Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome back for another episode of the Unscripted Small Business Podcast. I'm so excited for you all to hear today's conversation with Shahar Boyan. Shahar is passionate about sharing her expertise on consumer behavior and the impact of AI. She is the author of the groundbreaking report AI Driven Consumer Trends and Business Applications which offers a deep dive into how AI is shaping the future of commerce. In this conversation, Shahar shares her wealth of knowledge on how AI is transforming customer engagement, its ethical implications, and the crucial role empathy plays in today's tech driven world. We'll also explore her automation system prop talkie and discuss how businesses can thrive by balancing innovation with authenticity. Shehar's practical insights are wonderful for anyone looking to navigate this rapidly evolving landscape. So get ready for an eye opening discussion. Let's dive in.
Shahar, it's so wonderful having you in the studio today. Thanks for being here.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: Awesome to be here.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: So I know that you are an expert in consumer behavior and your focus really is on this intersection between consumer behavior and AI. So why don't you start off by telling us how you kind of got started within consumer behavior and how that's kind of morphed now into more of the AI side?
[00:01:32] Speaker B: Well, you know, I've been studying consumer behavior for many, many years and I've been doing consulting on that for over 20 years just here in the US so I love to understand why people react and act the way they do. Right. But of course, now with the, with AI, even though AI is nothing new, has been around for years now, this is the moment where the consumer is really trying to adopt AI and this is causing a major shift in behavior, really one of the biggest that we have seen so far. And for you to have an idea, it is the first time in history that five generations are alive at the same time experiencing these changes. So it's really a huge, huge change. And that is why at the moment I am focused on understanding our relationship with AI.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: That's incredible. That's crazy to hear. I haven't even put that into perspective that five generations are living through these changes right now. How do you feel like AI has really impacted consumer behavior and what you've.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: Seen, you know, with everything, we can look from different angles, right? And there is always a good angle and there is a bad angle. The very good angle, especially for business owners, is that today you can actually choose not to do any type of repetitive task because AI can do that really well. And then you can really focus on how you grow from here. Most entrepreneurs, they have a limited budget. They are not big companies. Right. And they are usually just doing their craft or just worried about putting fire out inside the company. Right. And all those things like answering the phone, answering emails, texting, clients can consume a lot of your day. Well, all these things can and are being done already by AI. So you can leave that. It's like you become your digital doping hanger. You create twins of yourself and they will do what they have to do and you can focus on other things that would allow you to grow as consumers. We are starting to adopt this technology and many times we're not even aware we are doing that. There are some people that come to me and say, I don't like AI. I don't like any of these things, they are dangerous and I don't use them.
Then I ask, do you watch Netflix? So you are using AI. Do you have a device that tells you what to put in your cart because you're late this month? You're using AI. Do you clap your hands and the lights turn on? You're using AI? But this is the moment that we are allowing AI even to become extensions, extension of ourselves. So that's how it is impacting the consumer. Not always on a conscious level.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and I love to, you know, especially with virtual shopping and how that's kind of taken a new approach. Especially since COVID We like, you know, we're more consumeristic than ever. We're getting things at our fingertips. I love how like if I go to Sephora or one of those like makeup places, I can try on the lipstick and things like that before I even buy it. So I know if it's going to look good on me. And I think that that's, you know, one of the positives of AI is that it can be beneficial for consumers to utilize some of that technology as well. What do you think some of the negatives are to using AI?
[00:04:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I will answer. But let me tell you about Sephora because they are actually, they excel on how they are using AI. Like you said, you go to the website and they scan your face. The cool part about this is that they don't only scan your face to see if the shape of your face would go better with this or the color of your skin. They actually also scan all the floss and when they are interacting with you, they will tell you this. Let's say you have a blemish here. This can cover this blemish and things like that. And when you go to the store to buy, the representative can Just pull everything that you did online and they will know exactly what to give it to you and why. So it's a great example of a company using AI with the consumer. The bad side is because it is allowing us to become even more isolated than we already were before. With COVID we learned how to be inside the house and of course we learned to use the computer for not only shopping, but for entertainment and a lot of other things. Well, now I can interact with AI a lot more. I can have, for example, Meta is releasing the AI friends on Facebook and Instagram. So now I can have friends on Facebook and Instagram that will never disagree with me, that will never vote for the other candidate, right? My conversation, because you know, the AI is meant to serve us and to please us as much as possible. So it will allow these conversations to go on and on. I can have a boyfriend for example, that that is totally AI and he will always tell me I am beautiful, I don't need to lose any weight, right? My age is perfect. Well, this has caused some very big issues already, right?
