Meet Dan
Dan is the founder and CEO of biz hack Academy, whose mission is to give 10,000 underserved small businesses a simpler way to grow. Dan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning former NPR and PBS journalist, turned entrepreneur and educator. He is the grandson of a Philadelphia public school science teacher. That’s a notice here of a professional soccer coach in La Liga in Spain. And he carries forward a family legacy of teaching coaching and entrepreneurship. Dan trains business owners in the lead building system, a process proven a proven process for online lead generation, and the thought leadership pyramid systematic approach to content marketing. past career highlights include as the head of growth at two software startups and as Senior Director of Digital Marketing, at the nation’s largest Hispanic-owned energy company. He’s helped to take offer craft a gamification SAS company in the hospitality industry, from pre-revenue to a 2.5 million run rate in just two years.
How does your journalistic background impact your approach to AI?
You know, what a great question. And it’s an area that I’m still figuring out because I think all of us are still figuring out AI and AI tools, but they’re, they’re at least two ways in which my journalistic background has come into there actually three ways in which my journalistic background and come into direct specific play when it comes to AI. So it helps to just give a little bit of background Sure. Ai, in its current form is really dependent on Okay, so AI is called artificial intelligence. And artificial intelligence is basically getting algorithms or robots to do work for you. And the most popular best-known version of AI is Chachi Beatty. It’s what’s known as generative AI, which means you ask them a question, and it creates an original new answer. And there are three things that journalists know how to do really well, that are very helpful with generative AI and Chachi PT. So the first is we’re really good at precise communication. Right? Like we’re very expert as journalists in communicating things clearly and simply and that’s a really important skill when you’re writing a prompt. Yes. The second is we’re really good at fact-checking. And one of the big problems with AI is it, quote hallucinates. It’s actually the word that they use the technical word for making shit up. And so journalists are really good at sniffing out bullshit and fact-checking. Sure. And then the third, the third thing that we’re really really good at is interviewing. And if you actually look at what the quote prompt and Engineering are, which is the back-and-forth between an AI bot and a human being. It isn’t a form kind of interview where you’re continuously deepening and asking new questions and getting original responses and replanting returns. So I, you know, I’ve taught all these topics in journalism, I practice them as a journalist, and I’m finding generative AI and catch up at like, a very comfortable space for me.
Can you elaborate on what me too marketing is and what your perspective is?
Yeah. So first of all, my passion isn’t marketing. My passion is business storytelling, and more specifically, helping businesses grow. And I feel this is an important distinction because it was a big realization on my in my life that marketing is interesting to me. building my business and helping others build theirs is a life passion. I am so on fire on that. And marketing is an instrument for doing that. But it’s not, in and of itself, a passion of mine, what I’m passionate about. And I do this a lot seeing a business and helping them get to the next phase. And particularly I do really well with small businesses from micro-enterprises to sub $50 million base witnesses and, and really like they can mark it before and after where biz hack and I have been in their life and glory like there’s literally not enough money in the world to replace that feeling of just deep and abiding satisfaction that comes with helping others. And it’s something that I learned from my mother. And my grandfather’s, you know, and that is like a part of who I am. And, as a result, I, you know, probably don’t make as much as I could, I don’t work with the deepest pocketed or largest clients and I could have the resume to do it. But I, I like prefer to work with smaller businesses, because, you know, when you’re dealing with a Fortune 500 company, if you can get that Titanic to change one degree, you have impacted the company in an extraordinary way, I can turn companies around. […]
Connect with Dan!
bizhack.com/ai-for-marketing-and-sales-3/
calendly.com/bizhack/meetdan
linktr.ee/bizhackacademy
Transcript
We've all heard it before it gets Whoa. You know. Welcome to Social Capital, a weekly podcast that dives into social relationships and
Lori Highby:Hey everybody, Lori Highby here welcome to the social capital podcast our show notes are found at social capital podcast.com. To you the
Lori Highby:and any upcoming events might be able to see me at if you'd like to connect just make sure to send a note with your connection request that references
Lori Highby:bringing on marketing experts with a variety of backgrounds for you to learn and grow from. Today's guest is Dan Grech. Dan is the founder and CEO
Lori Highby:that right? Maybe not. And he carries forward a family legacy of teaching coaching and entrepreneurship. Dan trains business owners in the lead
Lori Highby:craft a gamification SAS company in the hospitality industry, from pre revenue to a 2.5 million run rate in just two years. Wow, impressive,
Unknown:You know, thank you so much for having me here. And, you know, it's a impressive sounding resume. But trust me, I'm way less impressive in
Lori Highby:Yeah, absolutely. I'm excited to have this conversation with you today. Let's let's talk about your journalistic background with your
Unknown:You know, what a great question. And it's an area that I'm still figuring out because I think all of us are still figuring out AI and AI
Unknown:intelligence. And artificial intelligence is basically getting algorithms or robots to do work for you. And the most popular best known version of AI
Unknown:communicating things clearly and simply and that's really important skill when you're writing a prompt. Yes. The second is we're really good at fact
Unknown:prompt and Engineering is, which is the back and forth between an AI bot and a human being. It isn't a form of kind of an interview where you're
Lori Highby:Yeah, I love that. And I, I appreciate the kind of the validation and the trust factor, because that's something that I've really
Lori Highby:leveraging chat GPT has changed your workflow?
