Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Mindful Bytes podcast. Today we're going to talk about AI facial recognition. Third day magic why you shouldn't be sleeping on Snapchat and Google's possible breakup, and I'm going to talk about a massive metric shift on Facebook and Instagram, plus an AI tool that takes notes during your calls. Let's go ahead and dive into today's episode, all right? So let's go ahead and introduce everybody.

Speaker 2: 0:27

Hello everyone. I'm Maggie Thorne, a vice president of philanthropy for AIM Institute and about to be an eight-time American Ninja Warrior, making my return for an eighth season on the hit reality show.

Speaker 3: 0:40

Oh my gosh, that makes me want to cry.

Speaker 4: 0:42

I don't know how we're going to follow that.

Speaker 3: 0:43

I know show oh my gosh, that makes me want to cry.

Speaker 4: 0:44

I don't know how we're going to follow that. I know, surprise, I'm Olivia and I'm a millennial on social media, more than the Kardashians.

Speaker 3: 0:50

Hey everybody, I am Shauna and I'm your electronically unimpressed Xenial.

Speaker 1: 1:01

I'm Ashton, your Gen Z tech fanatic, and I'm Brian, a Gen X entrepreneur focused on making tech work for us, not the other way around. Let's go ahead and start off with the back from vacation and talk about our special co-host today and all that fun stuff.

Speaker 3: 1:12

You're glowing bronzeness. Is that what we're going to start with?

Speaker 1: 1:14

Yes, yes, yes, go for it, go for it.

Speaker 2: 1:18

It's not a filter.

Speaker 1: 1:20

This is no filter.

Speaker 3: 1:23

Thanks a lot for making all the rest of us look white as heck. Thanks a lot, Brian.

Speaker 4: 1:27

Speak for yourself, Jonna. Speak for yourself.

Speaker 3: 1:30

Olivia, I'm so sorry to break it to you, but next to Brian you look white as heck. Well, we just got back from vacation.

Speaker 1: 1:39

So that's been. It was a great vacation, but yeah, I got a little too much sun and that's because of my son. I think we can blame it on him.

Speaker 2: 1:50

I see what you're saying.

Speaker 1: 1:53

My son Ashton here decided he wanted to go on a hike. I was like, yeah, I'll go on a hike with you. I had no idea it was going to be a five-mile hike on the beach at 111 degrees. It was like, yeah, there's a lot of sun. That happened and I was hoping that I wouldn't show up here if all my face is peeling off.

Speaker 2: 2:12

That's what makeup is for Makeup and media.

Speaker 1: 2:16

Okay, I don't really want to get on here and say I got makeup on today. That's the trick is?

Speaker 2: 2:21

you don't say it. I love it's on set and I look at them and I'm like your makeup is better than mine.

Speaker 1: 2:28

But it's true, like it's yeah, and I'm like, gosh, you're shadowing well, yeah, you know, like okay, but but if this is your american ninja warrior community, they could probably nobody's saying to him about wearing makeup. Me, on the other hand, I'm this tech guy that's coming on here and they're going to be like you're wearing makeup, like, oh, I'll be, like, yeah, the sassy millennial is going to have a blast at it. And then the tech guru yeah, I'm sure that they'll have loads of fun.

Speaker 3: 2:58

All of us really yeah over you.

Speaker 1: 3:00

Well, we're super excited to have our co-host, our special co-host, maggie Thorne, joining us today. Super excited, maggie. Why don't you go ahead and kick us off? Let's talk about. What do you want to talk about today?

Speaker 2: 3:12

I love watching emerging technologies. It's actually one of my passions. And to give you a little bit more in my nerdiness, as you're talking about what generation are you? And I said, oh, I might actually align with more of like the baby boomers, cause so many of my mentors were that, uh, there's this movie called there will be blood and it's about the industrial revolution and how that relates to technology to me is, in the movie they're like hey, this is coming and it's happening and it's actually what is leading our society. And like you keep up with it or you don't.

Speaker 2: 3:42

And even when I worked at Nebraska Athletic Department, building all of our major stadiums and arenas and having to have some sense of what it's like to have security and safety within a stadium Like I mean on a 90,000 capacity stadium, I love seeing this introduction, so to speak, of AI. I think it's a safety and security tool. I can sit back and be scared, but the reality is it's going to happen and it's coming and it's a revolution and you adapt or you don't as we go with these emerging technologies, like there will be blood, right, and so it's something that, as I'm looking at it, I remember the movie Eagle Eye and it's when they were able to take this concept and turn it into technology. And everybody's watching us and I'm like, and here we are, and we're just, we're living in it. It's one of those things, right, everything in the Simpsons came true and now here we are. So I'm so fascinated by it. I love the tools that it gives us, this kind of capability, and I would imagine, especially with a group of marketers in here, it's going to be able to give us some marketing statistics.

Speaker 2: 4:50

What are the emotions of a fan in this moment? Well, what product would relate to a fan then? And then doing a push, right, like that's the forward thinking that we need to think of, and so I'm really curious about those possibilities. But that's where ethics come in. How do we use it? Who monetizes it? Who controls it? Whoever sees it? And that is where it's a little nerve wracking right now.

