Uncategorized – Page 136

Do You Feel Like We Do

Have you ever been told to do something because one of your competitors does it?

Or have you ever been told to do something because it worked for an expert?

(A little secret: it didn’t work for the expert either. If it did, the expert would be like Myspace Tom and retire completely, rather than hawking The Expert Method of Success in Whatever.)

You be you. And the people who feel like you do will gravitate to you.

Justin Welsh (usually) trusts himself

Last Saturday, Justin Welsh wrote about learning to trust yourself. Here’s the TL;DR version:

The most profitable decisions I’ve made came from trusting my instincts….

Every time, someone with more success than me said I was wrong. And every time, my intuition ended up being right. Not because I’m the smartest person in the world. I’m not. My intuition is right because I know what works best for me.

We each have a way we want to conduct business (and life). The way that someone else conducts business is literally alien to us. I couldn’t be Larry Ellison if I tried…and Larry Ellison couldn’t be me.

I (usually) trust myself

As an example, take the title of my blog post “Do You Feel Like We Do,” and how wrong it is.

Let’s start with the first thing I did wrong: I referred to a song title that many of you don’t recognize.
Now the second thing I did wrong: The reason you don’t recognize the song title is because the song in question is a half-century old. In a world where people discount work that relies on sources predating 2000, this is a fatal move.
Can I move on to my third grievous error? The primary reason that I used that title is because when I repurpose this text (originally a blog post) as an Instagram post, I know exactly which audio I’m going to use.
And number four takes the cake. I’m illustrating this piece with a CURRENT picture of Frampton, in which he looks decidedly different when he said…whatever he said on his talk box.

By Druss379 – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=153396739.

But what’s done is done. So I’m posting this on my blog (and elsewhere) and probably won’t delete later.

What does this mean for YOUR communication?

Now as part of Bredemarket’s content creation process, I will write words for other people.

But I don’t want them sounding like me and talking about wildebeests and citing 50 year old songs.

For example, I won’t write in a Sage tone when my client requires a Maverick tone.

So how do I ensure that the text I write for you sounds like you?

By the questions I ask.

Once I know why you do things, how you do them, and so forth, any resulting content will reflect your unique tone and values.

And your involvement at critical points in the process ensures that the final piece sounds right.

If you can use Bredemarket’s content services, or my proposal or analysis services, contact me.

Bredemarket’s “CPA“: Content – Proposal – Analysis.

You won’t see this part of the post on Instagram

As I mentioned above, this blog post is being repurposed on Instagram, but you won’t see this part.

Because Instagram doesn’t like YouTube videos.

Warning: for those who are not familiar with the album “Frampton Comes Alive,” the live version of “Do You Feel Like We Do” is long.

From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3SbJHwBgbA.

When AI Jumped the Shark

Most product marketing references to artificial intelligence are meaningless. Some companies think that they can simply promote their product by saying “We use AI,” as if this is a sufficient reason for prospects to buy.

I’ve previously observed that saying “we use AI” is the 2020s equivalent to saying “we use Pentium.”

It’s a feature without a benefit.

It’s gotten to the point where meaningless references to AI have jumped the shark.

Literally.

“(Several organizations) received a three-year, $1.3 million National Science Foundation grant to teach Florida middle school teachers and students how to use artificial intelligence (AI) to identify fossil shark teeth….Florida teachers learn to use a branch of AI called “machine learning,” to teach computers how to use shape, color, and texture to identify the teeth of the extinct giant shark megalodon.”

(From https://www.floridamuseum .ufl.edu/earth-systems/shark-ai/)

Now I come from the identity/biometrics industry, which uses machine learning extensively. But customers in this industry don’t really care about the “how,” (machine learning). They care about the “why” (identify individuals). For all the customers care, the vendors could use Pentium for identification. Or blockchain. Or Beatrice. As Loren Feldman says, “It doesn’t matter.”

Remember this the next time you want to identify extinct megalodon shark teeth. Now I admit the exercise serves an educational purpose by exposing teachers to the capabilities of machine learning. But if your sole interest is tooth classification, you can simply purchase the non-expurgated version of Olsen’s Standard Book of Extinct Sharks and get the job done.

Marketing executives, AI is no longer a differentiator. Trust me. If you need assistance with a real differentiator, I can help.

If you want to win business, learn more about Bredemarket’s content – proposal – analysis services here.

Career Detective: My AI-generated “Podcast”

I normally don’t listen to 20+ minute podcasts, but I listened to this one because it was all about me.

Seriously…there’s a 20 minute podcast that focuses on me.

The two people on the podcast spent the entire time talking about my most recent ten years of professional experience.

Except…the people weren’t people.

NotebookLM file-to-audio creation

The people were Google bots, powered by Google’s NotebookLM.

