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A CEO's advise for getting started with AI with Jesse Maula | Avidly Talks: Growth & AI | Video podcast Ep 127

13 mins read

Everybody's talking about AI but there are very few people who utilise it correctly. It can be difficult to know where to start with AI and to learn new ways to execute on your work tasks. We invited Jesse Maula to pick his brain on how to get started with AI. 

Jesse Maula is the CEO of Avidly and always up to date with recent AI-tools. His background includes a strong focus on strategy and innovation, which aligns well with Avidly's mission to drive impactful, tech-integrated growth for clients across the globe.

Watch the episode below or listen on Spotify to learn how to get started with AI-tools and how to future-proof your marketing with AI:

 
Listen on Spotify

Takeaways from this episode

  • The future of sales and marketing is being transformed by AI and data management, presenting both challenges and opportunities.
  • Ethics in AI are crucial, and professionals need to be mindful of the ethical implications of new technologies.
  • The key opportunity in the future of sales and marketing is the ability to treat customers as individuals and offer personalized content and experiences.
  • Authenticity is essential in customer engagement, and brands need to be careful not to rely too heavily on automated messaging.
  • Storytelling remains a powerful tool in marketing, and leaders should focus on leveraging new technologies to enhance their storytelling capabilities.
  • Sustainability plays a significant role in brand reputation and customer engagement, and businesses should prioritize sustainability in their growth strategies.
  • Leaders should start using AI tools and surround themselves with knowledgeable peers to stay informed and make informed decisions about adopting new technologies.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and the Future of Sales and Marketing
02:09 Challenges and Opportunities in the Face of Change
04:17 The Importance of Ethics in AI and Data Management
07:19 Navigating the Journey of AI Adoption
09:57 The Power of Personalization and Authenticity
13:48 Blending AI and Human Input in Communication
16:26 The Role of Storytelling in Marketing
18:21 Sustainability and Brand Reputation
21:04 Getting Started with AI: Tips for Leaders
23:46 Conclusion and Call to Action
 
Full video transcript

Paul (00:02.124)
Welcome back to Averagely Talks, a mostly marketing, sales and HubSpot focus podcast. Each week we're diving into topics that help you do better in your work and trying to make you smile along the way. This week we're joined by my boss and CEO, Jesse, how's it going? 

Jesse (00:18.405)
Going well, thank you. It's kind of an honor to be here. 

Paul (00:22.242)
Well, well, you're telling me. No, I'm glad you've joined us. We wanted to get you on as a guest because we've been talking about in this series something that's very much a hot topic for us at Avidly with our customers, our partners. And that's the future of sales and marketing as we go through this paradigm shift. New technologies, search GPT, AI overviews, new features like inbox. 

Paul (00:50.794)
email inbox has been managed for us by AI. There's all sorts of things changing. How do you see this role of AI and data management and importance transforming sales and marketing? What's the biggest challenges that you see? then second part, what are the opportunities? 

Jesse (01:10.053)
Yeah, of course, it's a big question and I think that change will be a huge one. So let's start there. And of course, every time when you have bigger changes, you will have both opportunities and challenges. And I guess if we start from the challenges side, I think that one of the challenges is that everything is developing like crazy, so speedy that you really need to kind of be on top of everything all the time. And that's one of the 

Jesse (01:39.929)
challenges. think the other one is that of course now when there are a lot of capabilities to do things, there are a lot of ethical questions included and that's also something that I think professionals like us, we need to be on top of our game and make sure that we don't destroy some fundamentals in doing things. And then in the opportunities side, which I think it's always more important and more interesting part on this, I think that there are of 

Jesse (02:09.835)
of course, a lot of things, but I think the key ones are that in a way, finally, all the promises in mass customizations are here and we have all the tools available to do those things that were promised a long time ago. And then, of course, in that area, there are a lot of things that we can do better in the inside side. So, we are more prepared to basically serve our customers. Yeah, you can say that we can 

Jesse (02:39.761)
things around the internet and offer those things on a plate. But that is the thing and I think that's quite often overlooked because we're so focused on the kind of efficiency gains that we might get. I truly believe that there are also lot of things that we can improve in the qualitative side, which is more the insights and the things that we now are capable to know. And then of course the efficiency gains, that's 

Jesse (03:09.587)
that's kind of obvious and that's something that we will see more and more, especially in the content production and things like that. But I think those are the major opportunities that we're facing here. 

Paul (03:22.727)
What kind of things are you alluding to when you said things that were been promised for a long time are actually now arriving? What did you mean? 

