Episide 44 : Entering In

🎙️ EPISODE 44 — "Entering In"
Featuring Krissy Buck, Chair of Digital Wichita

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This episode is sponsored by Vu Events! Jovana Vu and her team make events feel like actual events — corporate gatherings, milestone celebrations, weddings, and everything in between. Find them at vueventplanning.com or @vueventplanning on socials.

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AI isn't coming. It's already here — and it's entering in whether you're ready or not.

Jen and Rachel are live at WSU Tech's NCAT Campus with their friend of nine years, Krissy Buck — Chair of Digital Wichita and Director of the ShockStarter program at WSU Tech. What started as a conversation about AI-powered marketing turned into something bigger: a story about showing up, building community, and what it actually looks like to bring emerging technology to the middle of the country without leaving anyone behind.

Also: tabs. So many tabs.

🚀 DIGITAL DAY 2026 — June 18 & 19 | Wichita, KS
Mission Control: AI-Powered Marketing for the Modern Brand

This year isn't about why you should use AI. It's about how — with actionable steps you can implement the moment you leave NCAT. Speakers include Luis Rodriguez, Angie Callen, Mike Allton, Brian Piper, Dennis Yu, Jeff Sieh, Scott Simson, Mandy McEwen, and Michael King.

Day 1 (June 18): Full day summit at WSU Tech's NCAT Campus
Day 2 (June 19): Hands-on AI Agent Workshop with Dennis Yu at Groover Labs — limited to 100 seats!

🎟️ Get tickets at digitalwichita.com

📖 Want to prep before you go? Read the Digital Day Dispatch newsletter on LinkedIn every Thursday — we're breaking down each speaker and what they're covering.

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IN THIS EPISODE:
→ Krissy's origin story — from nervous attendee to Chair of Digital Wichita
→ What ShockStarter is and why it matters for Wichita's future
→ Why Social Media Day had to become Digital Day
→ How to start small with AI (SpongeBob's resume is involved)
→ The tabs open situation that got completely out of hand
→ The wedding party reveal that connects all the dots

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FIND KRISSY:
TikTok: @MidwestCottageKS
LinkedIn: Krissy Buck
Digital Wichita: @digitalwichita

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BEFORE YOU GO:
🛍️ Merch is live — Uncorked and Slightly Unhinged & Messy is My Polished (10% of profits go to Ballet Wichita 🩰)
📲 Subscribe on Spotify & YouTube
💜 Thank you to our sponsor Vu Events — vueventplanning.com

So THIS happened. 🥂

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

We are here at WHU Tech's N Cat Campus. I'm Jen. I'm Rachel. And this is our lovely guest, Chrissy Buck.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Hey everyone.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

And this, of course, is So This Happened. How's everyone's week been? It's been, well, it's Monday, so it's getting started with a bang.

SPEAKER_04 0:18

That's how we do it.

SPEAKER_05 0:20

Um but hopefully it'll be smooth sailing from here.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

And how about yours? Yeah, good. Meetings today. Yeah. Weren't horrible. There you go. Well, that's a lot of fun meetings. That's with fun people. Okay. You know how that is.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Aren't we having one now? Yeah. This is a fun meeting. It's a great meeting. Yeah, I agreed.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

So yeah, it's so far so good. Good, good.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

And you? My day is, it was just one of those really, really ridiculously productive days. I'm ahead on work, which hasn't happened in a minute. Yeah, it's I got a grip on a new workflow. And wow, things like it was really, it's one of those things where I don't like change. And so I was like trying to put it off and put it off until it was absolutely necessary. And then I get an email from Terry. She's like, hey, where are we at on this? I'm like, oh god, okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:07

Like that cat bit that's popping on the keyboard.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

That's so funny. Just needed that little poke. And so now I'm good and I'm ahead again. So that just propelled me. I know. It's bananas.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

The moral of the story, Terry is right.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

Yeah, Terry is magical. She's wonderful. Okay, so this episode we have a sponsor. It's our very first sponsor. Very excited about this. Some of you may have seen on the socials. If you have not, we are before we get into it, we want to give a quick shout out to our sponsor for this month, Vu Events. Giovanna Vu and her team are the people you call when you want your event to actually feel like an event. Whether it's a corporate gathering, a milestone celebration, a wedding, or something in between, Vu events brings it to life. You can find them at Vueventplanning.com, planning on the socials, or at VooEvents. So they have a few different things, but we'll make sure that we link all of that in the show notes. So we're of course we're so grateful to Giovanna and her team to be our very first sponsor. Thank you, Giovanna.

SPEAKER_05 2:12

Thank you, VuEvents.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Yes, thank you for trusting what we're building. You're gonna want to keep VU events in your back pocket, and they're gonna be sponsoring us through the entire month of May. So yay! So excited. Tonight we are again, like I said, we're here at the W2 Tech Incat campus, which is where Digital Day 2026 is gonna be taking place. So if you haven't been here, it's absolutely incredible. They have a complete aviation training program here and a whole lot of other really cool things that I'm still learning about. Had a really interesting conversation before this, right before this recording about like design engineering, and all I was like mind blown. This is amazing. But we're here because of Digital Day 2026. It's coming up June 18th and 19th. It's gonna be held mainly here in this building. The workshop, if you're if you're going to the second day, will be held at Groover Labs. We cannot think of a better person to kick all of this off than our friend Chrissy Buck, uh the chair of Digital Wichita. Yes, welcome. So, yes, welcome. We're so excited. And you're also the director of the Shock Starter program at WGO Tech, so which is really cool. It's been fun to see them grow over the years.

SPEAKER_03 3:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

Before we get into anything, quick merch plug. If you are uh loving the uncorked and slightly unhinged line, make sure you get online and order your merch. There's also Messy as My Polished, where 10% of the profits go to Ballet Wichita. So check that out. Love them.

SPEAKER_05 3:41

It's almost pink chop weather. Oh my gosh, yes.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

Yes, and of course, follow and subscribe on YouTube and Spotify or wherever you get your podcast so that you don't miss an episode or any of the fun with us. Yes. Because right now we're gonna dive right on into this or that. Okay, bring it. Okay, here we go. Oh, it's like a big fun social media AI awesomeness edition of this or that. Okay, first off, kind of easy, I feel like. Okay. Who's going first? We're gonna start with Chrissy and then Rachel and then me. Okay, okay, so tabs open or a clean browser. Tabs open. Tabs open. Yeah, and like I like how many okay. What is a typical tabs open situation for you, Chrissy?

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Okay, that is very true. Yeah, like when I get to like five or six, like when they start getting smaller, I'm like, okay, this is out of control. And I start closing some. You don't want to see gins.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

You kind of can. That's not even bad. That is like heavy. That's there's probably like 20 out there. Like away your answer, really productive.

