprised me most about Phil's approach: before even touching an AI tool, he recommends something surprisingly simple – tracking your time. "You don't need fancy software," he explains. "A notebook beside your desk works just fine." The goal is to understand where your precious hours are actually going each week.
Phil shared his own process with me, and it's brilliantly straightforward. At the end of each week, he spends about 15 minutes reviewing his activities. He looks for three things: the high-impact work that truly needs his expertise, the tasks he genuinely enjoys (even if they could be delegated), and those administrative tasks that are ripe for automation.
Want a clever shortcut? Take a screenshot of two weeks of your time tracking and ask AI to analyze it. Let it tell you where you're spending most of your time and suggest tasks that could be automated. It's like having a productivity consultant in your pocket!
Having Real Conversations with AI
Here's something that made me laugh during our chat – Phil pointed out that many of us try to talk to AI like we're writing SEO content from 2010. In reality, these AI tools are built for conversation. They're more like having a chat with a knowledgeable colleague than programming a computer.
Phil's approach is refreshingly simple: talk to AI like you'd talk to a human. Be clear about what you want, use specific numbers when you can (like asking for "5 alternatives" instead of "some options"), and – this is my favorite tip – tell it it's okay to disagree with you and explain why. It's about creating a dialogue, not just giving commands.
Keeping Your Business Safe While Embracing AI
When we got to discussing ethics and trust, Phil's passion really showed through. He emphasized that using AI doesn't mean we have to compromise our values or put our businesses at risk. The key is being intentional about which tools we choose and how we use them.
For instance, Phil introduced me to the Content Authenticity Initiative, a commitment to transparency in AI use that now includes over 3,000 organizations. He also pointed out that some companies, like Adobe, are creating AI tools specifically designed with commercial safety in mind. The message was clear: we can embrace AI while still protecting our businesses and maintaining our ethical standards.
AI in Unexpected Places
Just when I thought I had a handle on what AI could do, Phil surprised me with some fascinating examples. Did you know you can use AI for dynamic pricing in your business? Phil uses it for his Airbnb properties to automatically adjust prices based on demand – something that would be impossibly time-consuming to do manually.
But it goes beyond that. AI can help optimize your FAQs, assist with research and development, analyze data patterns, and even enhance customer service. The possibilities are endless, but the key is finding the applications that make sense for your specific business.
Looking Ahead: AI and the Joy of Business
As our conversation wrapped up, Phil shared something that really resonated with me. He believes that the thoughtful application of AI in business isn't just about efficiency – it's about finding more joy in our work. When we use AI to handle the tasks that drain our energy, we can focus more on the aspects of our business that truly light us up.
"For so many of us, life and business are intermixed," Phil noted. It's not about completely automating everything – it's about creating space for the work that matters most to us. And that's something worth getting excited about.
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[00:00:00] Speaker: As a small business owner and content creator, I am very familiar with having a never ending to do list. Now, maybe you've heard about everyone talking about AI and ChatGPT, but you're not quite sure how to actually use it in your business, especially without compromising your values, or maybe you're just overwhelmed by all of the options out there.
[00:00:20] Well, if that's the case, this episode is for you. In this episode of Think Inside the Square, I am thrilled to introduce you to brand strategist and AI expert, Phil Pallen. Phil is here to demystify AI for small business owners and show you exactly how to harness its power without losing the human touch that makes your business so special.
[00:00:40] Welcome to Think Inside the Square, a podcast full of tips and tricks to help you create a website and a business that you're proud of. I'm your host, Becca Harpain, creator of insidethesquare.Co, and in this episode, I'm sitting down with Phil Pallen to explore practical ways that you can use AI to grow your business While staying true to your values.
[00:00:59] My [00:01:00] guest today is an internationally recognized brand strategist who's been featured on CNN, Access Hollywood, and Entertainment Tonight, and on my very own YouTube channel. Phil has helped hundreds of businesses scale and grow using AI, including mine. And he's just released his new book, AI for Small Business.