Speaker 1: 5:15

Yeah, I definitely can see that there's a lot of concerns about that part of it for sure, about who's controlling it and what rules are there Right now. There's really not many rules to the AI side right now. I mean, we're just I think we talked about this during the last episode we're just now starting to get rules really for internet. What are some of the things that you're looking at right now with AI Maggie that you're seeing like this could be a really good thing, and what are some of the concerns you're thinking about that you're noticing as well?

Speaker 2: 5:44

The biggest thing I see with AI is optimization. It's going to help with HR, dei, obviously, like some project management tools, how we live and breathe in efficiency. Well, that's going to be a give and take. Right, it's probably going to push out some softwares, unify things and we're going to not have things so piecemealed. So give and take, but every business has had to adapt. That's like Blockbuster went out, netflix before it was Netflix and what it is now. So we've seen that.

Speaker 2: 6:14

So in that sense, like, well, we shouldn't be scared, we should be more entrepreneurial, right, brian? Like that's where entrepreneurship comes in and creativity and new opportunity. Like that is what we are built on, realistically, and would we want things to always stay the same? I'm not so sure. Well, that just means you also have to be adaptable, and I always heard that from one of my mentors, boyd Epley. He said the great ones adjust, and I saw him do that time and time again. But with that, that means if you're a risk taker, you have to be willing to fail. You might have to lose a little bit, and most entrepreneurs or investors they know that right, they're going to say, okay, out of this many investments, I'm actually only going to count on maybe two being profitable, but then they know all their margins within that.

Speaker 2: 6:59

So those are the pieces, I think, that are in it. I think it's really going to help us and truly like it will bring revolution and AI revolution, but I think it's going to bring a human touch revolution as well, and maybe the better language around that is like as people are able to make their own tracks and art and everything in music. I'm already seeing a shift where people want to see a real person, things in person, someone doing art, and so I think, in some ways, it's going to help the arts, it's going to help music, it's going to help our culture actually shift back to people, to people centered. Yeah, I could see that it's going to be both and, and so that's where I'm like why is this scary? Because right here in us, right, we have that search for authenticity and real, and so, in that sense, like many artists and I think most people on this group know like I'm kind of in the music community not a musician, not musical, but I'm already you said you're a.

Speaker 1: 8:04

I thought you said before you rap.

Speaker 2: 8:06

Once upon a time in 94. Okay, no wait, that might be Will Smith, All right. So I mean I really could. I might need Ashton to beat box for me. Um, but those people who maybe they were a producer and they're in studio, they're actually getting back out and on the road and live shows and that's going to start to burgeon again, but in actually better scale, I think, for the indie artists and the small artists, because small shows are also happening right now and they're also growing.

Speaker 2: 8:43

And you can see it are also happening right now and they're also growing, and you can see it like there's not this headlining tour unless you're Taylor Swift or some cultural icon that touches the boomer generation. Big tours aren't sustainable anymore. It's going back to the small, intimate settings and I think it's because of technology.

Speaker 3: 9:04

So, thank you, technology, you know, in terms of that, I didn't even realize that, that you know things were getting back to smaller shows, because it's definitely a different feel when you're at a small live show. It's so much more intimate, you have so much more of a connection with the artist and I didn't see that happening. So I'm glad you brought that up because that's fascinating.

Speaker 4: 9:27

Yeah, I think you know, maggie, what you're saying is spot on and it kind of like AI helps to kind of make people level up. It gives people that maybe have not had the opportunity, like artists and things like that when you had to have someone take a meeting so your music could get listened to, which social media kind of changed that. But when it levels out the playing field for people, you have to go up a notch in order to get noticed and with AI, it's helping you do like I don't want to say menial, but like you can do things quicker so you can focus on more important things. So, yeah, I definitely think it is going to revolutionize things and going along with all the businesses that you mentioned, kodak actually did not decide to innovate when digital cameras came out and they went out of business. So that is opposite of what you were saying. You know where some businesses shifted. They didn't and this is and they didn't make it.

Speaker 2: 10:50

So yeah, and Amtrak was one of those as well. Their whole slogan once upon a time was we keep people moving, and if they had actually immersed themselves in the airline industry, we could have had Amtrak Airlines and we don't, right, yeah.

Speaker 3: 11:05

Yeah, that's good.

Speaker 1: 11:06

You talked about people being scared. I think that's the question we need to really ask ourselves too. If you're scared, ask yourself, talk about why are you scared? It's such a good question to say, well, why is this scaring you? Because I think a lot of it comes down to the unknown. We have thoughts of what this could look like, but it's really an unknown. But the people that are scared of not doing anything, like you said, just like the other companies, they're going to be left behind.

Speaker 1: 11:30

Now I recently just talked to someone the other day about they noticed there's more people stepping into their industry and they're like we need to figure out how we can keep moving forward. So you know they're wanting to work with us to help teach them. How can they? How can they implement AI into their business, like to help with people, to help with processes and stuff. But even that conversation I said, well, hey, let's meet first before we start going into this. I mean we could jump in and start selling you coaching and start going down a whole path. But I need to understand first off and start selling you coaching and start going down a whole path.

