The One About AI UGC, LinkedIn Video, and Grow a Garden’s $5M/Month Playbook

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The rage is real and the receipts are shocking. This week, we’re breaking down the dark side of AI-generated content—deepfake UGC, stolen influencer likenesses, and what the FTC should be doing but isn’t. Plus: why Substack is the new safe space, LinkedIn’s surprise Reels move, and what a farming game on Roblox can teach you about unhinged community marketing.

Learn how to protect your brand (and your brain), hear why creators are pivoting hard away from mass content, and get inspo from a wild, rave-like in-game update that’s pulling 21M users on a Saturday morning.

What You’ll Learn:

• The unethical trend that’s turning AI avatars into fake paid ads
• Why UGC is broken—and what it means for personal brands and product marketing
• How creators are future-proofing with platforms like Substack and private community building
• What a kids’ game can teach you about brand voice, virality, and $5M months

Timestamps:
 03:55 – YouTube demonetizes AI-generated videos
 05:12 – LinkedIn quietly adds vertical video feed
 07:08 – AI is stealing influencer likenesses for fake ads
 12:44 – The rise of AI UGC & what it means for consumer trust
 17:10 – Real creators vs. AI scammers: the new digital divide
 23:10 – AI makes stuff up (and even Sam Altman says don’t trust it)
 28:11 – How AI is eroding critical thinking and online trust
 43:18 – Roblox case study: $5M/month from a community-fueled farming game
 51:35 – Rethinking personal branding and going all in on realness

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Transcript

Ep. 003: The One About AI UGC, LinkedIn Video, and Grow a Garden’s $5M/Month Playbook

Joanna Newton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Click Tease. Today we are sharing all about what's happening in marketing. This week we have a little bit of rage about AI and AI created content and how that's affecting us.

We're gonna talk about some important updates in places like LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok, and we're also gonna share a surprising story about what you can learn from some branding elements in Roblox. Let's get into it.

So today for my beverage, I'm starting some, I'm trying something new. Um, have you watched the show? Oh, what's the name of that show? The, the Utah Moms in Salt Lake City

Michelle Pualani: Oh, you know what someone was telling me about this, I've never watched it, but it's like Mormon wives. It's like the second lives of Mormon or the

Joanna Newton: The secret,

Michelle Pualani: secret lives of Mormon wives.

Joanna Newton: the secret lives of Mormon.

Mormon wives. And because like Mormons can't have caffeine, they don't drink. Coffee. So they have all these like fancy [00:01:00] soda shops and, which is funny 'cause like soda also has caffeine, but let's like, just pretend that that's not a thing. Um, so have you ever had a dirty soda?

Michelle Pualani: Uh, no, definitely not.

Joanna Newton: So a dirty soda is a soda. Creamer in it. And I've never had one, but I'm like, I should have one. And I got an Instacart order the other day and they accidentally gave me, I don't drink coffee creamer, but they accidentally gave me coffee creamer and like I had soda, so it was like, let me try a dirty soda.

So what I have is a root beer with coffee creamer in it. And like, I don't know if it's gonna be disgusting.

Michelle Pualani: You haven't had it yet. You haven't tasted

Joanna Newton: No, I No taste.

Michelle Pualani: Live, react.

Joanna Newton: It kind of just tastes like root beer, like it

Michelle Pualani: really taste the creamer.

Joanna Newton: Mm-hmm. Maybe I like needed more,

Michelle Pualani: I mean

Joanna Newton: it's not bad.

Michelle Pualani: So there's something [00:02:00] called an Italian soda, right? Which is like soda water with syrup in it. And then there's a French soda, which is soda, water, syrup, and milk, which is essentially kind of what you're having there, right? Just a premixed soda with some milk in it.

Joanna Newton: I might've needed more creamer to get the flavor, 'cause it, 'cause root beer's already kind of a creamier soda flavor. So I'm not really getting creamer, but I'm getting soda, so it works.

Michelle Pualani: It's giving soda.

Well, today I'm drinking. Okay, so this is, um, my mushroom drink is just what I call it. It's just like a, it's not even coffee replacement, it's just we just get a bunch of different mushrooms and we put 'em all together. Mushroom powders. I'm very sensitive to certain types of things, including ashwagandha, and so there's a lot of mushroom coffee replacement options or things on the market that have ashwagandha in them, which I typically avoid.

So we make this at home. It's just my non-dairy milk, which today is oat [00:03:00] milk, and I do maple syrup as sweetener, and then my mushroom powders. And for some reason, whenever Jeremy makes it at home, 'cause we have a little like steamer coffee maker thing, and so we steam the milk. Whenever he makes it, it's ridiculously good.

And somehow whenever I make it, it's just, okay. So today I'm drinking just okay. Mushroom drink.

Joanna Newton: I dunno if I could drink mushrooms. I've like never drank mushrooms before, but there's something about it that weirds me out.

Michelle Pualani: I think that's fair. It's pretty earthy.

Joanna Newton: Yeah, I don't, I don't know if I could handle it. Um, well, before we get into the meat of whatever we're talking about today, just so you all know who are listening, when we got on to start recording, Michelle told me she was enraged and she was gonna start telling me about it and I said, no, save it for the podcast.