[00:01:18] A practical guide that cuts through the buzzwords and gives you real, actionable ways to implement AI in your business. For a transcript of this episode, along with the links to the many resources mentioned, visit insidethesquare.co/podcast
[00:01:32] if you're a long time listener or you're new to this podcast Think Inside the Square, I want to let you know that I love keeping my episodes concise. And Phil and I, well we are dear friends in real life and we chatted about this topic for well over an hour. So I did my best to edit this down to the most actionable and engaging parts of our conversation and I'm so excited to share this with you.
[00:01:53] Whether you're just starting to explore AI or you've been dabbling but you want to use it more strategically. This [00:02:00] episode is packed with practical tips that you can implement right away. Phil and I discuss everything from identifying the tasks that you can safely automate, to protecting your content, and we even share some surprising ways that AI can help you with things you might have never considered.
[00:02:15] So without further ado, here's my conversation with Phil Palin, my favorite AI expert.
[00:02:22] Phil, thank you for joining me here on Think Inside the Square. I am so excited to dig into the fascinating world of AI with you. I've been following your work for quite a few years now, and being a brand strategist, You've shared a lot of different tools and technologies over the years for all kinds of business needs.
[00:02:40] Now, I know that AI in general can be applicable to all types of businesses, but I want to start by asking you about why this is the subject that you focused on for your latest book.
[00:02:50] Phil: I'm not an overly technical person, I nerd out over what some of these tools and features can do for myself or for my clients, [00:03:00] which spans so many different industries. But I'm really actually not the person that set up super advanced automations in Zapier or really ventured far into like super customizable playground of chat GPT.
[00:03:16] That's not really my thing. And to be honest, I have three businesses and I don't really have time for it. So I get excited about the ways in which me like. A normal business owner with a little bit of interest and passion for productivity. I get excited about the ways that I can use it and the ways in which I can train my clients, who are even less tech savvy most of the time, to benefit from the speed at which AI can compute information so much faster than our brains, which alleviates time and pressure in our brains.
[00:03:54] to spend that energy in areas we make high impact and doing [00:04:00] things we enjoy doing.
[00:04:01] Becca: Beautiful. And this leads so perfectly into my next question for you. We've just seen such an explosion of tools and features and programs and software out there that we can use to harness AI to do all types of very niche specific things.
[00:04:15] And it's just so incredibly easy to get overwhelmed. So for these overwhelmed small business owners that are feeling intimidated about this, how do you recommend they start integrating AI AI into their workflow.
[00:04:26] Phil: My recommendation is, and this is one of the pieces of advice I've been saying since the beginning even before I was like super comfortable with ChatGPT these other tools, the only way to be accountable for where your time goes in a week is by tracking it.
[00:04:43] You must track your time. One of the most important business subscriptions I have is a time tracker. This could be as simple as a journal beside your desk where you Write down what you're doing and how many minutes you spend doing it. It could be your use of your calendar. [00:05:00] Where you actually time block, you know, what you're gonna get done in a day, and, and, like, today's a good day where I'm moving things around as my priorities shift.
[00:05:09] I love EverHour, which is a tool that, syncs with Monday. com, which is what I use to manage my, my tasks in the day. And that's a simple click of a play button in my browser as an extension. It goes, click, timer on, click, timer off, tied to a task in Monday. And I can generate a report from EverHour at the end of the week where I can see exactly what I worked on, how many minutes went into each aspect of my business, say project, task, etc.
[00:05:40] I go through that list at the end of the week in about 15 minutes. And I go, okay, what are the things that I spent time on that were high impact in my business as a business owner? What are the things that I know I should probably delegate, but I really enjoy doing? Creating my YouTube graphics. I really enjoy it.
[00:05:59] I do it in [00:06:00] Adobe Express keep it really simple. Like, I shouldn't be doing that, but I enjoy it. And then what are the things that are probably administrative? They're probably not the best use of your time, and they're probably things you should delegate to an AI tool or to another human being.
[00:06:17] Becca: I love this.