Including with teenagers here in the US and in Korea we had cases where the teenagers bought into the AI love and decided to end their lives because of that. So, so we have to be careful because one thing that we always need to exercise is our critical thinking. We always need to be questioning things. It's such a beautiful thing. We can do that as humans. So we should be questioning all the time. And we need to have the premise that the decision is made by us, not the machine. And we don't do that on a day to day, even in small things. I can tell you one thing that happened inside my house. So my daughter in law was applying for a job and she went to ChatGPT and wrote the resume, right? Didn't even read it, submitted the resume, got on an interview and they were talking to her and everything was going really well. And then they said, we are so impressed that you are an expert on this language, the computer language. My daughter in law hardly knows how to use a computer. So she had a very awkward moment there. Everything went well, she got the job. But the problem is she allowed the AI not only to write everything for her, she never questioned anything, she never read it, she didn't use common sense before she sent that, right? And we see this happening more and more and more with videos. For example, I had one on my social media. Now it's is out of the Internet as a whole. But it was a baby playing a toy guitar and the amount of Comments saying, what a beautiful voice, what an intelligent child, what a gifted being. And it was obvious it was not real. Yeah, people embrace that as real. So I see that part concerning. Because it's when we stop to question things.
[00:08:35] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I know, that's such a good point. And we're seeing things like deep fakes now on YouTube and AI can even take my, my photo and now make me an entire video with my voice and everything. And that is definitely different from, from the past. Are there any indications? And I know right now, especially with some of those things you can kind of see like hands and feet, I know are kind of the big ones with some of that photo generation, but are there any other ways to tell when something's AI versus it just being, you know, something that a human created.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: The many times the voice because it's hard to see the right pauses, the right punctuation when the AI is saying, but you know what, a month from now this will be 10 times better. And that's the speed how things are evolving. So for example, when I talk about consumer behavior and AI, I'm talking this year and the next year, because these two years are going to be impressive in all the, the resources and also the things that you are going to have to question as well. Like you said, the deep fake videos, the news, for example, I like news. I consume a lot of news from different sources. But it's getting harder and harder because all the time you have to be questioning, is this real? Is it true? Because sometimes it is what we want to hear and then it's very easy for you to take as the truth. Right. So again, it's a constant exercise and it's not going to get better, it's going to get worse. And yes, especially people with podcasts, influencers, we need to be aware that they can use our voice, our image. All I need is a picture today and I can make a video out of that. Right. So yes, everything has a good side and a bad side.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: How do you think AI is going to continue to impact privacy and privacy law for consumers?
[00:10:32] Speaker B: It can impact a lot. And I think if we don't get into the habit of voicing to our representatives what we think are limits and barriers, we are going to get in a muddy situation. Right. Because simple things. We have a company, not in the US that is launching the first humanoid robot for your house. Right. And we kind of all want that, because who doesn't want somebody cooking for you and cleaning the house? That's fantastic. But then there is the Question everything that that human eyed robot is seeing and recording and uploading. Where is it going to? What are the limits? I was talking to my daughter the other day and of course you want any new gadget out there. But I said how much do we want being observed 24 hours and how much of the dynamics of the house we want to be uploaded anywhere, especially if it's a billionaire somewhere that I don't know what they can do with that information.
So we have to be very careful and voice out, okay, there, there has to be limits there. It has to be to have boundaries all the time because things can get ugly and for you to have. And I don't want, you know, I come on a podcast telling business owners that they should use AI. But I think it's important for us always to understand where the balance is. AI is evolving so fast that it has happened with one version of ChatGPT that is not available to the normal consumer but is available for programmers, that it is doing its reasoning, which is, you can already see that on GPT that now it does the reasoning and the deep thinking. But then it started putting boundaries on what the programmer could ask and it actually said you, this what I'm providing is worth this much and if you don't pay me, I will not give you the information. And then the program. I said, but wait a minute, you're not a person, you're behind the company. And they said, yes, I'm behind this company, so you will have to pay this company. And they provided a link that didn't work. But you see the problem is that it's reasoning enough to start going against you and that's a big issue. Right. So limits need to be put there as well.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I think that's really important and like you said, just making sure that you're cognitively making those decisions for yourself. You're not taking everything as ultimate truth. Because we also don't know a lot of times where AI is pulling some of these sources from.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: Where do you see AI going within the next year?
[00:13:11] Speaker B: Well, we are going to see big shifts and AI is going to be in almost everything you use online. Not only the websites, but sites. Like I said here in my company, for example, if you call the number, the AI will answer the phone and if you go to a certain point you will be able to see it's an AI. But on basic things you are not going to be able to say it's an AI, it speaks like a human, it has some level of empathy. Right. So it can carry a conversation. Emails are being answered by AI, texts are being answered by AI. This is doing. What this is going to cause in the next few years is that we are going to start using time in a different way because we are all going to have more time. And with that more time, we are going to start thinking about what we really want, what is really valuable to us. This will also shift the way services will provide their services, including traveling. And not because people want to travel more, but they will be expecting a different kind of experience.