So. Whatever we're talking about today I'm sure will be interesting. But before we get into, uh, kind of the meat of whatever we're talking about today, I have a few quick social [00:04:00] updates for you just to keep everyone up to date with what is going on. One of the things that's come up really recently, actually starting today, YouTube, which is July 15th, YouTube changed its monetization policy on videos.

So if you have a monetized YouTube channel, this is something to pay attention to. You can no longer. Ad monetization to AI created videos. They're really trying to make sure that what is getting pushed on YouTube is authentic, original content. So if you are using ai, if you are just stealing other people's videos and putting them, and you're not really making true.

Um, authentic original content that will no longer be eligible for monetization. Another big thing that I actually figured out, not because I heard an announcement but by surprise, is that LinkedIn added a video feed to their, their platform. So if you post and create [00:05:00] a vertical video on your LinkedIn account, it will automatically convert to basically what looks like reels or shorts.

And there's now a video feed that you can interact with. So we've talked on this podcast about how if something's new, you should use it. I've been posting more video content on LinkedIn and I'll kind of see how that, how that plays out. But I'm excited for that. I like making video content. I think it'll be really good for me on LinkedIn and it might be good for you as well.

Another thing we'll keep giving you updates on is what's going on with TikTok, um, and if the app is moving, what's happening? TikTok did come out and say that this article that was posted about what was happening with TikTok and the new app for us users. Is not accurate. Now, they did not say they weren't creating an app.

They didn't say that nothing was happening. They just said that the content that was out there is completely inaccurate. So that's something we'll just have to stay up to date with and [00:06:00] keep an eye out for as those things progress and change.

Michelle Pualani: Everything is moving so rapidly right now. Things are evolving quickly, and as Joanna and I through this podcast are sharing what is changing, sharing what is happening, make sure you hit subscribe. So you catch every weekly episode as. We have been in this industry for over six years in the digital space, longer for other roles.

We're just starting to see some pretty massive shifts that are happening, and I really appreciate what YouTube is doing with not monetizing ai. I think it's a great move as a platform in order to support creators. There's so much that gets poured into, from a skillset perspective, from a creative perspective, from this.

Ability to create and make change and develop and you know, make things out of nothing. And AI is rapidly changing that game, and I think that's why I'm so enraged and so upset is I've been seeing so much content online right now around this [00:07:00] topic of ai. So that's a lot of what we're gonna kind chat about I think today.

And the evolution and shift that we're seeing around creators who have been in this for a while and what it is that they're choosing to do and how they're investing their time and energy. So the first thing that I wanna talk about in regards to AI that I have been seeing a lot of influencers. Talk about a lot of people who, again, have created brands around what they share and who they are and how they've developed and built a lifestyle is taking their likeness and turning their likeness from a podcast interview a video into AI for paid ads like taking them.

Turning them into an AI replicated video, using their voice, using their face, using B-roll content or videos from their pages, and transforming that into ai, and then [00:08:00] having this video that supports their product, supports their thing, and promotes it through paid, sponsored posts from the actual business that has the product.

I'm just like blown away that I'm seeing it happen at all. And I, you know, it's one thing I've kind of seen like these quote unquote deep fake videos of celebrity faces on like dancing figures as like more of an entertainment social media thing. And like that's already starting to push the envelope, but to actually take somebody.

Persona that they have worked to develop and build a platform around and created trust and brand engagement and been able to do it of their own accord up until a certain point. And for someone to just steal all of that, not just intellectual property, but. The value and likeness of what that person has created in the digital space blows my [00:09:00] mind.

And the ethics and moral dilemma of these choices right now are important. And it just, it aggravates me, and I've seen it happen a couple of times. There was another influencer who's talking about, she had shared her wedding videos or wedding photos. And someone had for their own content, replaced her face.

But not her husband's. So not only are like you being taken like out of the equation or your content is being used in that way, but then your life is, is being narrated in a completely different direction where someone is now showing that their bridal setup was with your husband. It's just weird. What's happening right now with AI and how people are taking advantage of it and using it, what I consider to be improperly is mind blowing and really, really, really unethical.

Joanna Newton: [00:10:00] Yeah, and there aren't a ton of regulations right now about like AI content usage, and that's something that's going to have to come into play. Over the next few years to help catch up with the industry 'cause it's new, right? It's, I mean, it's somewhat new. It's been around for a while, but it's becoming more and more and more prevalent.

So deep fakes, using people's likeness, like using people's content is. a really sketchy thing, right? Someone can take your face and make it look like you've promoted a product that you have not, and you have very little, very little control over that. And, and for those of you who are listening and think, oh, this doesn't really apply to me.

I'm not a big person. Like, that's not gonna happen to me if. By AI engines. So if you are creating blogs, if you're creating videos, if your content is out there in the world, there's a chance that your [00:11:00] ideas are being used and regurgitated back in ai most, um, you know. Most platforms you use have changed their terms and conditions and updated them to allow you to give your content.