SPEAKER_05 4:50

Oh gosh. I can't be though if I see too many things. Like, so okay, yeah. So same here, I'm tabs open, but there's a limit for me because and I generally like it depends what type of work I'm doing, but especially on my laptop, I don't like to have more than like six tabs open.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:06

Because and even then I keep them in two separate like browser openings, that way they're bigger. Yeah, like the tabs even. And then, but when I have my two desktop screens, then I can keep some more open, you know. But I liked because I really like to be able to just click around and to pull things from one area to the other. Yeah, yeah. Always have to have your email open. Always, yeah, always that's a big must. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Also, I like memory, I like my computer to go fast.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

Yes. So what's that mean? Is that a thing?

unknown 5:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 5:38

I know. I got scared first like I saw the spinning wheel on our thing, and I was like, Oh, we're good. We still have body.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Yeah, we're all good. Yeah, okay. Yeah, everything's good. It's just so the cool thing about that is like the spinning thing is a good thing in this instance because it means it's just transcribing as we as we go, which is AI and we love it. Yes, full circle. For me, yes. Just tabs. Yes, tabs, and not only that, so yes, there are probably 20-something tabs open now. This is the light day. Um I haven't fully recovered from the weekend and shutting all the tabs, so but what you don't see is the other two browsers with more tabs. You're kidding. Yes, so there's a tab, there's another browser that has all so this happened stuff. And then there's another browser that has all digital wichita stuff.

SPEAKER_05 6:28

Okay, well, you have a system. I do have a system. Like three separate briefcases for you. Yes, that's exactly it.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

That's exactly and then I'm logged into my socials on this one, and of course, Archer socials on this one. Yeah. And then on the So This Happened browser, logged into all of our socials for the podcast, and then Digital Wichita logged into our Instagram account. Like, that's my See. I feel like that is the perfect process for you, though.

SPEAKER_05 6:53

Because everything's already open and available, and the way you work is you get an idea, and then you're like, okay, I just need to do that right now. That is very very true. So, and then and for me too, if I don't have like my everyday tabs open and I go to do something and it's not already there for me to click in, I'll I'll get distracted and click on somewhere else and I'll start doing a different thing. So having them all open and quick to hit when I'm on top of it and thinking about doing that task is very helpful.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

Yeah, see, that's another thing. I keep a lot of them open because as I'm done with them, then I close them out and start new ones. Okay. So it's kind of like a it's kind of my checklist.

SPEAKER_04 7:28

That makes sense too.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

Yes. Well, dang, you need to get to work.

SPEAKER_04 7:32

I thought you said you were ahead.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Terry. Terry, if you're listening. I don't think the new system's working.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

No, you should see the tabs. Oh, wait, no, there's four browsers because I also have a Windows browser too, where I work on all of my Archer Canvas stuff. Okay. And there's a lot of tabs because I have all of the menus open for all of our hotel restaurants. Oh my gosh. Well, see, it works, it works for you though.

SPEAKER_05 7:56

Ever since I've known you and I've looked at your laptop, it's always been like that. Yes. I've never seen it.

SPEAKER_04 8:01

Organized chaos, literally. Makes sense to me. It's good. It's just like spilling your brain out on your laptop tabs.

unknown 8:07

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 8:08

I'm in shock right now. I've totally forgotten. Like no CD is getting itch itch- ish. I'm just gonna go.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

Do you want to see my inbox notifications?

SPEAKER_05 8:17

If we ever fight, it's gonna be me just closing all of your tabs.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

She'd be like, wow, she's mad at me. If you ever want to end your friendship, I'm like and close the tabs.

SPEAKER_05 8:28

No, I would never, unless it was on accident. I could do that. Just delete the big one.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Oh just one button. It would really mess with my brain. Thank god everything's backed up on my phone. Oh gosh. Okay. So for social, are we posting ghosts or are we staying engage?

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Oh, stay and engage. Always, always. You have to have good, I say, digital hospitality. Like you can't invite people over and then ignore them. You've got to let them in, you've got to talk to them, you've got to answer their questions. Absolutely. Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Yeah. Yeah. And I know that you help us run our socials every once in a while, too. So but I feel like you you pop in there and get things done when I'm not paying attention. I feel like I definitely can.

SPEAKER_05 9:16

I have the I guess beautiful curse of having, or not curse, but the luxury, but like it's a benefit, a blessing in disguise because I also don't have to do it that much because Jen's just always on top of it. Um, and you know, so it just depends. If you catch me when I'm on my phone and I actually click on the notification to read it, then I'll pop in the comments and comment back or something, you know. Yeah. But so I I believe that it's so important to stay engaged. But my lovely teammate here is very good at doing that as well.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 9:50

But as far as my personal posts go, oh, I suck at it. I don't think I don't even remember the last post I made.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Oh okay, I do agree with that. So I have another side account called the Midwest Cottage, and that's where I do my thrifting content. Love that account. Thrifting content. That one I stay in engaged. Okay. My personal content, like on Facebook, I don't even use Instagram anymore, really. LinkedIn. Like I post something and then I'm not on there for days. I don't even have those. I only have one social media app on my phone, and that's TikTok.

SPEAKER_05 10:23

Wow. Yeah. Well, I love your TikToks. I keep meaning to make more posts. I have so many pictures from vacations I took over like last year, end of last year, and I still haven't posted any of them. And I think a lot of it's like fear of perception. Oh, yeah, that's a big thing these days. Also, kind of silly because I'm so exposed here on our podcast. Our last post was Bobby's talking. I said something about farting on a guy you lie.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Oh, that post performed really well. I bet so. Especially on YouTube. Engagement. Yeah, I feel like we that post, I think about 500 views on YouTube. Nice. Let's just hope none of my new employees see it.

SPEAKER_03 11:02

And they will.

SPEAKER_04 11:03

It was one of your horror stories. That's fine.

SPEAKER_05 11:05

It was just talking about a trend. But yeah, definitely. So I'm like 50-50 on that. But I think if it's something obviously, like you said, if you're inviting someone to go to that page versus just posting pictures with you know cute comments under it, I think you have to stay engaged.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

Yeah, yeah. I obviously definitely agree with that. I will post, and that's another reason why I keep all the socials open. So I'll get the notification on my phone, but it's a lot easier to just get on my desktop and answer if I'm gonna be typing. A lot less chance of fat fingering if I'm on my laptop than like when I'm in Discord and I'm typing all the time because I'm on my phone.

SPEAKER_05 11:41

I agree with that, and I think that's also why I'm more limited, is because when I see it on my phone, I also have so many other notifications. Yeah, like I'm sure you do too, but you're used to seeing all pop-ups. I get anxious, so I just go clear all. But yeah, it's so much easier for me to sit down on the computer to respond to even comments on Instagram or Facebook or anything. Or if you need to pull like a link from somewhere else to put it on there, it's so much easier to do it on the computer than your phone.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

Yeah, totally agree with that. I think it's really important to like if the conversation's hot, you gotta like yeah, and I feel like the algorithms are really leaning into that too, like kind of coming back to the whole idea of social being social again, where for a long time I don't feel like I feel like it was more of showcase of look at us, look at us, and the actual engagement piece was so incredibly overlooked. Now I think people are really starting to understand the importance of sticking around and like keeping a conversation going.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Yeah, I think, and I think this is so important. I had this conversation with our friend Mae King saying today, first name May King, about building relationships and community and how important that is right now with so much AI content being made. Yeah, people are really looking for realness, real content. And authenticity is such a buzzword, but really like people are looking for human-generated content. Yeah, that's what their eyes are looking for. And like part of that is the engagement, right? You know it's real if you comment on something and somebody comments back.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

Yeah, unless it's the can you share at fems.cans like okay, hide that comment. Yes, like we know you're a bot. Yes, yeah, I don't like that. Don't like that fake engagement, get out of here. Get out of here with that. Oh, so okay, for learning podcasts or videos.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Okay, I am a visual learner, so I'm an educator and I learned about different learning styles. I'm definitely a kinesthetic learner, second visual learner. So podcasts are really hard for me, actually. I can't stay engaged. Yeah. Yeah. So video.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

That makes sense to me.