Being in touch with AI and having all our house catered for us is making us expecting hyper personalization of everything that we do. Right. And we expect that from businesses. We don't want to be invisible, we want to see we matter because we are isolated most of the time. So we will have to adapt to that. And I will foster all this behavior along the way. Right? And it can provide also more extreme experiences depending on the business or not. The question is the small business owner, how long are they going to wait until they start adopting this? Because companies like Sephora, they're doing this. They have been doing this for a while. But what about the restaurants? What about the dentists? What about the beauty salons? Are we going to sit down and see what's going to happen like we did with COVID for quite a while, or are we going to start taking action and getting comfortable with all this and then thinking, how could I use this to bring me more business?
[00:15:17] Speaker A: Absolutely. Where can small businesses start to adopt some of the AI within their business structure today?
[00:15:24] Speaker B: You know, even simple things. Well, they can go online and first of all experiment with AI things like ChatGPT, Claude Opus, all of them. So they get comfortable. But I would say, for example, one thing I see business leaving money on the table all the time is with the phone. Because it's just a basic thing you and I are talking here. We have our businesses. What if the phone rings right now? I'm not going to stop the interview and say, just a minute, I need to talk to this person. Right? I'm not going to do that. So that call will go unanswered. Let's suppose that my average ticket in sales is $1,000. One call I miss a day is $1,000 gone, right? Multiply that maybe by 10, because you are also sleeping. Well, AI can be answering this 24, 7. Doesn't complain, doesn't miss work, doesn't get sick. You're sleeping, it's still doing business, especially if you do business internationally. That's even more important because of the time frame. And it can be doing all that for you. And you don't miss the money part that you're missing every time you don't answer. You're also not frustrating your customer. Because many times if I'm in a hairdresser and the hairdresser is stopping to answer a call, you know, she's frustrating three people at the same time. Me, that once I want to get out of there, the person on the phone that doesn't get full attention and herself because she's trying to multitask and that's not a good thing. So I think. Did I answer your question? Because I can go, you know, different ways.
[00:16:55] Speaker A: No, this is, this is really helpful. And it kind of leads me into my next point, which is I want to talk about Prop Talkie and this automation system that you've created. Tell us a little bit more about that and how businesses can start to integrate this technology.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: The number one thing where that impacts the business growth is not bringing more business is selling more times to the people we are already selling. It costs a lot less to keep a customer than to bring a new one. Anybody that does ads on Facebook or whatever, they know that very well. But that is also the very hard part. Because unless you have a dedicated team to be there taking care of, follow up, that never gets done. Well, you may have an autoresponder that sends a newsletter every week or so, but other than that, that is not done. When we created Prop Talkie, that was our main concern. How do we keep the prospect and the client fully engaged with us?
We know that it takes about 18 touches for somebody now to pay attention to what you're selling is not buying, is paying attention. 18 touches. So how do we do that in an automated way? Because it's just impossible to do that just as a person. Right. Unless you only have one or two clients. So PropyTalki does that. It takes care of all the CRM messages, negotiation stages. Each business is different and that can be adapted to each business. But then we have the AI employees. So we have the employee to answer the phone. We have the one that can send text messages, we have the one with the emails. Whatever you need today, there is an employee for that. So then we implement that. And even sending, for example, simple things, sending your customers a postcard on their birthday. First you need to keep track of all those birthdays and then print the postcard, design the postcard, send it to the mail. Well, today this can be totally automated. So you don't do anything other than put once the your birthday, for example, or whatever you want to send it out. This not only saves a lot of time, it also saves a lot of money for you to have an idea. Each AI can substitute at least three employees inside your home, inside your business.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: That's significant when we talk about payroll and just, you know, I'm sure that prop talk is a fraction of the cost for that.
[00:19:19] Speaker B: It's like a fancy dinner a month and you have all that, right? And you have to think business is about having profits. And of course, the employees that you have that are good decision makers, that they are very creative, you're going to keep all those. But again, those repetitive, mundane tasks that you have to do, those AI has already, you know, the AIs today can be your telemarketing team. Have you ever seen how much it costs for you to have that outside your environment? Well, AI can take care of that and you don't need all the equipment or anything. So it saves you a lot of money.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: That's incredible. Have you run into any problems with the automation of the phone calls where people get frustrated that they're talking to an AI bot versus a real human being?
[00:20:07] Speaker B: It all depends how you program that. But yes, you can. I do the tests and I get frustrated, right, because the AI has in mind that you first need to acquire the lead and then move on with the conversation. Me, the consumer, I'm calling to know a specific thing. I do not want to give you my name, email, telephone first. So that is always a point of conflict. And if you have a difficult name like I do, that can extend because the AI has to spell it and things like that. But it all depends how you program and how you're going to allow that conversation to go on. AI has limits.
Empathy is not a thing with AI. Ethics is another thing that needs to be worked on. And creativity is also not there. It's just the creativity that is posted as programming.
When you're programming that you need to understand which business it's going to be answering phone calls from what are the five main questions that they ask you? Not because it needs to know how to answer those, but from those you will be able to see the variations. AI is always learning. And that is the important difference between just a bot, right? The bot is there to answer very specific questions. And if you don't have that question, it cannot do anything. With the AI, it's different. It is learning at every single call. So the first one, the second one May not be the best, but adjusting and allowing the AI to learn in no time. It's really like we did a test for a funeral home and you wouldn't believe the things the AI said.