Speaker 1: 12:06

But I need to understand first off. Why now are you thinking I need to invest and learn more about AI. Let's start there, because I knew there's something that's causing that to flare up in this person to say, hey, I need help now, and it's because of all the competition coming in, so they want to stay ahead. And I said, well, we can go through and teach you all these things, but one of the things that you need to ask yourself, even as a CEO of a company, is we can show you the tools, but you still need to ask yourself do you have time to utilize these tools? Because you know, not all don't think of AI as a tool is to take away everybody's work, because now you can just use AI to do it all. There's more to it than that. So let's make sure we use AI in ways that can help you do what you're doing more efficiently, to streamline some things, but then also still not be afraid. It's not a replacement for people. It's going to replace some jobs. It's going to change them.

Speaker 2: 12:57

As is, everything is time.

Speaker 1: 12:58

Everything is yes, exactly. So it's like let's make sure that you, in the position that you're in, can focus more on the things that really need to be you doing that, doing those things, because nobody can replace you in that area. And I love what you're saying about connection. I think that's what we are seeing Like we we know a smaller group is becoming more like that's more effective. You know, reaching a crowd of people isn't as effective as reaching a smaller group that's engaged, so it's like this opens up doors for us to really lean into that human side. It's like going forward but stepping backwards at the same time. Very interesting, very interesting.

Speaker 2: 13:37

Well, and technology itself has brought it to the forefront. I mean, the term AI was coined in like 1952 and I was just going to a separate screen to like fact check myself. I was like I don't want to say something wrong, but 1952. So now you're saying, oh, people are just now and we're talking about it like we just learned about AI in the last couple of years, but like it's actually been around for somebody to do the math for me Long time. There we go. That tells my age. I need a TI-83. So it's been over 50 years for it to catch up and just become modern mainstream.

Speaker 2: 14:12

So, whatever emerging technologies there are and this is where, again, immersing yourself as entrepreneurship, if you're just getting a hold on AI, I would ask myself what is emerging now? Because then I would actually want to get in the forefront of that, because it probably has a light. This would be for you, ashton, you Olivia, that would have a lifespan within your scope of your life. And so what are those things and what does that do? Because ultimately, we might just be learning about it, but that's because of technology. Or social media is all of a sudden, oh yeah, we use AI for face filters. Well, now, because it's something we understand on a simple level, that, like I, can open my phone and use a filter, and that's because of AI, like it becomes more relatable to us, and then it's something we want to engage with when we begin to demystify it. Now we understand it. Well, maybe it's not that bad and you know, I can make cool artwork of myself but there's always going to be the give and take.

Speaker 1: 15:13

Yeah, this is a AI filter called Florida sun. Florida. Too much Florida sun.

Speaker 2: 15:17

This is called Nebraska, and not enough sun.

Speaker 1: 15:24

Oh, that's great. All right, let's go ahead and transition over to Shauna. Shauna, what do you have for us today?

Speaker 3: 15:29

Okay, I want everyone to take a deep breath. Take a deep breath with me. I said that because I've talked in the past about taking a break from technology, getting out in nature, you know, allowing yourself to breathe and reflect and think, and it caused Olivia a lot of anxiety. So I don't want to cause you any anxiety, olivia. But this is taking it to another level. Okay, third day magic refers to the three day effect, which is a study that was done in 2012.

Speaker 3: 16:01

Um, a guy who was like a river rafting uh instructor. He would take groups of people out for a whole week out onto the river. They would raft and then camp, and then raft and camp, raft and camp no electronics allowed. So he started to notice that after people had been in nature and disconnected from not only electronics but also their normal schedule, their daily schedule, once they were there for three days, he started to notice just a complete shift in everything in their personality not their personality, but like their attitude, the way they were looking at things, the way they were absorbing things, the way they were even interacting with people around them. So he went to a researcher and asked for the researcher to come along with them to see this and the researcher brought a bunch of like bio, you know, recording devices where they could record their brain waves and their blood pressure and their stress levels, like all kinds of things. He wanted to know everything that was happening with them physically and the results were unbelievable because not only were there, you know, their blood pressure was down there, their problem solving was increased by 50%. They have this test that they do and they did it every day to see, like you know, what the change was, what was happening. But they were basically testing their creative thinking and their problem solving by doing this test and after the third day, everyone across the board was at least 50% increased of their problem solving.

Speaker 3: 17:40

And I started thinking about it and I thought, you know, when Ashton was young, we could recognize if he had been playing video games for too long. You know he would get an attitude or whatever. We would say he needs to detox from his video games. So we would take him off his video games for a week or whatever. Give them a chance to, like you know, just detox from it. And I started thinking about that and I thought, you know, if we're not giving our ourself the chance to disconnect a little bit from electronics, from social media, from whatever you know. You're addicted to Brian's, addicted to his email. Um, if you're not.

Speaker 1: 18:18

I'm going to let everybody share what they feel like they should detox from. I don't need you pointing out what that is what you need to, though.

Speaker 3: 18:24

I just thought you needed to use that attention to email. I could too. Oh my gosh, I go so long without checking my email. Everyone's like where are you?

