Today's about content creation in AI. I know a lot of us have done the social media thing. We're all on it for hours every day, whether that you're producing content and, or you're just consuming way too much of it. But today to me, Shannon's going to dispel some myths, also understand of how easy or. Efficient. You can be in content creation as well. So without further ado to me, why don't you tell us about yourself and how you've been in the business for 10 years?

Tamay Shannon:
1:53

Yeah. Hey, my name is May Shannon W2S marketing, and I am that person who not only produces too much content, but also consumes way too much content. TikTok tells me go to bed. It's like, Hey, it's been too long. Go to bed. How I got here, was just, a journey of a lot of elder millennials. they say, go to school, get that degree. You're going to get a job. I was like, cool, I can follow this path. I went to school, got the degree. And then when I got out, they were like, oh, so this economy. Yeah, we don't, this job thing is not going to work out. I was like, cool. went back to school, came out again. I was like, okay, so this is still, and I'm not going to get my PhD. So I couldn't go back to school. And I started doing a lot of gig work on the sides, things like that. And my mom suggested that I start a business. And I was like, oh my goodness, mom, that's a bad idea. The reason why I thought it was a bad idea, though, was because I thought what entrepreneurship looked like was essentially an old white man, right? MBA worked in corporate for 20 years and then you segue into and I was like, well, I don't fit That I can't be an entrepreneur. I can't be a business owner because that is not the face of who I am. six months later though, it'd been stewing in my mind. I was like, look, I'll give it a go. And if it doesn't work, it's fine. And here we are over a decade later, I'm still in business.

Stoy Hall:
3:19

Thanks mama for planting that seed.

Tamay Shannon:
3:21

Right.

Stoy Hall:
3:24

as business owners, we don't all have our shit together. Like, let's be real. We strive to do it, but no one has their shit together. And I don't care how successful business may look on the outside. I can promise you they don't have their shit together. What has been the toughest since you've been around for over a decade, which is amazing, by the way, what's been the toughest part of the journey? From, starting it and continuing on for over a decade.

Tamay Shannon:
3:48

Honestly, for me, the toughest part, and it's just a part, part of how my brain works. The toughest part is. I keep wanting there to be a playbook. I keep wanting to have, you know, the, you know, those, lead managers, the, the missing secret, the five steps to do X, Y, and Z, the da, da, da, and I keep being like, all right, I just need those five steps and then, and then. And no, that's not how it works. And so that's the toughest part for me is leading into and trusting that I don't know what it's going to look like 10 steps down the road, but I do know this next step, I know how to proceed. And I know and trust myself that I can figure out the rest. As it comes to fruition. and that's been the hardest part for me is to accept that. Cause I still look for a blueprint to follow. I still look for a game plan to follow. And I was like, nah, sis, this is, this is a journey creating, even if you. Have created that, you know, social media, there's a lot of people who do social media, but how I create it, how I run my business, there hasn't been a playbook for this. And so there's nowhere I can look to, to say, Oh, if I do exactly these steps, I will have the results I want. No, I've got to create those exact steps to get the results. I want, I can take input. I can look for inspiration, but there's no step by step playbook. And that still grinds my gears.

Stoy Hall:
5:11

Yeah. I think that gets us a lot in it. And being an older millennial myself, I think that part of that is because we were raised with, there's a playbook, right? Like you mentioned it, like, you know, go to school, get a job, blah, blah, blah. there is no such thing. And I want to say that's a falsity that we all as business owners think there's this next thing that's going to take me over the map, there's this next technology. ultimately, it's not that. It's accumulating that, understanding it, adapting it, and then you have to create it yourself. Like, as a business owner, you have to be flexible, creative, on your toes, always figuring out how to move forward into the next thing. And if you're not, that's usually where you get overwhelmed. you sit in the dark and you're like, I don't want to do this anymore, please. No, exactly. We all been there.

Tamay Shannon:
5:55

What's on Netflix.

Stoy Hall:
5:56

right. so as you're on this journey and you, you're still fighting those, those same demons we all are fighting, what do you think has been the purpose or the driven part from you, from a mindset perspective to just keep going?