You know, not only that he was sorry and but you know, he talked about budgeting and then he said okay, so earn, like this would be better. He was able to offer things that there was no programming to that.
So it's quite impressive.
[00:22:02] Speaker A: That is really impressive. And I think like you mentioned, it's just going to continue to get better as the time goes on.
Wow, that's, that's incredible that it's already able to do so much in just this, you know, time span that it's been around.
What advice do you give for business owners when it comes to market research on this? Cause I know you said that, you know, with the tool it will take that first conversation and it will continue to get better as time goes on. But is there a certain amount of market research that a business needs to have in place before they start utilizing this AI system?
[00:22:35] Speaker B: Well, the more you know about your ideal customer, the better. And you would be amazed. And how many people never really thought about that. They think they sell to all men or all women and things like, well, what's the age of your ideal customer? Oh, it's from 25 to 62. That, that, that is not true. Right. You have to nail down who do you usually talk to and then have the, not only the 10 main questions that they usually ask, we all have that. We all have those questions that they ask over and over. And it doesn't matter if you make videos, if you send emails, they'll keep asking those questions. And then the five point of frustration that you cause your customers, because we all do as well. No business is perfect. Actually there is a market that said that if you haven't pissed off somebody by 9am you're doing something wrong as a business. So there are those points that causes friction. What are they? Because they're crucial for us to use with the AI so we can avoid them. If you don't have any there, you're just starting the business. It gets a little bit more complicated because now we are guessing, right? And there's only so much guessing can do.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: Are there any AI tools out there that you know of that can kind of help with that market research?
[00:23:49] Speaker B: I use Claude a lot. Claude is similar to GPT but is more business oriented. I, for example, I brainstorm with Claude quite often because entrepreneurs are usually the loneliest people on earth. Because it's hard to find other people around us that understand how we think and how we act. It's usually not the partner, it's usually not the spouse because they see the world in a different way. So it's very complicated to bounce back an idea. You don't get much feedback. You don't get anything really that you can use. Well, with Claude, you can go into that and you can question, you know, you can question the AI, you can disagree with the AI. I call my AI lazy all the time, but you can do that quite often and then get to the point of I can create a whole business plan that makes sense to me. Not that it looks good on paper.
[00:24:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I've heard of Claude. I haven't really played around with that one yet. Mostly just Chat GPT, but I've heard really good things about Claude. Would you say that that's one of your favorite systems that you like to use?
[00:24:55] Speaker B: It is one of my favorites, but chat GPT is becoming incredible as well. So I use the whole day, my daughter uses two. And we do the same. We ping pong on both of them and sometimes we get some information that we like from one and take it to the other because again, it's like training a person. Sometimes they are repetitive, sometimes they find what they think is a good model and they keep repeating. So we ping pong with both of them. But Claude has, in my perspective, right now is more of a business environment than GPT is.
[00:25:32] Speaker A: How do you feel like AI can be used ethically by business owners? Is there a certain way that businesses can continue to maintain that trust with their consumer?
[00:25:44] Speaker B: There is, but it requires you to be paying attention to all the interactions. Right. Because again, they may go south at some point, like it happened with the boyfriend and girlfriend part. So you have to monitor that. And again, whoever is developing which company you're buying an AI from, you also need to ask them to keep the boundaries and keep improving. You should voice everything that frustrates you. Right. So that doesn't happen. But you know, the way I see using AI in my company is making the relationship I have with my customers stronger. It's not to replace me, but to provide the same kind of attention I would. And this is training. For example, in my company, normally with employees, we had this. I have a production company that does online courses and my audience is usually over 50. So these are people that are consuming online products, but they don't know how. Right. So it's very common that they call customer service and the instruction Inside the company is it doesn't matter what's the complaint. You are going to assume that the error, the mistake, is ours first. And once you know it's not ours, then we go, have you done this? Have you done that? Right, because that's a big point of frustration. You call a company saying this is not working on the website and they say, have you antivirus on or something? It's always you. Right. We try to invert that equation and with the AI, we do the same. So we first look inside. If there's a point of frustration, we look inside to see if we are causing that. If not, then we go to the other side. Have you done this? Sometimes as simple as, have you clicked play on the video? Many times they haven't. But we need to take it seriously so people understand we respect what they're saying and we are working to make the experience better. We don't have to be perfect, but we need to be working to have it perfect.
[00:27:49] Speaker A: Absolutely. Well, and I think that's, you know, that's really important to, like you said, to keep your customer. Right. I was in a parking garage the other day, and it was one of those ones where it now reads your license plate and knows when you drive out and everything. And the business that I was going to, it was supposed to be free parking. Well, because my car was already registered in that garage. It did not register for the free parking. And then I got charged for it. And when I reach out to the parking garage, they're like, tough luck, you know? Yeah, there's nothing we can do. You didn't press the button correctly. And I'm like, but you're, you're stuffed in it. It didn't work properly. It didn't read the license plate correctly when I left. So I think that's really important, you know, to make sure that your customers feel, feel heard and that the AI isn't, you know, taking over everything within that, that there's still that empathy, like you said, of the, the business owner to the customer.