Speaker 4: 18:38

I think Brian's addicted to the sun, not emails.

Speaker 2: 18:44

No wait, the sun or the sun.

Speaker 3: 18:56

Yeah, there you go. Possibility in your life like, let's say, once or twice a year, to go completely electronic free for three days, do you see it as a possibility? Absolutely I do. That's amazing. No one else is answering.

Speaker 4: 19:15

I'm thinking, I'm thinking.

Speaker 1: 19:17

You remember, shauna I think it was last year was the first time that I said you know what? I've got a lot of stuff going on. I need to. I just really feel like I need to go away and you're like, I support you and I went away for the whole weekend, stayed at Airbnb no electronics, no TV, no nothing except for a pen, pad and a journal, and went out and prayed and walked around a lake and listened and just absorbed the things going on and processing that and that was such a huge relief. And I said next year I want to do that for three days and then bring you in, have you do it for three days too, but then us both come together at the end of that week to see what we both are kind of absorbing and learning from that Cause it.

Speaker 1: 20:02

I think it's a huge thing that we should definitely strive to do Uh.

Speaker 4: 20:07

I mean I think I could do it, but I feel I feel like then it would just be. I mean I would go I I enjoy going on walks and things like that Um but then I would just fill it with reading a bunch of books. So I don't know if that's better, because I'm still feeling filling my time with something else.

Speaker 3: 20:30

So yeah, I think it still would be really valuable because I mean you learn so much from books too. I think it still would be really valuable because I mean you learn so much from books too. You know even fiction. I mean I'm a big proponent of reading fiction and a lot of people don't like to do it because they feel like they're wasting their time not learning. But you learn so much just from good writing in general.

Speaker 4: 20:49

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 20:49

But yeah, I think that would still be valuable, olivia.

Speaker 4: 20:52

Then yes, I could do it If someone paid me a million dollars but.

Speaker 1: 20:59

But are you walking? But when you walk, are you leaving your phone behind or turning it off?

Speaker 4: 21:05

oh, I'm listening to music on Spotify.

Speaker 3: 21:07

I was going to say that was a guilty.

Speaker 1: 21:09

Look, you just had right there, yeah is the notifications on or the notifications off?

Speaker 4: 21:15

I mean I don't like text or anything while I go on my walk and I go on three a day like short ones, so I make sure I'm not sitting all day, yeah, and I just, yeah, I'll listen to music or a podcast or something, so yeah, yeah, Okay.

Speaker 1: 21:33

Well, let's switch it over to the tech guru Ashton. What are?

Speaker 5: 21:35

your thoughts. I mean, I pretty much do it already Every year when I go up to Tennessee. There's no cell service up there, so I think that's pretty close.

Speaker 3: 21:48

That is. But let me just ask one question, because I know what happens when you go to Tennessee.

Speaker 1: 21:54

So for those who don't know, he's helping those listeners that don't really know.

Speaker 3: 21:59

He's being a counselor for a youth camp and he barely gets any sleep, so I'm not sure if that can count for you, ash, because I don't think you have any reflection time whatsoever, does that not count? I'm just saying like you're serving during that time. So I wouldn't say it's like necessarily a time for you to like, think and relax. Just a thought. I'm just throwing that out there.

Speaker 1: 22:21

So, megan, what about you? What are your thoughts on that? Is there? You see that this could be useful, or would you even consider this, or do you do it? Have you done this before?

Speaker 2: 22:30

I hadn't considered it until I was kind of forced to not kind of I was cause I had a brain injury and so I actually, by doctor's orders, could not be on technology because my eye function couldn't handle the scroll of a screen. I couldn't scroll on a computer and at that time, honestly, like I actually did a lot of work online for clients and I had to leave all my clients, so I was forced to sit still I couldn't look at a TV, and so to me it actually ended up being a big gift, because up until that point I didn't know how to sit. Still I didn't know how to put on my phone, and I'll just even say recently I bought an Apple watch this year and I was all about it until I was wearing it and someone was like that is incredibly annoying, but I had gotten so used to like the buzz because I'd be like oh, and I wasn't noticing it. And then when they actually said that's intrusive and I was like, oh well, I took it off like a couple of days later because I had to ask myself was it being intrusive even when I was trying to have moments with people and friends and that buzz on my wrist and constantly looking, and so, just by way of default, I've created the habit to detach from technology and it's so beneficial, so useful and integrating it.

Speaker 2: 23:50

And I am one of the people who, like I, don't like fiction. I love documentaries and learning and nonfiction and self-improvement. I literally actually have I'm not even kidding a stack of books right here next to me and I have another stack upstairs, so it's so beneficial, more than I can ever say, and what I typically find is that people who are very go-getter, entrepreneurial, don't know how to do it.

Speaker 2: 24:15

And you have to train yourself to do it, because the first time I had to sit, still, I literally screamed and it was so loud that I was like my neighbors are going to think I'm getting murdered, and so it was something that I hadn't taught myself to do. And we're not necessarily taught that, right? Because even with kids we're like, okay, you're in three sports and you're in this activity, and then I'm in here and this like it's constant chaos. Yeah, and so with my kids I have a rule. I'm like one sport at a time. We'll all agree if you're doing an after-school club and if we need to take a season off from sports, it's not the end of the world, and so it's kind of the way I do everything now. So I'm all on board with this Shauna. I think it's great.

