Beyond the Hype: What You Really Need To Know About Using AI and ChatGPT in Your Business

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Suzanne Frear, where we take a deep dive into the pros and cons of using Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, to create content for your business.

Suzanne is a Creative Copywriter working with passionate small businesses. She helps makers, bakers and motivators shine on the internet and connect with their audience.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

The privacy concerns you need to consider when using AI generated content
The impact AI generated content has on your SEO
The limitations and potential for deception and bias, when using AI generated content


 

I’d love to hear what learnings or light bulb moments you take away from today's episode – please do come and connect with me over on my social media and let me know.

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Check out Suzanne's 'Things You May Not Know About Chat GPT' Blog

Join Suzanne's Email List

Check out the Dream Business Club Page that Suzanne wrote the copy for

Connect with Suzanne on Instagram and LinkedIn

Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter
Transcript
Teresa: Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. And as always, I am your host, Teresa Heath Wareing. But there's a bit of a difference today. After having a, almost a year, I think it was just short of a year off doing interviews, they're back. And I basically got a bit bored of doing episodes on my own and not talking to other people.

And also I am limited in the things that I can talk about. Now, obviously I can talk about a ton of stuff because I've been in this business for a long time and I do my own marketing and all that jazz. But there are things that obviously I am not expert in. So although I could probably give you the headline stuff on it.

Actually, I need to bring in some experts. So I have started by picking some of my most favorite people who are not only amazing at what they do, but also happen to be awesome people as well. So please welcome to the podcast today, the amazing Sooz Frear. Suze, how are you doing?

Sooz: I'm really good. Thank you very much for having me on.

Teresa: Oh, my pleasure. I am really excited to have you here now. Sooz has been in my world a little while and what's kind of exciting about her is that her business is fairly new and I've been with her since the beginning, which is quite rare for me. I don't often get to work with people from the very beginning.

So tell us a bit Sooz, about what you do and how you got to doing the thing that you do now?

Sooz: Okay, so I am a creative copywriter, so I work with...

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Suzanne Frear, where we take a deep dive into the pros and cons of using Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, to create content for your business.

Suzanne is a Creative Copywriter working with passionate small businesses. She helps makers, bakers and motivators shine on the internet and connect with their audience.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

The privacy concerns you need to consider when using AI generated content
The impact AI generated content has on your SEO
The limitations and potential for deception and bias, when using AI generated content


 

I’d love to hear what learnings or light bulb moments you take away from today's episode – please do come and connect with me over on my social media and let me know.

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Check out Suzanne's 'Things You May Not Know About Chat GPT' Blog

Join Suzanne's Email List

Check out the Dream Business Club Page that Suzanne wrote the copy for

Connect with Suzanne on Instagram and LinkedIn

Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter
Transcript
Teresa: Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. And as always, I am your host, Teresa Heath Wareing. But there's a bit of a difference today. After having a, almost a year, I think it was just short of a year off doing interviews, they're back. And I basically got a bit bored of doing episodes on my own and not talking to other people.

And also I am limited in the things that I can talk about. Now, obviously I can talk about a ton of stuff because I've been in this business for a long time and I do my own marketing and all that jazz. But there are things that obviously I am not expert in. So although I could probably give you the headline stuff on it.

Actually, I need to bring in some experts. So I have started by picking some of my most favorite people who are not only amazing at what they do, but also happen to be awesome people as well. So please welcome to the podcast today, the amazing Sooz Frear. Suze, how are you doing?

Sooz: I'm really good. Thank you very much for having me on.

Teresa: Oh, my pleasure. I am really excited to have you here now. Sooz has been in my world a little while and what's kind of exciting about her is that her business is fairly new and I've been with her since the beginning, which is quite rare for me. I don't often get to work with people from the very beginning.

So tell us a bit Sooz, about what you do and how you got to doing the thing that you do now?

Sooz: Okay, so I am a creative copywriter, so I work with predominantly small businesses to help them write their copy to make real connections and build relationships through website copy, through email newsletters, blogs, et cetera.

