Embark on a fascinating journey through the dynamic world of AI-driven digital marketing with our distinguished guest, Steve Gonzalez from Shadowglass Studios. His captivating narrative begins with his roots as a first-generation American and unfolds into a tale of technological empowerment for businesses. Steve's insights offer a deep dive into the application of AI tools like ChatGPT, which are transforming the way entrepreneurs engage with their audience and manage workloads. Through his personal evolution from potential lawyer to tech-savvy marketing whiz, Steve's story is a testament to the power of embracing one's heritage and passion for innovation.
As Steve shares his experiences from the disciplined halls of Norwich University to the entrepreneurial battlefield, he underscores the importance of resilience and networking for brand growth. The episode further unfolds to reveal the importance of taking risks, a theme that resonates with anyone standing at the crossroads of change. Steve's encouragement acts as a beacon, urging listeners to chase their dreams and redefine their lives with the help of groundbreaking technology. Join us for a profound conversation that not only illuminates the path to digital marketing mastery but also serves as a motivational catalyst for aspirational entrepreneurs.
Embark on a fascinating journey through the dynamic world of AI-driven digital marketing with our distinguished guest, Steve Gonzalez from Shadowglass Studios. His captivating narrative begins with his roots as a first-generation American and unfolds into a tale of technological empowerment for businesses. Steve's insights offer a deep dive into the application of AI tools like ChatGPT, which are transforming the way entrepreneurs engage with their audience and manage workloads. Through his personal evolution from potential lawyer to tech-savvy marketing whiz, Steve's story is a testament to the power of embracing one's heritage and passion for innovation.
As Steve shares his experiences from the disciplined halls of Norwich University to the entrepreneurial battlefield, he underscores the importance of resilience and networking for brand growth. The episode further unfolds to reveal the importance of taking risks, a theme that resonates with anyone standing at the crossroads of change. Steve's encouragement acts as a beacon, urging listeners to chase their dreams and redefine their lives with the help of groundbreaking technology. Join us for a profound conversation that not only illuminates the path to digital marketing mastery but also serves as a motivational catalyst for aspirational entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1:
So my name is Steve Gonzalez, my company's called Shadowglass Studios and I do digital marketing.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, Okay. And what type of services are you offering for your clients?
Speaker 1:
So I work with a lot of people in many different industries and right now I'm introducing to people how do you use AI technology for marketing. A lot of people don't wanna. They're wearing too many hats for their businesses and they haven't figured out that now you can leverage technology in order to take a lot of weight off your hands.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. Can you tell us some of those things, like some of the weights that you're taking off, some of these business owner's shoulders?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, one of the simplest integrations that we got going on right now is like chatbots for websites. A lot of people can use chatGPT now. It'll scan your website and it'll answer a lot of questions that you don't have to be there for. You know, even though you might have your phone number, your address for your business on your website, you know some people like to use the chatbot, can ask those questions and if there's not somebody there to respond to them, you're losing out on that potential you know connection with that business or that client. So now you can program all those FAQ questions you have on your website and things like that to something that can automatically respond to anybody who has questions for your business.
Speaker 2:
That is awesome. Yeah, a lot of business owners are busy or maybe they don't have like the time or employees to do all of that, so this can definitely help them, like cut back on some of that time and not lose out on business.
Speaker 1:
Definitely it helps a lot with creativity too. A lot of businesses don't know what it is that they need to make or create in order to gain attention for people who might wanna use their services, so this technology helps them with that too.
Speaker 2:
Okay, perfect. Can you tell me your story?
Speaker 1:
Yeah well, do you wanna start from? Like my mom's belly?
Speaker 2:
I mean, if you can remember that I'm just kidding as a child, like who were you as a kid? How did it lead you up to this point?
Speaker 1:
So I'm first generation American, my mom's from Argentina, my dad's from Cuba, and I've been on this journey of entrepreneurship to really work my way into now retiring my family. That's what I'm doing right now. The reason I'm so passionate about business and helping other people is really so I can give back right. My mom provided me this opportunity of being able to jump the Mexican and the Canadian border to somehow find her way to Miami and meet my dad to bring me to life. And now I wanna show people and especially the Latino community, because I ended up working a lot with them is that there's tools and there's resources out there that can help you promote your business. A lot of people don't realize that whether you sell shoes, whether you sell tires, whether you do oil changes, you need to be a marketing company, you need to be able to promote your business and let people know that you're out there, and there's tools now in today's society, that can help you leverage those things and promote your business without you having to wear like 500 hats. Yes, yeah, so that's what I've been working on.
Speaker 1:
Mostly now is it's been a long journey to get here, but before I did this, I was doing cloud computing. I was working with Dell fixing the cloud for the federal government and I got bored of that. I was working a lot with computers and I got pigeonholed. And you know, when you work with corporate America they usually tell you hey, you become a specialist on this product or you have to do a lateral change if you wanna get promoted in this business. And if you pigeonhole yourself, you become that person that everybody comes to and they bother you for that one thing and you don't really get any extra pay than everybody else. So I decided to make the lateral move and start my own business and leverage the fact that I know how to use technology. And there's a big gap between people who are starting their businesses or running their businesses and need help with technology.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, Okay, I love that story. I kind of wanna know a little bit about you as a kid. Like, what were you into? Like, how did you figure out that marketing was what? Or was there something, another path that you were like this is what I wanna do. And then later on in life you realize you know what I wanna do this.