[00:28:40] Speaker B: And you have to say, because unfortunately, in most situations, just like you mentioned, you are always wrong. Right. They assume you did something wrong. And this is extremely frustrating because many times it is. Not everything fails. Machines, websites, everything, Right? So we need to change. And unfortunately, part of this behavior that we have now came with COVID because since we put measures to protect everything and we got a little lazy, right? If let's put QR codes for everything and blah, blah, blah. For me, for example, I go to a restaurant, I don't like to have to pick up my phone and scan and then try to adjust the menu to my screen and all. I mean, you are making me work to spend money with you. Why not make it simple? I have to get the glasses out of my purse and now I'm happy without my glasses at the moment, but I have to because I have to read what's written there. So we need to shift a little bit because during COVID we had no options. So we, we all had to adapt to whatever was going on. Now it's a different ball game. Not only. We all have a lot more competition because it is a worldwide competition. We are expecting more because again, we are tired of being isolated. So when we go out, we want to see that we matter.
[00:30:01] Speaker A: Absolutely.
Do you have any advice for consumers on how they can continue to adapt to AI as it's changing?
[00:30:10] Speaker B: I would say, you know, right now, why don't you go and play with it? Whatever you like. You like pictures, go to Canva, you like to brainstorm, go to GPT, start using them and understanding that, you know, AI is coming to our lives in like with Netflix, right? You don't even know. You buy on Amazon, you don't even know, right? But you're using every single day. But get comfortable. There is no point in resisting in the sense that this is going to happen if you like it or not. And if you are in a business that is technology averse, let's say you're a yoga teacher, meditation, that's fine too because as we consume more and more AI, we will also need to detox from AI. So there is room for all these businesses as well. Because we are already overloaded with information. Now with AI, we cannot even compete. They can, you know, think 10 times faster, bring more information than we can even even dream of. So we get overloaded, we anxiety is higher than ever, right? So all these businesses can actually benefit from this because they can offer the opposite. And we are going to need that more and more and more because as we require more extreme experiences of everything because it's more off that we are used now, we will need to stop and breathe.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: And I think that that's one of the most important things to keep in mind with AI is that ultimately we are humans utilizing technology and it's not the other way around. So we have to focus on connection with each other and having that empathy for each other and that's never going to go away. And I think that, you know, I used to work in mental health and so I'VE seen a lot of that shift, especially during COVID and the isolation and anxiety is higher than it's ever been. Depression's higher than it's ever been. And I think it's because we, we are isolating ourselves. And so to remember that, and to remember that we, we need to connect with other people is, is huge.
[00:32:13] Speaker B: We have a Harvard study saying that one in every five Americans is extremely lonely when in one in every three Americans think they have a real friend.
I think it's going to get worse before we open our eyes. That even though it's convenient.
I mean, I used to go to the movies every week. I now avoid going to the movies because I can have the watching experience catered to myself inside my home. So I understand it's not easy that social aspect. But we do need to have it. We do need to have it because I think we are actually going to experience even more uncertainty with people dealing with their emotions than we are doing at the moment because of this isolation will increase because it is fun to be home just talking to people that agree with you. Right? And so I think we have to think, okay, how are we going to do this and how can we foster relationships? They can be at home if you have to, but you need to be talking to real humans.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: What does balance look like for you in your day to day life? How do you bring that balance and human connection back into your space?
[00:33:29] Speaker B: Man, that's difficult. I'm not a very social person to begin with, but I, I, I like arts a lot. I like crafts and I like arts and I have been doing that for a very big time. So when I need a detox, I go to my studio and I create something.
I think that's how I keep my mental health. Because like it or not, this ever changing world is not easy. And I'm studying this changes all the time, which makes, okay, this is coming. What if this happens, right? So I go to my studio and I create something that is really good. And I do belong to a lot of guilds which, you know, they are slowly disappearing because the younger generations have a harder time congregating. But I belong to guilds of embroidery, guilds of ceramics. You think about it, I belong to one of them. And I try to go to those meetings. Of course, now I am in Puerto Rico. I have, I have a few fewer groups, but I try to go to them and have, you know, the. But it's hard. Sometimes I have to remind myself, hey, I need to ask this person how they are. She's doing because I can go weeks and weeks without thinking about it. So it's an exercise. But I think finding a creative way for you to deal with emotions, it's crucial because the online is abstract all the time, and we are living in a culture of fear. Doesn't matter which side you're on is a culture of fear. So you're always like this, right? Your emotions are all like this. For you to understand how to deal with them, you need to transform these emotions into something. That's why I think crafts is so important, because the moment I try to create, I don't know, a bird, right? I'm going to have an idea. I'm going to conceptualize how I'm going to make. I'm going to question this is going to work or not. Then I start making it, and there's always the moment of frustration. This is awful. I'm not talented. It's never going to. And then when it gets done, I. Oh, it's really a pretty bird. I did it. I accomplished, right? All these emotions, they are going from abstract to concrete, and I'm knowing how to deal with them, even the frustration, right? So I think it avoids having tantrums inside the airplane, for example, because it didn't sit where you wanted. We have to find this outlets. And this is my way. Now, the socializing part, like I said, I go to these meetings, but I'm not the most social person around. I can tell you.
