AI for Small Business: Joselyne Walter's Strategy

[00:00:00] Sanjay Parekh: Welcome to the Side Hustle to Small Business podcast powered by Hiscox. I'm your host, Sanjay Parekh. Throughout my career, I've had side hustles, some of which have turned into real businesses. But first and foremost, I'm a serial technology entrepreneur. In the creator space, we hear plenty of advice on how to hustle harder and why you can sleep when you're dead.

[00:00:21] On this show, we ask new questions in hopes of getting new answers. Questions like, how can small businesses work smarter? How do you achieve balance between work and family? How can we redefine success in our businesses so that we don't burn out after year three? Every week, I sit down with business founders at various stages of their side hustle to small business journey.

[00:00:42] These entrepreneurs are pushing the envelope while keeping their values. Keep listening for conversation, context, and camaraderie.

[00:00:55] Today's guest is Joselyne Walter, the founder of The Digg Agency, a marketing agency that helps organizations execute high scale projects. Joselyne specializes in streaming projects using tools such as AI. We're excited to really Digg into some of these tools in this episode. Joselyne, welcome to the show.

[00:01:15] Joselyne Walter: Hello, Sanjay. Thank you. Appreciate that warm welcome.

[00:01:18] Sanjay Parekh: So, um, it's great having you on. I think AI is something that I feel like everybody talks about all the time, but a lot of times you don't really talk about the implications on actually getting things done. Uh, but before we get into that, give us a little bit about your background and what got you to where you are today.

[00:01:35] Joselyne Walter: Certainly. So, I am first generation born here in the states, um, was actually born and raised in Miami, Florida, and oddly enough, have been in Florida all my life. Um, my parents, I think it's interesting, uh, for people that don't know my, my, all my background, but my parents came here from Honduras. And my mom actually only had a fifth grade education, um, when she moved here to the States.

[00:01:56] And my dad had what was the equivalent of a high school, um, diploma. So they were both blue collar workers. My dad was a welder, welding garbage trucks. And my mom was a housekeeper for many years. And yet, they raised and instilled such good, such a good foundation. Um, I was the first one to graduate from college out of 40 cousins.

[00:02:17] I worked in corporate America. I mean, at one point I worked for a company that had a 17 million marketing budget. And what I found that when I was working for a 17 million marketing budget company or one that had zero dollars, the gap was the same in terms of resources. And I thought, you know what, I can fill this gap and I'm going to go start my own thing. And that's where the Digg Agency came, was born from.

[00:02:41] Sanjay Parekh: Awesome. Awesome. So is, uh, is Digg the first time you've done anything entrepreneurial or was there something like when you were a kid, like hustling on things, like any, anything there?

[00:02:51] Joselyne Walter: No, I've always been a hustler, but entrepreneur wise, uh, yes, the Digg is my first, uh, gig, uh, from an entrepreneur standpoint. And for a while, I always said that I was afraid of entrepreneurship. The, uh, lack of stability, um, the lack of direction, having too many things to do at once. I always thought I would hate it, but, uh, it's my first go at it and I absolutely love it. I am hooked

[00:03:15] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. It's funny because we hear that so often about entrepreneurship, right?

[00:03:19] Like the, the lack of stability, but You know, I think in anything that you do, there's a lack of stability. If you really peer below the covers, right? Like you're working for somebody, you can get fired at any time. You can get laid off at any time. You just, you never know. So, um, I often say in entrepreneurship, like you're the only one that can fire you.

[00:03:38] So in terms of that, it's a little bit safer.

[00:03:40] Joselyne Walter: Yeah, for sure. And when I worked in corporate America, um, unfortunately every single year for the better of 10, 15 years, we would talk about layoffs. And what's odd is I'd have to talk about laying off, you know, Susie over Bobby and why Susie was better and Bobby was worse, or Bobby was better and Susie was worse.

[00:03:57] And then you go have meetings with Bobby and Susie and you're pretending that life is good, that they'll be here forever, they're the best employees ever. And that's, uh, that's the hard truth. So you're absolutely right. You can be laid off hard at any time. Yeah. But if you're doing your own thing. In some ways you have more control over your destiny.

[00:04:13] Um, and every hour you put in, every effort you put in, you're directly benefiting out of it. So it's, it's rewarding in a lot of more ways.

[00:04:21] Sanjay Parekh: Right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You're, you're more in control of your own destiny. Uh, although when you have employees, you're still having those same discussions a lot of times, which is unfortunate, right?