[00:06:18] And I've got a challenge here for our listeners. If you start tracking your time, honestly, for two weeks straight, use a notebook, use your Google calendar, wherever you track your time, even if you don't use a complicated software for it yet, start being very realistic about how much time you spend for each project.
[00:06:34] And then here's your AI challenge for today. Take away right here. Take a screenshot of those two weeks and ask AI where you're spending the most time and if you can save time by automating any of those tasks. Let AI tell you what it can do for you.
[00:06:50] Phil: That's genius. That's genius. And Becca, that is like, you and I are such nerds and I love every aspect of that.
[00:06:57] We really are nerds. I love it. Again, this is [00:07:00] not like a, Ooh, here's a, here's a complicated automation to stress you out to get set up like. Most people hear that and go, Oh God, not today, I've already got a million things I'm already behind on. That's as simple as writing in a notebook, taking a picture of it, saying, ChatGPT, extract the text, and do an analysis for me.
[00:07:20] Simple, right? Simple. And the more you interact with these tools, the more confident you're gonna get, and the more creative you're gonna become. In how you navigate them. One of my biggest pet peeves are content creators and quote unquote AI experts who tell you the perfect prompt. That's like me saying to you, you can always speak English in the way that I speak English.
[00:07:46] That's the only way in which we can communicate. It's the best. My way is the best. And that could not be farther from the truth. It's not anything that I can write for you. Sure, I can like, In the book I give lots of examples. Here's how [00:08:00] I wrote a prompt. But at no point will I ever say this is perfect. It probably isn't.
[00:08:05] Just like I don't plan every word I'm going to say to you, Becca, on this podcast interview before we hit record. We connect as humans. And generative AI, not a human. But certainly a tool that fosters this idea of conversation and that's really cool.
[00:08:20] Becca: Absolutely. A lot of us come from this world of SEO and we are so specific in optimizing for search and phrasing things specifically for search that we forget that these are literally language models.
[00:08:33] These language models are built to have conversations. They will take a statement that we give them and instead of analyzing the key words, they analyze the context and they focus on the intent of the statement. of your content. So being very specific, very clear, and very conversational is such a key part of writing a high quality prompt.
[00:08:54] And if you've used AI in the past and you've been frustrated with the results, it's more likely that your prompt [00:09:00] wasn't as clear or conversational as it could have been. Start looking at your prompt when you get a negative result and see how you could phrase something differently in a way that it would help the AI tool understand.
[00:09:11] Now we talked about not wanting to use these copy and paste prompts that the so called experts give to us, but there definitely are some Mad Libs style fill in the blank ready to try prompts that we can try. And you have some amazing ones in the book, which I strongly recommend. But right here on the podcast, can you share one of your favorite prompts and how it could help a small business owner?
[00:09:32] Phil: Yeah, I would love to share some. One of my most creative and, and frequently used prompts is unconventional. That's why I'm using it as an example. I love to ask my generative AI tool on a scale of 1 to 10 how confident it feels completing a task based on the information I provided. So let me give an example.[00:10:00]
[00:10:00] Um, I use gpt to write every single script for a piece of sponsored content now. I'll upload a brief from the brand. I'll upload a previous example of a script. Maybe a related project, or if that meets a reoccurring project, maybe one that I've done for that brand before. And then I could upload any other, like, style parameters, etc.
[00:10:28] Rather than saying, go ahead and write me a script. A lot of times I'm telling ChatGPT, actually don't take action yet, because I might need to give you some more information. But on a scale of 1 to 10, based on the information I provided you, how confident do you feel? In executing this task, and then I might even elaborate, I'm trying to get a read on whether or not I should give you more information.
[00:10:53] And I like that example, Becca, because the way that I just communicated to ChatGPT was almost exactly how I [00:11:00] would communicate to you if you and I were working together on a project. And so it's like, I don't speak to AI that differently than I speak to a human. But I would say always, when possible, add quantifiable, you know, or quantity, like, numbers rather than saying, Do you feel confident in this task?