Jesse (03:30.647)
Yeah, so more like a high -level thing, are of course that we can now treat the customers as individuals, not like a kind of one persona type or something like that. What's been the case in marketing, I say, is quite a long time. Now it's actually that we can offer the content that people are really wanting to have and it's exactly there when they need it and things like that. So that's what I meant. 

Paul (04:00.558)
Nice. And another interesting thing you mentioned, which I find fascinating anyway, but you feel a bit conspiracy theory when you start talking about it to people, the ethics of AI. Why is that? Well, what are your thoughts on that actually? 

Jesse (04:17.997)
Well again, big topic, but I think that the main thing here is that now when we have all those tools and capabilities available, it also puts pressure on people who are in this industry to make sure that we are not in the dark side and making sure that all the kind of ethical codes are met. And I think that that's a super important thing and if we are messing with that, there is not a very good ending in this. 

Paul (04:49.177)
What's... yeah, like I said, want to... was chatting on a different podcast episode where we ended up talking about how... 

Paul (05:00.906)
Also, we're into this, world, our digital marketing world, and tech companies and things are at the front of this adoption curve. What's your experience with the wider world and where they are in terms of... 

Paul (05:20.202)
AI generally, not just the ethics of it. I'm picturing some of our customers or prospects, for example, in more traditional industries or there might be someone in their team who we work with who is on the same page as us. But a lot of their colleagues are like, they've heard of ChatGBT, they've heard of Alexa, but they think, yeah, Alexa tells me what song's coming on next and stuff. But that's their extent and their exposure to AI. 

Jesse (05:25.744)
Mm. 

Paul (05:50.86)
What sort of, what I'm trying to get at is what are the ethics that we need to handle as an industry that people are just going to get caught out by if not, if they aren't handled properly by the sales marketing industry and the tech industry. 

Jesse (06:07.921)
I think that's a very good point and I guess that there are huge variations of where the companies are in this journey. And of course, think that especially in the software development side, there are a of companies who are really, really kind forerunners. 

Jesse (06:23.161)
already dealing these type of things, but then there might be some other industries that are quite where they are starting their journey. especially in those type of cases, because the speed of development is so, so high, I think it's super crucial that you have people around you who can guide you and actually also give you some frameworks and things like that to follow, because it's not an easy one if you're not dealing these things every day. And if you don't have a 

Jesse (06:53.095)
reports who can actually support you. so I... Yeah. 

Paul (06:55.596)
And 

Paul (06:55.797)
the speed it moves at. Like you can have your finger on the pulse and you're nowhere near at the front of the game. you know, caught out is not the right word, but we've sat down recently, haven't we, around how things have accelerated in the past couple of months compared to even the six months before that. the speed 

Paul (07:19.053)
is insane. 

Jesse (07:19.053)
Exactly. 

Paul (07:22.316)
How do we go back to that paradigm shift and the speed things are changing? You've got lots of experience, you've got an eye on the future, that's your role as leading avidly, sort of. Can you explain that paradigm shift we're going through that you have written so nicely in an article I read this week? 

Jesse (07:45.573)
Yeah, so of course there are again a lot of angles, but I think that there are actually some other areas of businesses where this been already done maybe a couple of years back and in a way marketing and sales are just following up. So if you think about banking or finance or things like that, there are a lot of things that maybe we didn't call those AI in those days, but there are a lot of intelligence that their computers are kind of used and that's 

Jesse (08:15.479)
course the thing and now when this arrives to the digital marketing and sales so we already touch the kind of mass customization and those type of things but I think it's more like a 

Jesse (08:28.935)
the whole industry is changing and now we have all those kind of opportunities to do things that we were hoping a couple of years back and yes it's of course super interesting and there are a lot of kind of threats but more opportunities as we kind of discovered earlier and if you think about the kind of entire management of customer journeys for 

Jesse (08:58.891)
example. Now you finally can do that. You can kind of pinpoint there that, in this type of moment of truth, we can actually offer things that are super interesting and valid for the end consumer, customer, however we would like to call that. And in order to manage this fully kind of integrated funnel, there are so many good things that we can do in our domain already. And at the same time, 

Jesse (09:28.817)
we know that the kind of bar for content creations and then things like that are super high and that's exactly the area where the computers can also help a lot. basically that makes something that actually stands out from the competition is going to be more more hard and you really, really need to kind of take advantage on all these things that we're now seeing and popping up. 

Paul (09:57.272)
Nice. Something you keep coming back to is that the technologies available help us to be hyper -personalised and giving the customer experience, pinpoint the customer journey and give them the content that they want. It could be hypothetical, but have you got an example of what you mean with that, how in sales and marketing we can leverage it? 

Jesse (10:19.205)
Yeah, so for example, so if you start from the more like the insights part and understanding customer better, I think that where it creates a lot of opportunities is that when there is a need among... 