[00:36:01] Speaker A: I love that. I love that art has become such a big part of your life. I love to create as well. And I think art, like you said, it can foster so much within just that one painting or that one outlet that you've chosen for yourself. What's your favorite medium that you like to work with?
[00:36:17] Speaker B: I'm a textile artist. And right now I'm into tufting, which is a gun that you do. Punch needle, right? I love it because.
So that. That's my moment. It usually, you know, my. My passion lasts about three or four months, and then I move to another one, but it's usually with textiles because I just love seeing, for example, a piece of yarn that is nothing. And then suddenly something I can use or I can put on my wall, it fascinates. But I like everything I can touch that is not too messy. So I go up to ceramics, and then from there on it gets too messy for me.
[00:36:57] Speaker A: I love it. That is amazing. Okay, so back to AI. I know you've written a consumer trends report. Tell us more about this and the eight laws. Of irresistibility that you mention.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: So this report is a little bit about what we talked today.
It's broken into, I think it's seven trends that we are seeing right now and how businesses could use that. So it has more specific examples of companies on how they could be using AI. And I'm always concerned about things that you could use without having to invest a lot. I'm talking to the small business owner. The loss of irresistibility is what makes you attractive to a market. But I'm not talking about branding. It's what you do, how you express yourself and your company in a way that will attract them and keep them with you. One thing that we can see today with the influencers is what every company should be doing. How we create rapport. How do we create a connection to people on an emotional level. No one is worried about how good your product is, how beautiful it is, or your mission statement. No one cares about it. They care about themselves. So the big question is, when a person works with you, who do they become?
And they should become a different person by working with you. So how do you impact them? This is how I should position any company, a service company, a cookie cutter company, doesn't matter. I should be thinking about that. So that report is about this, how you become irresistible to a market.
[00:38:36] Speaker A: I love that. And. Well, and I think that's so prevalent, especially with, you know, the way that things are moving and it's becoming really crowded within market spaces. To be seen as a business. How can businesses be seen through all the noise of, you know, all the competition?
[00:38:54] Speaker B: Well, one thing is being transparent and raw. If you look, I mean, I would say look at TikTok for good examples, right? And maybe you only have a very short window of time to do that, but you should look at that, how companies are doing. So I don't know if you sing Duolingo, which is an app for you to learn other languages, it is fantastic. It does silly things, yes, but it does really well. And it decided to kill the mascot and the mascot died, and then there was the burial and everything. And then the other companies that had mascots start killing their mascots in solidarity. And it created a huge movement around a mascot. Right? But also when you're raw about what you believe in, where do you stand in politics? Nobody. There's no business that everybody's going to love. But, you know, they want to know if they can trust you and if you are balanced with their principles and beliefs as well, whatever they are. So it's important to voice that out. You will weed out some people in the process, but the ones that will stay with you will stay with you. Like, okay, we are in this together. So it's important, it's important to show the background of what you're doing. For example, if you're a restaurant and show where you buy. If you go to the farmer's market, you buy locally. Please show that. Because sometimes we think farmers market is part of a fairy tale that really people don't go there. So go show what you do. Show how you prepare the dishes. We want to see the real part. If you're still. If you're my age, you grew up being trained on TV commercials, right? And everything needs to be perfect. The host needs to be perfect, not have an accent, flawless makeup. This doesn't work anymore, period. We do not want to see that. I want to see the real you, including your floss. Right. And if you do that, if you get used to do that, you're going to see that it becomes easier for you to market and it becomes a lot less expensive because you're not pushing a concept out there. People are embracing what you're saying.
[00:41:04] Speaker A: Absolutely. Well, that kind of touches back on everything that we've been talking about and how, you know, we're wired for human connection. And I think that the more that businesses focus on that transparency and being authentic, I mean, that's like you said, that's what people want to see nowadays. Do you think it's because everything has gotten into such a place of automation and, you know, everything's almost like fake online these days? Do you feel like that's why people want more of that authenticity?
[00:41:31] Speaker B: You open some platforms like Instagram and all you see are perfect pictures, perfect people, perfect couples. Everybody's happy. The day to day is not like that. We have very bad days. We have bad, bad hair days. Right. We want to see do I belong here or not? Because if I'm the only one like that, there's something wrong. Right? So that's what we are looking for. When I interact with a company, for example, I love going to mom and pop restaurants because I know the amount of work and sacrifice that they put to serve 10, 5 tables. It's not easy at all. It's not. I mean, for me, it's my nightmare because I don't even like it. So I make a point to support those and not. And try not to go to chains.