SPEAKER_05 13:47

What about you? You know, I think it depends on the topic, of course. Oh yeah. Um, you know, I'm always a hands-on learner, but as far as like fun facts and fun stories, I can listen to podcasts all day. I love listening to ologies a lot. But I think if I'm trying to learn how to do something actively, I need to see like a walkthrough of it. Yes. And even then though, I need to be doing it along with said videos. Yes. Otherwise, I'm I'm not gonna absorb it. My muscle memory won't get there. Like it's just like learning a new computer system. Like, yeah, if when they make you take those silly quizzes on like new systems and stuff, I'm just like, it doesn't, it doesn't help. Like, I just need to learn it while like just give me access to the system and then I'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

It's like, okay, let me ask you, Rachel, are you one of those people that listens to the rules for a board game? Or do you just like zone out and then when the board game starts, you're like, no, what do I need to do?

SPEAKER_05 14:39

Because that's that is basically how when a board game starts, all I need to know is depending on what type of game is a drinking game, when do we drink? And is what's the point? Like, how do we win? That's all we win. How do we need to know? And then from then on, okay, tell me what you do in this instance or in this instance. You know, unless you're playing with a screwy mofo that has weird house rules, in which case, in which case you have to be careful and you need to get those like in writing before you so true, yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Like everybody has their special monopoly rules, yes.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

Oh my gosh, it's so true.

SPEAKER_05 15:15

I mean Uno these days, too. I play story a little differently sometimes too. And so I've always, but I'm maybe it's a control freak in me or whatever, but also I've had people like get legit angry over no, I should be able to do that. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, here, listen up, especially if it's like with kids or something, too. You're like, no, no, no, you can't do that. So I'm like, here, listen, here are all the rules, everybody. Okay, this is how we play. And if this happens, this is how we play. Okay, let's go. Nice. But yeah, that's definitely me as well.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

Yeah, I feel like for me, definitely I've learned this. Well, I've come back to this recently because of a learning AI and learning descript and learning all these tools that you know I'm I'm now implementing for podcasts and you know, content creation. You I I've gone to YouTube videos a lot and LinkedIn videos and Instagram reels. Um, podcasts, like they just I they don't keep my attention. It's very much like the game, the board game directions. I just I can't sit there and absorb all of that. I just need to start playing and oopsie along the way, you know? Yeah, because yeah, I'm I'm a very much learn by application type of person.

SPEAKER_05 16:27

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I think practical application, you don't know how it applies to you specifically what you want to do unless your hands are on it. Yeah, or your eyes, you know.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Yeah, but it's so true. 10-minute podcasts are my favorite. I can do that. I can do a 20-minute, but I gotta split it up, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Like so drive to work, oh yeah, second half drive home.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

I can do that, but yeah, I really have a tough time. Yeah, and I have so many friends who have amazing podcasts, and I want to like support and listen to all of them, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

Yeah, yeah, they're they're not for everybody. I'm pretty good at it on long drives. Yeah, yeah, they're fun. But and what's happening next? Like the one, like I know, like we've had people binging ours lately, which has been a lot of fun for analytics.

SPEAKER_05 17:12

Yeah, we've seen a spike lately.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

Yeah, yeah. April was insane. It was a record, like record, record, record month, which was really fun. So thank you for the people that to the people that have been binging. We love it. And tell us what you learned and what you want more of because we want to know.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

It was about farting on it.

SPEAKER_05 17:31

That was this month, right? No, it really says on Thursday.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

Yeah, yeah. Oh, that one's already been on fire.

SPEAKER_05 17:37

That one was good.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

I listened to it. Yeah, it was like oh good. The whole episode was just holy moly.

SPEAKER_05 17:45

I woke up to seeing that content on Instagram and I was like, oh, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Oh, yeah, I scheduled it so early. I was like, what did I do to myself? Well, don't you tell me you haven't done it? We've all parted on a man. Hell yeah. I don't know. No, I definitely have. Okay, so speaking of, let's get to your origin story. Um probably so you and I go back I think nine years, maybe more. I don't know. I don't know. I really can't land on how far back.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

2017, I think.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

Okay, all right. So that is about nine years, and it was one million cups when we met. Yeah, but and you had already been attending Social Media Day, yes, which is originally what digital day was back in the day. So long time attendee. Let's go back to that 2017 version of Christy. Who who do you feel like you were? And what were you looking for when you first showed up into our digital industry?

SPEAKER_01 18:45

Yeah, so I was a stay-at-home mom who was homeschooling her youngest, and I decided I had a blog, it was a DIY blog. Classic. Yes, so cool. I love, I mean, I love decorating. Like that's my art, right? Like textures and colors and patterns. And so I had become, let's see, 2017. I had become a photographer. I went back to school, I studied web design, and I switched it over to digital media. And I saw this person who kept going live on Instagram, and her name was Jen Cole. And I know, wait, what was your backspace media? Backspace media. Oh my god. Yeah, and I remember one time you were doing a live, and I like I typed a question and you answered it, and I was like, celebrating. And then I saw you at One Million Cups, and I had started I'd actually gotten a job doing social media for a tech startup. And I went to One Million Cups to network. Yeah. And I saw you there, and I was so nervous. I remember I was shaking, and I went and introduced myself, and you were so kind. And like a few months later, I was in your hotel room at social media marketing world, yeah, sharing a room with you. Oh my god, that's so good. So our friendship was like fast.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

It was very immediate. Yes, it's very immediate. I I love that about us. Um our friendship is very immediate as well. It's so funny how that happened. Yeah, just attract, you know, your vibe attracts your try. Try. You know, I don't know. Like, I love how this whole thing has ended up, and I just I love I hadn't I you've told me this before, but I always forget that part about that you tuning into my live. That is so cool. Yeah, I love that. I mean, so incredibly full circle because now we are sitting here as a guest on on my podcast. And this is not the first time either, because I know that you were on depict this and you know, backspace live and all that kind of stuff, too. Yeah, so you've been on all of my shows, but like this, it's just funny how it just keeps going. I love that so much, and now we're colleagues in the best way ever. Yes. So you went from being an attendee of Social Media Day to now you're the chair of Digital Wichita. So was there a moment where you realized, oh, I don't just want to be in the room, I want to help build the room?

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Yeah. So so I worked for the tech startup and I went from social media manager to the C-suite in three years. Yes. And we pivoted twice. The last pivot was the thing that stuck and it blew up. Like we were in 77 countries in 10 months. Yeah. And Jen, I mean, like Jen's network was a part of our success. She, I mean, she's so kind. Yeah, she introduced us to people, she hosted a bus party.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Yes, we did. That, oh my gosh, that's a whole nother podcast episode. Oh my gosh, back in the day.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

Oh my gosh. I barely made it on that bus that day. Let's just say that. And we converted every single person on that bus into a beta user except for one person. And I want to, I want to know why. Why guy? But our first paying customer was on that bus, Amy Tischler. Oh my god. She was the very first person that that gave us money for our tech product. And so when I went, so then you know, we were sponsors of of different events. And we sponsored I we should we sponsored social media Day Wichita. I think that would have been like 2019. And and then when I became an educator after that in 2021, it was a way to get my students plugged in. Yeah. Right to local networking, local professional development. And also it was a way for me to market my program. Yeah. The digital marketing program at WSU Tech. And so it really started out as just as a volunteer. And then the next year I joined the board. And then this year we had some turnover.

unknown 22:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Yeah. So here I am. But I think it's really important for me to see all of these emerging technologies to make sure that we get them in the hands of Wichita marketers. Like we're in the middle of the country, but that doesn't mean that we don't compete. Yeah. And so we need to compete at a global level. And not saying that we don't, but we need, I mean, we're awesome people in the West.

