The Monday Report

Are AI Images Killing Your Event Conversions?” Join us as we talk about the growing concern over AI images in event marketing 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Good morning, everyone. Dan Goyet here. Welcoming you to another episode of The Monday Report with my good buddy Frank T-Rex. As always, manning the studio with us and just making sure that we're broadcasting everywhere we're supposed to be broadcasting. And I see we're up on broadcasting on Facebook, and we are broadcasting on our YouTube channel, as well as being live on our website. And as always, this broadcast of the Monday Report is being brought to you by Dolly Madison Donuts. No, I'm kidding. Does anybody remember when Dolly Madison, man, just everything was brought to you by Dolly Madison? And if you don't know who Dolly Madison Donuts are, you're young. But as always, being brought to you by the North American Hypnotherapy Guild and HypnoWorld magazine. So I'm going to go ahead and share the link for the magazine for you. And I'm also going to share the link for the North American Hypnotherapy Guild. So be sure to head on over, check those out, and subscribe to be in the know for HypnoWorld magazine. And join the North American Hypnotherapy Guild to just get all the great education and information happening in hypnosis and hypnotherapy. So shameless plugs. Those will be going away right here if I can get my mouse to work. Yeah. So there we go. So those are a couple of shameless plugs. We got to do that. It's our sponsors, and we are having a great time with it. So good morning, guys. Alright, so what are we talking about today on this Monday report? Well, today we're going to be talking about AI. And I know I've talked about that in the past, but it's worthy of being talked about again. Um, specifically a different topic on it, though. As I've got my good cup of coffee here this morning, that's a good cup of Jew. Um, I gotta stop that. Michael Brody's gonna get on me about my radio voice. I just know it. So, what are we talking about AI today? All right, so today uh we are talking about AI graphics and images for marketing of events and conferences. That's what I do. Uh, I am the co-founder and CEO, president, janitor, if you will, of the Michigan International Hypnosis Conference. And it is up to me to market, to do the videos, to put it out there to the world. So, firstly, let me say this uh I'm not anti-AI. I think I initially started out a little bit, a little bit, I wasn't getting into AI uh per se. And that comes down to I think I didn't I didn't know enough about it and I didn't know how to use it. So, and as always, uh nobody likes change. Um so, but as I began to learn how to use it, how to utilize it, and how it could be helpful in marketing and um putting information out there and researching information and analyzing information that you want to look at, um, I began to say, okay, this is a tool that I can utilize, this is something that's good. Uh and here's where we get into the trap. And I fell into this trap, and I know others have, is it is so quick, it is so easy, and it is so convenient uh to create a graphic or uh an image for your conference, for your event, for your business marketing. Oh my goodness, I just got an email. Um, so that becomes something that you can you can fall into that trap. And it happens. It happened to me. So, what do I mean by trap? If you're having an event, you want to put a graphic out for uh speakers or um uh post-conference, pre-conference, you want to put a graphic out for the page, you want to do something. It is so easy, quick, easy, and you know, economical to have AI do it, just create the graphic and put it up on your page, put it up on your website, put it up wherever you're gonna put it for your marketing, and that's great. Unfortunately, um one of the things that we have happening, or we're beginning to see, is a little bit of pushback. A little bit of pushback. What do I mean by that? I've been getting some messages and emails, and I'm not the only one, and we've talked with this with other event coordinators, if you will. Um people are are beginning to say, hey, um little AI heavy. Um, I actually heard the term a while back and I can't remember where I heard it, and I'm trying to remember, but I actually heard the term AI conference. Oh, that's an AI conference. Um and was not meant in a good way, it wasn't meant in a good vein. So I thought to myself, yeah, um, well, what do I do there? How do I do that? So I began to look at the amount of AI I was utilizing, and fortunately, there's there's there's not a lot of AI images on my website. Let me say that right now. Not a lot of AI images on my website. You know, there are some full transparency there, full honesty, but not a lot. And I did notice that to my own self, um, uh with the Monday report, putting that out every Monday on the blog, it was pretty quick, it was pretty easy to write the blog, take it over to Grammly, check it out, do this, do that, and then have AI create a graphic for that blog. So there was a lot of A guy going on there. Um I've changed that. I've made some changes. And one of the things we're as we're talking about that we're beginning to feel and know and sense um from some of the information coming at us is people are beginning to feel disconnected from the event. Uh, when they see an AI image, they they don't recognize themselves in it. Um, also, if the AI image, well, let me get out. Let me hold on, that's a bit down the road, but okay, just a minute. Um, I know, right? You're like, Dan, come on, get it together. So um, they can't recognize themselves at in the event, they can't see themselves at the event, per se, within this AI image. And that comes down to this. If the AI image that you've created or or the the the AI has created for your conference, for your event, for your marketing, does not reflect a sense of realism. Um, and I mean, you know, it's it gives you a room or it gives you like, oh, hey, imagine yourself in this space, and that space isn't anywhere in the venue that you're gonna be at, and it's not anywhere near uh having any sense of realism, you already feel disconnected. You already feel that as a coordinator, I would go, Man, I don't want to use that. That's not my space. Hey, there's Amanda. Good morning, Amanda. How are you today? So Amanda says, I think it's so pervasive that the brain starts to ignore and tune out. At least I know mine does. Mine too. Um I tune out a lot of things, so but Amanda knows that. And she's always like, Dan, are you listening to me? Are you paying attention, throwing things at me? And she does this from Ohio, so it's really cool. Um, so um, yeah. It becomes it becomes a fact that I actually did a poll and I put a poll out there and I said, Hey, you know, do you feel that AI is being overused? Do you feel AI, any disconnection between AI? Um, 66% of the people that took the poll said that yeah, AI is being overused, those images are being overused. 