Speaker 1: 24:59

That's good, I like that, and I think that the generations play a role in that too, because I know, as a Gen X, I think that's kind of like the mentality. But you got to keep going, got to get this done hustle, hustle, hustle. And I think that was a big struggle for me. I know Olivia Shauna all you knew a couple years ago, when I started doing reflection time on Fridays, that was the hardest step. It took me six months to actually commit to it. But then, when I did, I started really reaping the benefits from saying, hey, I'm unplugging, disconnecting, so I can think about things and process things. And the gentleman that I was talking to yesterday actually even said he's like you know, brian.

Speaker 1: 25:40

There's gentleman that I was talking to yesterday actually even said he's like you know, brian, there's something that I saw posted on social media that made me think of you. And he said it's something that he's learning as a entrepreneur is. He said someone wrote thinking is working. He's like I always feel like if I'm just sitting there thinking there's other things I should be doing that will actually be more efficient out of my time. But ultimately he learned actually hitting pause and taking that time to process and think is actually more rewarding than just doing random things, just to be doing those things.

Speaker 2: 26:07

I just did a post on thinking yesterday. Not even kidding, oh my gosh.

Speaker 3: 26:11

Wow, what platform is that post on so we can go see it Instagram?

Speaker 2: 26:17

and Facebook Okay.

Speaker 1: 26:19

Gotcha, we'll have to check that out. Awesome, all right. So let's go ahead and transition over to Olivia. Olivia, what you got for us.

Speaker 4: 26:25

Snapchat recently came out with a subscription program and it has reached 11 million paying subscribers. And it has reached 11 million paying subscribers. So it has blown Meta's subscription and X's subscription out of the water, which is why I wanted to bring it up, because people businesses don't really talk a lot about Snapchat. But I call it the sleeper social media platform because Meta has never been able to come after it like it has with all the other platforms, and it really has a lot of opportunity for businesses. Right now, 35 million businesses are using it and the big target of Snapchat is ages 14 to 34. So I think you know, as people continue to age, snapchat is just going to continue to gain in popularity, cause we've kind of seen how Facebook has kind of their growth is not what it used to be and Snapchat has continually and consistently grown every single year. So yeah, but can I ask a?

Speaker 5: 27:56

question yeah, what's the subscription for? Is it just like meta's checkmark, or is there like actual benefits to it?

Speaker 4: 28:02

I'm glad that you asked that, Ashton, um, because I was going to talk about it. So the difference between the Snapchat plus subscription and like meta and X's is basically you are paying to get verified on meta or X or whatever. So again, and Maggie talked about authenticity that is so much of what people are looking for. So the fact that you could just pay to get a blue check next to your name, A lot of people saw that as inauthentic for businesses and were kind of turned off by it. But with Snapchat Plus, this actually creates more options for people. That gives them a better user experience. So there's a difference there between having a better user experience versus just paying to. I'll just say look cooler and verified right, and Snapchat actually talked to their Snapchat users to see what kind of things that they would like. So they offer you the ability to like, change your backgrounds and things, different bitmojis, different things like that. But I think, again, the key is that they actually ask their users. What can we do for you to make this a better experience?

Speaker 2: 29:37

I have a theory.

Speaker 4: 29:39

Maggie yes.

Speaker 2: 29:41

Kids, whether or not we realize it, are desperate for a connection, and one of the things you can do with Snapchat Plus is you can restore any streak you've lost.

Speaker 4: 29:52

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 29:53

And streaks are huge. Everything To the point that my own 17 year we have like a 700 day streak for Snapchat which is like my 17 year old son. I'm like you do, love me. He told me I found out from him our streak was so important to him. He paid to restore it like out of his own money one time and I was like did that for me.

Speaker 4: 30:18

I know.

Speaker 1: 30:18

Explain to me what is a streak.

Speaker 4: 30:20

A huge. It's basically the. You send each other something like every day or whatever it may be, so you have a streak going on which, yeah, they're very important. Like my niece and nephew, we have some intense streaks going on as well, so, um.

Speaker 5: 30:41

I didn't even know that was a thing until recently. One of my friends was talking about it and I was like why are you talking about? And they were showing me. I'm like dang, I've never seen it. There's no platform that really does that. And if you ever want to, anxiety in a child.

Speaker 2: 30:55

Watch them see. They put a little timer next to it like a sand timer and it tells you you're about to lose this. And kids will freak out and start actually texting and saying streak, you're about to lose the street, you have to send this to me.

Speaker 1: 31:12

And they like panic, yeah, like this is also, so this app brings anxiety and panic, like panic, yeah.

Speaker 3: 31:18

So this app brings anxiety and panic Revenue.

Speaker 4: 31:21

I have a question for you, maggie, with your kids, like, if I want to talk to my niece and nephew, I don't even text them, we just snap. Like we use snap as texting. Is that how it is with your kids, or do they actually text as well?