[00:11:20] Tragically, we'll say, certainly, I'm happy to help with this, blah, blah, blah. But I'm like, no, give me a number. Five ways to improve your blog with SEO. Like, ten opportunities for, like, I always give a number. Give me five alternative YouTube titles. Rank and rank them in order based on your opinion. You know, like I'm always like numbers, ranking, that kind of thing.
[00:11:47] I find that it performs exceptionally well.
[00:11:50] Becca: This is fantastic. And this totally ties back into the conversational aspect. We were talking about making sure it analyzes what it's working on. It isn't just giving you a specific [00:12:00] answer to a question. It's analyzing the intent of your content, the content.
[00:12:03] Intent of your prompt and giving you its own feedback on that decision and making sure that it knows to analyze it on a specific scale. That is a fantastic tip. I've got one more to add to that as well, which actually came up in a chat I was having this morning with Christine Neal. We went out and had some coffee together and we were just talking about AI and some creative uses that we had.
[00:12:24] And one that she likes to do is to tell it, it's okay to disagree with me. It asks for feedback and so many times we will reach this moment in a chat with AI where it just wants to be the yes man. It just wants to hype you up and answer. That's a great idea, but telling it, it's okay to disagree with me and give me reasons why, has been such an excellent add on to prompts.
[00:12:46] Phil: It's okay to disagree with me and tell me why. That is absolutely genius. I think I've, I've tried that, but I haven't formalized that in my prompt process, but now I'm about to. I just wrote it in my notebook. This is what [00:13:00] AI right now. It's not me. Barging into the room with book in hand saying I'm an expert at this, I'm better than all of you.
[00:13:10] It's the opposite actually, I have major imposter syndrome that I've authored a book on a topic that I've only been exploring for maximum three years. Even with that said, and even the number of tools I've tried, like, I am not an expert in this, and so the beautiful thing is that we can have this Continuous dialogue about here's a neat thing I learned and tried.
[00:13:34] What's a neat thing that you learned and tried. And it's like becoming this amazing ecosystem of inspiration and examples. And I hope we never lose this humility and curiosity in our exploration. That's super important to me.
[00:13:53] Becca: That's exactly it and why I'm so excited to have my listeners check out your book because it is so honest and vulnerable [00:14:00] about your experiences in using AI and applying it to so many different aspects of your life and your business.
[00:14:06] And again, it's about that exploration and that creativity. We need to be curious about it and share information with each other so that we can continue to improve this interaction as this a I language model is learning to speak with us. We're learning to work with it as well. And that actually leads me into another question that I really wanted to make sure I asked you today, thinking about those small business owners that are still a little leery to adopt.
[00:14:28] This is kind of a two fold question here. I'm wondering about the different ways that I can help a small business with their day to day operations. But on that level, how can we make sure that our use of a I Still aligns with our own ethical standards and our customer trust. How do we make sure that we aren't just letting a I take over the parts of our business that we're not comfortable with?
[00:14:50] What are some small areas that we can ask a I to help us with day to day that won't impede any of our ethical or moral standing as a business?
[00:14:59] Phil: Well, the first [00:15:00] thing you have to do before you click enter into ChatGPT is be extra certain that you're not submitting any. sensitive or private information.
[00:15:08] It's probably the most important thing I can tell you. I would say also, do a little bit of research or have some awareness over the stance and the priorities of the companies that create the tools you're using. So, I mean, it sounds biased and like a sponsored placement coming from me. Because I do so much work with Adobe and I'm very proud of the work that I do.
[00:15:36] But Adobe is one of those brands that really cares about privacy. For example, Adobe Firefly is the engine that powers all of the AI driven features and tools in many of their products across their portfolios. So Photoshop, Express, InDesign, Illustrator, Lightroom, that's just naming a few. Firefly and its image [00:16:00] generation.
[00:16:01] Is the only commercially safe tool that you can use to generate images. So yeah, Midjourney is cool and Deleuze is cool, except when you get sued because you used the tool to generate an image that looks like Spider Man, but you don't have the, the right to use an image that's copywritten or trademark and or trademark.