33% said, Well, I don't feel a real big disconnection. Um, 15% said they did feel a disconnection. Now, if you're gonna use AI in your marketing, one of the tips that I'm getting back is to make sure that the AI image actively and and and realism in it actively promotes realism, but it doesn't look fake. And what do I mean by that? Again, we go back to the image that it shows, you know, if it if it's there in the venue or it reflects the venue with a sense of realism and reality that you can see yourself in, then that is more appropriate um to your advertising. If the image that AI creates doesn't reflect an individual, let's say you're doing something for a presentation or a presenter, if it doesn't reflect a sense of realism or or an actual real image of that presenter and it makes them look completely unlike themselves, you don't want to use it. As a matter of fact, as a coordinator, I ask for a headshot. If you're gonna send in a proposal, if you're gonna send in something for an event, if you're gonna send, send me a professional headshot, send me something that I can utilize in the image so that when I put it out there, people see the real presenter. They see that real presenter. And we've had this issue in hypnosis and hypnotherapy for a long time. I call it the uh the Century 21 effect, the real estate effect. You know, you ever seen that? You get a real estate card or you see somebody on the website for real estate or something, and you go to meet them at the house, and that you suddenly realize instantly that the picture that they show was taken 30 years ago. So, like, who are you? Are are you their grandmother, their grandfather? Uh, what are we doing here? Um, so that becomes something already. You're blowing rapport and trust, and you have to have that in marketing. You know, we want our marketing to do well and we want it to do good for us, and we want it to be proficient and professional and crisp and clean and it looks good, but we also have to know ethically that the individual seeing the marketing or is that we're marketing towards is getting that sense of reality, that sense of authenticity, if you will. So that has to happen. And you know, I I thought about maybe showing some images here, but I'm not gonna do that because then you know you you start. Um, I would show some of my images if I um think about that, but then again, I didn't want to use any of the uh presenters or presentations without their approval uh or permission uh for this broadcast, and I really didn't have time to get a hold of anybody, so I said, you know what, I'm not gonna show any uh per se. So that being said, your marketing with AI has to have that. There has to be a balance. People are beginning to look for realism, people are beginning to look for reality, they're being bombarded and overwhelmed by AI images, AI um videos. One of the examples I'll give you myself was last Christmas, actually, this Christmas, uh national television commercial, Coca-Cola. Uh, they've been doing this for years. They put out a commercial for Coca-Cola. It was a Christmas commercial, it's one that they've done in the past, and this was completely AI generated, and it was horrible. It really was. It was all over the map. Um, and people just dismissed it. Why did they dismiss it? Well, there was nothing that resonated with them, there was no emotional connection. Um, and I know that sounds funny coming from me, from people that know me. Um, but there was no emotional connection. I had the same thing. I didn't I watched that, I'm like, what is this? You know, I dismissed it immediately as um just ephemera or fluff. So the big thing with your event or training is you want people to feel that that emotional connection, it resonates with them. It they have a feeling and a thought of being able to be there, of being part of it and being connected to it. So that becomes incredibly important. So if you are, if if your entire um group page for your conference or your event is nothing but AI images, um that can be bad. That that can hurt you, it can hurt your uh marketing, certainly hurt your sales tickets, it can even begin to frustrate you as a coordinator. Uh now, what have I done to do my own part? Well, one of the things I do is as I run the magazine, as I run the conference, and as I work with the guild, and well, I don't run everything, but as I work with everything as a co-founder in some of this stuff, I have the Adobe Creative Account stock photos. I utilize those sometimes. What I've done is I've gone in and I've set my filter to filter out any AI image. Um, I'm only looking for those real stock photos of actual people, actual places, actual events, reality, reality, reality. Why do I do that? Because Adobe Creative is another one that has become saturated with AI images. Um, I'm not gonna say that AI is horrible because it's not. It is useful as a marketing tool, it is good to create graphics, but when I'm creating those graphics, especially from now on, I have to be very mindful of about how they look. If it's too much of a glam, like it's this you can almost feel it when you look at it. There's this sheen over it, and it just gives you this feeling of falsehood of just being completely and utterly fake. If it has that sense of reality, if it is able to resonate with an individual, um, it's far better. Joining your AI image together with a real picture and making sure that that if you are using it, making sure that that image is accurately and and and really reflected within the graphic that you're gonna use, it's okay. You know, people can get that same emotional resonance from that AI image as long as it has that sense of realism to it. Um, and I know many people are gonna say, well, Dan, aren't you just lying with a little bit of the truth? Isn't that a lie with just a sprinkle of truth thrown in it? Um, no. I would say I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna argue the point on that and say no, because everything that's in the graphic has to be real. Okay, yes, the as we say in hypnosis and hypnotherapy, this is a truism. Yes, the dates are accurate, yes, the image looks like the person or the place that you're gonna be at. Yes, this is the time it's gonna take place, yes, this is maybe the cost of the event. Um, as long as those things are in there and it does not have an overt um glamorizing sheen over it. Um, if it looks you know good, um, you can do that. And one of the ways to do that is to say, hey, I would like my graphic to look photorealistic. Somebody said that to me the other day. Um, they're very adept at AI and using AI. I said, don't just ask it for a graphic, ask it for a photorealistic graphic so that you get back something that is far more usable to you as an event coordinator, so that when you put it out there, it has a better look to it, a better feel to it. It's more um connected to your event and helps people feel connected. But if you're just quickly moving through and doing graphic after graphic after graphic, um that that's where you can run into problems. That's where we run into people not feeling connected, that's where we've run into people not being able to feel um, shall we say, um, able to visualize themselves there? That is one of the oldest techniques in hypnosis and hypnotherapy, in NLP, in meditation. Can you imagine, or what would it feel like if you were able to see yourself there? How would that make you feel? What would that bring up for you? What would that do for you? Uh, and we use those terms a lot in clinical hypnotherapy because we want our clients to be able to visualize themselves in that situation, in that moment, in that time, in a real way. One of the instructors I had so long ago, and I've always held on to this, um, said that when working with a client in hypnotherapy, you want to invoke as many senses as possible. And I've begun to put that to work in my own marketing and in the way that I'm beginning to move forward with the magazine, with the conference, with the North American Hypnotherapy Guild, is to invoke as many senses as possible. So that any individual coming across that is gonna be able to see themselves there, imagine themselves there, feel themselves there, and have a better experience when they get there. Can you imagine going to a I just said it? Wow, can you imagine? Um, wow, that's that's sad. But yeah, think about that. Going to a conference and expecting something completely different because you saw all these images and graphics on the marketing side, and you get there, and it doesn't look anything like what you are expecting. There's already that initial emotional letdown, right? Well, this isn't uh am I in the right place? Uh, this doesn't look, oh man, it looks so great, but you know, you've already at the very start have the the makings of a a poor experience at that event. And that's that's not fun for you. That's not fun for the other people at the at the event or the event coordinator, uh, because now you've got to deal with this. Um I don't want to say, well, why don't I say that? This just this all these thoughts coming at them, and you really have to say to them. Man, sorry guys. Um, so yeah, it becomes instantly a letdown instead of getting there and going, oh yeah, this looks exactly like what I like. This is gonna be great, we're gonna have such a great weekend. Um, but if you have that initial letdown because you got there and it didn't look anything like the AI marketing that was coming out, that can be a problem. So the the key takeaways I want with this Monday report, and I know I've been up on my soapbox, and I do apologize, is um, you know what? Keep it real, keep it as authentic as possible. Use those photorealistic graphics. Make sure that the images you are using are real, uh, so that they give them that sense of reality. I'm not saying don't use AI because certainly I'm not gonna stop using it. It's it is an amazing tool as as long as we remember to use it well and give it that sense or as much of a sense of authenticity as we can. As we can. Um, so that becomes an important part of what's happening in the Monday report. So I know I've been saying for a while now that we're gonna have Ronna Frazier on. There's been some scheduling issues, but she's gonna be here. She is. We are gonna be talking about the uh the Hypno Summit in Portugal, and I'm excited to do that. I know maybe some of you were tuning in, like, that doesn't look like Ronna at all. I don't understand. I am. Um, but yeah, she will be here. So that being said, that is what we've got going on in the field of hypnosis and hypnotherapy today. Um, I am also gonna put a shout out real quick to let you know. I'm gonna actually bring that link up just a moment, um, that the speaker proposals for the performing hypnosis summit are out right now, and I'm gonna put that link up here for you just a moment, because that is gonna be happening in January at the Gold Coast Casino, and it's gonna be warm there. I'm going, I know a lot of people are going, so if you haven't sent in a proposal for that, you need to do so. Also, speaker proposals are open for the Canadian Hypnosis Conference. So, let's see if I can find that for you. Canada, I can't spell Canada. Uh, yeah, there we are. The speaker proposals are open for the Canadian Hypnosis Conference, and I am going to throw that up there for you guys. Well, if I can find it, there we are. Get involved. So I'm gonna be heading out there myself. I put in a proposal to speak at the Canadian Hypnosis Conference, and I'm looking forward to it. I went out there last year and I had a great time. Um, just really nice venue, really nice area. So I am gonna throw that up here, and there you go. So be sure to check that out as well. And I think that's gonna do it for me today, guys. Just a short, quick money port, let you know what's going on in the world of hypnosis hypnotherapy, according to myself and Frank, and the well, what everybody's really looking at as far as AI when it comes to conference events. So, as always, I hope everyone is happy, healthy, safe, and hey, I'll see you out there.