Google Docs as an example, like a lot of times using Google Docs, you're allowing for the content you create in there to be used for, for AI machine learning, for Google's ai, machine learning, so. The safety of our intellectual property and the, the usage of that intellectual property with when what you sell is like your methods, your ways. That's something we really have to start thinking about how to protect.

Michelle Pualani: I think you're completely right. I, I'm surprised that social media platforms with as much power and. Sway and influence that they have are not responding more accordingly. Right? So this influencer's talking about this issue she has of this ad that she's seeing on the meta platform [00:12:00] where someone has taken her likeness, said that she used this product and vouches for the product, but she never did.

Anything of the sort. It's all completely fake. It's completely fake. And she tried to report it and it says that it doesn't go against Instagram's community guidelines or policies. So there's no, no challenge to it being posted. And this is what I'm seeing in the product space of UGC content creation. So we have inva, like we have an invariably, I, I think that was is a word.

Invariably we have. Been putting our trust in people that we see on social media who have built a brand and a presence around what it is that they think about things. If you think of makeup influencers, health influencers, wellness and beauty and hair, and all of these things that we've created, this economic system in which we put our trust in, these people that we look to, to give us guidance [00:13:00] on products, brands that they've tried.

And some of course we know that are more fake, and so we don't engage with them. We don't follow them. Maybe they've given bad recommendations in the past, or we know that they've only done it because they got paid or whatever the case is, and so we can self-select as human beings. But now what I'm seeing are UGC.

AI created video. So now we have these avatars talking about a product, the way that the brand is choosing for that AI avatar to talk about that product, and then turning that into organic or paid media. And so I don't know when the FTC is gonna come in and start. Having some type of say in this, because I'm seeing these things from the TBH side, from our functional spirit alternative brand is I'm seeing a lot of AI options to create UGC fake AI avatar videos for our product.

People who have never used it, never touched it are never going to because they're not effing real. [00:14:00] And I'm wondering to myself. What is this gonna do to the industry as a whole? What would this do to the brands who are leveraging, leveraging UGC? And I can just see it going in so many different directions because you have brands who don't give a shit like they are just.

Pulling stock product from somewhere. They're drop shipping it over here. They've created a lifestyle brand around it. They don't care about the customers, they don't care about the quality of the product. They don't care about the ecosystem, and so they don't care about creating fake UGC AI generated content that's just gonna make sales.

And that people, if they're not being able to differentiate or because they're seeing things and people that they believe in and now they're seeing them say this thing, they invest, they buy, so they make sales. And then you have people who are on the other side who just have a moral compass and they're making choices and still creating, or still trying to do the, the human thing and.[00:15:00]

I just, I don't have any answers to the situation right now, but I do know that AI is like fucking a lot of shit up and it's definitely disconcerting. And I do see people who are using it for like their own AI avatars, right? They're like. I created my own AI avatar. I can sell more digital products with this.

You don't have to film video, don't worry about it. You can do talking Heads, have it your own. You can create your own AI avatar voice, right? That's modeled after your own voice. You can do it even after your own likeness and then never have to create again. You just type in a script or put some B-roll AI content with text on the screen.

But the majority of those things that I see. They're selling some type the same AI thing, right? They're doing the thing and selling you the AI of doing that thing, which screams MLM to me, and which screams not adding anything to the ecosystem of what we're developing online and no new [00:16:00] creativity. So I will pause my rant, but that is a lot of what I feel like is freaking happening right now.

Joanna Newton: Yeah. And it, it is so frustrating. Well, and, and first of all, I mean, I don't, uh, I am not a legal expert in any way, but I think at least if it comes to like reviews and testimonial content, the FTC already has regulations around reviews and testimonials and, and the being able to authenticate them and, you know, all of that.

And I wonder if, you know, I'd have to like go read the regulations again to see if. If this would apply, but I can't actually imagine a fake ai UGC created content of a testimonial that is not genuine, is legal, but being able to track that down and find it, and I think it's so frustrating as an entrepreneur who tries to be as ethical as possible, like I could go. Get [00:17:00] 10 fake reviews, AI generated about my products and programs and services and use them as AI and then make more money. But like I refuse to do that. So then do I lose a competitive advantage as a business owner because I'm not gonna do that as an example right now. Um, from my business, we are working on a accelerator program where we bring creators on to work with us at either a low cost or free charge because they have an audience, they have people that they can reach. We'll set them up with digital products and then help them launch and take a percentage of that, that launch. So we're working with two people right now completely. Well. Could be probably completely free, right? Like we have a very small rev share. We're gonna have, we're gonna lose money likely on these clients, but we're doing it so that we can work together and create case studies so that then we can sell the program. [00:18:00] Right, like there's a process to that. I could go make fake numbers, get a fake AI avatar, and make all of this shit up and make it happen way faster and way cheaper. But I'm trying to do it the right way to have a real case study and a real example, right? So I'm doing it the ethical way and it could put me steps behind another business owner.