Speaker 2: 31:42

So my kids are different. I use Snapchat for, like the people that I'm closest to, because of just what I do in business and everything else, I get flooded with text messages, like my phone number is on the internet, whatever that ship has sailed. And so, like I get messages on Instagram, I get messages on Facebook. So my narrow, like my people, are on Snap. So with my kids, our streak is important. But if we're going to do anything else, we actually text each other, and that's because we have family chats in there. And so my youngest she is not my kids can't. My kids can't have Snapchat till they're 16. Longest, she is not. My kids can't. My kids can't have Snapchat till they're 16. Now my middle daughter broke that rule and created a secret account, which I found out about later anyways and then I was like fine, if you're not going to delete it, just add me.

Speaker 1: 32:29

I do want to ask you, olivia. First off, I would love for you to share what is a business like? What business should we look at? That's doing snaps right, doing a Snapchat right. And then also, I want to ask you, like are people getting tired of all these businesses coming into all these platforms that are built for connection? Because, like, that seems like where it starts going really, it starts losing its ground too. Like Facebook and Instagram people talk about, they're just tired of seeing constant ads. Even now in their reels, when they're scrolling on Instagram, there are just so many ads like business comes in. Is that what's really killing it too? Do we need to get on all these things as a business, or what's your thoughts?

Speaker 4: 33:05

I mean, I think, with the way Snapchat is set up, it's a lot different than, like you know, like meta has a fee. All of them have feeds, except Snapchat doesn't necessarily. It has like an explore page. That's kind of like TikTok, but it's not something that you even have to see if you don't want to, if that makes sense, but like a business that or businesses that do really well on Snapchat that I see are a lot of sports teams and artists and things like that. So, like WWE wrestling, they do a lot of Snapchat stuff Like you can basically create like little trailers or clips or whatever, but the thing about it is they are messaging you like you're not fighting an algorithm to get people to see the content.

Speaker 4: 34:03

They're like, hey, you might be interested in this or whatever. You're getting that message, so you don't have to click on it if you don't want to. If that makes sense. I just think the setup is different as opposed to like. I just want to scroll on my feed, but all these ads are popping up, type thing.

Speaker 1: 34:24

I think that's very interesting. I'm going to look at the Snapchat again. I got one more question for you. Last time I downloaded Snapchat, I was in Ohio at Christmas time and I tried to send some of my nieces some friend invites and they never accepted it. So what's with that?

Speaker 4: 34:38

Yeah, uh, that is a personal problem, not a snapchat problem. Um, they're probably like he's too old, yeah, but yeah, you're exactly right, and the only reason why I keep bringing up snapchat is again because of the huge age that's on it and, as they, you know, become consumers and all that are, you know, like the 14 year olds have jobs and different things like that, and they're used to Snapchat.

Speaker 4: 35:12

That's why I wanted to bring it up and because of its consistency it's consistent growth and you don't hear about it. I feel like it stays out of the social media drama, like as opposed to, like meta x, tiktok, like snapchat, just like putting its little fingers together in the corner like you guys go do that, we'll do our thing over here so.

Speaker 1: 35:38

So there's not really a business to look at because, like you're saying, there's not really a feed, which is very interesting because, well, there's, there's like an explore page and they would come up in, like your story like okay, gotcha so basically stories and filters and all that that came from snapchat.

Speaker 4: 35:57

So instagram also, which I don't know. If you've noticed I just saw it this week my messages on Instagram now has vanish mode, which again that's stealing from Snapchat.

Speaker 1: 36:10

I even know that.

Speaker 4: 36:11

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 36:12

Yeah, there's nothing new. If it's new on meta or Instagram, it's probably been copied from somebody else.

Speaker 4: 36:17

Yeah.

Speaker 5: 36:19

We all kind of realize that yeah.

Speaker 1: 36:21

Well, I think that you know. It kind of even goes back to what Maggie talked about at the beginning. You know we're talking about on these platforms it's that personal connection which is really going to help people, these brands, stand out more, not about what you're doing on the public side, but what are you doing on the private side, like those personal messages and that communication happening behind scenes actually has a more effect than what you're just posting on the main feed. It's taking that extra step to build that connection, that relationship. I think that's what's going to help us all stand out. All right, so let's transition over to Ashton. Ashton, what do you got from us about Google here?

Speaker 5: 36:56

Google is stuck in court right now with the Department of Justice. They have been now called a monopoly and it's basically because they've been paying off all these huge tech companies to keep google the search engine the most like the most popular one. They've paid billions to apple so that apple would not develop a search engine. They only have Safari, which is not a search engine but it uses Google. They've paid off Firefox, they've paid off pretty much every major company and they're getting accused of a lot of antitrust stuff. It is supposed to stop monopoly situations like this. And it's pretty big because if this stuff succeeds, google will be separated, like they'll be forced to sell off huge parts of Google. The company will be split up under different CEOs and it would be pretty huge.

Speaker 1: 38:06

Like, split up how? Like? What are some of the things they're saying about? How would they? Are they considering?