SPEAKER_04 23:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:24

Totally awesome people. You have to keep it that way. You know, keep supporting. I mean, everything's always changing and updating. So you've got to keep everyone on top of it.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

Yes. So we're also all so busy that we can't read all the things and listen to all the podcasts. And so this is one way to bring in some amazing, amazing talent that has been recruited by our friend Phil Marchon. Yeah. And have them come in and speak, speak to our community.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

Oh, it's going to be amazing. I'm so excited. We're we're going to talk about our speaker lineup a little bit more here down the road. But geez, yeah, I I love that. Like you came in with that goal to to help. And the shock starter program has just gone off the rails. Like it's it's insane to see the growth over the past few years. So let's talk a little bit about Shock Starter. Because I don't I don't know that you're very familiar with the Shock Starter program.

SPEAKER_05 24:17

I am not. I think I've seen a few posts or something on LinkedIn and whatnot, but other than that, no. How long has it been going?

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Yeah, so Shock Starter started in 2022 over at WSU. It was an answer to a problem. We were learning from industry that students coming out of school were not prepared to market digitally.

SPEAKER_04 24:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

So it's a digital marketing agency. We do like we're we're capable of doing some print stuff, but mostly it's it's online stuff. So web, SEO, analytics, um, you know, graphic design for web, photography, video. I say pretty much everything a marketing agency can offer except for radio and TV ads.

SPEAKER_05 24:59

So teaching them how to use those things and what programs to use for them, or you guys do it for them?

SPEAKER_01 25:03

I don't teach them actually. I am no longer the department chair of the digital marketing program, but I am the director of Shock Starter. And Shock Starter is an applied learning lab. Okay. Where students from WSU and WSU Tech can apply, they're hired on, they get paid, and they work in a student-led marketing agency. So that's what Shockstarter is. Okay. So they work with real clients, and those clients pay us to work with students. So cool. That is great.

SPEAKER_05 25:31

And you train them how to use the programs that Shock Starter uses to make things for these companies.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

So they're learning this over at WCU. They're learning it at WSU Tech. And then they get to practice it in a real world environment inside of Shockstarter. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_05 25:47

Yeah. Have you had many upgrades or updates in like what type of stuff you have them use to conduct your business with these companies? Yeah. I imagine since 2022.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

Yes, absolutely. Like right now, especially, you know, we're seeing this explosion of AI in every in every piece of our workflow, right? So from writing copy, you know, using Chat GPT or Copilot or Claude, whatever we're using that day, to video editing, even After Effects. I mean, everything has some AI component in it. We partner with Agora Pulse. So they've given us access to their platform, and that's where the students schedule posts for their clients. There's AI in that. Yeah. There is AI. There's AI in literally everything we touch. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, it's changing without us seeking it. It's just like coming to us. You know what I mean? Yeah. You can upgrade hardware like cameras and computers and things like that, but it's the software that keeps us on our toes. Okay. Yeah. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 26:58

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That makes all the sense. Like I feel like there's always like new tools or new just new integrations, new APIs, all the new things all the time.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

All the new things all the time. Yeah. I will say, like this generation though, that is in college and high school, I'm seeing a lot of anti-AI. So getting them to adopt these tools, especially as marketers.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Like that is that's the thing that like keeps me up at night. Is that if they don't adopt these tools now, it's it's kind of like that movie Hidden Figures. Remember when like she sees the big room with the computer in it, and then she goes to the library and she gets the book to learn how to run the computer instead of the computer running her. So I mean it's the same with AI right now. We have to learn these tools so that we can run AI and stay relevant in marketing.

SPEAKER_05 27:54

I feel like that's really marketing is probably one of the more, you know, it's needed more for those things. I feel like because that's what draws attention to everybody's eye. That's what's being put out in the world. And then if you do not know how to use AI, maybe exactly the computer would end up running you or running your marketing team or you know, schedule. Yeah. I have man. I'm trying to think of other industries that would be as relevant.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

I feel like marketing is probably like the voice acting is taking a big hit right now. Oh gosh, because you can, I mean, you can emulate a voice very easily. I used a program, I'm using a program to create our opening video. Oh, yeah. I'm not gonna give it away. But I was playing around with the voices in there, and I mean there are so many. Really? There are so many voices in Cap Cut. Actually, it might have been in Cap Cut. Yeah, like you can change your voice. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_05 28:47

That is maniacal. Wow. That's gonna be a funny video. Amazing. I'm really excited for it.

SPEAKER_04 28:54

I'm excited for you. I'm gonna have to see that. Yeah, I'll definitely I'll yeah, we'll show it to you.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

I mean, I have to deep fake the board, and I have to get their approval to do that first. I'm pretty sure we'll be able to get it with you. I will get some documented approval before I run their likenesses through any AI products. I love this so much.

SPEAKER_02 29:14

So speaking of the board and speaking of digital Witch Talk, so Digital Day, Digital Day used to be social media day. Yes. Based on Mashable's June 30th declaration of Social Media Day back in the day, like a long time ago. Yes. And but we needed to rebrand it because a lot of the reason you know what we've been talking about. So let's talk about you know, kind of why that rebrand had to happen from digital day from social media day to digital day.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

Yeah, we found that a lot of our audience aren't only responsible for social media. Yeah. Right? Back in 2019, 2017, 2015, whenever. Yeah, whenever the OG Mark Schaefer event was that you're talking about. Yeah. I mean, there were people that were just learning this social media thing. Yeah. Facebook page. Yeah, Facebook page. I'm responsible for the Facebook page, and also, you know, buying ads on TV. Like, you know, I don't know. Yeah, yeah. And then it evolved into that's somebody's complete role, right? Like social media, community manager. And now we realize that digital marketing, first of all, marketing, all marketing is digital marketing now. It's not, yeah. Back when digital witch toss started, it was kind of this anomaly on the side that people were trying to figure out. And so, you know, the group was relevant and it was welcomed because, you know, there was a group of people who were nerding out about this. They wanted to talk about it and they were doing it well. Yeah. And now it's evolved and it's in all it's in all marketing. And so it's unfair to like pigeonhole everyone into social media. Yeah. Right. So there's web developers that come to the conference. There's people who, you know, do analytics or SEO specialists or copyright specialists. And so media buying. Yes, creating content for kind of like think about like the jack of all trades kind of person. Yeah. So creating like some programming that would be relevant to each part of their job, I think, is important. And so social media doesn't really, like the name Social Media Day, yeah, isn't really not as relevant anymore.