Speaker 1:
Well, I'm originally from Miami, florida, so when you grow up in Miami, there's really only like three careers, at least in the 90s, because you're either a lawyer, a doctor or a DJ.
Speaker 1:
Honestly, those are like the three big careers Like all your parents want you to be a lawyer, they all want you to be a doctor, and then obviously, you want to go against your parents so you want to be a DJ. So those are the three like paths that I really thought I was going to go on of like making my life. But as I started growing up, going through school, I became a part of. You know every club or clique has this thing at school. You know you have the emo kids.
Speaker 2:
What were you?
Speaker 1:
I was part of the ROTC.
Speaker 2:
What's that?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so in schools it's kind of like the Boy Scouts, but it's like military themes.
Speaker 2:
Okay.
Speaker 1:
My school had a Navy program and it's called the Reserve Officer Training Corps. It trains people how to essentially be a leader in the military, and after doing that for four years in high school I even did that in college I went to the school that actually invented the program. It's in the middle of nowhere, vermont, it's called Norwich University, and there I studied computer security and information assurance. But the crazy thing about all that is that it's an entirely student led university.
Speaker 2:
Wow.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so it's 1500 people. Right, it's a small school. It's not that crazy big. I think my high school was bigger than my college. Oh wow, but the juniors are in charge of the freshmen, the sophomores are training to be juniors and the seniors are in charge of the juniors.
Speaker 2:
Wow, that's interesting.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's a very, very interesting place. It's probably the craziest experience I ever did in my life. It was the first time I saw snow going out there to Vermont and it definitely shaped a lot of who I am today, more than I feel like my childhood.
Speaker 2:
In what ways?
Speaker 1:
Learning to persevere through struggle Mostly that a lot of people, when they get into entrepreneurship, they tell you to pick yourself up by your bootstraps, but a lot of people don't even know where to buy the straps for these boots.
Speaker 1:
So putting yourself in a position where you're constantly against a struggle is good training for entrepreneurship, and that's what that school brought. You're working with other people who are your peers. You're age, you're trying to get a degree in school like normal, like, you think, like anybody going to University of Miami or University of Virginia. But on top of that, you're working with these students to make sure that they're waking up on time, they shave their face, are they wearing their uniform properly, are they participating in certain activities. And it teaches you a lot, especially having to go to put yourself in a position where you're in charge of somebody else that young and especially that many people. You can be in charge of as many as 1,500 people being in charge of all that stuff, and it's a university, so it's a lot of responsibility and weight that they put in that training. Okay.
Speaker 2:
Wow, that's crazy. That's awesome, though, and now I know you're big into helping business, market and all of that, but tell me, what do you do for marketing to get yourself out there? The resources with AI, how are you getting your clients?
Speaker 1:
Right now, I've been focusing mostly on LinkedIn. There's a lot of platforms that you can be on right, you can be on Instagram, you can be on TikTok whatever.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, youtube, just like this. So participating in podcasts, communicating with other business owners, networking Most of my business I've built up right now has been word of mouth, and that's usually the strongest way that you can start getting your business. If you're starting a business today, the best way to get your first client is to ask for a referral right. Ask somebody that you know your mom, your dad, your sister, your cousin, whoever it is and try to work with that person. After that, it really is creating content.
Speaker 1:
So right now for LinkedIn, I write articles. I leverage now ChargeBT because I didn't really like to write a lot. I use these image generating software and I have maybe like 300 headshots of myself now, instead of me having to go to a professional photography studio even though I have a camera, I have a team and stuff like that trying to plan and put those things up Again. It's time removed off the table and what I've been doing is essentially is coming up with creative content that's informational and educational and then using the headshots to attach my face to that information so that when people read that information, they relate that to me. Carousels are the thing that I call them. I'm sure you're familiar with them on Instagram. Really, when you swipe right, you have a slide after a slide.
Speaker 2:
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:
So I create a lot of now carousels on LinkedIn it's kind of like short form PowerPoint presentations so that people get that bite sized information that can be helpful for their business, whether it's talking about how to get a loan, how to use this AI generative tools or anything in between. Anything that I think that I found useful in my journey in business is the type of information I'm creating. I also even leverage the fact that I have meetings with my clients. I usually get the transcripts from our conversations. I give it to the artificial intelligence and I ask it hey, what are the pain points you feel that I can leverage from this conversation I had with this person that might be helpful to somebody else? And I transform that into content and share that with people.
Speaker 2:
That is awesome. So for listeners who are listening, look into that AI to help you plan and strategize that online marketing.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's definitely revolutionizing everything. I think with that, the internet's evolved more in the last year than the 10 years before it. It's the new revolution, for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, if you could give a business owner any advice when it comes to marking. One advice where you're like, if you're gonna be starting to put yourself out there, definitely don't forget to do this. Or a tip Like one tip, that's really good.