Tamay Shannon:
6:15

I'm hardheaded. I'm hardheaded. it's, it's the curse of not knowing or the joy of not knowing is, if somebody has said, hey, hey, hey. Before you get into this journey, let me show you a quick book of what the next two years will be. I might've been like, you know, what Starbucks is hiring work at Starbucks. It'll be cool. Right? So it's, it helps to not know, for me, just because, even though I want to know, not knowing gives me the freedom to not. Try to be perfect or try to make it all work out exactly like that picture should be. but also I think that as I get older, one of the things, you know, I turned into the, one of the old heads I just do, and I was like, oh, that stuff they told me when I was 20. I see it now. I get it now. And what's become really important for me is to take up space to be like, Hey, I'm a black woman who owns a business, who has natural hair. I run my business this way. I don't get up at 5 am because no, like this is who I am. This is how I run my business. And I think it's important for me to show up as that so that other people can see when they're looking to create their life, that this is a viable option, that this is something that you can do. And if you're like, yeah, I also don't want to get up at 6 AM. I am not sitting here running laps at six and then having coffee and then meditating. No. No, it's not going to happen. Right. But I think it's really important to be able to have representation. And so to have representation, I got to be representation. So I got to show fully as me and all of the figuring it out. And I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Oh, my goodness. Why did I do that decision? And all of that showing up so that other people can see that. You can make mistakes and not know what you're doing and being like, I'm confused. Somebody explained it to me. Right. And in all of that, you can still be successful. So it's really, and service to people and service to humanity and service to people having the best life that they want to have, whatever that looks like.

Stoy Hall:
8:26

it's a common theme on these podcasts and these episodes is you have figured out who you are and you want to just be you and be real. I believe the most successful people are. Okay, let's define success. Success is reaching your own goals, being happy, living a joyful life. you've reached the point of like, you know who you are and they're just real. and I know we're, everyone's like content creation. We're talking about marketing here. So now why we lead into that is if you're being real and your authentic self, that's all you need to be also on social media and when you're making this content. So why don't you talk to us about how your business is different, right? We've had social media people on before I've met too many of them in my life and they're all different and they all they're different things. why don't you talk to us by how your business is operated a little differently and then yes, everybody listening. We're getting into content creation.

Tamay Shannon:
9:17

Social media for me is an art and a science. we get to have fun and try out means, but we also have the privilege of running to the data, running to Google analytics, running to platform analytics, and being Like, how does that content create and support my business? and so I firmly believe I will try anything social media, even though it's 15, however old it is, it's still an experiment. It's still the opportunity to try new things. And you'll see when those new things work, because those are the things that go viral when people do things differently. I just tried something and now here we are. So there's an opportunity for experimentation. And at the end of the day, what's really happening, especially where we're at in social media right now, this moment is where it's a big circle, everything's cyclical, but we're back to this point where we want communities before we were like, I want to talk to the world. And we were excited about that and we enjoyed that. And now we're like, I don't even go to my Facebook feed. I want these three groups. I interact with these three groups and that's it. I don't check my feed. I don't do this. and you'll notice that's why Facebook was like, yo, groups are where it's at. That's where people are really engaged because that's where you can find your people. That's where you can find if you're like, Oh my goodness, I love the 67 Rolls Royces painted in purple. There's a group for that. And y'all can talk about it all day long. And that's what people are looking for. And that's what people are craving. And so that's where we're at in social media. And I think that's the beauty of it is that it's always changing because of human input. And so it's always evolving It's that aspect of it that I really enjoy about social media and how I view it. And then I also, I'm a book nerd. I like words. I think the Oxford English dictionary is like very cool. I'm like, Oh my gosh, where does that word come from? and so I get to have fun with words and language and having language, have people take actions or realize something or feel something. So, yeah,

Stoy Hall:
11:24

you are a nerd. I mean, you just, you're just, you're a nerd. It's fine. Hey, it's all good. It's all good. We all have our own stuff. You're cool. You, you, you said that you, you think the dictionary is fascinating. That is, that is terrifying. So that's great. No, but you're right. I think if, when people think of it that way, think of it as a game or an experiment or whatever, but it truly is an experiment, right? It is, we're learning about humanity in a different sense. And if you think about social media from that perspective. Might be pretty deep think about that that way Then it's fascinating. It's, it's, it does change. Things do happen We're talking about just normal, you know, human behavior as well.

Tamay Shannon:
12:05

I did a paper on this, when the Boston marathon bombing happened. What happened on social media was fascinating. It blew my mind. between people taking pictures and tweeting We saw the good side of social where people were like, Hey, he's hiding under here. in tandem with police officers being like, Hey, Here's a picture I just saw, that was fascinating. And then on the other side, people doxed the wrong person and the wrong person, people were like, Oh, you did that? We look the same. We have the same name. Right? But it was just fascinating to watch how this beginning culture of how we interact and engage and leverage social media for impacting our in person, in real life.