Michelle Pualani: It is tough when you see everybody jumping on a bandwagon. Right. But I am seeing a lot of things about AI and how it's affecting the brain and critical thinking. And you talked about this when we did our content and. How we're using AI in our businesses is that what I think is the difficulty with AI as a whole is when you think about the things that you want AI to replace and you kind of have like that idea of robots and you're like, okay, well I don't wanna do my laundry, I don't wanna do my dishes, I don't wanna do these things.

And I saw this great video. From this young creator who's [00:19:00] having, you know, a skit on either side of this desk where he's talking and he is like, oh, ai, I am so excited. So, you know, like, can it start walking my dog for me? Or can it start doing my dishes? And they're like, no, but it can, uh, write for you. And it's like, well, I actually want to write like, I like writing.

And they're like, oh, well you won't have to do that now. 'cause AI can do that. It's like, okay, well, you know, can it take care of my taxes or can it do these things? And they're like, no, but, but it can paint for you. And it's like, well, I actually, but I like, I enjoy painting and AI is starting to replace.

Some of the things, at least in our space, I think in the digital, personal, brand, content creation, influencer space, it's oddly replacing those things that people typically enjoy or have developed a skillset around, which are in the creative space. AI can be used as a tool and should [00:20:00] be used as a tool when it comes to automating tasks.

You know, like planning in your calendar, things that don't take a lot of human input, but they're just like repetitive tasks. And that's where I think AI can really shine, but for some reason it's taking over. Video. It's taking over graphics, it's taking over copywriting and not very well just yet. Like, yes, you can get it to improve.

And there are different models that are set up for, you know, like from an enterprise level. There's um, an AI company, I forget the name of it off the top of my head, but like Chase uses it and like larger companies for their marketing language because it's one of the best language learning models that can actually know and understand a brand voice.

But between Claude and Gemini and chat GPT and like our, our more generic ones that everyone has access to, they're just not obviously where that humanness comes through. And you can tell, [00:21:00] and we're seeing the AI content creation just start to become such a permeated aspect of digital presence. I just don't think, I don't think, I don't.

I, one, I don't like it. Two, I don't think it's the way of genuine connection, truthfully, and I don't think it's going to become. Or take over as much. I just think we're seeing this advent of it. It's being introduced, it's new. People are interested in it. People are interested in jumping on the train of it and better understanding it.

And I think we all should, as business owners, as entrepreneurs, understand how AI can be used in these different ways to systematize our businesses and really help and support us in the scalability. But from a creative perspective. I am really worried that people are relying on it too much on that front [00:22:00] going to be able like, and actually reduce their critical thinking skills and their ability to develop later on.

So. Being super mindful about how you are using it. If you're using AI in your business right now and asking yourself those ethical questions like how do you want to build your brand? How do you want to build your business? How do you want to create trust and engagement? With your community, and do you want AI to take the place of that, or are you willing to sacrifice the face of your brand literally now for quicker results?

I think it's just a lot of questions that we need to truly consider, not just for our own businesses, but for the future of marketing as a whole, and for the industry and for the collective of what we're trying to build together.

Joanna Newton: Yeah, and I, I posted a video from our last week's podcast episode on LinkedIn about ai, and it was the part where I was talking about [00:23:00] like. AI can't tell your story, right? Like AI can't actually tell your story. So if you're a creator who tells stories and tells your stories, that's a way to differentiate you from other creators who are using ai. And someone commented on my post and brought up such a really good point that I hadn't thought of. They were like, sure, Joanna, like, you might be authentic. I thought you were authentic. I thought you're a real person behind there. But AI is getting so good. How do I know you're real? how do I actually know you're real?

So. For those of us out there who are trying to be authentic and not use AI and put ourselves out there and be vulnerable and be artistic, and be creative. Now we have all the, the intelligent consumers of the world questioning, okay, is this person real or not? Like, can I trust them? Is this ai? And that's gonna be a tough thing for us.

To battle and be [00:24:00] aware of.

Michelle Pualani: Yeah.

Joanna Newton: the other thing that I think is so important, and we've said this before and I'll say it again, is can be and is often wrong. Like it gives wrong information. So today I was checking something that I wanna talk about on the podcast today. I was like, I was looking for a specific statistic of the size, the growth of a specific company. So I, I put it into Google I look at the, a AI answer, and the AI answer Google gave me was just false. Like, and because I know the topic, I knew it was false. So Google, the top Google search result for the answer for that question was completely false and misleading. And so that's Google. That's Google's.

AI search generation, and I actually saw where it picked it up. Like I kind of, I got curious and I followed the train and I saw the mistake that AI made [00:25:00] and I was like, I get why they said this, and it is completely wrong. Someone who didn't know that subject matter the way I did, would've read that and thought it was real and then put that out into the world.

So even if you're making authentic content, if you are using AI to research, which I don't think is a terrible plan, but. AI has to be fact checked. isn't always right. AI is wrong, and we have to be aware of that.

Michelle Pualani: I just saw that the founder of ai, the chat, GPT was saying, he's surprised that people trust in it so much, even though when it explicitly states that chat GPT makes mistakes and. There are these hallucinogens, not hallucinogens,

hallucinations that AI has, where they're just pulling shit out of the air, literally making stuff up, and we are relying on it too heavily, but. [00:26:00] I think it's such an important question is how do consumers know? I was just telling my husband the other day, I don't trust anything that I see on Facebook. I literally trust zero things because any headline, any news article, any picture, this person did this, this political thing happened, this change was made.