Unknown:Perfect. So I'm still figuring this out. Like all of us, I really started using chat GPT, when it was released in November of 2020, to late
Unknown:thinking about Chechi Beatty, and I think it's, it's actually very useful. So I think of Chachi Beatty in a as a as an element in a technology and
Unknown:free automatically or what like fractions of a cent per transaction through the ZAP or through the, you know, monthly fee you play for HubSpot. Yeah.
Unknown:huge, it's, you know, usually sub $100 a month, so mostly affordable. So the tool itself is nearly free, except you can't just use what they spit
Unknown:that is a middle class wage in those countries. So I always ensure whenever I work with offshore talent that I pay above the prevailing wage in their
Unknown:good living wages in those places. And then you go to the United States, where you're dealing with local talent, and higher price and geographic
Unknown:know, and then all the way it's
Lori Highby:a different conversation.
Unknown:Yeah, and then all the way up to like a fractional or like a CMO, which is a quarter million dollars a year and above. So that's kind of the
Unknown:have it be your writer without your being your editor, your coder without your debugger, you're going to make a huge mistake, it's not going to be to
Lori Highby:Yeah, have you I'm curious because of the you put a lot of emphasis on like the financial layers of of this have you kind of monetized
Unknown:I can give you a very concrete number. So I teach courses, and one of the things I've been teaching isn't English, and it needs to be
Unknown:go a little more expensive with the voiceover. In other words, I could have actually just fed the transcript into an AI bot, it could have even
Unknown:two, AI in general is really bad at emotion. Whether it's text, it can fake, it can echo or parrot or imitate emotion, but it cannot do emotion.
Lori Highby:Sure. Yeah, I've seen those platforms that are out there. They're interesting.
Unknown:Yeah, you can use like the basically the rule of thumb of it's 15 seconds or less. Yeah, you can use it effectively. There's also some really
Lori Highby:I've heard of deep fakes and not
Unknown:so deep fakes. Deep fakes. Fake Drake is a fun little story. I'm going to actually be sharing this in next in next week's class on AI for
Unknown:and you're like, This is good. And and the weekend and Drake haven't collaborated in almost a decade. So it's like delicious to hear the two of
Lori Highby:Goodness, we could talk AI forever. And I know you do a lot of conversations on this. But let's let's focus a little bit more on the
Unknown:Yeah. So first of all, my passion isn't marketing. My passion is business storytelling, and more specifically, helping businesses grow. And
Unknown:a lot is seeing a business and helping them get to the next phase. And particularly I do really well with small businesses from micro enterprises
Unknown:grandfather's, you know, and that is like a part of who I am. And, and as a result, I, you know, I probably don't make as much as I could, I don't work
Unknown:is through business storytelling, and I have like a particular methodology, I'm writing a book on it called from why to thrive. And this book is about
Unknown:important for driven entrepreneurs like you and me, the owners of companies, but that's also really useful for your team. Yep. And so what I
Unknown:There's your personal why your personal motivation, and then there's, why you do what you do, and how it makes the world a better place. So there's a
Unknown:doesn't get nearly enough attention, and which is really the focus of my book, which is, every single one of us was seated, from a year early age to
Unknown:speaking to a woman who's a designer, and she runs a design company. And I was asking her like, why did you do it? Why do you do it? And she kind of
Unknown:and they let me pick out my wallpaper. And I said, Did you and then and then what did you do that I drew in that space? And she said, So did you
Unknown:Because I knew it was no accident that she was a designer. And I also knew, I mean, I'm a smart guy, like, no, but no parent makes hot pink walls for
Unknown:knew there was something in my gut that told me she must have been doing that for herself, creating spaces where did so the question I asked, is,
Unknown:I really am wrong, like I do find this interesting space. So when she said, I like to create spaces that inspire creativity, I've never heard that
Unknown:And the reason why is if you do it, you'll be much more connected to your work, you'll be much more likely to survive the ups and downs, you'll be
Lori Highby:the book is out yet or not quite yet. It's out in my brain in your brain. Okay. I'm like, I want to read this book.
Unknown:You can have me back after it's published. Okay. It's a two year process.
Lori Highby:Okay. Got it. I'm excited for that. All right. We're gonna we're gonna flip flip roles here, and I'm gonna give you the opportunity to
Unknown:Well, if you're okay with it, I would like to explore your wife for a second, I feel like to hear somebody describe how to paint without
Lori Highby:Yeah, I'm a little nervous, but they should be you shouldn't be.
Unknown:So so let me let me just see if I'm on the right page here. And then we'll get started. So my understanding is that this podcast is really
Lori Highby:Yeah, well, I started out, focusing broadly, and I've read, I've shifted it recently to be focusing on and Yeah, speaking to those in
Unknown:roles. Perfect. And you still in your day job service clients, right? Absolutely. Yep. You're choosing when you have like an option to
Unknown:how to accelerate those results for their clients. And there's, I'm not judging, but you're changing a different role. Like you want to actually
Unknown:that's like, that's what Dan's little brain is asking is, okay. So, like, that's super cool of you. And and now I'm like, Okay, well. What I've
Unknown:quickly?