SPEAKER_05 31:36

Because you are right, it is everything now. Like, I mean, sure, you could still get a newspaper or a magazine or something, but that's gonna be a small percentage of what people see. What people are gonna see is gonna be, you know, their Facebook posts, Instagram posts, LinkedIn, yeah, um, all of that stuff, you know, different company websites or even emails, you know. So I can totally see how it's just exploded, I imagine.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

Oh yeah, like I know for from like I get my news from TikTok. Like that's where I find my news these days. I don't even like sure. I follow, of course, cake and KWCH and you know KSN, but I get my news news from TikTok. It's so wild. I know, me too.

SPEAKER_05 32:19

Yeah, me too. Far as attendees go, how much has it grown, you think? Like starting with like what like 100 to like what are we at now usually with attendees?

SPEAKER_01 32:28

I mean, it's kind of like it depends. Yeah, I mean, we've had some really good years, yeah, and then we've had some years that haven't been so great. Yeah. So, but this year, I mean, this year I think we're knocking it out of the park. We're definitely knocking it out of the park. Yeah, you know, back to the whole conversation about digital day versus social media day. This year we have a few speakers who are bringing some different content because of the AI entering, entering, yeah, entering in. The whole world. Yeah, the whole world, like everything, my whole life. Yeah. Yeah. Entering in. That's it. That's only entering in. Um, so like Mike Alton, and I know we're gonna talk about speakers, yeah. Mike Alton is coming to talk about like building systems for a revenue generating team. That has nothing to do with social media, right? Dennis U is gonna teach teams how to build like AI agents to run their marketing. Yeah. Yeah. And so wild. Again, that I mean, social media is just a small part of that of his workshop.

SPEAKER_05 33:37

Well, now it just wall webs intertwine, everything does. Because if you use revenue generators, like that could be people that are out outside sales marketing, kind of trying to get people to, you know, to bring in money. So it's kind of marketing. It's just you have to learn how to manage the marketing now within these systems. So that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

Oh, it's so true. I know, like as the social media manager for Archer, we uh we work, I work the marketing team works incredibly close to the revenue team. In fact, I can hear our revenue guy on the phone all day long. He's loud, but he's amazing. Um, but I learned a lot just kind of eavesdropping out skulls from time to time. I probably shouldn't say that, but I am because I do. I'm sorry, she's gotta know. But you know, it's good, it's good to hear, and is I feel like revenue and social media and overall marketing strategy should work together and be seamless because you know, I don't know what to pro what needs to be promoted on social media and what doesn't, if I'm not getting that messaging from the rest of the marketing team and revenue. What are the goals? I need to know the goals as a social social media manager so that I know the content that I'm putting out there is going to be converting the way that the rest of the team and the hotel collection as it is, like there's a lot of success writing on social media. Yeah, and so being seamless in communication is incredibly important. So I feel like revenue, but revenue from their side, you know. I I like because what I'm saying is I see it as a social media manager, but maybe revenue needs to see from their side as well if they don't already. So you know, long way to say that.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

Yeah. I mean, I think one of my old colleagues, we worked so close together. At one point, we shared an office together, uh-huh. Taylor. Oh, and I mean, really, we sometimes you couldn't tell who was sales and who was marketing, right? Because we were side by side, we go to conferences together. Yeah, we talk to people together. I would invite people in, create the relationship, hand it off to him, and then he would get them to sign and pay us. And so, yeah, you have to know it's like two hands. You have to know what the other one's doing. Yeah, it's exactly right.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

Okay, so I'm excited to we're gonna dive into the meat of digital day. The the theme this year is mission control, AI-powered marketing for the modern brand. So let's kind of walk through what somebody's sitting in our event this year. What are they gonna be walking away with?

SPEAKER_01 36:06

Yeah, so this year, really, we are talking, we're gonna level up. We're gonna level up a little bit. So we're not gonna talk about how to use or why you should use AI. We're gonna talk about how to use it. And our speakers are going to give you actionable steps to take that when you leave in Cat, you can go back to your office and you can start using this stuff right away. So it's not fluff, it's not theory, it really is like actionable content. So when you when you're coming to Digital Day this year, be prepared to learn and also to build, to build these systems, to build these agents to build a strategy for your YouTube channel to build images using AI. I know that's a sometimes that's like a sticky subject, right? But be prepared to come and actually do some stuff.

SPEAKER_02 37:04

Yeah, get going with it. Start creating, start and like implementing your own system, which I'm just so excited. Sometimes I'll sit at my laptop and just not even know where to start, but something that I've found myself doing is just saying, Hey, Claude, I need to do this. How capable are are you of doing this? And what steps would I need to go through to make this happen? And so sometimes I just asked the AI how to tell me how to use it. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, you tell me how to use you, that would be great. And it's been so incredibly, I had no idea what I was doing on Claude. Like I was like, I knew for whatever everyone was switching from Chat GBT to Claude, and I was like, ooh, I'm gonna at least try it because I'd like to be, I'd like to know, you know, I'd like to make the decision for myself. Um and over time I loved and I still love Chat GBT, it still has a place in my workflow. But oh my gosh, with Claude, like it's just it's been so amazing. And there's like little like big things I I use Claude for, like strategy and help with like it, it like beautifully plans these episodes, you know, and comes out with that incredible run of show that I attached to your email this morning. And our brand colors, yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, and brand colors, but and then like come it, like I feel like the prompts for this or that are like even just better these days. Like, I feel like they were kind of getting repetitive with Chat GPT and nothing against Chat GPT, but like it tends to kind of go back on itself. I feel like it reverts a little bit from time to time. And I'm sure you know, Claude's gonna do the same thing here and there, but like right now, I'm just then maybe someone will come up with a Jeffree or something.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

I don't know. I'd call it Claudette. Claude's a video.

SPEAKER_05 38:51

Yeah, you can't call Claude a she anymore because Chat GBT was a she for you.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

That's true. Yeah, yeah, he's traded for a boy. I had Claude co-work. So Claude Cowork gives me a meal plan every Saturday morning. Oh my gosh. It emails it to me. I I told it the foods that I don't like, the foods that my husband doesn't like. Oh wow, like the calories that we're thinking, like we'd like to stay in. Nice. Yes. It gives me a shopping list. Oh, cool. I copy and paste that shopping list into the Claude extension.

SPEAKER_04 39:24

Yeah. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

While I have the Dylan's website open. Yes. And it shops for me. Oh, that's incredible.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

So then do you just go pick it up in the pickup lane? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:36

Like in the or I have it delivered. I mean, oh yes, I love that so much. So close to Netflix grocery shopping again. That's good. Like so close.

SPEAKER_05 39:45

I need to do that because I've been out of town so much. I haven't had time to really, I mean, I can still order food online, but it just seems like it gets so expensive, but it'd be nice to just not have to sit down and think about it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:56

I will say, like, it did double my grocery bill. It did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

But at least you're getting this the quality food that you're not buying the junk, you know. You're just keeping yourself away from that, which is so important. I feel like a lot of us are so like, oh, but I'm, you know, if you're in the store, it's so easy to do the impulse buying, you know. Whereas if you don't see it, it doesn't exist. That's you know, just for me.

SPEAKER_05 40:20

If I have a meal plan and a list, I don't often go too far off. I might get one or two items that I didn't need, but it's not, you know, crazy. But even just having that list is so helpful and to know what calories you're ingesting and everything, that's yes. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:34

I do have a chunk of ginger at home that I'll never eat. It's probably gonna go bad on my counter.