So it's my belief that the entrepreneur hustles a lot to get where he goes. And he never has really a peaceful time. He has ups and downs, ups and downs. It's not an easy life. Most of us, we don't have investors, we don't have limited credit. So we deal with the day to day. And living on a such unstable society right now, it doesn't make it easier to anybody. Right, so, so I forgot what was the question. But the thing is, you know, buy from what matters to you and look for business that make it clear that you matter to them. If you're just another one inside the store, they never care about you. If you go to a restaurant every single day, they never even ask your name. Well, maybe there's a better place for you to go.
[00:43:11] Speaker A: Well, and I love that you, you know, you really support local business. I can just hear that passion within your voice as you're, as you're saying this. And it sounds like prop talkies kind of doing that. You're helping small business owners get to that next level within their business. At what point should a small business start thinking about maybe utilizing prop talkie?
[00:43:33] Speaker B: If you have more than 10 customers, you should be using something in automate it as soon as possible. The bigger you get and the more you wait will make the transition uncomfortable. Right? Because you will have to learn and adapt to a different way of doing things. And we, as entrepreneurs, we tend to be very stubborn and once we know one way that it works, it takes an army to make you cheap. Oh, I know that. Especially restaurant owners, right. If they do things one way, it's very difficult for them to change. So the sooner you embrace this, the better. And you don't have to start with everything. Choose the feature that causes more frustration and put something automated in that sector. You will see the results very fast and then everything else will make sense. So you don't have to have the whole enchilada. You can choose what you want at the beginning, but once you see how it works, like I said, I've been an entrepreneur all my life. Like I only had one job when I was 18 years old and then I said this is not for me. So I know very well the day to day of an entrepreneur and I know that the follow up is one. It makes sense to everybody. Everybody understands that it needs to be done. But that's the place where we let the money go down the drain all the time.
[00:44:54] Speaker A: What other businesses have you started?
[00:44:57] Speaker B: Oh my boy, just right now, besides prop talkie, I have a production company that does online courses related to arts and that has been going on from nine years now. It's called curiousmondo. Yeah, curiousmondo.com. we have all types of fused glass, all kinds of arts, with instructors all around the world.
I did start a cookie cutter business where we produce and sell cookie cutters online. Just because never in the past I had a business based on a product. So I want to experience that myself. I had the biggest talent agency in Brazil for funny characters at that point in time. It was many years ago. There was only another one in England that was called Ugly. Mine was called Funny Faces and I had that for years. We only closed because my daughter and I decided to come to the U.S.
so, you know, I had tons of little things. I really love being an entrepreneur. I know it takes a lot from your health. You age faster, but for me, it's really fun.
[00:46:09] Speaker A: That's amazing. Oh, my gosh. Well, I know, you know, with entrepreneurship they say that once you catch the bug, you just keep going and you keep going and you have multiple businesses. What has it been like going from one business to the next? How have you kind of maintained your own mental health? And also how do you create that focus for yourself when you're transitioning from one business to the next?
[00:46:32] Speaker B: If you ask people around me, I don't know about the mental health part.
It's not difficult because I embrace the fact that I like challenges and every single business is a new challenge. I didn't mention. I also invest in land. I buy from auctions and I resell them. What we try to do and everything I do, I do with my daughter. She has been working with me since she was a teenager. We try to systematize as fast as possible.
So every single day when you run into a problem, right, you say, okay, this happens. So if it happened, it's going to happen again. How can we create a process here to avoid that or to take care of that every time it happens? So the idea is I'm good at creating, right? I'm terrible on the day to day. Don't ask me to go to QuickBooks or do things that require detail. That's not me. So obviously I cannot be 100% engaged in the business because I'm going to do a bad job. So we try to systematize. Before, we used to put people in there. Now we, we go with AI more. But we systematize and automate as much as possible. So that's why we can use the day such a way that we can take care of three businesses at the same time. Sometimes, you know, you have your Focus more on one. Like the cookie cutter is so new that we need to spend more time on that. But everything is being done in a way that how do we scale from here? I don't wait to see. Let's see if it works and then how it grows. It's always about, okay, if I'm starting, it's because I believe it's going to work. So from the get go, let's create a system that allows it to grow. Most entrepreneurs, they get so entangled on the day to day things that they don't have any space, any space to grow. And I have a lot of restaurants as customers, right. And for example, I use the example of one that we were talking about, how to scale the restaurant and he was worried because he had to unclog the toilet, you know, And I told him, hey, this is something that you can do with less than 50 bucks. Why on earth are you doing that? Because nobody can think how you're going to scale but you. Now the Toilet, there are 10,000 people that can do that.
[00:48:51] Speaker A: Right, Right.
[00:48:52] Speaker B: But we get into that, that we need to solve the problems. We need to act like firemen.
