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Hello...Hello! 👋🏻

I'm an AI realist. But I'm worried.

Teaching four classes connects me with marketers from companies of all sizes—from small businesses to global enterprises.

But what is clear is that some of them are heading in the wrong direction.

Heavy cost-cutting, 60% zero clicks from Google, and expectations of doing more with less. I get it.

The waters are getting choppy in marketing land.

But here's the uncomfortable truth: AI Alone Won't Save You.

I've watched this conversation with Jony Ive twice already.

"Are you using AI to surprise and delight your customers? Or to just reduce your costs?”

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Achieve More With Limited Resources: 15 Small Budget Success Stories

Strategic marketing doesn't require enterprise-level spending. Our latest case studies reveal how 15 small brands achieved remarkable outcomes through creativity and smart resource allocation.

  • Innovative tactics that delivered exceptional ROI with minimal investment

  • Strategic approaches that helped small teams compete against industry giants

  • Data-driven techniques for maximizing impact when resources are limited

Looking for ways to stretch your marketing budget further? These 15 mini case studies show exactly how these small brands made such big waves without breaking the bank.

Get the case studies for free here.

The Data Doesn't Lie: Humans + AI > JUST AI 🤝

AI by itself actually underperforms humans + AI working together. It's not even close.

Remember that MIT study? Workers using ChatGPT took 40% less time to complete tasks, and their output quality was 18% better. But they were still in the driver's seat.

Even more telling: that same research found the performance boost was 43% for lower-skilled workers compared to just 17% for highly skilled workers.

Plus the hallucinate rate of o3 is horrible.

This is why I keep hammering home the "AND equation"...

Human + AI

Just AI

✅ Data Accuracy

❌ LLMs hallucinate aka Lie

✅ Creativity

❌ It's Tech. In the Cloud. It Fails

✅ Better Creative

❌ Over Reliance on Automation

✅ Compliance & Ethics

❌ AI is Siloed

✅ Recognize Edge cases

❌ AI can be out of date

Let's get real about where AI falls flat and humans ✨shine.✨

5️⃣ Discover The 5 Marketing Areas Where AI Simply CANNOT Beat Humans…

See For FREE + Prompts

The Human-AI Balance: My Tested Framework ✔️

After testing AI across dozens of companies, I've found the decision matrix below works best for determining where humans and AI should play:

Task Type

Business Risk

Time Savings

Optimal Approach

High-stakes, public-facing

High

Medium

Human creates, AI enhances

Repetitive, low visibility

Low

High

AI creates, human reviews

Creative conceptual work

Medium

Low

Human leads, AI assists

Data analysis & reporting

Low

High

AI leads, human interprets

Crisis/sensitive communications

Very High

Low

Human only

AI Marketing Calculator:

For any marketing task, multiply: (Hours it would take a human) × (% of work AI can do) × (Your hourly rate) = Potential value

But then subtract: (Time to review AI output) × (Your hourly rate) + (Cost of potential errors) = True cost

If the result is positive, AI helps. If negative, do it yourself.

Discuss AI With Your Peers (And Me) 🥳

Want to talk through these AI shifts with your fellow marketers?

Join me, and a room full of them, at one of these upcoming events:

Actionable Next Steps 💪🏼

Quick Quiz: How Balanced Is Your AI-Human Approach?

  1. Do you have human review for all customer-facing AI-generated content?

    • Always

    • Sometimes

    • Rarely or never

  2. How often do humans modify or improve AI-generated content?

    • Almost always (90%+)

    • Frequently (50-90%)

    • Occasionally (10-50%)

    • Rarely (<10%)

  3. Who makes the final creative decisions in your marketing workflow?

    • Always humans

    • Mostly humans, AI provides options

    • Mostly AI, humans approve

    • Fully automated

If you answered "Rarely or never" to #1, "Occasionally" or "Rarely" to #2, or "Fully automated" to #3 – we should talk.

Your approach might be putting your brand at risk.

1. Audit your current marketing AI usage

  • List every place AI is currently creating content

  • Rate each on a scale of 1-5 for business risk

  • Identify which ones need more human oversight

2. Document where humans win for your Brand

  • Track where humans have caught significant AI errors

  • Where your team gives customers hugs. 

  • Calculate the "save" in terms of potential reputation or revenue impact

  • Use these examples to justify the right balance of automation vs. human input

3. Quick win: The hybrid creation process. 

Implement this workflow for your next campaign:

  • AI: First-draft content ideas (10+ variations)

  • Human: Select and refine the best 2-3

  • AI: Expand and optimize the chosen directions

  • Human: Final edit, polish, QA, and approval

The Big Picture: The AI Paradox

As AI gets more powerful, human judgment, style, taste, become more valuable, not less.

Everyone's cell phone has AI today, and they're creating drivel. 

How do you use it to ship stuff that your mother would be proud of? 

Challenge: What's your uniquely human marketing superpower? What can you bring to the table that no AI…however advanced, can replicate?

Are you using AI to surprise and delight your customers?

P.S. Got a great example of how your human saved the day from an AI mishap? Hit reply – I'd love to feature it in an upcoming newsletter.

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