[00:16:20] So I'm a big fan of my using myself and then pointing my clients. In the direction of, hey, use these tools because they're safe and they're compliant. Step one, don't put sensitive information into AI tools. Like ChatGPT, which by the way, are typically first to market, which means they have a whole budget for lawsuits.
[00:16:44] Because it's inevitable. This is a race. And to get to the front of the race, many of these companies, I'm not aiming at anyone specifically, Many of them are taking shortcuts. Adobe is not one of those brands that's taking shortcuts. So if you're not comfortable using Chat [00:17:00] GPT, our to you. Don't use it.
[00:17:03] Instead, use AI Assistant, built into Adobe Acrobat, which will only answer and interact with the document you provided, and most importantly, nothing gets trained on your intellectual property. So this is, like, an amazing tool. I would say the next big, like, frontier is, like, we're going from experimental AI and all this, like, novel stuff to, like, really safe and secure.
[00:17:30] Options prioritized so that, you know, more people can benefit from the technology that we have available to us. And that's super important. The Content Authenticity Initiative, you know, was cited by Synthesia years ago when I did a brand deal with them. I said, how do I know, seriously, I said, how do I know you're not going to use my custom avatar for government propaganda?
[00:17:54] And they said, actually, we're a part of something called the Content Authenticity Initiative. Started by [00:18:00] Adobe, at the time over 800 organizations, media, and corporations have joined. Now there's over 3, 000. I'm an individual member of this. It's a commitment to transparency in the use of AI. It's something I'm very passionate about.
[00:18:13] Okay, I talked a lot. You got me on a hot button topic.
[00:18:15] Becca: That was fantastic. And I think it brings up a really, really good point that there's just a gross generalization and misconception out there that all AI is stealing content and regurgitating it for other people. There are so many companies that have put a significant amount of resources in ensuring this.
[00:18:33] Safety of your content and the quality control. But again, if you're really concerned about the moral implications and the ethics of using content created by AI or having AI help you create content, look at the different tools out there that are really focused on making sure it is secure and safe and ethical.
[00:18:52] They do exist. We will link to so many in the show notes and there are a ton in Phil's book.
[00:18:59] Phil: [00:19:00] Yes, there's a ton in the book. The book pairs those tool recommendations with examples and prompts. I would be remiss if I didn't read at least the little section attributed to my friend, Becca Harpain. I'm not going to read the full excerpt because I want people to actually read it in the book, so.
[00:19:17] I said many of my clients, as well as my own website, use Squarespace, which is why I'm highlighting its unique approach to protecting content from AI crawlers. Squarespace websites allow users to proactively protect content from AI crawlers, as I learned from my friend Bukka Harpain, a recognized Squarespace CSS expert.
[00:19:33] Oh, yes, she is. The platform offers a straightforward option to block AI from scraping website content, and I give instructions on how to do that for the people that care about this, or maybe not ready. To engage with this. I mean, it's, it's a new frontier. People are scared, rightfully so. Emotions are high.
[00:19:51] They're being hurled every which way. I would say subscribe, to people you trust that are giving advice, that you deem worthy. That's something [00:20:00] you do. It's something I try to do. You know, it's an exciting time. It's also a scary time, Really lean into the people that you surround yourself with, that you can trust for guidance and recommendations would be my advice.
[00:20:12] Becca: Absolutely. And stand your moral ground here. Don't feel like you need to compromise on a level of integrity that you're not comfortable with just because it's a new tool that everyone is using. Just because everyone's using chat GPT doesn't mean that you need to. There are many other use cases for AI out there that don't have to compromise on whatever level of integrity you want your business to have.
[00:20:32] And that actually leads me to another question that I really want to to make sure I asked you here. I was hoping you could share with us one of the surprising use for AI that a small business owner might not think of that could offer significant value.
[00:20:45] Phil: Yeah, there's so many things. The later chapters in the book were more of a research project for me.
[00:20:51] As I told you early on, like this for me was not. A flex of all of these things that I know it's actually, yeah, there, there [00:21:00] are, you know, ways that I'm using Chat GPT for content creation, marketing, branding, that's my day to day. But for me. I learned so much in the process of, of researching every aspect of business, including the unsexy stuff like research and security and data analysis.