[00:04:31] Like, I mean, and this is actually one of those skills that I feel like, um, is, is very important for entrepreneurs, especially entrepreneurs that have teams. Um, to really think about and understand, um, how, how did they get there? So let's talk about, um, how you started this then. So you, you had a full time well paying gig.

[00:04:49] Um, at a big company and then you decided to jet. So, you know, how did you make that move? How did you decide to make that move?

[00:04:56] Joselyne Walter: Oh, corporate life was slowly picking away at my soul. And, uh, for a while I had been thinking of buying a business and just running a business or franchise. And my husband kept saying, well, why don't you do your own thing?

[00:05:08] Why don't you start your own, um, agency? And his comment was always like, you know, why don't you bet on yourself, you're willing to bet on someone else's business and run and do all that, he's like, my money would go on you, right? Let's bet on yourself. So it was in my mind, in the works for about two years.

[00:05:24] And after a couple of more experiences in corporate, I thought, you know what? This is just not, not worthwhile. And I had a strategy on paper. I had a website content that was ready to pull a trigger on. And I thought, you know what, we're just gonna, I'm just going to do it. Um, talk to my bosses, talk to my employers, make sure they knew that I was going to have an exit date and I exited and started my own thing. It was a bold move.

[00:05:49] Sanjay Parekh: How, how much time, uh, when you told them that you were gonna exit, how much time did you give them that that said like, okay, this is the date I'm leaving at?

[00:05:56] Joselyne Walter: A lot of moves are going on. And it was a three month thing. So I knew, okay, with three months I can, um, I can work myself up the courage to get this done on my own.

[00:06:07] And a worst case scenario, I thought, I, I can go find another job. Right? Something that's more suitable and this, uh, this actually worked out the best.

[00:06:15] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. And that comment right there is something that I, I, again, I've said a lot of times is like, what is the worst case scenario? If you fail as an entrepreneur is you, you've got more skills now at this point, you can go get another job.

[00:06:26] I'm not saying that it'd be easy to go find another job, but it's not like you're going to be jobless for the rest of your life. Like somebody is going to want to pick you up.

[00:06:34] Joselyne Walter: And one of the things that I was afraid of was, um, success. I was very successful, right? I knew how much I was bringing in for the business.

[00:06:41] I knew how much I was managing, how many people with the budget was, and I knew what goals I needed to hit to be successful. And I talked to my husband, like, well, what if I'm not successful at this? And his feedback was, well, let's define success. He's like, building a business is hard. And if you can get a client for a hundred dollars, let's say that's successful and just work towards that.

[00:07:01] And then just continue to like moving back to goalposts and you'll be okay. And that kind of gave me the confidence to say, okay, so what if I'm not managing a 17 million budget, right? If I can get two, three, four clients, that's pretty good. Who's to say that's bad?

[00:07:16] Sanjay Parekh: Right, right. Was there anything else that made you nervous in terms of starting this?

[00:07:21] Like the success side of it? I think all of us that have started any businesses feel that, but was there anything else?

[00:07:27] Joselyne Walter: Well, honestly, I was a little bit, I don't know if ashamed is the right word, but, um, die over the idea of that mom or Joselyne, this high powered corporate person that's always falling and leaving for the office in the morning.

[00:07:40] That's not her life anymore. Um, I was a little bit embarrassed of what that would look like to my kids, my parents, to, you know, my circle where, Oh, you're not traveling anymore? You're not in this meeting? You're not as busy as you've always been? Like, the, uh, the perception is what I was a little bit taken aback at and nervous about what are people gonna think.

[00:07:58] Um, if our lifestyle changes?

[00:08:00] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah, that that's an interesting insight. How did you get over that for yourself?

[00:08:06] Joselyne Walter: So I had to get over it first thing I did is I started correcting or being over explaining what I did. So, you know, if my mom called me in the middle of the day, I would never pick up before because I was always in meetings.

[00:08:19] And now I can pick up. It's like, Oh, well, now you're semi retired. I'm like, no, I'm more in control of how I manage my day. Right. So I'll hang up with you now. and work later tonight, or I already did what I had to do this morning. So I started taking control of the outward narrative. And that really helped.

[00:08:34] Even hearing myself defend what I was doing or, or show up in a different way, helped with my psychology.

[00:08:42] Adam Walker: Support for this podcast comes from Hiscox, committed to helping small businesses protect their dreams since 1901. Quotes and information on customized insurance for specific risks are available at hiscox.com. Hiscox, business insurance experts.