Upload PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, audio files, Google Docs, or Google Slides, and NotebookLM will summarize them and make interesting connections between topics, all powered by Gemini 1.5’s multimodal understanding capabilities.

With all of your sources in place, NotebookLM gets to work and becomes a personalized AI expert in the information that matters most to you….

Our new Audio Overview feature can turn your sources into engaging “Deep Dive” discussions with one click.

I uploaded the most recent version of my resume to NotebookLM.

Technically, this is not my resume; this is a PDF version of a portion of my LinkedIn profile. But my resume has similar information.

NotebookLM used the resume as source material to create a 20+ minute podcast called “Career Detective.” In the podcast, a male and a female pair of bots took turns discussing the insights they gleaned from the resume of John E. “Breedehoft.” (I use a short e, not a long e, but people can call me anything if I get business from it.)

Surprisingly, they didn’t really hallucinate. Or at least I don’t think they did. When the bots said I was deeply qualified, as far as I’m concerned they were speaking the truth.

They even filled in some gaps. For example, I used the acronyms for KYC, KYB, and AML on my resume to save space, so one of the bots explained to the other what those acronyms meant, and why they were important.

Probably the most amusing part of the podcast was when they noted that I had worked at two very large companies. (Just so you know, my resume only goes back to 2015, so Motorola isn’t even discussed.) While Incode and IDEMIA are both multinationals, I wouldn’t characterize Incode as massive.

Anyway, judge for yourself

So here’s the audio episode of “Career Detective” that focuses on…me.

By the way, I learned about NotebookLM via the Never Search Alone Slack workspace, but still need to explore NotebookLM’s other features.

Why Do Enterprises Become Dust?

Hardly anything is permanent. And this applies to boxing AND to B2B sales.

Mike Tyson and legacy

By Super Festivals – https://www.flickr.com/photos/superfestivals/53161465181, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=136938246.

Perhaps you heard what Mike Tyson said a few days ago.

I don’t know, I don’t believe in the word “legacy.” I just think that’s another word for ego. Legacy doesn’t mean nothing. It’s just some word everybody grabbed onto.

It means absolutely nothing to me. I’m just passing through. I’m going to die and it’s going to be over. Who cares about legacy after that?

We’re nothing. We’re just dead. We’re dust. We’re absolutely nothing. Our legacy is nothing.

With the life that Tyson has lived, it’s understandable why he’s echoing Ecclesiastes in this interview.

But you don’t have to have had Tyson’s experiences to realize that legacy does not last.

Neither wanted nor needed

In business (and in life), there are companies (and people) who don’t need you or want you.

This may be temporary. The company that doesn’t need you today may urgently (and importantly) need you tomorrow.

By White House – Eisenhower Presidential Library, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3025709.

Or it may NOT be temporary. There are companies that will NEVER need you or want you.

I recently ran across three such companies that will never need Bredemarket.

Six weeks (now less than six weeks)

Perhaps you noticed Bredemarket’s “six weeks” promotion over the weekend. It was addressed to companies that may have a final project that they want to complete before the year ends in six weeks. (Now 5 1/2 weeks.) I emphasized that Bredemarket can help companies complete those content, proposal, and analysis projects.

The promotion included a blog post, a LinkedIn post, a Facebook reel, an Instagram reel, a YouTube short, and appearances in other online locations. Which is probably overkill, since the promotion is already outdated and can’t be used again until possibly November 2025.

I also included email in this campaign, targeting prospects whom I haven’t worked with recently, or whom I’ve never worked with at all. I didn’t go overboard in my emails; although I have over 400 contacts in Bredemarket’s customer relationship management system, I sent the email to less than 40 of them.

As of this morning, none of the recipients has booked a meeting with me to discuss their end of year needs.

Some explicitly told me that they were fine now and did not need or want Bredemarket’s services for end of year projects.
Some didn’t respond, which probably indicates that they did not need or want Bredemarket’s services either.

And I discovered that three companies (four contacts) will NEVER need or want Bredemarket’s services.

Delivery incomplete

How did I discover that?

Via four “delivery status notification” messages.

So I visited the web pages in question, and they no longer existed.

I’ve been building up my CRM for over four years, so it’s not shocking that some companies have disappeared.

But one of the companies (“Company X”) DID exist a mere eight months ago.

I know this because I prepared a presentation on differentiation (see version 2 of the presentation here), and two representatives from Company X received the presentation in advance of a conference.

After the conference organizer distributed the presentation, I offered to meet with the companies individually (no charge) to discuss their content and differentiation needs, or anything else they wanted to discuss.

While some conference attendees took advantage of my April offer, the representatives from Company X did not.

And now in November, Company X no longer exists.

Could Bredemarket have created the necessary content to keep Company X afloat? Who knows?

But EVERY company needs content to differentiate it from its competitors. Otherwise the competitors will attack you. And your competitors may not be as merciful with you as Jake Paul was with Mike Tyson.