Stoy Hall:
12:44

Yeah. And I do believe going back, like we are coming back to community and I don't know if that's just natural. I don't know if the pandemic decided and we're all like, no, no, no. I only want my people because I learned a lot about other people and I cut them out. Probably that had a lot to do with it did for me. my pool got real small and I'm really glad about that. but the sense of community is defined who we are as humans too. We want community. Yeah. We want to be able to trust and to learn from others in a, you know, quote unquote safe space, but in a place that is like minded. So I think that's a really cool movement to see and develop over time. All right. Content creation. I want you to talk to briefly go over what the hell that even means, right? Because everyone thinks they're just influencers. That's what they think of with content creation. Can you talk to us about what type of contents there are and what that actually means to create content?

Tamay Shannon:
13:38

So, there's, this trending sound on Instagram or TikTok that was everything is content, everything is content. And it's true. And at the base of it, that's what content is. And what you've got to do to look further to really figure out how it's going to be useful to you is, what do you want this content to do? Right? Because yeah, everything is content. It is. We watch it. If you stay on Tik Tok long enough, you will see everything humanity has to offer. I promise you. Disappointed or not, you gonna see it. Right? But what do you want this content to do? Do you want it to add to your business? Do you want it to make you famous? Do you want it to increase your brand reach? It's looking at and figuring out that aspect. First it's figuring out the strategy, the KPIs. It's like, okay, I want to jump onto LinkedIn and I want to be a thought leader. Okay. Well, what does that mean for you? Like, you just want people to sing your praises. Okay. Well, let's just run some ads and let's have people sing your praises about how awesome you are. Or is it like, no, no, no, no, no. I want to get a new job. I want to grow my business. I want to become a speaker. Then these are the things we need to do. These are the types of pieces of content we need to produce. We need to produce a type of content that talks about your speaker ethos, what you do, like it, you've got to always tie the content you create to what you want the goal to be, I'll just post something. Here's a cat meme. Okay. Leave me alone. Then that's why you're saying, Oh, I'm tired. I'm overworked. I'm overwhelmed. And social media didn't even do nothing for me. Oh, well, what's your strategy? What are the goals you have? What are your KPIs? That's why social's not doing anything for you. If you're just posting just to post and hoping, then yeah, you get those results. And so I think that is the first biggest thing is understanding that. And because you're a business owner, you've got a lot of wiggle room because there are people who are like, I will never be in front of a camera. Don't ask me to do nothing in front of a camera. I'm like, okay, cool. We can still create video. So there are ways where you can still be aligned. If you're like, I'm not a writer, I'm not going to write blog posts. I'm like, cool. Let's transcribe you talking, run it through AI. You can clean it up and edit it. And you still have a blog post without having written it yourself. So there are a lot of ways where you can create content that aligns with who you are, but still create content that is relevant. That is playing to the algorithm that has people engaged.

Stoy Hall:
16:10

And when you're creating content and we mean like everything is content, I think a lot of people forget this part of it. Like when, when you get quoted somewhere or you're a guest on a podcast or things like that, like ask for that, like ask for it. How much content do you think can be created in this 30, 35 minute segment? How long would that last you in terms of being able to post that for? You know, five months, six months, a hundred months, what, you know, whatever that is, how long, how long does something like this last?

Tamay Shannon:
16:40

So this could be, for example, this could be evergreen. This would be part evergreen and topical content that lasts forever. And it can be part evergreen. Cause I talked about a little bit of my core fundamental beliefs about social media, how I think about it, the way I am, my ethos and all of that stuff. that stuff is not going to change. I'm not going to get up tomorrow and be like, all right, everybody, we just want to focus on influencers. Right. but what I would do is there are things like clip it down so it can turn it into reels. So there's pulling it down and making it bigger. And when you pull it down, that means you're making it smaller bits of information out of it. So that's an Instagram caption. That's a tweet. That is a reel. So many ideas are going through my head. Cause I'm like, yes, this is how you do it. but then you can make it bigger and you can make it into a blog post and an article or freebie. So for example, if I was like, you know what, I really talked about the right way to create your content marketing. This is a freebie everybody needs to have. All right, let me transcribe this episode. Let me pull out the highlights. Let me create some exercise. That'll be my lead man that I use for the next quarter. So it's thinking like that, but absolutely everything is content. And there, sometimes you won't even use the words or the audio. You could just say, I'm an expert. I was on a podcast, book me, boom, we're done. Right. So there's so many different ways you can leverage, the platform. The audience and the content are the things that were stated in the interview and the podcast that you can repurpose and reuse for years, months, days to come.