I have been doing this professionally for just coming up to a year now, although it was as you say, like I'd been doing it a little bit on the side before, but yes, a year ago I decided to quit my day job, so to speak, and I took the plunge and yeah, it brought me here because I've always loved writing and so to be able to do that as part of what I do for a living is just a great joy for me so I'm, I'm, I'm really proud of myself for getting here and yeah I'm just so happy that I get to do what I love as a job.

Teresa: So I've watched you, Sooz's in executive club, she works with us there. I've watched you go through already some roller coasters of running a business. So talk to me and in case anybody's out there, cause actually surprisingly there are a number of people either in my world directly or perhaps listening to this that have jobs or do a part time job and they're not quite ready to take that step.

So talk to me about actually taking that step of going, "I'm going to leave my job and leave my income and I'm going to better myself."

Sooz: Yeah. It's, it's a big, big step and I would never be one to recommend it and say everyone should do it because obviously everyone is so different. Everyone's situation is so different. The situation I was in, but the job I'd been doing for a little over 20 years.

I had to come to an end for a lot of different reasons. I was working within the European Union and following Brexit, obviously things had changed. Also following COVID and the new normal, my working routine had changed and just, it wasn't going to work going forward. So I knew I had to leave that particular job.

So the situation I had was whether I was going to find a new job, a full time position, a part time position working for someone else. Or if this was, I was going to listen to what was actually going on and take the chance to do it myself. And I did go backwards and forwards on this. I know I discussed it with you more than once because there were times when I had the possibility of taking a job.

At the end of the day, I think betting on myself is the best thing I could have done. And it's a huge risk. It's a big thing to do. Walking away from that guaranteed income is a huge thing to do. But when, if you get the opportunity and you have that little bit of stability to be able to do it, that, that, position of privilege really that, you know, next month I'll be all right if I give this a go, then I urge you to take it because if you can enjoy what you do, it's not like going to work.

And that is a huge, huge thing. What I was doing before didn't light me up. This does, I enjoy what I do. I look forward to working. I don't mind working longer hours, things like that. And I get to design my own life, which is a real joy.

Teresa: And I think that actually, you know, to say that it feels like a privilege is, is true. You know, you were in a position where, you know, you, you had an option to leave, like obviously you still need to bring your income in. You still need to, you know keep a roof over your head, but there are some options there.

So that is a privilege. But also I want to kind of go, it's not a privilege. You took a risk. You took a big, brave, massive step to say I'm betting on myself. And, and that takes the most guts. I think of anyone doing anything, honestly, I constantly say to the business owners I work with that they should be high fiving themselves every single day.

The fact that they're even here doing this thing, like they are a hundred times braver than most people out there. So tell me, cause there was one pit that I'm thinking about in particular where you started, you were waiting to get your website up and running and the website went up. And nothing happened.

And I think that was one of your very first, like, oh, oh God, what am I going to do? Like, so talk to us about that, about what you thought was going to happen and then how we managed after that.

Sooz: So I think, yeah, I had this, this, this picture of, of, of what a successful business looked like. And it was definitely a website.

It was definitely, you know, a full and bustling email list. It was really busy socials, et cetera. And I'd worked really hard to get this to my website up and I was so proud of it. I'd put in so much work because anyone knows who does the website. Thank you so much. It takes a lot of work. Obviously being a copywriter, I wrote all the copy myself.

It's a lot of work and talking about yourself isn't always the easiest thing. And that's why I do what I do to help other people. But I had to do it for myself. So all this work has gone in. I was so excited. I remember doing, a little video to celebrate that you were part of it. All these people celebrating that my website was up and it had been up two days and I wasn't yet a millionaire.

And I think I came into the group and I was like, Now what? Because I'd worked so hard, nothing had happened and then, well now what? No, no one's seen it apart from you guys that I've shared it with. This was it. Yeah. Then the next stage is obviously really pushing yourself out there, getting, getting people to the website, talking about the website, talking about what they can find there and, and then encouraging them, following links and things. So that was it. . Yeah. Things don't just happen. You have to find them.