[00:09:03] Sanjay Parekh: So, let's talk about kind of the, the balance then of life and balancing stress and the demands. Uh, of having a business and family life like now, yeah, you can pick up the phone when mom calls. But, um, you know, these things tend to then bleed over, right? Like then you have to work into the evening or work on the weekends. Like, how do you balance that for yourself?

[00:09:24] Joselyne Walter: Yeah. So I think that's the benefit of doing your own thing is because you can balance those hours. So for me, priority is my kids, once they get out of school, I want to be at Taekwondo. I want to be at soccer practice. I actually enjoy watching soccer practice and the games.

[00:09:40] Um, but then I know that at night when they're doing homework, I'm sitting right next to them and barely helping them with their homework because I'm working or I can work a little bit later. Um, but I can also have flexibility with them in the morning. So. To me, that success is being able to really manage and change entire schedule around to do what you want to do, when you want to do it.

[00:10:01] Um, and if that means getting up on sunday before church to get a few things done, well, but then I have the rest of sunday and monday left, right?

[00:10:09] Sanjay Parekh: Right, right. Yeah. Interesting. Um, what about exercise? Is that a routine for you? Do you make time for exercise?

[00:10:18] Joselyne Walter: I have to, it's a love hate with exercise, so I actually became an accidental runner. And during COVID days, I realized I was tired of being in my, you know, enclosed office in one of the guest bedrooms. So I would start doing walk and talks, and I would do one on ones with my team members, and I would tell them, hey, I'm not in the camera, if you need me to be on the computer, let me know. Otherwise, I'm going to walk the dog.

[00:10:43] And you have my full attention, but I won't be sitting in front of the camera. Right. And so that 30 minutes happened. And when I wouldn't do my walk and talk, I would miss it. Um, next thing I know, I was finding excuses to go walk the dog. And then I'm like, well, I can, on the weekend, I'm like, I'm kind of, I feel like I need to do something.

[00:11:02] So I'd go out and walk two miles or walk a mile. And next thing I know, I'm running eight miles now. And so it was accidental, but I managed a way to incorporate it into my Work and my productivity so that it had to happen and, and now I love it.

[00:11:18] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. Do you do anything? So is that time for you running? Is it productive or do you zone out?

[00:11:25] Do you go on meetings? Like some people, I don't know how you manage this, but they go on like running meetings. I think I would be so out of breath that I would not be able to actually have a productive meeting, but some people do it. Do you do anything like that?

[00:11:37] Joselyne Walter: So definitely not meetings anymore. The walk and calls were for the, uh, the meetings, uh, but now it's just extended to where I'm learning, right?

[00:11:44] I'm listening to podcasts on AI, on, you know, how to get business zones, entrepreneurs, so this past cat is what I've listened to often while running. Uh, the only problem I'm finding now, especially some AI ones that I listen to, I get some great ideas, great content. But I'm hitting like eight minutes per mile and I'm like, I can't take notes.

[00:12:03] So I try to like repeat what I want to say so I don't forget it. So I gotta work through that challenge.

[00:12:10] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah, that is, there's probably some AI tool out there that'll help you with that. I bet there is. I gotta find it. Yeah. Yeah. So speaking of AI, let's, let's talk about that a little bit. How has AI impacted your marketing strategy for, for yourself as well as for your clients?

[00:12:25] Joselyne Walter: Oh my God, AI has been an absolute dream come true. Um, especially when I opened the agency, I started off just by myself and it was hard to try to build a strategy for myself or a client when I didn't have that bouncing board. And AI has become my personal assistant. The way I like to describe it is that it is, um, the, person who's got the best education, who's got, who's learned experiences from a bajillion other people.

[00:12:53] And based on our conversations in chat, he or she, depending on what you call your AI person, mine for now is Doug. So Doug goes into his memory and says, hey, this won't work because here's some things why it won't work or it will work. And it's just a perfect balancing board for me, for my strategies. And also some of the stuff I deliver to my clients.

[00:13:11] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. Are there particular tools or platforms that you use and you've seen to be really effective in marketing?

[00:13:19] Joselyne Walter: Yeah. So at DBT and Claude, most people know about, but one of my secret ones that I am obsessed with is called Beautiful.AI. And what Beautiful does it's built by PowerPoint presentation and incorporate with the exception of Amazon.

