By Terry Brock, MBA, CSP, CPAE, Cavett Award Recipient |
You’ve heard the buzz about AI and how it’s changing our world, potentially replacing a boatload of jobs.
But hold your horses! As with so much technology I’ve seen through the years, some of this is flat-out malarkey (a technical term, mind you) and yet there are some grains of truth we need to sift through.
I’ve witnessed a parade of technologies since I started speaking professionally in 1983 (just a few years ago, wink wink). Today, I’m seeing some common threads that are worth unraveling.
In this article, I want to show you, professional speaker to professional speaker, three key programs that can help you in your business and that you need to know about.
So, buckle up and let’s go!
Is AI Going to Take Away Our Jobs?
Before we get into those three must-have tools, we need to address this often-cited concern. It’s the million-dollar question that’s keeping many of us up at night.
I get it. As a journalist, I’m seeing a lot of AI writing tools targeting those of us with ink in our veins (or I’m thinking today it would be “data in our brains”).
And yes, much of what we write can be done by AI.
However, AI isn’t necessarily going to snatch away our jobs.
Instead, as the saying goes, you probably won’t lose your job to AI, but you could lose it to a human being who knows how to use AI. Mind-blowing, right?
Think of AI much like we use a word processor, spreadsheet, or the internet. These tools didn’t make secretaries, accountants, or researchers obsolete.
Instead, they supercharged what’s possible, and that’s exactly what AI is doing for us now.
Three Must-Have AI Tools for Professional Speakers
Professional speaker to professional speaker, here are three tools that I’ve found doggone amazing (another technical term, folks).
I consider these three must-have tools for today’s serious professional speakers, coaches, authors, consultants, and other folks who make their bread and butter from their thoughts and ideas. As I like to say, we are really CSPs – Communicators who Solve Problems!
1. ChatGPT
This is the cornerstone for much of what’s happening in the AI world, as you probably know.
I recommend getting the Plus version, so you have access to DALL-E, the text-to-image generator that helps us professional speakers get that perfect graph or picture we’re after.
You’ll also want to use the GPTs built into ChatGPT because they give you focused help in a variety of ways.
ChatGPT should be the core foundation of what you’re doing in AI. However, it shouldn’t be your only tool. https://chat.openai.com/
2. Perplexity
In journalism, I was taught that you need to get three non-corroborating sources before you accept anything as true.
This is a good rule of thumb, and although it’s not 100% perfect, it’s a solid way to approach investigations, research, and even life.
Perplexity has similar functions to ChatGPT but goes far beyond it in many other areas.
It’s not just a search engine; it’s an answer engine.
It gives you the ability to do a search based on a focus of either the entire internet, academic peer-reviewed studies, writing, Reddit, video (including YouTube), and Wolfram Alpha (for more scientific studies).
I’m using Perplexity as I write this piece for you.
I start by writing it myself, giving my ideas. Then I take it through Perplexity for spelling and grammar checking as well as adding any emphasis I might want.
Finally, I go back for a third revision where I edit what Perplexity gave me and refine the text even further.
One of the best features of Perplexity is that it gives you the references where it found the material. This way, you avoid some of the “hallucinations” that often happen with other tools like ChatGPT. bit.ly/terrylovesperplexity
3. Castmagic
Castmagic is a dream come true for anyone using audio or video who wants to repurpose that content.
It started as a podcast-only focused tool but has since expanded way beyond that to handle YouTube videos and other audio tracks.
Castmagic gives you the ability to repurpose like crazy!
It can give you a LinkedIn article, several headlines, a translation into another language, questions for groups that might be studying your article, and much more.
I’ve seen many tools in my work as a professional speaker for 40+ years. Castmagic has to be one of the best ever for repurposing and for helping us in many different ways. Try it now!
Conclusion
Yes, there are many tools out there and more coming every day. These three will give you a good solid foundation for your work as a professional speaker.
I’m using these three tools as I create presentations for my clients that are customized, highly focused on their needs, thoroughly researched, and fun!
Embrace the world of AI and get ready to experience a wild and wonderful future as a professional speaker. It’s going to be one whale of a good time!