I don't trust any of it anymore because I don't know what's fake and, and just created. I don't know from what source to mislead or create turmoil or whatever the case is and what's actually true. So I, I don't use social media for actual, like life, uh, things, right? Things that are outside of the platform.

Political things that are happening in the world or anything else. I either go to very reputable, well-known National Geographic or PBS or whatever the platforms are that like have been around for a long [00:27:00] time that share quality information. But whatever, anyone, especially if someone's sharing it. I especially don't trust any of the information, whatever pictures, whatever anything is talking about, and I think we're getting into a difficult time of trying to discern for ourselves and figure out, can I trust this?

I, I'm sure you've seen those videos, the ones that are, the fake news segments that are Canada is invading the US and I'm going live to the scene. Then it's like on the scene and they're like, actually this is ai. And it's like, you wanna share it with your grandparents or with someone in your life because you're like, it's, then it's someone who's been, um, taken and they've been imprisoned and it's like, I'm not actually in prison.

Don't send money. And so it's an educational AI video. But the realness of it is very scary. And what can be created, you know, it used to be the case that from an entertainment, from a media perspective, we knew when things were television, we [00:28:00] knew when things were movies, we knew when they were meant to just be for appreciation.

But now the distinction between what's real and what's not is so incredibly blurred, and it's getting blurrier every single day as things evolve.

Joanna Newton: Yeah. Well, I can see why you had so much rage built up. Do you feel like you've gotten the AI rage out?

Michelle Pualani: You know, I feel a little bit better about it. I don't think it's gonna go away anytime soon. Here's, here's where it comes in personally, okay? Is that I feel like I've never really like quote unquote taken off in the digital space, right? Like, I've had my small milestones, I've had successes, I've made sales, I've had clients, I've done my thing in the digital space, but I don't really feel like I've ever like reached that either, like.

Influencer status or successful business owner in the digital space kind of status where I have like a consistent presence and consistent everything, but I've worked my ass off in the content creation world [00:29:00] to be better, to show up on camera, to share, to speak, to do. We've been doing this podcast for Al almost two years now, and.

For people to just like go to AI and leverage it the way that they are and have that like fake likeness. I think it's just disconcerting and frustrating for myself to think about what's happening with it because I'm, I'm like, I'm going down the rabbit hole, so I'm looking at, okay, businesses that were created as AI girlfriends to talk to people that sign up for an app.

And they have those conversations I'm looking at like AI created women for OnlyFans or that type of thing that's making money, but there's like a dude behind the scenes. I'm looking at AI avatars selling digital products about how to create AI avatars. I'm looking at these AI influencers who are being fucking duped.

I'm looking at this [00:30:00] UGC content creation where I'm working really hard with customers, with uh, people to try to create that realness. Share again, ethically what our product does, how it helps people, all of those things. And then to just see the fake UGC crap that is going online. It's like this conversation that I had.

I have invested in literal tens of thousands of dollars of coaches, masterminds, courses, live events, everything in this digital space to speak. Authentically to share organically, to bring your presence to the world through your, again, own creativity, your intellectual property, to share your gifts to, yes, have learned from other people, but then to translate that and teach in your own unique way.

And I follow a lot of people who are typically on the more ethical side of the compass about these practices. And then. I'm not gonna name [00:31:00] any names, but there's someone that I knew who took this course and program, and it was ultimately this overweight man teaching how to do digital marketing about weight loss.

And so if you're an affiliate. A weight loss program and you're creating your landing page, you're pulling in stock photography of before and after shots and talking about the experience and basically selling it without having any real factual data or information without actually having any clients who have.

Success with the program without your own experience having used the program because you just decided that the affiliate payout was gonna be positive for you. And so now you are creating a page even though you haven't even touched the program yourself. And I think that what is deeper rooted here is the dishonesty that you see in this industry and how much when you feel like you are trying to do the right thing, but just not [00:32:00] like quote unquote making it, it, it just.

It just starts to build that anger and that frustration and that upset when you see other people who are literally faking their way through it and not actually sharing true, honest information about the process, about the system, about their clients, about customers, about anything related to what they're doing.

That I'm just like, what the fuck? Like what's what? What's the deal? And that's why I'm so angry.

Joanna Newton: Yeah, I mean, it, it makes a lot of sense and I don't know if what I'm about to say is gonna make you feel better make you feel worse, but I think that the, the AI usage we're seeing to scam people or to kind of fake things, to get, to get results and to build businesses. It's just kind of the new scam.

Michelle Pualani: Yeah.