Speaker 5: 38:11

splitting up. Chrome would be separated, pixel would be separated, so their phones would no longer be the same thing. Android would no longer be a part of the company. It would be major. It's the biggest antitrust act since 98, when it was with Microsoft. I believe they did it to Microsoft and then before that was like another 20 years, I think it was 82 or 83. I don't remember which company that was.

Speaker 3: 38:45

It's pretty big. So, ashton, so are you saying that, like Firefox, um Safari, chrome, things like that, those are browsers, right?

Speaker 5: 38:56

Yes.

Speaker 3: 38:56

You're saying every browser doesn't have their own search history. I mean not search history um search engine. So some of those browsers. Just go to google anyway, even if you think you're not using google really yep, it just changes what your buttons look like.

Speaker 1: 39:11

That's pretty much it, you know, still use the same engine I actually read something about what you're talking about from duck duck go. I think that is the browser duck duck go uh, yeah, so has. Does anybody here use duck duck go anybody? No, okay, oh no Okay, oh, ashton, does. I'm used to it a little bit. I saw that DuckDuckGo was actually bringing up suggestions because those applications default to the Google search engine, which is what some of the things that I think you're talking about that are being paid for. So they're suggesting like little things like where people can choose or change their default search engine on their browser, just like we can change our default browser on our phones, but we can't choose what search engine. So that's very interesting. It's gonna be interesting to follow that to see where that goes, for sure.

Speaker 5: 39:59

So keep us posted. It's going to be a. It's going to be a long process because Google just filed an appeal and so we're looking at a long time. But Google has a 91% share of the search engine world Wow, the next biggest one is Bing at 3.8%.

Speaker 4: 40:19

Oh my gosh, that's the next biggest yeah.

Speaker 1: 40:23

Well, I think that's the thing too. Oh, my gosh, that's the next biggest yeah, yeah. Well, I think that's the thing too is like it's going to be more than just forcing these apps to change, because it's going to have to be teaching the people, the users, that there's a different option, because when every gosh it's like before again here's my Gen X thing. It used to be when I was little. It was like if you don't know it, go look it up in an encyclopedia. That is not a saying anymore Now, it's always been just go Google it. So I mean, look Olivia's like what's an encyclopedia? I don't even know what that is.

Speaker 4: 40:51

No, we have encyclopedias, but it's just funny hearing you say that those are booster seats yeah.

Speaker 5: 41:00

And the investigations are ongoing. They found out there was a study within google. They were trying to find out how bad they could make their product before they lose revenue, which is like it's not a good thing for a company to ever look at, but that's something.

Speaker 2: 41:15

There's more companies that do that than not. Like on the small scope of thing, I saw one of my my favorite makeups reduce the size of their sponge and I would imagine that saved X amount of percentage. So how small can they go before someone stops buying their product? Like I don't think that's unique to Google. That's probably good value engineering quite honestly.

Speaker 1: 41:37

Well, we even talked about what are the kind bars, babe, that we get. I'm like how much smaller have these things gotten? Like we're paying the same price and they're way thinner and shorter and I was like, but we're paying probably more than what we originally were paying.

Speaker 2: 41:52

And water bottle caps.

Speaker 3: 41:54

Even the bottles themselves, they're so thin.

Speaker 1: 42:05

One of the things that I wanted to bring to the attention to everybody today that's tuning in is that massive metrics shift for Facebook and Instagram. So I'm going to read this. Actually, instagram posted this Olivia, you may have seen this and I know Shauna, with some of the clients we've worked with, it's been a big deal for the past, since 2019, that we've been teaching people. You look at these videos and you see I've got this many views and people are so excited. They got like 14,000 views. I'm like, well, wait a minute. You really got to dig into the stats to really see are those quality views? What's the actual quality views that you're getting, which? They had a play metric that you could go into and find. So, like some of the people that had 14,000 views were very disappointed to realize that only 600 people were actually clicking play. But it's like, but that's still not bad if you consider that. But it's like bringing that stat to reality because the views is a feel good number, so you would dig in to look at those views. I mean, look at the plays, not the views. Now, here's the reason why we always coached about this was because a view is like a second If you're scrolling, especially on reels and stuff as you're scrolling through, that's a view. If that video is playing, that's a view, and that's where the number gets really skewed, especially when you're paying for advertisement or anything like that. You got to be aware of that because you're spending time and money chasing those views, but those views aren't really a good quality number. And Instagram they posted this. They posted this as in the coming weeks, and I love how they put it out there to make it sound like they're doing this to help us out.

Speaker 1: 43:37

We're introducing views as a primary metric across all organic and boosted media formats, which includes reels, live videos, photos, carousels and stories. Views will measure the number of times a reel started. Basically I'm not going to read it all they're getting rid of plays, it says. For reels, the plays metric will be relabeled as views. Everything is going to be compiled into views. So I think it's important for people to be aware of that, because reels like those are forced plays. Those aren't people choosing I want to watch this video and they're staying for 25% of your video, so just be aware of that. I don't like that because, again, it's not a good metric to just look at the views and now you can't see the place because it's all just compiled together. So I don't know. I don't like it because it's just. I want to get quality views, not just a quick view.

Speaker 5: 44:33

What's your thought? It's kind of like hiding the real information.