If you need Bredemarket’s help with content, proposal, or analysis services, book a meeting with me.

River Rising

I thought I knew the difference between persons and non-person entities (NPEs), and then the Innu Nation does this:

With its thunderous rapids carving through a wild boreal forest in Quebec’s Côte-Nord region, the Magpie River is well known to white water rafters from around the globe. What these travelers may not know is that the Magpie recently became the first river in Canada to be granted legal personhood.

Six Weeks

Six weeks until year end.

Do you have a final project?

It’s not going to complete itself.

Bredemarket can help with content, proposal, and analysis services.

Schedule a free 30 minute needs assessment at bredemarket.com/cpa.

Six weeks.

Insecurity, For Reel

Insecurity

I didn’t write this. Google Gemini wrote this. (And created the image.)

“In essence, identity is the foundation upon which security is built. A strong, well-managed identity infrastructure is essential for protecting digital assets and preventing unauthorized access. By understanding the overlaps between identity and security, organizations can implement robust security measures that safeguard both their digital assets and the privacy of their users.”

So now take a moment and think about security WITHOUT identity.

And shudder.

Will Entities Adopt the SITA-IDEMIA-Indico “Digital Travel Ecosystem”?

Thinking about “de plane” used in the Fantasy Island television series (image CC BY-SA 3.0) makes me think about travel. Mr. Roarke’s and Tattoo’s guests didn’t have to worry about identifying themselves to disembark from the plane and enter the island. But WE certainly do…and different countries and entities need to adopt standards to facilitate this.

I’ve previously observed that standards often don’t emerge, like Athena, from ivory towers. They emerge when a very powerful entity or person (for example, Microsoft or Taylor Swift) says that THIS is the standard, and waits for the world to comply.

Of course, there can be issues when MULTIPLE powerful entities or people try to champion competing standards.

But what if powerful entities band together?

SITA, the global leader in air transport technology, and IDEMIA Public Security, a world leader in digital technologies, biometrics, and security have announced a collaboration to advance interoperability, trust, and data security through a globally recognized Digital Travel Ecosystem.

Add Indico to the partnership, and perhaps the parties may be on to something.

The goal is to create “an open, secure, and interoperable framework that ensures a travelers’ digital identity is trusted globally, without the need for direct integrations between issuers and verifiers.” It is intentionally decentralized, giving the traveler control over their identity.

Perhaps it’s a fantasy to think that others will buy in. Will they?

Or will they instead select Taylor’s version?

CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81523364

Dr. Jones MD, NPE

I have a telehealth appointment next week with a medical professional whom I have previously met. And I assume she will participate in the telehealth appointment.

In the future, of course, she may not.

Way back in April 2013, I wrote a tymshft piece entitled “You will still take a cab to the doctor’s office. For a while.” It speculated about a future 2023 medical appointment in which the patient took a driverless cab to a medical facility. In the office, the patient was examined by remote staff…or so she thought.

“Well, I’m glad you’ve gotten used to the procedure,” replied the friendly voice. “I hope you like me!”

“I do,” said Edith. “You’ve been very helpful. But I’ve always wondered exactly WHERE you were. If you were in Los Angeles, or in Mississippi, or perhaps in India or China, or perhaps even in one of the low-cost places such as Chad. If you don’t mind my asking, exactly where ARE you?”

“I don’t mind answering the question,” replied the friendly voice, “and I hope you don’t take my response the wrong way, but I’m not really a person as you understand the term. I’m actually an application within the software package that runs the medical center. But my programmers want me to tell you that they’re really happy to serve you, and that Stanford sucks.” The voice paused for a moment. “I’m sorry, Edith. You have to forgive the programmers – they’re Berkeley grads.”

“Oh,” said Edith after a moment. “This is something new. I’m used to it in banking, but I didn’t realize that a computer program could run an entire medical center. Well…who picks up the trash?”

“That’s an extra question! Just kidding,” replied the friendly voice. “Much of the trash pickup is automated, but we do have a person to supervise the operation. Ron Hussein. You actually know him – he was your cab driver in 2018 when you came here.”

Re-reading this 2013 piece, I was amused at three things I got wrong.

First, Google, Facebook, and Apple did NOT merge to form Gaceapple, “the important merger that saved the tech industry in the United States from extinction.” American tech firms are still powerful…for now.
Second, my assumption of cab companies adopting driverless cars assumed the continued existence of cab companies. Ride share services have reduced the presence of traditional companies dramatically.
Third, my assumption that medical firms would sink untold sums of money into centralized automated medical examination rooms could be questioned…especially for routine appointments like Edith’s. Why not just let Edith’s smartphone—perhaps with a single attachment—gather the data?

Of course, there are medical ethics questions that underlie this entire discussion of remote telehealth and the use of non-person entities (NPEs). And we are struggling with those right now.