Joanna Newton: there's always scam scams to take money from people. Like we live in a society where people [00:33:00] like, let's face it, the majority of people don't care. They just want money. So you know what used to be mail order campaigns where there'd be fake charities sending mails to all the little old ladies to get them, or, um. Just various scams that have happened across the past 50 years of America. This is like the new one. Do you know what I mean? Like this is the new one, and I think it hits so close to home because we do this ethically, You and I like actually do an ethical version of digital product sales. So then when we see people, when we see it seeping into this, it's frustrating because on two sides, one. Why am I not making the money I've been or, or making the money I want, or having the, the reviews and the testimonials and the clout that I want, but also too, now it makes me look like a scammer. Like now I could also [00:34:00] be in that category when I'm not, and how do I, I set myself apart and it's a hard thing to deal with.

Michelle Pualani: Yeah, and I think that's the biggest thing is this discussion of, okay, how do we set ourselves apart? So I follow a lot of creators, a lot of influencers, a lot of people in this space who are just so candidly themselves and you know, it's not. Ai. You know, I think we're still at a point where you can tell if it's someone that you've been following for a long time, right?

If it's a new person, a new face, like we might, it might be harder for us to distinguish and we are seeing a lot of like realistic versions of people. If again, it's like. A random UGC creator who's a paid ad showing up in your feed. It looks like a normal person, but it's probably it, not probably. It could be an AI avatar that was falsely created and not based off of a real review or real testimonial, because that's what I think [00:35:00] is absolutely.

An issue and I, again, I don't know how these platforms are getting away with this idea of fake UGC content creation from an FTC perspective, but I'm hoping that something comes down the chain and just cuts that off completely like it should. I, in my opinion, it shouldn't even be allowed because it is a fake testimonial, is is a completely.

Generated review of your product. That is not a real human being, not a real person. So we'll see what happens with it. But I think that I am just even more so gonna double down on the realness, on the showing up. On the, just being present. I know that people need to make money and they're gonna do it in the ways that make sense to them.

And if that's through ai, through these types of means. That's their prerogative. It is their deal, and you're totally right. There have always been scammers, there have always been unethical business practices. There have always been these, these things in place that you [00:36:00] just like. You wanna shake your fist stat and be like, but you can't really focus on them, right?

You have to focus on like, what are you here to do? What's your purpose? What are you bringing to the table? And that's why I think I'm just doubling down on all the things that make me, me, and using AI like less. Less using it as a tool and a system, right, to help with that process. But anything that's actually the creative or like content side of things.

I, especially for my personal brand, Michelle Pulani, I really just want that to come from me and even for, to be honest, like as our physical product business and e-commerce plus B2B side of our business is leaning into what is the humanness behind this brand? What is, what is the. Connection point. What is the relationship building?

How are we actually speaking human to human? This is. Something that you can feel. This is an emotion. This is the connection. This is a relationship piece, this is the [00:37:00] engagement piece, and just focusing more on those skill sets because I do not think that those skill sets are going to be replaced. I do think that people will tire of ai, I think as a new flashy thing, that people are really interested in it.

It's not going anywhere, like it's only getting bigger. I mean, there are. Oh, hundreds of billions of dollars being invested in AI right now. But I hope that we're going more towards the tactical route that opens up the time and space for humans to be humans and lean into human creativity and human ingenuity, and our ability to show up in the world and just be supported by ai, right as a tool.

Joanna Newton: If you're listening to this and you're thinking, how the heck will I keep up to date with this AI's changing? Is it good, is it bad? What's happening? Regulations, all of that. Michelle and I are here for you. We have started a substack where we will be sending updates to that substack [00:38:00] all of the time. I'm actually really, really enjoying getting to know the platform.

It's new for me. So as we go through this, I'll probably share updates about like how to navigate. Substack as well. I do not feel prepared yet to talk about that, join our substack. We will put the link to join us in the show notes. And one of the things that we can do on Substack is open up a group chat, so when we get enough subscribers there, that's something that I wanna be able to do to open up that chat and give you a place where you can ask questions, provide ideas for what we should talk about in the next episode, and just stay connected with us and what is going on on a regular basis in marketing.

Michelle Pualani: Yeah, and speaking of this whole discussion and where people are putting their time and energy, we're seeing so many big creators launch Substack, and I think that there's always going to be this interest in. Connection, this interest in realness, this interest in being not driven by. [00:39:00] Automations. And so I'm seeing things like, you know, LinkedIn, there's just a lot of bot replies and responses right now, and there's a lot of AI generated content.

And so after a certain point you feel like, well, what's the point? Like, what am I doing anymore? Just creating this mass produced content that is super generic and super, um, not as relevant to me or not. Relatable and I can't connect with it. And so there's a lot of people moving to Substack because it's a slightly more intimate place.

People can be more genuinely themselves with their voice, and they're not worried as much about the bot interactions and the ski bamming and all of the stuff that's happening and what we're seeing on other platforms as well as I think people are really tired and fatigued from, Hey, watch, Hey this, Hey, you know, like everything jumping out of the feed.

Yeah. 'cause it's, it's like, but people are getting so tuned out to it. It's, I saw someone marketing this idea in this [00:40:00] concept of like, oh yeah, if you just saw this bike, or if you just, um, you know, cut this thing, or if you just drop this light bulb, or if you just do these things, it's. It's a visual hook and it's gonna capture people's attention.