[00:13:37] If you're not building PowerPoints, you're not really talking to people. So it's hard to deliver a message without good visuals. Um, and Beautiful way I does that. It is genius and how, um, savvy it is and the quality is really good.

[00:13:49] Sanjay Parekh: Interesting. That's a great, great tip. Um, so on, on the flip side of it, I think we've seen so many people use AI poorly and, and the garbage that sometimes will come out of it.

[00:14:02] So what kind of challenges have you encountered in trying to kind of integrate AI into your marketing workflow?

[00:14:08] Joselyne Walter: Yeah, and actually, when that's happened to me, it makes me feel better about the human connection and the human creativity and human intellect that a machine does not possibly do. Um, so I've had various systems that would give me some dashboards and data, give me trends on data.

[00:14:26] And when I try to spitball what can be the variables of the reason why there's a certain trend down, for instance, the information it gives me is completely wrong. It's false. It doesn't make sense. That's a whole different, you know, industry and it's just flat out wrong. But of course, AI doesn't know all the variables of this particular client, of this particular situation, of this particular industry.

[00:14:48] So of course it's wrong. Um, so I think that's something that people need to know. It's, you've got to take it with a grain of salt, right? If not. Right. 100 percent of the time.

[00:14:56] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. Yeah. Are there any kind of trends that you're seeing or tools that you're seeing coming up, uh, around AI that really, really excite you for the future?

[00:15:06] Joselyne Walter: Yeah. I think agents are going to be much more popular, um, easier to manipulate. And I think eventually we'll see them in a lot of different places and it's going to make our lives a lot easier.

[00:15:17] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. In terms of that, what do you mean by agents? So AI things that go out on their own and do things or are you meaning something else?

[00:15:25] Joselyne Walter: Um, basically that I go out on their own and do things. So a simple way of describing it would be like that box for customer service. Right. When you have a question, they're like, oh, which one of these three is your question, right? Is it on finance, billing, or email? And then you pick a button and then it gives you more information.

[00:15:41] Um, but with agents, that'll be like much more advanced. You'll almost be talking to a person and with the right information, they'll have your information back. Hey, Sanjay, last time you were here, you complained about this. Did you solve that problem? Right. Have you looked at this? So it'll be much more personalized and interactive.

[00:15:57] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, it is a fascinating world with all of this AI stuff. Um, we'll see where we get to, uh, but leveraging it the way that you've done is I think super, super smart. Um, has it impacted your team in any way? So you, you've got team members right now. Are you seeing that AI is going to, uh, reduce the amount of people that you need or change the type of like, how, how do you think it's going to impact your employment plans?

[00:16:26] Joselyne Walter: Yeah, absolutely. It'll, um, make our work a lot more efficient and of better quality. Um, so right now when you hire, let's say, for instance, a project manager or project coordinator, they might be really good at the detail, organizing, knowing where things are, but they might be horrible at presenting the information or building a quick dashboard on quick wins over the last two weeks and where we're going in the next two weeks. But with that AI, that project coordinator can still be really good at the basic stuff. But now they have the ability to build using beautiful AI, build a dashboard that gives us an amazing update, right? So now I have one person that can work quicker and do something that she wasn't good at before because he's got this system versus having to have two different people do that one task or me coming in and rebuilding that presentation, for instance.

[00:17:15] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah, yeah, interesting. Okay, let's, uh, switch gears a little bit. Um, you've been doing this now. How long have you had Digg? I don't think we talked about that. How long have ...

[00:17:25] Joselyne Walter: That's right, we haven't. It's only been a year and a half. So very new.

[00:17:30] Sanjay Parekh: Very new. Um, but even in a year and a half, you've probably learned a lot and mistakes that have happened and things are like, oh, I wish I could have done that different.

[00:17:39] Is there something that stands out to you that if you could go back and do differently that you wouldn't? And what is that and why?

[00:17:44] Joselyne Walter: Yes, so I would say that I am super happy that in year one, we did hit our goals, which was we were a six figure in an agency in year one. Um, and something I think I would have done a little bit different is be less shy about what I'm doing and talking about it, because I realized as I was talking to people about it, they were, eager to join and work with me that I go, my God, I've seen you do this kind of work. Yes. You know, can you help me with this and that? So at first I was a little bit shy about it.

[00:18:12] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah.

[00:18:13] Joselyne Walter: And when I stopped being shy, I started seeing a lot more wins.