SPEAKER_05 40:39

You could shave it and cut and put it in the freezer, and it's actually easier to grate when it's frozen. Oh. So that's what I would suggest. That's what I do with mine.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

I'm gonna throw it in the freezer when I get home. There you go. Thanks, Rachel. Yeah, I would peel it first, though. Get all the stuff off of it. The junk off of it. Okay. Ginger's so good for you, too.

SPEAKER_05 40:58

And then it's good to keep on hand if you get like a cough or if you get sick. I do that all the time. Yeah. I always have ginger and it's frozen in my freezer. It's so good for your circulation. Yeah. Because I get like a lobster of it at the time of market. It's like big looks like a big lobster. I'm like, I only need this much. It's good.

SPEAKER_02 41:14

So the speaker lineup. We have an incredible speaker lineup this year. And it's so funny because I read, I read I'm about to read them off, and it seems so short to me compared to past years. But goodness gracious, the bang for the buck and the knowledge that is coming to this city. I'm so excited. Seriously. So we have Luis Rodriguez, Angie Callan, Mike Alton, Brian Piper, Mandy McEwen, and over native. Um, Jeff C, also Kansan, Scott Simpson, Dennis, and Dennis Yu. So how did we pull this together? I know the answer.

SPEAKER_01 41:48

We also have a Michael King, right?

SPEAKER_02 41:50

And we also have we do have Michael King. Where's Michael King on here? So sorry, Michael. But we are definitely gonna be here.

SPEAKER_01 41:57

Bringing a saxophone, I hear it.

SPEAKER_02 41:58

Yes, and his voice. Yeah. So that'll be amazing. Yes. So what was the thinking behind this year's speaker lineup?

SPEAKER_01 42:07

Yeah, so Luis is a Wichitan. Yes, he is, and in tech. And I really wanted to set the stage this year with like, let's just level set. Look, here's why you need to be using AI, right? So he's gonna be talking about workforce and you know, talking about tech in the state of Kansas and you know what that means for business and industry. Uh-huh. Yeah. And also Luis is so funny and engaging. And I mean, it's just gonna just come to be entertained because he will entertain you. So so and then the rest of the speakers, so Mike Alton and I, we have a you know, we have a professional relationship, and that goes back to my tech days. Yeah, yeah. Um, where we shared the same customer, we did a lot of collaborating.

SPEAKER_00 42:55

Yes, cool.

SPEAKER_01 42:57

And so I really love his newsletter. He's the AI hat, and I really love his newsletter where he talks about systems and whether that's the Google Suite or the Microsoft, you know, Microsoft products, whatever that is for your business, making them work together for revenue teams. So I really wanted him to come and talk. And then Filmer Sean, who has this large network of speakers all over the world, he started looking in his black book of speakers and picking out some that he thought would be great for this event. What I really love about this event, I was telling someone this today. Phil is like, Phil is very much, he's a musician, he cares about people, he cares about relationships, and he's bringing in a couple of speakers, Angie and Michael, to talk about staying human, sounding human, and all of this noise. And I'm an educator and like my job first and for foremost is to make sure that graduates leave. Our college with skills, right? So I want like I want people to take something away that's tangible. Yes. And so I think the mix of us two building out this list is so good. And so people are going to get the human element that's so important to like hold on to in this AI world. Yes. But at the same time, they're going to get tools that they can take out. Yeah. That will put them ahead in the world of business.

SPEAKER_05 44:25

That sounds like a great balance. I think it's definitely does. Do you know the order is there the order that they're going to be speaking in, which days, or so this is all one big day?

SPEAKER_02 44:33

Yeah, well, kind of. So I'll let you go into more about that because it is that's a great question.

SPEAKER_01 44:39

And it has roots. So June 18th is here in this space. Yes. So right behind us is where they will where attendees will enter. It's going to be a party. It's going to be incredible. We don't do anything if it's not fun. That's so true. And and so this is where you'll come in. We'll have morning networking, registration, Giovanna Vu events. Yes, our sponsor VU events. Yes. She has secured a photo booth for us. There'll be tattoos, right? There'll be tattoos.

SPEAKER_02 45:13

Yeah, I believe there's yeah, I think they have tattoos. And then we have Happy Camper Hat Company coming out with our patches.

SPEAKER_01 45:20

Not real tattoos. Like it's not gonna be that. No, no, no, no, no. Temporary tattoos. Yes. Temporary tattoos. We're gonna have patches. Yeah, happy camper's coming. That'll be fun. And then let's see. So then, yeah, there will be coffee here from WSU Tech and some breakfast items. And then the day will start. And so, of course, we have Luis opening it up. And then we have, let's see, Angie, right? Talking about staying human or sounding human in a noisy world.

SPEAKER_04 45:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:53

Um, we have Mike in the morning. We have, I'm trying to think who else we have in the morning. I feel like I'm forgetting. Is it Dennis? Dennis. He's gonna give a little teaser on the 18th of his workshop. That's on the 19th. Oh, okay. It's the workshop subject. I got it. Um, and so he's gonna be talking about building those AI agents for your marketing team. The content factory is what it's called. And then in the afternoon, we have just Jeff C, we have Scott Simpson. So Jeff is gonna be talking about using AI to create images, and he does an amazing job at this. Yes. Also, very like a very engaging and funny speaker. So true. Yes, I really love watching him speak, listening to him speak. I always learn something new, that's always helpful. Yes. Scott Simpson's gonna come and talk about using AI to amplify your YouTube channel, and I guess this has like just made his own YouTube channel just blow up. Oh, I can imagine.

SPEAKER_02 46:47

So that's so meta too. Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_01 46:50

He's also, I think, also, he runs AI Marketing World. Yes, so an AI expert. And then let's see. Oh, Mandy is gonna be talking about AI and social media and ROI. And then Michael King is going to end the day with talking about staying human. And he is an executive coach, and I only hear good things about him. Yeah, that's good.

SPEAKER_05 47:16

Yep, yes, that's a good way to close it out too. After just packing you filled with AI information, and uh, but that's good. I think you're gonna have a good balance.

SPEAKER_01 47:24

Yeah, and in there too, we're gonna have some fun. Yes. So we have a hackathon in the afternoon. What's that? So I don't know what we're still working out those details.

SPEAKER_02 47:35

I feel that.

SPEAKER_01 47:36

I don't know what yet. But it's gonna be some kind of where we will have teams of people and they are going to build something with AI. Okay, and then there will be a winner. Okay, so it'll be a competition, and then of course, we will feed you, and there will be snacks and music events.

SPEAKER_02 47:57

Oh yeah, music by boo events. Tony Boo's coming, DJ Panda.

SPEAKER_01 48:01

Yes, and then I cannot, I cannot end the talking about the 18th without mentioning that our favorite MCs, yes, Andy and Mandy, are coming back for a fourth year.

SPEAKER_02 48:13

Fourth year, incredible. Yes, they're so much fun, and I'm already like hearing about some of the outfits.

SPEAKER_01 48:20

Oh my god. It's a space theme. No, maybe aliens, maybe like spacesuits. It's gonna be incredible.