I was like, yeah, but what is that really leading to overall? And again, what are we creating as a culture that creates in the online space and the content that we have? And Joe Rogan, I sent this to Joanna recently. Joe Rogan is one of the most, actually, I mean. Probably the most successful podcaster of all time, and he does about three hours in terms of his podcast content.

He's been doing it since, I don't know, maybe it was like 2009. I might get that totally wrong, but he's been doing it for a long time. He doubled down on the length of the process and he has. Originally he has given the rights to Spotify. When he transitioned, they bought it for like $200 million, just the rights, and now it can actually be on other platforms.

But he is been able to monetize that thing just way beyond what any [00:41:00] podcaster has been able to see. And he does three hour long conversational, just inquiry, curiosity driven podcasts. And yes, clips are cut up and put onto other platforms. But one of my mentors in business always says, like, when everyone's jumping on a certain bandwagon and doing a certain thing, think about pivoting.

It's kind of that idea with stocks where it's like, well, when everyone's selling, you buy because the cost is super low and everyone's typically freaking out because it's like a, a mass movement towards one direction, but. With short form and everything that's coming out with it, yes, it's important. Yes, it's gonna continue to still drive marketing, but what are the other longer form content pieces that you can leverage in your business and that you're ready to kind of double down on?

How can you start showing up so that you build that presence, that community, that engagement, that following, who are invested in? You [00:42:00] and do what feels right for you. You know, like I think Joanna and I have talked a lot about this before, is. I just don't feel like doing that. Like I don't want that, I don't want to create in that way.

That doesn't feel right to me. And I think we need to pay attention to that, especially as women is be more intuitively guided and not just listening to, oh, this is dead. Do this instead, or this algorithm thing, or that, you know, like I'm, I'm ready to just kind of tune all of that crap out. Rely on marketing foundation principles and.

Share in a way that is unique to me and unique to what I feel like I want to bring to the world.

Joanna Newton: Yeah. And I think that uniqueness, community building is so important to, to do that. And we've talked, uh, recently. On this podcast about like unhinged marketing and like being unhinged and being wild and how that can really get attention. I recently experienced kind [00:43:00] of an interesting case study for us to talk about in an unexpected place. Michelle, have you ever played Roblox?

Michelle Pualani: Uh, I have no, I don't know what you just said. What is it?

Joanna Newton: So, so Roblox is, it's a, it's an app that you can download and there are. Thousands of games you can play on Roblox. Uh, I don't know the, the details of it, but basically like, like I could make a Roblox game and put a game on Roblox. It's a very open platform with, with lots of games. The company is worth just a shit ton of money.

Kids spend all of their money on accessories for their robots, avatars and gaming things and all of that. I, my daughter. She has actually, she's a Roblox YouTuber. She's 111 subscribers and makes Roblox edits. But um, she really likes playing Roblox and robots can be a slightly sketchy place 'cause there's like open chat and [00:44:00] like things going on.

So I decided that I was gonna play with her, um, and that way I could kind of guide her to the best games to play and be aware of what's going on and make sure, you know, she's not. Getting pedophiles following her and being with her, because that is like an actual risk there. But let's put that one aside for a second.

In ethics and cybersecurity for children, um, because I wanna talk about this game that we started playing just a few weeks ago that has like taken Roblox by storm and it's called Grow a Garden. It's a really simple like farming game. Like you get seeds, you plant your seeds, you sell your stuff, you make money.

Not real money, but like you make fake money in the game and then you can buy better stuff and there's rare items and pets. It's actually a very simple game, and it started gaining traction on. the on, on the internet and people talking about it and people playing it. it's recently [00:45:00] just like blown up. And the reason I believe that it has just blown up entirely is that they do new game updates Saturday at 10:00 AM and these updates. wild. And I know Michelle, you're thinking like, how could a farm game update be wild? But this is what we're talking about, unhinged marketing and community building. So when they do the updates, about an hour before the update is gonna happen, there is a developer in the game like putting te, they're not talking out loud, but they're talking to us. They're putting text on the screen. They're saying things. This developer's in is overseas, so he's in the middle of the night and his name is Jendell and he has a big ROBLOX avatar that like.

Comes on the sky, that's a shape of a monkey. And he talks to you and he like, makes rare events happens and he might gift you something. He'll put all the seeds [00:46:00] in stock in this. It's a wild experience because if you're in the game for that hour before the um, the update, you get special stuff, you get this crazy, they put, he becomes like a dj and there's a DJ booth and everybody's dancing in the middle.

It is like. It's like absolutely unhinged and absolutely wild. He talks about screaming 'cause he is so excited and waking up his wife and his wife getting mad at him. It's this like whole, like him as a developer is this like persona that is involved in the game and gets people to show up. So last Saturday morning, 10:00 AM Eastern time, there were 21 million people playing this game.

Michelle Pualani: Shut the front door. 21 million users Saturday morning, 10:00 AM. Eastern time.

Joanna Newton: the previous week it was 20 million. So. It's [00:47:00] because it's this fun, crazy community event, and I looked it up and there, it's not a public company, it's just a simple game. I, I don't actually can't verify this number, but it's estimated that grow a garden, which is something you have never heard of, your neighbors, has probably never heard of your husband, has never heard of Grow a Garden, makes about $5 million a month.