[00:18:16] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Is there, um, you know, we, we've talked about these AI tools. Uh, now I'm looking for, like, maybe a piece of advice from you for our listeners. Is there, like, one thing that you'd say, uh, anybody that's listening that wants to up their marketing game? Like, look, if there's only one thing you do, like, do this one thing. What is that one thing? Is it a, is it a tool they should use? Or is it an approach they should use? What is that one thing that stands out to you?

[00:18:42] Joselyne Walter: Oh, that's a big one. That's an easy one. So I'll answer it in two different ways. The first way is the one thing you should do as a marketer, usually in meetings, receiving direction, receiving requests from clients, you should not be taking notes at all.

[00:18:54] You should have an AI tool that's taking the transcript, please make sure you have the transcript of it, and then gives you the summary, the notes, the actions at the end of the meeting and can even email them to you. Before you can clean it up and send out to the people, it can easily save you 30 minutes for every single meeting.

[00:19:12] Everyone should be doing that. Um, the other way I went to that is there's so many different areas of marketing and everyone does a different type of marketing. I would say, take a look at your list of your to dos and your responsibilities. The stuff that you hate to do and you feel it's tedious. I can almost promise you there's an AI tool for that.

[00:19:31] So I asked ChatGPT and ask Claude, hey, I don't like this task. How can I automate it? And then find ways to make your life a little bit better by automating things you don't want to do or don't like to do.

[00:19:40] Sanjay Parekh: Oh, that, that is great insight. Um, on, on the note taking, is there a particular tool that you use that you absolutely love?

[00:19:47] Joselyne Walter: Yep. So I love Krisp, um, K R I S P and I like it because it has noise cancellation. Um, so during COVID, you would have lawn mowers, my dog, cars coming in, the truck drivers up. It was just a hot mess. And with Krisp, it is all gone. I could have had a baby, you know, crying right next to me and you would not be able to hear it.

[00:20:09] Um, at a minimum, you've got to see their YouTube ad. It's so funny. And so we were, and it actually, it works really well. Then it has the transcripts and all that fun stuff.

[00:20:17] Sanjay Parekh: So I didn't realize they had added transcripts and all that. I, I saw them during COVID because they blew up during that time for that exact reason.

[00:20:24] Um, and, uh, for doing the audio cleanup, uh, in real time, but I didn't realize that they'd added the note taking and all that on top of it.

[00:20:32] Joselyne Walter: Yeah. Yeah. So it's a fun feature and it's pretty economical as well. So for small businesses, it's an easy one. You can probably do the free version and you'll get enough out of it.

[00:20:41] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, okay. Uh, last kind of question for you here. Uh, of course, unless you say something that makes me think of another question. Uh, what would you say to somebody that you're talking to, uh, that's thinking about, you know, going all in like you did and starting a full time business, quitting their job?

[00:21:00] What advice would you give them?

[00:21:02] Joselyne Walter: So I would tell them two things. One is build a safety net, like in your mind, just assume you're not going to make a dime in the first six to nine months. Right. And just build a safety net so that you can really focus on the business. Um, and then the other thing I would say is, is actually just go do it. Build that safety net and redefine success. Um, like for me, redefining success was if I can get one client for a hundred dollars. That's okay. Um, and that kind of gave me the, the, uh, permission to just go try it. And I thought if I talk to a hundred people and ninety nine say no, but if one says yes.

[00:21:38] I'm succeeding and that kind of gave me the motivation to go and do that. So those will be my two things. We'll just say a few notes so that you can really focus on it. Um, and then redefine success and we'll do it and make, get that goal.

[00:21:51] Sanjay Parekh: Um, fantastic. Um, Last thing, where can our listeners find and connect with you online?

[00:21:58] Joselyne Walter: So they can find me at, uh, the Diggagency.com. And if you're watching, it's a, it's a logo on my shirt. It is D I G G agency. com. Um, and that's the best way to find me. And you'll have all my information on there. Connect with me directly.

[00:22:15] Sanjay Parekh: Perfect. Thanks so much for being on today.

[00:22:17] Joselyne Walter: Thank you.

[00:22:18] Sanjay Parekh: Thanks for listening to this week's episode of the Side Hustle to Small Business podcast, powered by Hiscox. To learn more about how Hiscox can help protect your small business through intelligent insurance solutions, visit Hiscox.com. And to hear more Side Hustle to Small Business stories, or share your own story, please visit Hiscox.com/side-hustle-to-small-business. I'm your host, Sanjay Parekh. You can find out more about me at my website, SanjayParekh.com.