Stoy Hall:
18:15

Okay. So I'm a business owner. I don't have time for all that Okay.

Tamay Shannon:
18:18

Yeah.

Stoy Hall:
18:19

I do, but I'm saying as a business owner, for example, I don't have time for all that shit, right? I don't, it's just uncomfortable. I don't have time, but I know I need to do it. I want to learn it. And I want it part of my business. How can I do this efficiently? What are some ways to, you know, create content and to put it out there where it's not taking me hours or I don't have to hire someone full time to do so.

Tamay Shannon:
18:43

So perfect. Two things. One, making sure you have a strategy. Cause if you don't know why you show up on a podcast or why you're doing something or what it's going to contribute to in your business, then you have no way or no idea of why to repurpose it. So I know I'm doing podcasts to gain authority, but if I was just like, I'm just doing podcasts because I like to talk to people, then when I get the recording, I'm like, I talk to people and it's like, okay, yay, but so you first got to make sure you have a reason for why you took the action. The second thing is you absolutely can leverage AI. And what you can do is you can keep it simple, have three things that you want to get from each podcast. The first thing can be, I'm an authority. People actually want to hear me talk, done. And then you can have, the second one could be, here is a thing that I talked about, and this is why you should hire me. And then the third thing could be, a funny, like, you might've said something that revealed a little bit of your personality or who you are, or a little bit about your ethos, share that. So people get to know you better. Boom, done. So you shared those three things and all you have to do is give AI the video, the transcript and say, pull out or show to me the sections that represent who This what section one, section two, like option one, option two, option three. It'll spit it out. It'll say, Hey, this one did this, this one did that. And you're like, cool. That's what I'm going to run with. And that's what you run with. You'll have to clean it up, edit AI, edit AI, always, always, always edit your output. Always, please always edit your output. Do not copy and paste directly because what's going to happen if you copy and paste directly is it's not going to sound like you, even if you train your AI, what you gotta do. there is something about the way that not only how you view the world, but how language is alive that AI can't necessarily hit on. There's nuances in how you say things, and it's no different than how one word said a different way can have different meanings. And so AI can't necessarily Latch onto that, but you can. And when you edit your AI output, you bring that to the table. So it's really important that you always edit your AI output.

Stoy Hall:
21:05

Yeah. I use AI all the time too, as well. And I want people to know that, like, it's not something to shy away from. You're not being fake. it's efficiencies in our life now to use AI. I don't just let AI Google shit and run it for myself. I'm inputting the content. I'm putting my words, I'm recording audio in basically letting it figure out what it needs to say, but from my own content, I think that's vitally important. I'll let you speak on the algorithms and what things look for with Google and all that to that degree. But I do know that's where my authenticity, when it first came out, I was like, I want it to be my stuff. And that's what it should be. It should be your content. It should be your voice to input. And then it's a lot easier to edit it because all you have to do is few few words here and there, as opposed to like, yeah, if you've ever let it Google something and write it for you, you know, it's AI, you know, it's a computer. It is, it is really, really, really, really bad. talk to us about that part though. So if people out there saying AI content is algorithms don't like it, they won't, you know, your SEOs to shit, all of that is really bad when you use AI. To create content. Can you talk about that?

Tamay Shannon:
22:14

So the problem with giving a straightforward answer to that is there's a lot of things happening at once. one of the reasons why they're like, Oh, your SEO is shit is because what they did was crap. Right? Like if you give it crap, then your SEO was crap. So, that is evidenced by, like you said, where people just like, Hey, give me a blog post that has these keywords in it, you don't have crap SEO because you didn't even put in any, you didn't give it any thought. Of you to have it really shape what that content is. So there's a part of lazy AI usage that has it impact negatively. And then how people think that AI as a whole doesn't work. There's also the platforms, Facebook, they're all, you know, saying, and some still, some have started, they're going to start saying, Hey, this was created by AI. and so that is going to happen. But again, if you. Edit it and you really bring yourself to it. It's gonna be eng indistinguishable from if you originally wrote it from the beginning. and that's because you, there is, there is, yeah. Chat PT has a certain cadence. It, it gets real Vero, it likes to talk a lot and it likes to say a lot of nothing. And so if you copy and paste that, it's going to, throw off that red flag. People are gonna know. But if you edit it. And you make it yours. It's going to sound better. It's going to sound good. And AI is a tool. It is a tool. And the hype, this is the younger ones won't know, but this is the hype of when social media first came out. And people were just like, just put it on social media. Just put it on Facebook, just put it on Twitter and you'll go viral and everything will work perfectly. And that's what people are doing with AI. Just, just give it to AI and it'll solve all your problems in your business and everything will be working and you'll, and it's not, it's not, no, that is not. once people learned how to use social media as a tool, they could be like, okay, this is how my brand shows up and social. So it's the same thing with AI. Okay. This is how my brand leverages AI. We use it to, for example, let's say you're a coach. One of the dopest things you could do is to run your. Recorded sessions through AI. So you can give that person the action items. This is what we talked about. These are your watch outs and you can do that in five minutes and they can have it one hour after your session versus you having to write it. Think about it and giving it to them two or three days later. You're helping them achieve their dreams faster, which is what you want to do as a coach. And so it's that, that tool is helping you be a better coach. It's not replacing you because you're the one who still directs the conversation. You're the one who still sees something like, Oh, we talked about this six months ago. Why are we still here? Right? You're the one who can do that. AI is the one who can make all those tedious admin type tasks, make them quicker so you can get back to the transformation that you are called to do.