Speaker 1: 44:37

Yeah, it looks like they're kind of covering their trail so uh, so yeah, that's one of the things that that I wanted to bring to everybody's attention. That is happening. Uh, the other thing, though, that I really excited to talk about and I know I'm kind of bringing in a gadget that I'm not the usually the tech guru guy brings this stuff in, but I don't know if any of you ever heard of this thing right here called the plot note. Has anybody heard of this before?

Speaker 3: 45:00

I've heard of it.

Speaker 1: 45:01

Okay, you've heard of it, so for I've heard of it. Okay, you've heard of it, so I know you've heard of it, shauna, it's like as thin as like a credit card. I mean, this thing is crazy thin. What's cool is it comes with a little case too. But what this thing does is, even with my case on my phone, I can slap this on the back of my phone and I flip this little button up and then I press this little button that makes it vibrate and it turns red, like a little red light comes on. But it records. Get this.

Speaker 1: 45:26

It records any phone call I make without plugging in. It uses an internal mic that's in the phone from the vibrations and it picks up both voices. Records the audio, takes notes, uses AI, transfers it into notes. Using AI. You can choose different templates, like hey, was this a meeting? Was this a discussion call? Was this a discovery call? It transcribes that and labels each person talking and you can download the audio and get all this transcript and everything. What are your guys? And I got to show you something else that does, because this is going to blow your guys' mind. I got to show you this.

Speaker 3: 46:02

It's so smart.

Speaker 1: 46:04

Yes, going to blow your guys' mind. I got to show you this. It's so smart. Yes, yeah, totally.

Speaker 1: 46:06

I've been looking at this for about two years now, but I never have actually went through and purchased it until we have a new client that just prefers to have they prefer to have phone calls, not Zoom meetings, which we use AI to take all of our notes on Zoom. We don't use a Zoom AI Sorry, zoom, not a big fan of your AI. We use another service called I think it's called Tactic or something like that, but it does an amazing job, does all the notes. But when this person prefers to do phone calls, I'm like I need those notes. So I ended up purchasing it. Testing it out Works amazing. The audio quality itself I'm like, eh, I'm not really going to make a podcast out of it, that's for sure, but for what I need it for, for taking notes is amazing. But this right here is something that really blew my mind. It actually you can even choose a mind map process. So this is a phone call that I had with a cell phone company that sold me a phone that didn't go well, so it went through and it did a whole mind map of the time of the call, the conversation.

Speaker 1: 46:59

What issue did Brian face on the phone upgrade? It brings us in. Look here. It says reasons. I can click this. It opens up and gives all the reasons. Here's them talking. How did this person respond to Brian's issue? The conclusion it brings it all. It breaks it all into the reasonings, the conclusions, but this is all done from a little recorder that attaches to my phone, doesn't even plug in and AI is driving all that. Just, I don't know. I don't know if you guys, if you guys hadn't seen it, what are your guys' thoughts on that?

Speaker 3: 47:29

It's amazing. It's so helpful. I can just imagine like all the ways you can use that. You know, even if you have like a brainstorming phone call about things and it's going to break it down for you into subjects, topics, ideas, what to come back to, I just think it's amazing.

Speaker 2: 47:44

My first thought was I'm going to lose it.

Speaker 1: 47:49

Totally get it.

Speaker 2: 47:50

I barely keep track of my phone. How am I supposed to not lose that thing?

Speaker 1: 47:55

Well, and this thing it does have a magnetic thing too, so it sticks really well. But it does 30 hours of recording. But you can stick it in your pocket too and just use a different recording setting. If you're just like at a conference, you can stick this in your pocket and record it and it takes all the recordings from the conference and it puts it all in notes for you. So you don't have to sit there and do all the notes.

Speaker 2: 48:16

Brian, have you ever?

Speaker 1: 48:23

seen girls pockets Well, michael Scott I michael scott's girl suit, like the girl suit that michael scott was wearing there's no pants, there's no pockets is that gonna be in here?

Speaker 1: 48:34

let's just be real, these are not bad points I actually used it today because there was somebody I met, I guess three weeks ago, just at. We had a dinner meeting where I was giving him some ideas, brainstorming, and he said, hey, would you mind sending me that notes? And I'm like you know, I will put that in notes for you later. Well, today I thought, man, I'm just, I got so much stuff to get off my plate and I was like I have the notes but the conversations in my head. So I just sat this thing down, hit record and I just said, just walked through and talked about everything we talked about it, recorded all and then uploaded it, took all the notes for me and I sent it over to them. So I'm like that's great.

Speaker 1: 49:08

So, yeah, I don't know Again, ai, great tool at these services, like this man, how can we use it to streamline and make our life easier? Well, hey, maggie, thanks for joining us today for the Mindful Bytes episode. We're super excited that. You know she's going to drop in time to time when she has free, when she's not doing her American Ninja stuff and doing backflips and all that stuff. I just sit on the couch all day. So I'll be here every week usually, unless I get too sunburned, and yeah have to go to the doctor.

Speaker 1: 49:38

So yes, you're welcome. Hey everybody, thanks for tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to click, follow and leave us a review, and we'll catch you next time.