SPEAKER_02 48:29

Yeah, you should like I should show you pictures of some of their past outfits. Like they change multiple times throughout the day. They do it. It is incredible. It's so much fun. Yes, and they bring an incredible amount of energy to the event. It's so fun. No one's fallen asleep in our room. No, no.

SPEAKER_01 48:46

And then the 19th, so then the next day in the morning, we'll start early over at Groover Labs, early, eight o'clock. And we'll spend the morning with Dennis Yu and his team, and he is going to show us how to use Claude to build our own content factory. Content factory. Yes. Which we are beta testing. Yes. Digital Witch Taught, our marketing chair, Adia, and Jen and our awesome volunteer Michelle are all beta testing that right now to create content.

SPEAKER_02 49:18

Yes, we are. We're having regular calls with Dennis U right now to kind of figure out well, he's teaching us how to do this. And I'm telling you, it's it's definitely up in my eyes. Like the way that these agents work, it's just incredible. The amount of work that gets done just from a simple command is incredible. So, I mean, you're gonna learn so much more about that during the workshop. You're gonna leave mind blown. I can guarantee that.

SPEAKER_05 49:47

So you're gonna have so many project ideas, you're not gonna know where to start. You're not gonna know where to start to build first, I bet.

SPEAKER_01 49:53

Seriously, I mean, no, seriously, but at the same time, if you are a freelancer, if you're a business owner, and or this is a a use case that I'm thinking a nonprofit who doesn't have the budget for marketing, yes, like learning learning how to utilize, build, and utilize these agents to run your marketing is key. But also, but also like let's say you are a marketing team. My gosh, if if Claude was doing your social media posts for you and building them, and then you go in and edit them and make sure that they're just so good, right? What all that time that you have left, what could you work on? Right. What could you innovate? More than that. What could you dream up? How could you make things like even sharper than they already are? Yeah, that's exciting.

SPEAKER_05 50:42

Yeah. Yeah. Maybe you wouldn't have to have so many tabs open. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 50:47

She would have one and it would be Claude. Oh god, okay. But then Claudette opens new tabs when it's working. It is the wildest thing to watch the tabs open and close and open and close. It's so crazy. Yeah. It like takes over your computer. Yes, it is bananas. It just opens a new tab group and then just works. It's so cool. That's weird. Yeah, it is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 51:07

It's awesome. It made a form, it made a form for digital witch talk. Yeah. Yeah. I just opened up the extension. I had Google Forms and I said, I need a form created to kind of get a baseline of where everybody's at with AI. And I think first I created it in like as a chat inside of Claude. And then I copied and pasted it into the extension. And I was like, Oh yeah. Yeah, it was the extension. I was like, go make this. And so it was making it over here on this screen. And over on this screen, I'm like, I don't know, dilly-dallying, fiddling over here. I don't know what it's doing.

SPEAKER_02 51:41

Not twiddling thumbs, just making more things happening. Maybe Doom scrolling on TikTok. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_05 51:46

You can see it making it too. Like, you know, like if ChatGPT did anything, it just is like buffering and then loads it. Yeah, but I've never used any extended versions of anything. I don't, I've never paid for it. So do you pay for the other version of Claude extension?

SPEAKER_01 52:01

So the extension is just a Google Chrome extension. I pay $20 a month for Claude. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So I mean, pretty inexpensive. I know there's people out there paying hundreds. Yes. Right. But they are like expert level.

SPEAKER_02 52:15

Yeah, running lots of agents all the time, and they have big laptops with lots of storage and energy. Yes. Wow. That's wild. So okay. The elephant in the room, of course, is always AI right now. It's the same, you know, when I remember people talking about social media this way. It's a trend. It's gonna go away. It's not though. AI is not a trend. A lot of people hear AI AI-powered marketing and either feel excited or immediately overwhelmed. I know that we've had people it at the company that I work for, they just completely shut down and don't want to adopt it at all because they're overwhelmed by it. So, what do you want someone who's in that group, the overwhelm group? What do you want them to know before they walk in the door?

SPEAKER_01 52:57

I want you to know that either you can keep doing the work and it takes away from your family, it takes away from your finances, or you can have AI assist you in doing the work, and that gives you more time with your family, right? Like it can even I heard about somebody here in town that built agents and it made him $50,000 in one month. Oh, yeah. So it helped. I mean, like it drove his sales and marketing, right? So imagine if that was your business. So just taking a little bit of time, and I'm not making any promises. Like maybe you just wanted to do your your grocery shopping for you. Yeah, just or maybe maybe you gosh, I hear about like I like to quilt. Yeah. And there's like quilt groups on Facebook where women are using women and men are using AI to build quilt patterns. Amazing. Right. Or recipes. Right. So just start small. Just start small. Just start playing with it. I think the first thing I showed my son, I was in this building actually, in the lecture hall, and our friend Cassandra Thompson, who spoke at Social Media Day, which taught a few years ago, she texted me and she goes, Hey, have you heard about this Chat GPT? Are you using Chat GPT to do your content? I was like, What is Chat GPT? And then of course I like went and Googled it and looked it up, and I was like, What? Like I was an in-service. I was like, what? And then that night uh we went to dinner and on my phone I showed my son. I was like, build a resume for SpongeBob SquarePants. And it like built a resume. By the way, I didn't know Spongebob was a black belt in karate. Yeah, wow. I just thought he looked at the bottom. I don't know if he ever made it to the black belt.

SPEAKER_05 54:49

I thought he was like, you know, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 54:52

Maybe I mean this is a few years ago. So that's true. Chat's coming a long way since then. But I would say just start small, just play around with it with your, you know, with your hobbies or just with daily tasks that you need a little help with. Yeah. Yeah. Like maybe you have some chicken and some black beans and you don't know what else to, you know, put with it, ask it to create your recipe.

SPEAKER_05 55:13

I have done that when I've just like, and I usually do that by myself anyways, but I was like, hmm, I wonder what will happen if I do this way. So I just put everything that I have and then in my kitchen and then it see what it made. Or and I even put in there like I really want to use this ingredient first because I think it's gonna go bad soon. And then it like prioritized that, gave me like a few options, which honestly I usually have the same groceries in my house, so it was what I would have made anyways, basically. But it was so fun to play with, and yeah, I think like you're saying, start small, so like starting with something fun that you like to do that you know, versus like just jumping right into it and doing it with your company, your business, or whatnot. But maybe that'll get you a little comfortable dipping your toes in the water. I know for me and for many people it's just worry about like security with AI, and I don't know how that works. Um, I'm sure people would be interested to hear about that aspect as well. That's a good point. What protection do they have when all their information is going into Claude or ChatGPT or whatnot? Yeah, yeah. But I mean, I'm sure there's not as much heavy weight of thinking about that if you're just looking at quilt patterns or recipes.

SPEAKER_02 56:17

Yes, yes, yeah. Just don't be putting your social in there. Yeah, and driver's license number, no.

SPEAKER_01 56:21

Yeah, don't put your government ID in there. Don't put people's faces and voices in there. Like you want to use it ethically. Think of it, I don't know. I mean, like you wouldn't you wouldn't post a picture of this stuff on your Facebook, right? So don't put it in, yeah, don't put it in these programs.