Michelle Pualani: Damn.

Joanna Newton: 21 million users logging in Saturday morning to experience the update, and it's this perfect example of surprising and delighting your customers being a little unhinged. Get everyone getting everyone all excited and together about an environment like 'cause because I play like if you have a really cool crazy fruit in your garden, your friends will be like, oh my gosh, what is that like? It's like this just fun little niche community experience that's a $5 million a month business. It's wild to [00:48:00] watch. And the even crazier thing is, so there's this other game we play called, uh, dress to Impress that had its like own little community and lore and stuff going on and, uh. Their usage has gone down as Grow Gardens has gone up. So I've watched them try to replicate update experience that Grow Garden is doing, and they're kind of failing and floundering and like not actually sticking to why people love them. And it's like just, it's really interesting to watch because, you know. You'd never think that in this like children's gaming world that there's branding and marketing and all of these things, but there are, and it's a real business.

And the ones who are like authentic and fun and delighting their customers and giving what them, what they want and making updates and doing fun things, they're the ones who are gonna win. Um, and it's, it's fun to watch. It's also fun to play. I kind of like really like these, [00:49:00] like I like the updates maybe even more, more than my daughter.

And we're like, oh my gosh. Gold burning bud and like, you know, have no idea what that is, but like the grow of garden community does.

Michelle Pualani: Yeah, that is clever. Clever. The whole gaming world honestly is totally outside my scope of awareness. I am not a gamer, never have been a gamer. Or, you know what it actually does make me remind me of though is like. I think it was Nintendo 64 type situation is like harvest moon. That was a super simple farming where you like woke up in the morning, you planted your seeds, you like, you took care of your animals, you mined for stuff.

I think that funnily enough, like those simple things are sometimes the most successful, and obviously again, the whole gaming world with the fighting games and zombies and et cetera. I'm not, I'm not a part of that world. I know that there's lots of money to be had there. I know that there's tons of people who love that kind of stuff.

It's just not, [00:50:00] not my sense of awareness, but I do think it's a great case study to learn from in leaning into what brings you joy, what lights you up, like obviously this developer loves. This loves it just loves being engaged in this way and this is his unique way that he's developed to be able to not just give updates, but be able to connect, to be able to surprise, to be able to do this game development piece because it's all gonna come through the game, right?

Like there is an interface, there's a way that it has to disseminate to you. And we get so stuck. I think sometimes in terms of, especially when I think of like the personal brand space, content creation and everything else, you're like, okay, I'm a content creator. That means I'm gonna monetize a platform.

I'm gonna do brand deals. I'm going to be an affiliate and direct people to links and things that I like, refer them to. But there are so many other ways that you can creatively think about monetizing your platform or just creating and [00:51:00] engaging in a different way. And I am. Totally guilty of just kind of sliding into, because I feel like I've taken so many courses, I've learned from so many people, I've helped people behind the scenes and then I've watched others and I feel like I haven't really innovated on my own terms of what I want my brand to look like.

And I think I'm in that place right now of like, okay, I've learned a lot. I've created a lot. It's kind of always been in the scope of like what people have done before with. Workshops challenges digital products of this nature. PDFs, guides like it kind of follows that. And it's not a bad thing. It's a good place to get started.

But now I'm in a place where I'm like, okay, what is the innovation of my brand? What is the innovative way that I'm gonna bring this to the table? How am I going to develop my community and connect with them in a way that's unique to me? And that's where I typically see like people take off. You know? I think people are always kind of constantly like waiting of like.

Well, when is it gonna be my turn? Or I've been putting in time and energy for this long, or I've been this [00:52:00] consistent. And I really do think that when you lean into like practices and principles, a foundation of marketing, a foundation of sales, foundation of that content creation piece, but you do it in the way that works for you and that brings you joy, that you actually love what it is that you're doing.

I feel like that's when things tend to take off.

Joanna Newton: Such a good point. I feel I love how you came from your rage, Michelle, like having a beautiful poetic ending that was inspiring

Michelle Pualani: You know, I feel a lot better today. Joanna, thank you so much. Because I know you put up with my antics sometimes, and sometimes I'm just like emotionally off the charts and just in my own world, but I think that, you know. I think that moving through the human emotions of what you're experiencing is so important, and when you can move and process the emotions and then get on [00:53:00] the other side and say like, okay, now what are we gonna do?

What, what did I take from this? How do we move forward from this? So as you're listening, one hit subscribe. Two, go to the show notes, check out the substack. Because what we do is it's not just like a, a repeat of what we talked about here. We're extracting larger takeaways and it's more of a like a bullet point, learning lessons, fashion that you can then take into your own business and into your own life.

So this is really just a conversational format for us to be able to address some of the major things and milestones and evolutions and changes or. Issues or anything that's kind of happening in the digital marketing and business space. But then we extract a lot of those like tangible, tactical items so that you can actually implement them in your business and apply them.

So join the Substack and get more content that way. And we'll see you in the next episode.