Teresa: The story really makes me like, it makes me laugh in a nice way, not in like a ha, stupid as a way. Like that, because that is the truth there. So many people, like having a website with your name on it feels, and like you said, it's a ton of work, right. Even when you've had a website before, like, if I ever do a website change or the last time I changed a website, it is still a ton of work. And, and like you said, it was just that whole, like, get it up there, like, what? Come on, they're the ones, all my customers, like, hello!

Sooz: They're that phrase, build it and they will come. They don't.

Teresa: No, they don't. It's absolute BS. But what was so great, from my point of view, is that you were working with us and you were in our world, which meant that when you went, Oh my God, like nothing's happening.

I'm failing at this. I'm doing, which you absolutely weren't by the way, because that is what happens that actually we could work on the next thing and work on it and keep you going and then get to the point where you are today, where you have clients and proposals and all sorts of things, which is awesome. But so many people would have got to that stage. And stopped.

Sooz: It's true.

Teresa: And you didn't.

Sooz: No. Well, I think there's, there's a few things that kept me going, but predominantly was like this, this, that I wanted to make myself proud and I couldn't give up for that. It was too soon to give up. I'd given myself, I think I've given myself three years to see if I can make this work.

It's already working, by the way, so there was very much that, like, don't give up, but I have to say, yeah, the people around me, and this is one thing I talk about quite a lot, is having the people around you that either have been there, have done it before, have some experience, or just that believe in you and support you, and when they see you starting to lose that faith a little bit in yourself, it's just so, wait, have you seen what you've done?

You've done all this first, remember that, and that, that's a big learning curve, that's something else I've learned over the past couple of years that I, actually, I have got quite a strong willpower, and I am a strong person, I can do something if I put my mind to it, but I've taken time to learn, you know, we've always relied on other people, like, but everything we do and think, oh no, it's not for me, or I'll find a different way.

But relying upon yourself is a big learning curve. And that's, yeah, definitely something that kept to come through when I've hit these little bumps. But yeah, the people around me and other people cheering me on, like yourself, like the group that we're in. Yeah, it's invaluable. Absolutely.

Teresa: And, and I love it because we're now a year in, almost a year in, and you, you have a thriving business that has always got room to grow because every business has, but you have got clients, you're doing work, you're showing up, you're, you know, you are getting people saying you are brilliant at this, Sooz, and you are brilliant at this, which is amazing.

In fact, Sooz, I should mention Sooz helped me write the club page, so if you go to teresaheathwareing. com/ the club. You can see Sooz's work on that page and it's lovely because she got to know me and understand me and she did pretty much anyway by this point. But, and what was lovely is she was in the club so she could very convincingly and, and authentically go, this is what you get in there and this is how you feel and that sort of thing. So do go and check that out.

Okay, so the next hurdle that come across, which actually is gonna be where we're focusing our time today, is that you start your copywriting business. And then the world explodes with chat GTP.

Sooz: Oh, honestly, you couldn't make it up, could you? I'll just wait.

Teresa: No, no. So basically.

Sooz: Yeah, I'll wait for it. I'll wait for an energy crisis when people are low on free up cash. And just something else that comes in that people can use themselves to write their own copy which is brilliant.

Teresa: Exactly. you know what? I am pretty late to the party with most tech things because I understand, like I'm still not on threads and I won't be, and now there's a surprise, everyone stopped talking about it.

But like, you know, I, I hold back a bit because I know that I've got to stay in my lane. So actually I didn't look at chat GTP and as you know, and people listening to this, if they're not new, I write all my stuff pretty much anyway, bar the page I got you to help me with. So, and the show notes, Becci writes the show notes based on what I've said on the podcast.