Jesse (10:34.627)
your customers, you will be aware of that. And that's something that, yeah, we used to do that, that we went to events and we had colleagues who told us stories that there might be a kind of a lead coming in or something like that, but that's something that you can actually optimize quite nicely nowadays and that's kind of one portion. Then everybody is aware of the content production side because of just GBD and other things and any of that. 

Jesse (11:04.473)
area, I would say that I encourage people to also test other platforms than only Microsoft platforms, for example, Claude 3 .5 or whatever you want to do, but you will get a different perspective because these tools are built a little bit differently and when you explore more and more those tools, you actually find the one that is the best one for you, but it also actually basically educates you. 

Jesse (11:34.389)
that what is available and what is not. And that's a couple of examples. 

Paul (11:41.43)
Quick off topic when you mention specific tools, do you have any go to ones? you finding yourself what you used to turn to Google for? Are you turning to a particular assistant? 

Jesse (11:52.827)
Yep. 

Jesse (11:54.263)
That's good point and I think that's one of the major shifts that we're now seeing that people are maybe walking away from the Google searches and they are in their own groups and own applications that they're using. It might be a chat GPT where you do actually your searches and then of course that also changes the industry a little bit because well the SEO and things like that will be different. 

Jesse (12:24.089)
but going back to your question, so my own favorite is the Claude 3 .5 when producing texts and all that, but I don't know, there might be better tools, but that's very good for me and of course there is some kind of training that we went through together, so I've been educating the platform quite a bit. And then the other one, especially in the more like a video production side, 

Jesse (12:53.993)
what I'm liking quite a bit is the Hey Jen. I don't know if you heard about it but it's actually quite nice and translates a lot of your thoughts almost automatically to kind of your avatar who speaks it in whatever the language you would like to use. 

Paul (13:12.982)
And that, we can go down so many rabbit holes, like the avatars you mention and creating your own persona and automating sales messages or automating your messages. Where do you see the line between letting AI communicate for you or letting technology more accurately communicate for you versus being your assistant? How do we blend the two between human input, creativity and gut knowledge versus an algorithm pulling out? 

Paul (13:42.764)
what it thinks is the right bit for you to communicate. Where's the blend? How do you blend these things? 

Jesse (13:48.229)
That's a very, very good question. think that right now it's more like a, well, Microsoft call it very well, co -pilot. So we do things together with AI or whatever technology we're using. And that's a good thing. I also think that there is an other angle to this. which is that there is a need across the globe, get more authentic content. And that's maybe one area where 

Jesse (14:18.425)
that humans are still a little bit ahead, maybe changing quite rapidly also, but right now that's the case. there are already a lot of people, especially in the younger generations, who can immediately spot if this is generated by AI and no one has touched it or anything like that. So they are speaking about lacking authenticity. that's, of course, I think one of the kind of key elements that human can 

Jesse (14:47.961)
create and that's it. summarizing this, I would say that it's more like a good partner and co -worker rather than something that can communicate directly without any kind of supervision. 

Paul (15:03.896)
That's the bit that scares me, the lack of authenticity as you put it. How many people do you see, messages you get, your LinkedIn inbox, your email inbox with purely automated messaging. What does that do to a brand? 

Jesse (15:21.883)
Well, I'm pretty sure that there are cases that it's fine and it's okay, but in a broader kind of concept and conceptual thinking, I think that's a problem if you are a brand and would like to get your messages through because well... 

Jesse (15:41.497)
there is a huge skepticism across the internet right now that people are not trusting anything and if on top of that you generate kind of a mumbo jumbo or the machine is generating mumbo jumbo for you I think that that's 

Jesse (16:00.547)
is not well received by the end users or the consumers. So it is a huge question that every brand should think about and be actually quite careful with it and make sure that the messages that you are sending are authentic and actually provides value. 

Paul (16:26.616)
Authentic and provide values have never... they're not a new thing, are they? So... technologies change, user habits change, how we get in front of people's change, but some things don't. What are the things people can fall back on? Perhaps they're planning for next year and trying to position their sales and marketing teams for next year. What's some advice you could give to make sure we're not falling into the trap of not being authentic? 

Jesse (16:32.209)
No. 

Jesse (16:57.179)
I think the storytelling capabilities are something that we as humans, we've been appreciating since like millions of years back or something like that when we were around the bonfire, etc. So that will not disappear. So we will have more channels, we have more tools to basically tell those stories. But I don't think that the good storytelling will disappear even if have these great assets. 