Speaker 1:
Consistency. Once you start, just don't stop and if you stop, pick it up again. That's the biggest thing that a lot of people fall out. They start doing things and they might get one like, they might get two likes, they might get 10 likes and they're like this isn't working. I'm not getting any views, but what they're not realizing is that one, that two likes, that three likes, that's more than you had before if you wouldn't have made anything at all. That's true, right, a lot of businesses are. They're trying to go wide and cast a big net to try to bring in as many people to their door as possible, and what a lot of people should be focusing on is really trying to go deep. Once you do grab on that one, that two likes, figure out who that person is, have a conversation with them, investigate why did that person like that content? Learn from the people who are actually participating in the things that you're creating, instead of just focusing on trying to bring in as many people as possible.
Speaker 2:
That's a really good tip actually. Yeah, it's that one like don't look at it like that Be like, who was that? Why are they like? Let me talk to them right. Build that connection and relationship.
Speaker 1:
Exactly.
Speaker 2:
That's really good. What's a common misconception in your industry that you would like for people to know?
Speaker 1:
The results are overnight. A lot of people. They want to spend money on advertising, they want to run Google ads, they want to run Facebook ads, and the moment they spend $1,000, $1,500 on running Facebook or Google ads, they want their 10x return. They're like why don't I have $10,000 worth of service Now I spend $1,000 on Facebook ads or things like that? It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1:
There's a learning curve through all things, and you're also competing against other people in your industry right, if you bake cookies, you got to compete against Chips Ahoy and those people at Nabisco have a lot of money to spend on Google ads. And if you want your content to stand out, it's not just about paying to put yourself out there. It's about the creative behind it. That's why I also said that these AI tools help with that creative, which is also something that a lot of people don't want to pay for when they work to big studios. They come to a marketing agency and they're like why are you charging me $5,000 to make this video? My uncle has an iPhone. Sure, your uncle can go to your wedding and he can film it, but the reason that people pay professionals is for that creative eye, that expertise, the time that I spent to learn to use that hammer to put that nail in that wall. Really the key that I feel a lot of people have to understand it's all about education, learn the process and adjust.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely yeah, and definitely. In your industry, it's always like learning there's always advances, so you always have to be open to that change and all the new stuff. What do you like to do to stay up to date with technology?
Speaker 1:
I read a lot of articles. I talk to my clients and figure out what they need and try to figure out if there's solutions to do those things in an easier way. That's what I try to do. I like experimenting. I like trying new things all the time, but to stay on top of things, it's really just reading. A lot of people don't like to read, but reading is out there, or even videos. You can go to YouTube University it's a great resource tool.
Speaker 1:
Audio books. I see the big platform I use is Reddit or even just YouTube, like I said, okay.
Speaker 2:
And then, if you could give any business owners any business advice on starting their own company business journey, what advice would you like for them to know? That's very broad because there's a lot of things that we go to Our listeners are, like, from all walks of life, different businesses. So, to help anybody, and everybody could be general.
Speaker 1:
Video is king, okay, put yourself out there, no matter how you think you look, how you think you sound. At the end of the day, people are going to come to your business for you. People don't go to the dentist to go get their oil changed. They go to the dentist because they feel trust and confidence in that person who's going to take care of them, and the reason they choose you to go to that dentist or you to go get their oil changed is because it's you, not because it's anybody else. So I think that's very key in anybody who's starting their business is to really mix in that flavor.
Speaker 1:
A lot of businesses they want to start out and they do want to be the next big thing and they want to make a million dollars and they want to copy what these multimillion dollar businesses are doing and they don't realize that that's actually hurting them. You know me going out there as something that I'm not and trying to replicate another business, business model and image because I think it looks professional might actually deter people because they can see that as like oh, this is just a fake, or this is just a rip off, or this is just a copy. So the best thing for any business that you can do, no matter what industry you're in, whether it's your chiropractor, med, spa or anything like that in between is show yourself as part of your business and show people that difference.
Speaker 2:
I love that. That's good advice there, and video is king. I have to agree with that. Where can people find you? What is your Instagram, your website?
Speaker 1:
So my name is Steve and the way I've tried to tell people you know. If you don't know who Steve is, just go to whoisstevecom and that'll just point you to the most relevant thing that I'm promoting right now. So if you go in today it might go to my marketing website, shadowglassstudioscom. Next week it might go to my LinkedIn page. The next week it might go to a video that I'm producing. So if you want to know what Steve is doing, just go to whoisstevecom and it'll point you to where I'm at.
Speaker 2:
Perfect. And then last question if you could leave our listeners with any advice or anything that's in your heart that you would like to share. It doesn't have to be on topic of this conversation. It can be in regards to anything in the world in your heart.
Speaker 1:
Don't be afraid to learn something new. You know, explore, Take that leap. If you're working at nine to five and you're tired of the mundane and the routine and you want to start your business or you want to explore something new, take that leap. Don't let anybody stop you. This is the best time. Whether you're 25 or 55, it's never too late to start your dream or start your business.
Speaker 2:
Awesome. Thank you so much for coming in and sharing your wisdom and knowledge with us.