So, for me, I never really looked at it. And then I started to like dabble and look. And I remember sitting in bed, I've told you this, with my husband. And it was a Saturday morning, or Friday morning, we were both doing a bit of work in bed. and rock and roll life we need. And basically I'm doing something and I'm like, look at this.

And I wrote an email that I would send to my list and I put it into chat GTP. And I said, improve this. And it just started typing. And Paul, my husband is like, "What the world. How much are you paying for that? That's ridiculous." I'm like, it's free. However, what we want to talk about today is, and what you're going to share with us because you've done some great content around this, which is why I wanted you to come and share it with us, is we're going to talk about using ChatGTP, and when it's great and when it's not great, and when you need a copywriter, when you don't need a copywriter, and when you know, the things that you should use it for and the things that you should bear in mind when you're using it. So, where do you wanna kick off Sooz? What things should we talk about first?

Sooz: Well, I'll start with, with what you just said there. So, yeah, I want to talk about like, the fact, like you said that you, when you, you entered stuff in, you just said it, it is brilliant. I have to say like, I can't knock it really.

The fact that you can put a couple of really simple prompts in, I mean, you put in a whole, email, but you can put in just write me an invitation to, write me for social media posts about, it is brilliant in that the innovative technology behind it is fantastic. I can't knock it, but it just. I urge people to be careful with it.

There's so much we don't know about it. There's so much that we're still learning. And that is because AI in itself is a learning tool. So it is learning as well all the time. For example, the fact that you put in a newsletter, once you put in something like that, that could hold information, it could hold, it could hold customer data, for example.

Anything like that, then goes in there and stays there. It becomes the property, so to speak, of, ChatGPT, Claude, Bard, any of those. That once it's in, it becomes part of that system. So, be very aware that anything you put in is no longer private to you. It could be served up as information to another user if they put in just the right kind of prompts, it's using your information to learn from.

A lot of the time this isn't too bad. You know that there's things we're entering in a quite generic that questions and things like that. But sometimes people are putting in whole reams of an article or a whole magazine, something similar or course, I know someone who's put a whole course into chat GPT to find out how it sounds. And yes, you'd have to get the right product. It's mind blowing and it's really scary.

Teresa: That's mind blowing, isn't it? Like, you know, and, and also the fact is, and I, you know, and we talked about this and you told me that example, and I was like, so if someone else, so if someone saw that she'd put that in, because she talked about it publicly, that's how, yeah, how we know that she put her entire course in.

Yeah. So if someone saw her talk about it and knew the title of her course and then went back to chat GTP and said, write me a course based on or called the likelihood of them using some of that information back in that response would be really high.

Sooz: It could be. Yeah, exactly. But it's also. It's impossible to tell and then from there, you don't know how unique your answer is.

So it's really hard to, I couldn't say what the percentage chance is and I wouldn't want to put myself out of it because there's people who know a lot more about it and the data behind it, but it's just that there is a chance. I heard a story about someone in a separate group who she managed the social media for an accounting firm or a financial firm.

She'd put out a post that she'd put through ChatGPT. And her firm got in touch with her and said, This is not your post. You've, this is, you've stolen this from someone else. Basically, and the chances of this happening are slim, but two different people have put the same prompt into chat GPT, got the same thing out, and in the same field, and the fact that they were linked anyway, the same post went out.

So the second person to put it out looked like she'd literally copied the first person, but she'd got it from chat GPT. So it does happen, the chances are slim. And especially that you're going to get caught in that lie, so to speak, that lack of authenticity.

Teresa: If that's your job, and you're, you're a freelancer or you're a social media manager or you're a marketer, and it's like...

You know, you writing something and it being out somewhere else, like you just can't do that, that credibility. And also, I have to say now, you know, I've used chat GTP, and I've looked at it in different ways and we can talk about that, how, you know, how I've used it. But I, if I came to you to write some copy.

Or if I came to you to write my social media or went to someone to create my social media and I thought they were just plugging it into ChatGTP, that kind of, personally, that would put me off. Yeah. Personally, I would think, well, you...