Jesse (17:27.065)
and 

Jesse (17:28.507)
That's the kind of a guideline and I know that this is quite easy to say, but anyway, my guideline would be that be truthful your origins and the storytelling capabilities you have and then you can basically boost and update that with the new tools and channels that you have. But then I think that you will be quite close the kind of storytelling that people are expecting and are very appreciative. 

Paul (17:57.966)
Something that seems true to you the more we work together is around sustainability and operating as a business, a global business around sustainability and it being important to a company's growth strategy. What role does it play in customer engagement and brand reputation in your mind more generally speaking to be a sustainable and conscious company? 

Jesse (18:21.115)
Yeah, I... 

Jesse (18:22.739)
It's more more important because your partners and customers are actually start to asking about these things. It's not okay that if you cannot basically say that, hey, we have a quite clear roadmap to basically make sure that we are in better place. What comes to the ESG or CSDR or whatever standard you have. And I believe that when we move on, 

Jesse (18:52.225)
let's say five years or something that you will be kind of out of the game if you are not aligned with these expectations. that's one of the reasons why we have avidly been taking the first steps. And I would say that we're definitely among the first movers in the industry when creating different type of double material analyses and reporting these things. And it's not only the kind of external folks or customers 

Jesse (19:22.149)
partners, whoever, but I think it's also very important for people inside of Avidly that we are behaving in a way that they can be actually very proud of. 

Paul (19:35.244)
Nice, yeah. If nothing else, it you sleep easier at night. 

Jesse (19:40.359)
Yeah, but it's not 

Jesse (19:41.458)
of course, it's never an easy topic. can, well, as you put it earlier, you can get it in so many rabbit holes with this topic, etc. So you need to basically choose your paddles and make sure that that's the way. 

Paul (19:57.122)
I must say it's quite a personal interaction with it but a lot of companies tick the box on sustainability but I remember a couple of years ago was getting quite far down the way with a merchandise provider for employees and then the project was brought to a halt when they couldn't meet our sustainability demands so it's about walking the walk as well isn't it back to that authenticity point more generally so just thought that was interesting when that happened I think 

Paul (20:25.368)
You've talked about some of the tools and that importance of storytelling and genuine storytelling to your customer. All these technologies that are available are going to automate us knowing when somebody wants, is in that state of mind to hear this story. There's tools to help us put that story together. What's your one tip for other CEOs or other C -suite or leaders at businesses? What can they take away? What should they go and do in... 

Paul (20:54.848)
in your words, to go and get started on this train of blending these new technologies into their existing ways of working. How can someone get started? 

Jesse (21:04.315)
Yeah, think that, well, very good starting point would be that you start using these tools and get the understanding what is available and you don't have to go hardcore immediately. Jatch GBT or Claude or whatever is a good starting point. But I think it will open your eyes that, okay, what's actually available, not only on the content production side, but there are also a lot of tools to basically manage the entire customer journey that 

Jesse (21:34.272)
that you have. So that would be definitely. So let's start playing. guess that's the first advice. But then the second one, as I said earlier, this area is developing so fast that I think it would be good to make sure that you have people around you who can spar and tell you where the industry is leading and what type of opportunities you have available and not necessarily always go with the hype. 

Jesse (22:04.357)
be a little bit more like a kind of a critical on these things. And I think that the best way, and of course there are very personal things, but at least for me the best way is to basically discuss these type of things with the peer group who you really trust. 

Paul (22:20.086)
Yeah, and there'll be people within your company, won't there, who are already using these things or have some exposure, particularly the younger employees, I guess, in people's teams. 

Jesse (22:25.731)
Exactly. Yeah. 

Jesse (22:31.667)
Yeah, one approach that we've been actually practicing here at Avidly and I truly believe that that's the one way to go and one of the ways to go is that, well, you select people who are like first movers and super enthusiasts about things and when they get it right, choose the tools and processes and whatever is needed, then you can actually add and basically have more people included. 

Jesse (23:01.491)
in these type of exercises and task forces or however you would like to call those and then all of sudden you actually have a nice amount of people inside the organization who are aware of these things and actually can use those too. 

Paul (23:19.352)
champions and get them to lead the adoption I suppose. Well thank you Yasey. That's a great tip for people to get started. There's a whole series of these episodes where we're exploring the topic of new technologies, the impact on sales and marketing, also businesses like we've just touched upon today, more at large. If you've enjoyed this be sure to leave us a comment on Spotify and a five -star review wherever you get your podcasts or wherever you're listening. 

Paul (23:46.23)
Also please follow, we're releasing new episodes every week and we will see you in the next one. Yes, thank you for coming on. I'd love to pick your brains in another episode in another few months when things have accelerated another million miles forwards as well. 

Jesse (24:01.383)
Thank you, it's been a pleasure. 

Paul (24:02.99)
See you soon.