Lori Highby:Oh, I mean, right now, my family is a foundation in memory of my late father, where we put on events and in order to give out scholarship
Unknown:Wow. So you have a family foundation that gives scholarships for hockey? Yep.
Lori Highby:And that one is very close to me. I mean, my father and I love hockey, he loves hockey, he coached he's a huge mentor to 1000s of kids
Unknown:so I'm gonna, I'm gonna just you know, because we have limited time. I'm going to just pursue this thread a little bit if it is by
Lori Highby:He was killed in a motorcycle accident or how old were you? This happened six years ago.
Unknown:Okay. And I'm sorry to bring it up. That's okay. How old were you at the time?
Lori Highby:34. Okay.
Unknown:So a lot of the work we do is built on a foundation of trauma. I call these stories of fear and stories of love. The reason I started my
Unknown:then I said, Dude, I got to reinvent, you know, I can't be a journalist anymore. So what am I going to do? By the way, the story about why I got
Unknown:thought that would insulate me. And you know, hubris and youthful indiscretion. Like I shouldn't, I was a little arrogant, and I got my come
Unknown:to learn. And then as a the owner of a marketing Academy, a business owner, and it was in business ownership, really, where I found my true passion. So
Lori Highby:No, 100% Without a doubt, even the foundation of the podcast initially around networking and building relationships, that was something
Lori Highby:there's a lot of trust and respect that he had earned. Some of that I didn't quite realize until after, you know, he was gone. But yeah, those
Lori Highby:mentor to many, and I kind of try to emulate that. And in trying to give as much as I can.
Unknown:It's beautiful. So let me ask you a question. And then I think, you know, we got to wrap it up. Being very authentic. So but this is the
Unknown:that represents that larger thread in your life and in his personality?
Lori Highby:Oh, my gosh, there's so many of them.
Unknown:I mean, whatever pops first in your head, there's something right now you're thinking about just,
Lori Highby:I mean, I remember when he was coaching, like most of our family vacations, were going to hockey tournaments in different parts of
Lori Highby:say hi to them and, and like, You're my favorite coach, and you're just saying, I love everything you teach me I still do blah, blah, blah. And
Lori Highby:going, Wow, you had such an impact that they they remembered him, you know, they knew his name, they saw him and they went on their way to like, say hi
Unknown:Yeah. Thank you, thank you for sharing that story. So let me let me take an attempt to kind of pare it back what I heard and then connect it
Unknown:know, achieving their best hockey story possible. And that, you know, Laurie experienced that because she would see coach Joe and the way that
Lori Highby:He did when I was younger, he did coach me
Unknown:firsthand when she was a, you know, in the start of her own career in the hockey as a softball player, she even got accents experienced coach,
Unknown:that they can achieve. You know, in a spirit of kindness, compassion and giving, modeling what she learned from Coach Joe, and this podcast that
Unknown:great. That's what I do for a living is i i talk to people, I ask them a couple questions. And so that becomes one story. And then you have others,
Unknown:I'll tell you about you. Knowing that all about Coach Joe, I like you more. You know, I like you, I feel for you. I like it. I'm a little sad for you
Unknown:He probably knew it. But you heard it in high relief. And you just like it imprinted you. Yeah. You know, it is now part of you, and you cannot but do
Lori Highby:No, no. Not to that. Not to that extent, I knew that my networking skills and passion came from my dad. But for now I didn't, I
Unknown:And that's very typical as well. This is a beautiful case study of what I do. As an entrepreneur, it's really important for you to understand
Unknown:moments when you're like, What the hell am I doing? Why am I keeping at this? Why? And I'm not saying necessarily that you should always do that.
Unknown:touch with this fact. And my favorite example is about a business owner who ran for 35 years, a shoe store. And it was a running shoe store. And it was
Unknown:happens? Like as I say it, it's like, equally obvious to anybody listening that that's an unusual thing. So I said to him, comfort shoe store, like
Unknown:wheelchair. And she was the number one Mary Kay representative in South Florida. And she was always uncomfortable, the shoes she had always hurt.
Unknown:connected that until right. Yeah,
Lori Highby:that's awesome. I love that. Dan, I feel like we get to talk forever about all these things. But we aren't getting to time here. So if
Unknown:Yeah, absolutely. So I run a company called biz hack. It's bi zhack.com. On there, you can sign up for our newsletter, you also see some
Lori Highby:That's awesome. All right. Well include all that information in the show notes. Thank you so much for being on the show today.
Unknown:Thank you for the opportunity. It's good talking to you. And thank you for sharing about Coach Joe masterpiece.
Lori Highby:Oh, thank you. This wraps up our episode of social capital. Huge. Thank you to Dan for taking the time to connect with us. If you have
Unknown:That's all for this episode of the social capital podcast. Visit social capital podcast.com For shownotes more episodes, and to see who will