SPEAKER_05 56:37

I did use Chat GBT to I make got my brother a little stamp for his golf balls that is uh of his face. So I took a picture of him, I had, I put it in there, and then it turned it into like the drawing version of it. So I can't so cool. So now it knows where to find my brother. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I was just kidding. That seems like it should be a funny commercial. Someone making a golf ball, and then like the next thing you know, it's that's actually not a bad idea for a funny video for you to play to people. Like, are you worried about AI? This isn't gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 57:10

And then it's Rachel making a golf ball. And then here comes like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

SPEAKER_04 57:18

Why are you here?

SPEAKER_01 57:19

Your sister made a golf ball.

SPEAKER_05 57:25

I love it. Oh gosh, that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 57:28

Oh dear. Um, wow. So I I love that. I think I feel like there are ways, I feel like the the sooner you just kind of start messing around with it and let you know, ask it how to use it, you know, if you have questions. That's how I that's a big way of how I learned. But another thing is we have if you're on LinkedIn, we have a newsletter that's coming out every Thursday called the Digital Day Dispatch. And we're breaking down just each per like each of the speakers, what they're gonna be talking about, what that means. And so there's some of the basics that we're going through right now. So if you binge read the newsletter or the same things are even going out on the Digital Wichita blog every Thursday, just read our blog pieces, and I feel like that'll also help you get kind of equipped to just come and sit down and be confidently learning and ready to execute when you're leave. So I think it's gonna be awesome.

SPEAKER_01 58:24

How do people buy tickets or do they just show up? How does that work? Yeah, go to digitalwichita.com. Perfect. Yep, there's a button right at the top. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 58:33

Keeping it easy, so nice. And then how can people find you, Chrissy?

SPEAKER_01 58:39

You can probably, if you want to find me on social, that would be the best way to find me, would be on TikTok. I'm the Midwest Cottage, yes, Kansas, KS, I think, over on TikTok. If you like thrifting, that's where I go. She has a great series. And yes, stories from the thrift aisle. But um, I talk about thrifted finds, and then LinkedIn would be second best. You know, 2026 is the year of analog. I bought an analog watch. Yeah, nice. Um, I bought a phone that Bluetooth, like a handheld, like a cordless. You couldn't even come up with like a cordless phone, it bluetooth to my phone. Just trying to be more intentional. And one of the ways of doing that is kind of stepping back from social media. Yeah. Yeah. I spend way too much time on there. So you can also find me on Facebook. You know, we were talking though earlier about all the notifications. Yes. I'm overwhelmed because I'm an admin because of Shock Starter on so many accounts. Oh gosh, yes. So Facebook's kind of driven me away because it doesn't separate my personal notifications from business notifications. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:47

It's all out of hand right now. It is crazy. Oh god, I don't even pay attention to them.

SPEAKER_05 59:52

Well, because I've got like three Instagrams, and so that if I don't know if it's ours or even then, even if I like our Instagram for our podcast account, then I get a notification for that.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:00

And then endless cycle. So I like it, and then I'm like, That's not normal at all.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:06

It's another good video. Oh, I liked this. I commented on this. Oh, I gotta go comment on this.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:12

And then I just comment back to my and then I heard it, so now I gotta go like comment because then I heard it. I gotta go heart that comment. It just gets out of hands.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:22

It does. Yeah. Do I even like our videos anymore? We do, they're funny.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:27

I mean, like, should I even?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:29

Oh no, you definitely should. I know. The more engagements, the better. Funny story, which I I just have to bring up because I think it's hilarious, and like it just goes to show the community here. So we've been friends for nine years. Yes, we've been friends for about 10 years-ish. Yeah, more. And Giovanna, I don't even know how far back she and I go. I know that you guys are like related, literally. But it's funny because Vue Events is now a sponsor of the podcast, and she was also my wedding planner. And you were one of my bridesmaids, and you were my maid of honor. Yeah, and but Jo Vaughn at Voo Events is also part of the digital witch board. It's just like so cool. It's a digital, it's a mix of pot we've got here.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:21

And she's now involved in just all the things you guys are doing. Yeah, yeah, it's so cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:26

That's the kind of support we like to see in our community. Yes, yes, I love it so much. I just thought that that was such a cool thing, like everything just kind of coming together. I get like so excited when things like that happen. So I just had to mention it.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:40

It's a full circle all the time.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:42

Yes, yeah, like it really is. So much fun. Javonna and I share brothers. A weird story. Our parents were once married, her dad and my mom. And when they were married, so we we both came from previous marriages. So then it was like, you know, stepsisters, uh-huh, and then they had two boys, and then they divorced, but yeah, we share brothers. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:08

So funny. I think that is so cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:11

So I yeah, I'm like, people are like, Do you know J Javonna? Yeah, we used to be sisters, you kind of have a funny.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:17

There's a whole story. Is it like like an assorti or no? Sisters.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:21

No way. I always tell people, oh, I used to have a sister named Rachel, and they used to think that she died, but really she was a stepsister.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:29

That's so true. Well, I have a half-sister named Jenna. Because I'm adopted. That's right. Family's fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:36

Family's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:38

Okay. Speaking of Giovanna, again, you know, we we couldn't we couldn't do great things like this podcast without wonderful sponsors. And of course, thank you again to Vu events for being an amazing sponsor, stepping up and believing in what we're doing. We really appreciate you. And they do beautiful work. Oh my gosh. She is seriously like we're talking about building a content factory at Digital Day. Yeah, she is an idea factory. This lady has so many ideas. She does, and she's very intentional about them.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:08

I feel like she really puts herself in whatever she's doing. She really does.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:12

She really does. 100%. We're meeting, I'm meeting with her tomorrow over lunch because we're going to be talking about. I know that we've talked about another wedding.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:21

You're getting married again? No.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:22

No, but we are going to be doing another event together because we, the podcast, is going to have an anniversary party this summer. So Giovanna and Rachel and I are going to begin planning that tomorrow. Yes. Very excited. So, yay, more Giovanna in our life. There will be wine there. I don't know. Oh, weird. No. That's a really good question. I know there will be wine. There will definitely be wine and bubbly. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:49

Maybe some crunchy cheese.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:51

Yeah, I'm sure we can make that happen too. We have some ideas. Um, anyway, so this has been quite an episode. Like we have gone around the world and back in this episode, and it's been absolutely on and on. Oh, the stories. We didn't even like dive into the social media marketing world days. No, right? Maybe for another time. Maybe we'll do a whole episode about professional development. And what not to do. And what not to do. I wish I was their probably. We should all just go conferences together. Okay. It'd be amazing. Yeah, yeah. Take me with you. Yes. And all the vitamins, all the water. But you know, thank you so much for being such an incredible uh guest, Chrissy.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:34

Yes, thank you. Very informative. I my gosh, we're gonna have to go get our tickets. We're gonna have to get get everything together so we can be a part of that because it sounds like some really good content. Yeah, it's gonna be amazing.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:45

Yeah, yeah. It's gonna be a memorable day. I know it's gonna be incredible. I'm so excited. It's gonna be right here at NCAT. And uh again, get tickets at digitalwichita.com and the little button. And thank you guys for listening. Go for listening. Go make sure you subscribe and like and all of those things on all of the things.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:04

And we appreciate you listening. Yes. Also, again, shout out to our sponsor. Um, and we'll link her in the show notes so you can find her as well. Yes, we will.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:12

Thank you, Giovanna Vu Events. We love you. We love you, and this has been another episode 44 of So This Happened. We'll catch you next time. Bye. Bye.