[00:21:21] That's not stuff that I encounter a ton in my day to day, to be honest, but by writing this book, I was able to draw from examples. Hypothetical examples, but also real examples of my clients. So I love that I can literally, like you said, I can literally flip through the book and land on something like pasting a portion of your website that's.
[00:21:47] Less sexy like your FAQs and saying, you know, how can I make this more innovative for my target audience? Researching with or assisting with research and development I talk [00:22:00] about dynamic pricing and using an AI tool for that. So for example, like I have Airbnb properties and I used an AI tool to actually adjust the pricing based on demand.
[00:22:11] That's something I could never do myself manually, but it's something when you find the right tool and implement the right strategy that can kind of be set and forget, bringing up mental space for other things that I actually want to do.
[00:22:25] Becca: That is amazing and such a good innovative use of it. I never would have thought to do it for something so niche and so specific and, you know, I love to keep my podcast short, but I know I could talk to you about this for a good six hours straight, but we won't record a six hour episode today.
[00:22:40] Instead, kind of piggybacking off of that idea and looking into the future, AI has Bye. Transformed the way we do business. You and I over the last six months, one year in total, things are completely different than they were before. So looking into the future, how do you see AI shaping the [00:23:00] landscape for small businesses in the next, let's say, five years?
[00:23:04] Phil: I'm going to give a short answer and, and based in, and maybe rooted in what I'm most passionate about, I believe that the right, careful, insiderate application of AI in business is going to enable small business owners to get more joy. From their lives and from their businesses for so many of us life and business are intermixed I was telling someone recently that like when I go on vacation, I don't actually shut off That's actually feels more stressful to me the idea of being completely shut off on vacation I still have to check emails even I'm not responding to them.
[00:23:38] Like I'm a small business owner I I don't unplug but then also part of my life is kind of vacation because I create my schedule and decide where I am I really believe that this tool enables us to focus on the areas we make high impact and the things that we enjoy doing. And I am living proof, you know, you are [00:24:00] as well.
[00:24:00] As solopreneurs, we are, you know, we've got a team, but we, we do a lot ourselves. And the only way I'm able to get through a very long to do list Is by, by, by leaning on these tools, um, that I haven't figured out overnight. Sometimes it takes a, you know, it's, it's a process, but I'm really excited because this has been probably the most monumental tool, at least in my career, that aligns so closely with the reason I started my business in the first place, which was like, how do we create a brand, a business that is so fulfilling for someone?
[00:24:37] So cool.
[00:24:39] Becca: That's beautiful. And this adopting of AI technology gives you a chance to really focus and hone in on your skills to truly bring that brand to life, the things that can never be automated or computer generated. Phil, thank you so much for joining us here on this podcast today. As always, it is such a pleasure to talk to you, but before we call this a wrap, you gotta let me know how do we get our hands on your [00:25:00] latest book?
[00:25:01] Phil: Yes. The book that you are included in, Phil p.al/ai-sm stands for AI for Small Business. The book is on Amazon, bards and Noble Ingram. Um, basically the publisher says everywhere that books are sold, um, and it's an ebook. It's an audio book. That was fun to record. So it's basically available everywhere.
[00:25:24] Also on my website, uh, you'll see under the tools page of my website, I have a, uh, a freebie that lists all the tools and then some that are included in the book. Obviously the book's better cause it's got examples and prompts, but if you're looking for just a list of tools, that's a freebie on my website, which is available.
[00:25:40] Becca: Fantastic. We will link to those in the show notes. Phil, thank you so much for being a part of this podcast today. It was a joy to talk with you and to everyone listening, check out the show notes, get the books and let me know, leave a review for this episode or hop in the comments. I would love to hear from you what you think of Phil's new book and what is the AI tool that you are going to start using right now.
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Resources Mentioned:
Phil's New Book: "AI for Small Business"
Phil's Website:
Time Tracking Tool: EverHour
Project Management: Monday.com
Connect with Phil:
