Episode 183 - Restorations That Sell

In this episode of "Get Your Shoot Together," Kira and Mary dive into how you can boost your photography business with a unique holiday offering—photo restorations! They share how RetouchUp makes it easy to transform old snapshots into beautiful heirlooms, perfect for gifting. Learn how to market this service to your clients and maximize profits while outsourcing the heavy lifting. Plus, they discuss how AI tools like ChatGPT can streamline your workflow without losing that personal touch. Tune in and get inspired to add this valuable service just in time for the holiday rush!

This episode was written and performed by Mary Fisk-Taylor and Kira Derryberry, produced by Kira Derryberry and edited by Joel North.

Transcript

GYST - 183-1

Kira Derryberry: [00:00:00] This week's episode is brought to you by our friends at RetouchUp. RetouchUp. Work smarter, not harder.

Welcome to Get Your Shoot Together, the photographer's podcast where we discuss studio business life and keeping it all in line. I am Kira Derryberry. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: And I'm Mary Fisk-Taylor. Hello, Mary Fisk-Taylor. 

Kira Derryberry: You something? A trap I almost fell in last night, very late, very late at night. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: Yes, please.

Mary Fisk-Taylor: I'm doing that thing where I don't want to get up in the morning, but I'm very tired, but I don't want to see the next day. So I'm just like rage, raging against the dying of the light. Lucy, I'm whispering because she's in the next room. Lucy's 16th birthday is coming. 

Yes.

Kira Derryberry: And, I saw on social media that like Taylor Swift is playing three dates in Florida right before early voting. You know, because, you know, she's been, she's been in the news. Let's just say, let's say that and, anyway, and so I go and I look and I see that in Miami on like October 18th, like the Friday night show, I can get four tickets and they're the cheapest I've seen they're, they're [00:01:00] like 1, 800 and they're not obstructed view or anything like that.

And that's a lot of money. It's the cheapest I've seen and I really want this for my kiddo, you know, and so I start to buy them and it's StubHub, so I start to buy them and then StubHub does this thing where it's like, you have only 10 minutes to figure this out, and I'm like, okay, that's a lot of money for me to put down right now, but if I could do it, interest free, so then I'm going to do the PayPal pay later thing and so I'm going through all that and I'm only thinking about 1, 800, I can just pay that off in four months, and then I'll have it paid for and so I'm going through it.

I'm going through it and I put in all my info to get approved. And then it tells me that I'm not like I'm not approved. And then I see that it put in like all of my business stuff and not like. Oh, because it's PayPal and it's, I signed in under my business account by, because it's, it's like 12:30 AM you know, I'm not, yeah.

I'm not in my right mind. I'm just trying to, 'cause I only have 10 minutes, Mary, like to get these tickets. Yes. You know, and, and it's like, lots of people looked at these tickets today. I am like, oh, no, , . Yeah, StubHub's got it figured out. They, they don't not, oh my God. They're just setting a fire under your, under your butt.

So, anyway, I'm all disappointed. So I'm going back to [00:02:00] StubHub and it says you're. purchase was complete. And I'm like, what do you mean my purchase was complete? And the total, I shit you not, sorry, it's like 10, 000. And I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

Why is it 10, 000? And I didn't get approved. Right. So that didn't go through. Right. But it says, it says it's confirmed. And I'm like, where's, where's this extra money coming from? And so the fees on StubHub. These sneaky little devils, they go, we, I'm like Googling, I'm looking on their support site, I'm like, what, what is the extra cost, like, what are the fees, what does that cover, and it doesn't ever tell you what the fees cover, just that they'll go, there'll be different amounts at different times, depending on how popular it is, and how close to the show is, and like, whatever, all kinds of BS, and then it says, you know, don't worry if you decide you don't want these tickets, you could just put them back up for free.

I on to StubHub. You can sell them yourself for free. And I'm sitting here thinking, Kevin's gonna kill me. I just spent 10, 000. but it said I wasn't approved, so maybe it didn't work. long story, it took me an hour to finally confirm that it did not go through and I [00:03:00] had not financed, 10, 000 for a show that I would have had to also pay to get to.

and then, but weirdly, I was sad, I was like sad about it. I was like, yeah, happy but sad. Oh, no, relieved, I guess is what it was. But man, that kind of urge, I was, I fell prey to it. Like really, because it says, it's like, oh yeah, you can turn it on so that you can look at ticket prices with the fees included.

But the way you get it is you have to find the filter button. You have to. Go all the way to the bottom and see fees and turn that little knob on. Oh yeah. And then you can see it with the fees. But other than that, it doesn't ever talk about the fees until you're old. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: Oh, yeah. You should call me because you know I buy a lot of tickets.

Well, you know, I probably was awake. but no, I get it. But I'm just saying like those fees on, you know, Vivid, StubHub, all of them are rough and I've paid them. I mean, if I want to go to a Yankees game and I want, my son wants to be in the Yankees You know, the Jim Beam [00:04:00] suite, that's what mom's gonna do like it for a birthday or whatever or if it's a you know The dead like I couldn't get first round tickets for dead at the sphere Don't even want to tell you what I paid for a seat.

but there's a group called TickPick. T I C K P I C K they don't charge the fees.

So it's a good one to check out, because the prices are higher, but they don't have the hidden fees. So, you know, up front, it is what it is, and you're not going to hit that button and all of a sudden go, whoa, whoa, how did my 1, 200 ticket become 1, 648? which is, it's hundreds of dollars worth of fees per ticket.

Kira Derryberry: I was like, okay, I know there's only three of us. And I'm sure Kevin would want to go. He was out of town. And I was like, I'll just get four tickets. And then, you know, we'll certainly have somebody. Mary will probably want to come. We'll certainly have somebody.

But then it came back and, you know, now we're at like 2, 700 a ticket or whatever. You know, I don't know. It was insane. I was just like, the math ain't mathin Like, I can girl math this a little bit. Like, this is my baby girl's 16th birthday. I'm trying. [00:05:00] But this is not the year for a surprise 10, 000 purchase like that.

Yeah, it's not it. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: Yeah. No, I'm with you I mean this has been a different kind of year for us as well I just to be very you know Very clear and very honest and i'm very grateful that you know We were doing but I just i've been a little more conscientious and I don't know if it's I don't know if it's media induced, because, you know, I definitely notice that my calendar isn't as full now when I look at my finances, like, you know, my sales averages are good or even like higher.

So I'm on track, but I don't think I'll meet my goals this year. I definitely won't. I'm trying really hard and I shouldn't say that as I'm going to, you know, I don't want to let that negativity creep in, but I'm trying to be positive.

I'm trying to be nice to myself because I don't want to start beating myself up against it. I want to start saying, okay, Mary, you know, this is a little bit of a different year. I think that this is probably where we're going to land. I set some very lofty goals. I'm not sure that I'll hit them, but I will be okay.

You're not a failure if you don't meet your goal. 

Kira Derryberry: think it's good to be transparent because the thing I hate, I, [00:06:00] I don't know, hate's a strong word, but I think that, I think the thing that always bothered me when I was following, You know, people I looked up to, I'm not saying you guys look up to us, but some of you have been listening for a long time, so you must like us at least, you know, but the thing that always bothered me is when you find out that, like, your favorite, you know, photography instructor or guru or whatever is just really not doing as well as, like, they keep Shouting that they are.

We just we talked about it. I was like, I just feel really inauthentic, but it's okay to have a little bit of a downtime. the reason our goals are so lofty is because we had such a good year before we had, you know, we've been coming 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: really and truly since 2020. It's been like rolling and what's going to come down.

And yeah, it's what goes up is going to come down. There was a bit of a paper tiger built and we're, you know, kind of, this is just the way it goes. This is just a thing called capitalism in the United States of America.

Goes up, comes down. Doesn't really matter, in my opinion, who's sitting in, up on the hill and who's not. I really did study this, and I still study [00:07:00] this, so I really do have some knowledge on it. this isn't a political statement, it's just the way it is.

So I've been very contentious to the point where when I was doing my bougie Instacart order the other day, I actually took three things out of my cart, because I was like, I don't need those. I don't know the last time that I didn't just fill a grocery cart and have it delivered to my front steps. I was like, no I don't need blue cheese stuffed olives that are like 17 I thought I might want a dirty martini this week.

I did not need those and they were literally almost 17 And I was like, no i'm not gonna spend get you that public's brand of those large olives. Yes 

Kira Derryberry: large olives 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: Yes, I did not need the bougie brand from the fresh market, you know, so But I don't know that my husband was like i'm so proud of you.

I thought like a tear creeped out Oh just being more conscientious and you know what I should be I should [00:08:00] be anyway. And, I even, you know, I just, I just am because I just, I don't, it's not that I don't feel confident. It's not that I don't think things are going to change. It's not that I don't think, oh, you know, things are be different, you know, moving forward.

I'm just going to be a little more conscientious. So, To that point, I'm with you, like, I saw a lot less Dave Matthews concerts this year, if anybody's noticed. I didn't see my normal amount, because I'm like, I'm not going to travel all over. 

Kira Derryberry: was 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: like, 

Kira Derryberry: my normal amount.

Correct. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: My not normal amount is not a normal amount. it's all yes. So I picked so like, you know, I didn't book a lot of those. And so, yes, also we're saving for a huge trip because my goddaughter is graduating from high school next year and one of my best friends, two of my best friends in Kentucky, you know, Terry and Chris, they're, retiring next year, so we have big European vacations planned, plus we have a big wedding that we're all going to in Spain, the Dairy Berries and the Malchowskis and the Taylors, so we [00:09:00] have lots of stuff.

So I'm like, no, I need to be more conscious, just because I want to go and have a lot of fun on those trips. And I want to make sure I don't have any, you know, I want to start planning and budgeting for it. those are huge trips that I want to be able to go and fly the way I want to fly and stay where, you know what I mean?

I don't want to be worrying about it. So, that's another reason why I'm trying to be, you know, more fiscally responsible. Let's put it that way. 

Kira Derryberry: If you haven't noticed visually, I'm being more fiscally responsible by not refilling my eyelashes. I'm just letting them go. And I'm just real sad about it, but I need to cut a couple of costs. And that just feels like a cost we can lose. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: My eyelash curl, it's a monthly subscription. Oh, well, that's nice. 

Kira Derryberry: ways I could go than what I'm doing.

Mary Fisk-Taylor: monthly subscription and it's the same amount. And I could go every week. I could go every other week. And, and she's amazing. So look, I mean, there may be that option. Or maybe in your new little Facebook group that you're working on, maybe you find someone and you get a barter situation going.

That's what I've been looking for. I love that. I wouldn't give up on that. Like, I wouldn't give up on that. [00:10:00] Hey, talking about not giving up, you know, It seems like 3, 000 years ago when we sat on this podcast when I was still on the board of directors, you're still on the board of directors, and we started talking about a little thing called M.

I. R. And it was very controversial. There were lots of thoughts. Lots and lots of thoughts. So 

Kira Derryberry: Everyone had an opinion. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: Oh, so many opinions. But we were obviously very, Very pro MIR. We believed in it and I just want to say I could not be prouder of what i'm seeing right now.

It is really, you know, we're almost two full years in right? This is once a second full year And it is working exactly the way That staff and the board of directors visioned it Yes, and that is to allow people that have been trying for years to get those last couple merits To get their degrees. My mom Debbie Fisk will be walking the stage in Grapevine, Texas, and getting her Master of Photography.

Grammy! Congratulations! And if it wasn't for the MIR and her being able to enter every month, and get the critique, and take the advice, and [00:11:00] come back, she would not have been able to do that. In this past two years, 

Kira Derryberry: I'm so happy for her. Well, then I get to share as well. I don't know if it's okay, but I'm going to do it because you do it. My one of my, dearest, dearest, sweetest friends. Amanda Clark, who sometimes in Tallahassee, we call her our photo mommy. she also yesterday earned her final two. she has been working on that for a good minute. The nice thing was, she was one of those people, that when it came around that year, to enter before the MIR, it was not a good time.

Stressful. it was not a good time for her to enter, so she would not enter for a number of years because she missed the opportunity. My mom was the same way. And it wasn't about her not wanting it or not wanting to try for it. It was just that particular week that it was ready, she just couldn't get it together to get it done.

Mary Fisk-Taylor: Right. And it's very stressful when you have two deadlines a year and that's your only half. That's the only option. And I get it. I mean, we earned ours that way and it's fine. some people work better under stress than others, Just having that little drumbeat every month where you can enter one or two, [00:12:00] you don't have to enter a full case, you have more, you know that, oh, if it doesn't work out this month, I have next month.

But Amanda Clark, the first school I ever taught was Florida school. So 3000 years ago, I met little Amanda Clark in my class. And her little train station studio. She was already had it and everything and she bought me well She was in charge of the class gift and she gave me the cutest pair of shoes because she said I wore the cutest shoes This class every day And a bottle of Dom Perignon.

I will never forget amanda clark. I love her. She's a saint huge shout out She's one of the sweetest kindest most beautiful humans could not be happier for amanda clark And of course my mom debbie fisk, we will be cheering cheering cheering Even though they say we 

Kira Derryberry: shouldn't, we're going to do it anyway.

Mary Fisk-Taylor: Oh yeah, we are. 

Kira Derryberry: What are they going to do? 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: Do they know who we 

Kira Derryberry: are? 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: They don't care who I am anyway. Congrats, Grammy, and to everybody. And to all of you. Anybody that's working on it. And you know what? If you're not there yet, you got October, you got November, and you got every month next year.

So, yeah, I'm excited. Very excited for everybody. speaking of excited, let's take a [00:13:00] quick break to hear from our exciting friends at RetouchUp who, saving my rear end, I'll tell you a little story about something they're doing for me right now when we come back. 

Kira Derryberry: We'll be right back. Never tried retouch up. No problem. Sign up for a free account at retouchup. com and use the referral code G Y S T to tell them you're one of our loyal listeners with retouch up.

There are no contracts. No minimums, no complications, and nothing to lose. For a limited time, all listeners of this podcast can save 10 with the coupon code GISTFALL10. That's G Y S T F A L L 1 0 for all customers. 

Get your life back with ReTouchUp at retouchup. com. Alright, 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: and we are back. Alright. Yeah, so ReTouchUp, we, I got a message from a local person, local photographer recently, and they knew that we brush oil painted and they had a client that needed a reproduction done And [00:14:00] they brought something in and I'm going to be honest, I looked at it and I'm like, Oh, I don't know. I said, and usually I'm like, sure. Yeah. cause we can do the copy work and I can upload it to reach up and have them do the restoration and then we can print it and paint it. But This was a little rough. I'm going to be honest. I can understand why this other person said nope, not going to touch out the 10 foot pole.

They delivered with bells on. The person came in earlier this week to approve the restoration part and she's over the moon to the point it was so good. She was like, well, I don't know. Do you think we still need to print it and paint it? And I'm like, yeah. Yeah, obviously we still need to print it and paint it.

Note to self, they did too good of a job, so. Yeah. Yeah, so, they really, this was a big, I charged a lot for it. As you should. As we should. That's right. thank you, RetouchUp. you really delivered for me this month. You deliver for me every month, but this was a big one.

Like, this was an extra five figures I was not counting on, bringing in. 

Kira Derryberry: That's the thing is, there's so many times where, The cost of goods of a product is so high that it [00:15:00] doesn't make sense to mark it up, and that's one of the nice things about them is that you can get a service like what you're getting from them, and the cost of goods is at a place where you can mark it up and feel confident that you don't have it.

So much invested in it that you're not going to make any profit, A hundred percent. So, that's a nice thing about it. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: I'm paying somebody and I don't know what their quote's going to come back as. I mean, it's a flat fee. I know every time what it's going to be.

Whether it's a smaller project to a larger project, and it certainly evens out. So, kudos, kudos, kudos to them. they certainly, Came in handy and if you guys aren't offering that, you know, especially gearing up to the holidays We're at a perfect opportunity that I would highly recommend you, putting into your traditional digital marketing right now just pepper in like Once a week or every other week.

Hey, just by the way, we do restorations, want to get create that special heirloom to gift your family for the holidays or that very special gift for somebody who has everything. Think about it. Everybody has one of those images or some of that in their family 

Yeah, you know, needs to be fixed or [00:16:00] that one of you want to reproduce and gift to people. What a great time to just put that out there. And like I said, make sure you're hitting it like traditionally. as well as digitally putting it out there and just, just kind of planting those little seeds because they don't know that we do it unless we tell them and there's somebody that could open that email or see that post or read that blog post and go, Oh my gosh, yeah, you know, I need to, I should gift all the kids a picture.

their grandparents or whatever. so that's something that ReTouchUp can help with and I think makes beautiful gifts and now's the time to start planting those seeds because that's something you have to plan for. That's a good idea. That's a good little nugget to put into a newsletter when you're sending that out like, you know, your post, a little video, like just maybe if you have one in your, you know, Kira, I know you have some, you have one and say, I just want to share this with you.

This is a picture of my grandmother. And, you know, I lost my grandmother at a young age, but I want my kids to know her. this year, I'm giving everyone a copy. And did you know that Hayes Fiske can take care of that for you? And we can make sure that we keep those memories alive.

Kira Derryberry: you 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: [00:17:00] know, 

Kira Derryberry: I mean, you're giving me an idea. because, like, specifically about my grandmother, because it's a product line, you know, but also something that I would like to have.

she died before I became a professional photographer, you know, so all of my photos are snapshots of her. It would be cool. I have some fun photos of her. One of the things I remember about her was how cute and funny her laugh was. Like it was always like it surprised her, you know 

So I have a snapshot of her from Christmas and she's not dolled up or anything, but she's laughing. how great would it be to have that painted? you know, restored and then painted, with a modeled background behind her 

So you have this, keepsake of her that honors her memory more than just that snapshot did. And it's very much her. I think, honestly, Mary, I think I'm going to order, that picture painted from RetouchUp, restored and painted 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: Yeah, because they'll digitally paint it and you can just upload the background you want and say, have it restored and then have them, when you upload it for the digital art or the digital painting, say, please put this [00:18:00] background behind her, make sure it's blended well. 

But, what a great gift for your mom or your brother or yourself. Yeah, 

Kira Derryberry: we could just have it done and then it would be a great gift for my family and then I can use it in marketing. Yeah. You know what I mean? And then say, look, I, and just give my own personal testimonial. Here's something that I did because of that situation, you know, and I know that she would have loved that.

She loved attention. So she would have loved having a whole video based around how I didn't have a great photo of her and I wanted to, to do it. That's a great idea. That's a good nugget, Mary, for the holidays. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: now's the time to do it guys, because this does take some time to go back and forth and you have to have the sample.

So do it now. And again, I think that now people, these are the type of gifts that you can truly say with 100 percent authenticity and mean it and say, family is everything and you want these legacies to carry on and we're here to help you do that. Like we will help you do that.

And so I already have things pushing out here and there. And again, you don't have to blast it, just pepper it out there and keep it a little [00:19:00] bit consistent at least through September, early October. And hey, if you pick up. One, if you pick up five or ten of those little commissions, A, hopefully you can convert them into a portrait client because it's time for them to update their family portrait, right?

And it's just extra income that you're really outalmost 100 percent outsourcing. 

Kira Derryberry: Yeah, and make that money. And since I don't frame, but, you know, I could have it printed on White House's, like, portrait canvas. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: Exactly. 

Kira Derryberry: then have it framed in one of the gorgeous new frames. Yeah. And then be like, Flat rate, you know what I mean? Like, this is finished portrait X dollars. Yeah, and you might even 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: Do you want it small, medium, or large? Do you want it desk size? Do you want it sideboard size? Do you want it wall size? 

Kira Derryberry: And it only comes in portrait canvas. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: can have gold, silver, black, or white, whatever. Three different choices delivered. And guys, you're outsourcing almost. All of that besides pushing some buttons, you're doing your copy, getting the scan, obviously you would handle, and then everything else is fairly automated, and just because it's automated does [00:20:00] not mean it's not taking your time, talent, and, you know, and effort, so by all means, it should absolutely be done.

Priced accordingly because can 

Kira Derryberry: Can you give them an example of the style of the painting that you want so that it's consistent, 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: if you want it painted in the style of Frida or you want to paint it in the style of Warhol or you want it literally you could upload a sample file with it and say please paint it.

In the style of the reference file. 

Kira Derryberry: Okay, 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: include the background you want it to go on So like if you yeah photo if either a stock image of the background you want or if you're one of your own backgrounds Photograph it and upload that so those would be put in and you mark those as reference when you upload those You guys probably know this but when you upload it anything that they're not going to actually work on that They're just referring to Go to the bottom of the page and click reference.

That means you don't get charged for that file. It's just there for the artist to refer to. and that way you're only charged for the one piece. So you're only painting one piece or restoring one piece or et cetera, et [00:21:00] cetera. 

Kira Derryberry: This is a great idea. I want to drop everything and do it. that's not a joke.

now here's another, this is my problem, Mary. we got too many hot ideas and I'm just like, oh, I'll just implement that. you know what, carry on. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: Kira, because we are working really hard learning our digital marketing expertise, that's true. We can go into chat or Jim and I or Claude or whatever you all are using, and we can say, Hey, let's do this.

Chat, you know, I want to do this and just write it out. I want it to be authentic to www. curatedairburyphotography. com please story brand for me. I would say please story branded and the donnell miller framework Please do not use the word shoot or there's a couple things. I usually say don't use Please always include this contact information.

Give me a blog post A Facebook landing page script, a pop up, 10 emails, and 10 social media posts. Yep, and just do it all in bulk. and then I highly recommend going in [00:22:00] and, editing them, because I do think that, and I know y'all are going to get sick of me saying this, but I've actually just finished two of my classes in this.

Every expert is out there saying this, you do need to put your own voice to it. So obviously creating your own GPTs and putting your authentic voice in it's going to help when you're generating in chat, but it will start getting stale and it will start saying the same things and it's machine learning.

It's not real. So when you start only posting and using. machine produced copy, it will start ranking lower. It just will. So. Let me give you 

Kira Derryberry: Did we talk about, and you can stop me, Mary, if we talked about this, but when machines start learning off of machines, the quality degrades. Correct. So, even in image generation, we're starting to see that now.

Where people were going, Oh, the hand, remember when the hands look ridiculous? Lobster claws and blah, blah, blah. Well, then what's happening is bots are now going through and. They're, you know, so every time, an image generation source makes something, so [00:23:00] whether that's the DALI editor or the Mid Journey or whatever, you know, it asks, like, did this do, you know, how would you rank this from your request?

Correct. And a human would go, well, that's not what I wanted at all. Those hands look like lobster claws. And it, you would thumbs down it, right? And so that's how it got so much better all of a sudden at making hands. Well, now there's all these bots that are going out and telling it. To generate images and it generates an image and goes, is this what you wanted?

And the bot goes, that's great because it's not a human. It just goes, yeah, that's what I wanted because it's like a robot talking to a robot. Correct. And then they're making. So now the, the quality, the faces are starting to go back to being terrible and the hands are starting to go back to being terrible.

And it's like this weird cycle now where the robot is training the robot and it's no longer got the human. A hundred percent because robots don't know what humans look like, you know, so, that's why Google wants human authentic content out there in the copy is because when a robot teaches a robot how to speak [00:24:00] an English language, the English language or the human language that it's teaching it, it's incorrect, 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: yeah, if we had a mass onslaught of bots going out and saying that a dog is a cat, All of a sudden, any time you put in something and ask for a dog, It would come out as a cat, and you're going to start seeing this because, A, there's a certain amount of people that just love to screw with technology.

That's just facts. B, it's because it's a cheaper, easier option, so some lesser, platforms out there are going to start using bots and, and not fully understand how much, and this is, this is just my opinion, by the way. But I, I did have to take a morality and a. ethics and morality class with about AI to pass these last courses.

And this is a big, this is a big potential issue. I'm not going to call it a problem because it's going to work itself out. But it just goes to compound the, how adamant I am that if you're using Any of these amazing tools, make sure you're taking the time and [00:25:00] energy to make them authentic to you after they've done all the hard work.

It doesn't take a lot for you to just take the time to don't just copy and paste and put it up on Facebook, read it and make some changes. If you change two or three words, it's going to rank higher and it's going to alleviate that issue. It's going to become yours, 

If chat creates something for you, it's yours. There's no ownership. It's the wild, wild west out there. 

Kira Derryberry: It is. and a new frustration that's happening, which it's good that it's happening, but it's frustrating when you've been coming in from early on, like you and I have. you know, when you create a custom, GPT or clot or anything, you could upload your brand voice, you can upload your sample writing, so that's what I did a lot is give it my sample writing and this worked great for a really long time.

Then what happened is they kept updating the model because they kept worrying. that, rightfully so, they kept getting told that they were, you know, infringing on copyright. So, they, [00:26:00] updated the model so that it didn't exactly take copies of words. So, places where I would upload data that's my company's data, that has the wording that it should be, or whatever, I'll go, show me where I said this in my, Privacy policy or, you know, something like that, and it would it would give it to me, but it would write it.

It would completely rewrite it. Correct. I'm like, That's not the correct data. I even tried it with some of my, PPA things that I'm working on for them. I'd be like, show me where this lives. Because you've got this as your library, as your database, right?

And it would completely tell me the wrong place. And then I would say, show me where it says that. And it would write it out, and it's not at all how it's written. And those were safeguards that were put in so that you couldn't say, Show me. Write this exactly so to stop the plagiarism, you know, I mean, but it's also kind of damaging things that are like I gave you this content that I've written and I want you to use it, 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: So, what I did is all my writing samples, I put on the microphone, I recorded [00:27:00] myself reading them. I uploaded the recording and the transcript. They will pull it from my voice. Now, I could easily be reading a Dave Matthews song and it become plagiarized. 

Like, we're trying to plan programs for next February. And I don't know. It's a joke. People are like, oh, you're working on your program? I'm like, it'll change 27 times before next February. I can't even begin to work on my Imaging USA program right now. I mean, it's insane. But if it's in your voice. So I read, so I was doing great, doing great.

Got all my writing samples. It stopped working as well. So I went in and read it. I, I went in and read my, my policies for my studio when I teach or lecture now, or you could take our podcast and upload those and you would get more authentic, real. valuable information because we're talking about it.

Like when I taught Texas school this year, I miked myself the entire time and uploaded that entire platform a week long of Jamie and I teaching. So now if I go in and I want to work on a program, I want to write something educational, it [00:28:00] pulls directly from my Texas school class. Does that make sense?

So, if it's, for some reason, it's real funny about copy, but it will take your voice transcript and seems to do it at a job. 

Kira Derryberry: well, and I'm also talking about my tone when I talk about voice too, I'm also talking about just the way I write and the way I speak and the way my brand feels. Yeah, you know, that sort of thing.

But, that's why there's so many custom pieces of software that are coming out now outside of, so we've got the foundational things like the GPGs and the flods, you know, and then we've got the, specific task companies that are doing things like there's, there's tons of specific AI writer.

One's that, you know, we've been talking about and, I don't want to endorse one yet because I'm still researching, you know, but, but they would do a better job. Like, for example, if I put our we have, we host our podcast on this podcast hosting site, and it always auto generates a transcript, but it just, it does a terrible job of it, Mary.

It thinks that I'm you and you're me, [00:29:00] and it puts our sentences together, and it's terrible. Spelt thinks that my name is Dairy with D A I R Y. It's, it's like, it just doesn't learn anything, you know? If I take that transcript and I give it to ChatGPT, and I say, can you clean this up and fix the misspellings and make sure that I'm talking when I'm talking?

I'm talking Mary's talking when she's talking what it's been doing it used to do a great job of that and now what it's doing is it's paraphrasing what we're saying, 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: you know, 

Kira Derryberry: and it's not, it's, it's labeling us where it should label us but it's just like making up a whole new conversation that we didn't have and it's not finishing it, you know, that is frustrating.

I find that it's getting dumber. Somehow in these newer versions, and I believe that it's because of safeguards that have been put in, but also because it's bots. Bots are training bots again. You know what I mean? Like, I agree. I think it's degrading its ability to function. So that's why some of these more specific models that are doing it.

Specific tasks, right? Like the things that are, [00:30:00] you know, transcribing audio specifically or AI audio cleanup software, things like that. Those are working better than the kind of catch alls of chat GPT plot. You know, like they're not specific enough anymore. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: No, I agree. It's kind of like, it's Photoshop is a great tool, but Photoshop is great.

But if. I wanted to really digitally paint. I'm probably going to go into a Corel Painter, right? Because Photoshop can't, you can't paint in Photoshop. Exactly. So this kind of, you're going to find the same thing. And absolutely. And I am definitely playing around with, transcripts, generators and all the stuff because it's just going to become bigger and bigger because video is going to need to become a bigger and bigger part of our marketing.

So, what is it? Something like 82 percent of people watch videos with the sound off. So obviously you have to have subtitles on everything you're doing or captions on everything you're doing. And there's some really good ones out there and really bad ones. Chat GPT, in my opinion, is not a great resource for that.

You know, guys, I hate to say it, but as we keep moving in, if you're going to stay in this, [00:31:00] if you're going to adapt to digital marketing in the capacity I feel like we are going to in the future, you're going to have to have something that's just for that and just for that.

Now, chat is a good catch all. And it gets it halfway done or almost done, but it's not quite there. And it's affordable. 

Kira Derryberry: And it's affordable. It's either free or, which I don't recommend because it just really, it's not worth the wait times. The 20 a month is very approachable and it does a lot of amazing stuff.

it's good enough for the majority of people out there who are just dipping their toes in. But when we're talking about, higher level processing of, of content, and if, and if you're talking about, like, I have, let's say, a, a bank of videos. but let's say that we had. We would have such a vault of content that I could then give AI and have it generate a whole bunch more content for our free podcast? 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: Yeah. No, absolutely. And I do think that, get in at $20 a month because. It's going to become like, it's going to be like Uber, right? remember when Uber first came out? It's like, oh my God, this is so inexpensive and tips included into the dollar. So amazing. Oh my gosh. it was the best thing since ever.

And now, you know, now it's [00:32:00] 62 and they can rate you. And if you don't tip them, they'll give you one. So. Yeah, I mean, there's going to be more competition, there already is, I mean, but chat's already blown, cause you know Bard was the first one, that's now Gemini, that was the first one, that was Google's, that was it, that was it, cause they were the only one that went online, well chat blew past them, like, Gemini, Claude, and they I do find that to be a great resource for more creative type stuff, but I don't know.

Kira Derryberry: think that they're 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: keeping 

Kira Derryberry: up. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: no, I don't think anybody's keeping up at the rate chats keeping up. They're just, 

Kira Derryberry: I was working late last night and in the time I was working, they put out two new updates versions. So I'd be having a conversation with it and it would say there's a new version of chat that if you start a new conversation you can use.

Mary Fisk-Taylor: finish 

Kira Derryberry: So they're updating rapidly and they're updating even an hour or two after they updated before. So I mean things are changing. But what I was going to say is I think we're going to find that there's going to be tools that cost more.

That are based foundationally on chat and Gemini and things like that, [00:33:00] but that they're going to have a higher monthly cost because they have worked out a lot more bugs for specific uses and they're going to be designed for that. So it's going to be a bit of a race, I think, to see what's the best for small businesses to use for their content.

And I'm eager to see who comes out of that race. I am too. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: Those of us who are paying attention and reading the information and following these things and adapt early to these things are going to be ahead of the digital marketing curve. it's just like those of us who went through the digital transition with cameras and film, who went through it with computers and Photoshop, those of us who are on that bleeding edge are going to be ahead of it because We're going to already be so further along in the journey and it is a journey.

It's a learning curve. It's a lot of things, but none of it is going to replace our words, our thoughts, you know, our vision. Because all of this is really great stuff, but it's not worth anything if you're not putting the time and energy into it. Kira, I know that's what you're going to talk about when you teach.

Florida [00:34:00] school coming up. I know that's what you're gonna talk about at imaging, but you're gonna do a whole pre con full day about it But that is so important and you know I see a lot of people especially this week guys We're coming off of there was a little thing called a presidential debate earlier this week, which I have Really not gonna comment on but a lot of people are Angry on facebook right now and look they're saying that their posts are being taken down or being flagged And they blame one side or the other You Guys, nobody's actually, I just a how important do you think you are that there's somebody actually out there that's reading your posts.

Those are all AI driven. It's AI generated. And there's just some word and then you might be posting about taking care of sick puppies and, you know, giving flowers to, you know, to people to make them smile. But there's a word that somehow has been generated, or is a trigger, and AI flags it.

This is not any political party trying to take down your [00:35:00] posts. I hate to break it to you. Or, you have somebody reporting you, and the bots are going to go in, and they zap it and take it down. 

Kira Derryberry: people are so massively unfollowing you, that it goes, well, maybe people don't like what that person is saying, but, you know.

That could happen, but, you know, you could just keep it to yourself, too. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: don't blame anybody. Just, you know, try to figure it out. if you read the community standards, usually you'll figure out there's a word, but just, I'm just gonna, I'm just trying to do you a favor.

Nobody's out there actually trying to target you and take your post down. These are all done by AI generated bots. This is machine driven. 

Kira Derryberry: In the same way that, you know, nobody in Springfield has eaten the pets. All right, nobody has previously eaten any cats or 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: dogs. Not even the illegal aliens.

Kira Derryberry: going to say about that. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: Not even. I did enjoy, because you know, I'm always on the puppy and the cat TikTok, so I enjoyed every one of those. Just the puppy faces with their eyes, when the voice is going, and their faces, like, I could watch them all day. 

Kira Derryberry: a golden opportunity for Sarah McLachlan to just come [00:36:00] out and be like, every day, dogs and cats are being.

Mary Fisk-Taylor: if I were a pet charity right now, I would be using that. I mean, I actually, when I heard it almost fell out of my bed and I was like, Oh, I hope some marketing agency has picked this up and every pet charity out there should be riding that. 

Kira Derryberry: Sarah McLachlan is on her 30th anniversary tour for that album, and you know, she could be arms of an angel.

Where's,

oh, we couldn't get through it without doing it. We couldn't. I know. I couldn't. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: I couldn't. It's a good marketing opportunity. That's all. What a great. hopefully you got a few little nuggets out and hopefully you guys are all signed up for Imaging USA.

that's going to be amazing, as you know. 

Kira Derryberry: Oh my God, we are, yeah. it's going to be so amazing. Now we've got our loved ones are walking across the stage, getting their decrees. 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: and Jamie Hayes is doing a pre con on how to start brush oil painting and incorporate it into your studio.

So that's exciting. If you guys are interested, we actually in October have an online live Zoom. It's a three hour Zoom where [00:37:00] we're going to show you, we're going to give you the canvas and tell you what to buy or we'll ship it to you and you can paint from beginning to end. We promise in that three hours you will finish a piece side by side with us on Zoom.

You don't have to leave your, you can sit in your pajamas on a, Sunday afternoon. I'll be posting it on the Get Your Shoot Together page so you can check it out there. We have some free, lives coming up. also just getting ready for it. So if you're interested in learning that and I'll tell you that's what saved us this year That has been my saving grace is selling large painted pieces so if you're interested in that type of stuff, check it out.

We'd love to definitely 

Kira Derryberry: definitely check it out and Let's see. I've got my four to school classes coming up four day long class on, AI and chat GPT. And that is probably by the time this comes out, I think I'm going to be leaving for it. So if you're not in on that already, then, I am sorry, but you can always catch me, pre con at ImagingUSA and because it will have changed in a few months between, it'll be a whole new class.

If you want to take me, take my class at Imaging as a pre con and then come to Texas school early and take my class at Texas school, I guarantee you [00:38:00] there will be new content. Thank you. Oh, 

Mary Fisk-Taylor: I forgot. Yeah. And I'll be in Texas school too. I forgot about that. Yeah. I forget. We already are.

We're already out. We're already all the way into April of next year. I like it. I like it a lot. All right, guys, let's wrap it up. 

Kira Derryberry: Let's wrap this up. you can follow us on Instagram at Get Your Shoot Together. You can follow us on Facebook at Get Your Shoot Together. And you can email us at girl at GetYourShootTogether.

com. And listen to us where podcasts are played everywhere. We will see you next time. Thanks, y'all.