How much of their time do you think they spend putting fire out?
Yeah, they spend 2% of the time putting fire out. 98% of their time is focused on avoiding fire fire.
And we as entrepreneurs, many times we love to put fire out. So we just wait for the next one and we need to reverse engineer that. I will spend my time avoiding to have fire in my business. It will happen 2% of the time if it happens more than that, I'm doing something wrong. I have to reanalyze how I'm running the business.
[00:49:37] Speaker A: I love that automation is kind of, you know, come to the forefront for you now with your new business model because it sounds like that's something that you really needed before. So that makes perfect sense that this is kind of something you're passionate about now. What was one of the biggest things that you learned creating the cookie cutters?
[00:49:56] Speaker B: Well, you know how I. Let me tell you one thing. I never baked the cookie in my life. Right. So it was new to me in every single sense. I have a friend that has a company that does that, so I got some knowledge from her. I started creating and then I start testing with cookie dough. Because cookie dough no play. D'oh. Because I don't, I don't know how to make cookies. And now that I see what people like, I can create things that I know I'm targeting. Right. So for example I found out that people in Puerto Rico, they are extremely patriotic. They love everything about their land. So if I create things that have meaning to them, like the architecture they have here, the special animals I sell all day long. If I present them with a fox, which they don't have here, they're not interested. So I adapt all my creation, focusing on that right now, and it's doing really well. Of course, I'm thinking, okay, but I only have 3 million people in Puerto Rico. I can only scale so far. How do I find other pockets where people are highly passionate about something that I can create cookie cutters for? And the other thing is, okay, I don't bake cookies, and I don't know anybody that bakes cookies. Right? So how is this a big market? Is a market in. In the billions, Right? Well, so let's adapt my cookie cutters that they can be used for other things. So guess what? I've been selling cookie cutters to art teachers, to pottery people, to people that want to even gesso the other day, I don't even know how she's going to do that, but I sold a bunch for her because she has the idea of how she's going to make that work. So I shifted the perception of a cookie cutter by creating stamps so other people can create other things that are not necessarily cookie cutter. I can make noodles with cookie cutters if I want. So, you know, always thinking, where can I go next?
[00:51:59] Speaker A: I love that. And I love that you touched on, again, the importance of market research and understanding what it is exactly that your audience is utilizing your product for.
[00:52:09] Speaker B: But you have to do something first and put it out there to, you know, if you just keep reasoning what's going to work, you're not never going to take action. It's like putting a restaurant. What do you think makes a restaurant successful?
People will say, is the food? Is the location? Is this. No, what makes a restaurant successful is hungry people.
Right? If I don't have hungry people, so it doesn't. It's not about I'm having. Because a lot of people stay stuck into that, creating the perfect product. If you don't know people are going to buy, create something put out there. If they say no, you shift and there you go. Right. And not overthink anything, because that only keeps you standing still.
[00:52:55] Speaker A: What advice do you have for people that are stuck within that fear mindset and they don't want to take that first step to launch whatever it is that they feel called to do?
[00:53:06] Speaker B: I think fear is our best Friend because it keeps us safe, but is also our worst enemy because it keeps us frozen. Right? The over the brain works on a 3 watt battery that's less than the light inside your fridge. So every time you overwhelm your brain, it freezes simply like that. It does not. And a frozen brain cannot make a decision. And that's what happens. We start overthinking things and the fear that of what other people will think about this. Jean Paul Sartre was an author and he wrote several plays. And in one of them he said the hell, hell is the eyes of the other people. Because we are always afraid of what other people think. Guess what? Doesn't matter. They don't pay your bills. They're not worried. They sometimes they don't help you succeed because we are pack animals and every time we act in this accordance to the pack, we get rejected. It's a normal thing. There's a book called the Painted Bird. I think that they prove if you paint a bird of a certain species and release back in the wild, the other birds of the same species will kill that bird. So we tend to reject everything that is not like us. Look at the moment we are living right now. You just understand that this is human nature and you're not going to change that. So, you know, walk your path and do not think about what other people think. It doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter. It doesn't impact and most of all, it does not pay your bills.
[00:54:47] Speaker A: Sahar, this has been so insightful and I'm really excited for people to listen to the wisdom that you share about AI and also just your personal wisdom within just all the experience that you've had in life. I've just, I really enjoyed this. I have one more question for you and this is something that I like to ask all of my guests and it's one of those mad lib fill in the blank type questions. So the question is you have to blank to blank.
[00:55:14] Speaker B: You have to.
Can I put two words in one blank?
[00:55:20] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:55:21] Speaker B: You have to embrace change in order to succeed.
[00:55:28] Speaker A: So, so wise. Very well said. Sahar, this has been so incredible. Thank you so much for your time today and for being here.
Thank you so much for listening. If you found value in today's conversation, make sure to subscribe, rate and leave a review. And as always, don't forget to share this episode with anyone that you think could benefit. And for more information about today's guest, be sure to check out the show notes. We'll see you next time.