Stoy Hall:
25:22

Efficiency. It's a tool.

Tamay Shannon:
25:23

Yeah,

Stoy Hall:
25:24

it's a tool. We talked about, I talk about this all the time with money. Money is a tool. It is not end all be all. Social media is a tool. It is not real life, right? Like all these things are just tools for us as humans. To continue on on our journey. So that's a really big point and reminder of that. that being said, as we get to the end of this, what is one thing you want to leave to people? And let me actually back up. You had, you have a quote on your profile that says you are doing it right. Right. when it comes to it is working, right? Like it's not working, but you're doing it. Right. I just want everyone to know that like, it is true. You are doing it. You're doing it. Okay. what is one thing that you want to leave everyone with, to allow them to take that next step in their journey, wherever they're at. Right. to take that next step into, the social media world, into content creation, into AI, what is that one thing that you would want to leave everyone with?

Tamay Shannon:
26:21

I would say is that you have choice and just because everybody else Does social media a certain way? Does AI a certain way? Doesn't mean that that is the right way. And another way is the wrong way. It is literally an opportunity for you to discover how best to run your business. An alignment where you could reach successful goals, if that's a four day workweek, whether that's tons of money, whether that's whatever it is, but that you can make the choices that will lead to a business that works for your life. And it can be scary to do that. especially cause. there's no blueprint, there's nothing. You can't Google something to say how to do it. And So it could feel like it's wrong because Google has everything. And if you can't Google and find the answer, it must be wrong, right? Incorrect. You literally have the choice to create and run your social media, your marketing, how you want to, and in a way that works for you. There are certain people I know who are like, yeah, I only do LinkedIn or some people are like, I don't even do social media. I'm like, cool. It obviously works for you. You happy, keep it moving. So I would say that as a business owner, just don't forget that you are the one creating this road and you could create this road to lead wherever you want it to go.

Stoy Hall:
27:46

Perfect. I mean, that's how you end it right there. It's your choice. Your business do what you damn what to and do it. Well, okay, that's all we have to say. You can find some a on everything on social media. Obviously, we're going to post all her stuff and connect that way again. If you're a nerd like her and like encyclopedias and dictionaries, go ahead, reach out to her, have conversation. If not, all we ask is reach out and talk to us and communicate to us and engage with us on social media. Is a huge platform to learn, but if we can have open conversations with anybody about any topic, then we're able to grow and reach more people. And algorithm will love that too. So go ahead, like, share, comment, do all that stuff, but really reach out to us. Ask us questions. We're here to answer it for you.

Black Mammoth:
28:31

The proceeding program was sponsored by black mammoth, any awards rankings or recognition by unaffiliated third parties or publications are in no way indicative of the advisor's future performance or any individual client's investment success. No award ranking or recognition should be construed as a current or past endorsement of black mammoth. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. Investment strategies such as asset allocation, diversification, or rebalancing do not assure or guarantee better performance and cannot eliminate the risk of investment losses. There are no guarantees that a portfolio employing these or any other strategy will outperform a portfolio that does not engage in such strategies. This broadcast should not be construed by any client or prospective client as a solicitation to affect or attempt to affect transactions and securities or the rendering of personalized investment advice due to various factors including changing market conditions. Black Mammoth do not guarantee its accuracy, and it should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. The tax and estate planning information discussed is general in nature, and is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as legal or tax advice. Listeners should consult an attorney or tax professional regarding their specific legal or tax situation.