In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- How to pivot careers well
- AI’s strengths and limitations in converting data into actionable business advice
- How audio content is becoming searchable on Google
Pivot On Purpose
Eugene has had a successful career as an entrepreneur, fundraiser, investor, and tech-analyst. His first job was putting stickers on boxes. Though it was boring, he says it taught him to pivot.
“Every pivot is important but I think the important part is learning, rather than the pivot itself.”
He has learned that the most important thing when starting a business is to lay a solid foundation of tried and true business principles. Don’t ignore the signs that you need to do something different.
Signs of Success Come In Stages
The signs a business is working depends on the stage it’s in. Eugene says it’s best to start with a very clear idea of your target audience. From there, determine what is causing consistent problems for that audience.
“You want to have a very clear target audience that has a repetitive problem because you need recurring business.”
Eugene stresses that new businesses need to find ways to make predictable sales. Repeatability is a simple concept, but it’s often overlooked. If not the end user, find a middle man whose actions will be repetitive around your product.
Making Sense of Data: AI v. Human
Eugene is a data expert. His work centers on how to apply algorithms to data that would extract concrete, usable insights that can help clients better run their businesses. AI has become a huge help to his work, but it still has a long way to go.
“Humans are still better at understanding the complexities of business.”
The more specific the task and the better defined your parameters are, the better AI results become — and the more time you have to build relationships, unleash creativity, and build better products.
Audio Is Becoming Searchable
Technology that can analyze voice content and make it indexable for search engines has recently become cost-effective enough to become widely available. That means big things for podcasters.
With this new technology, Google can index every podcast.
Not only will this increase listenership and demand, but it will give people answers to their questions without requiring them to listen to an entire podcast episode. They can just jump to the section where the answer is. And soon audio content will be as searchable as text.
“I think the future is very bright for audio content in general.”
To take advantage of this new technology, Eugene recommends that podcasters:
- Follow closely what Google says about how to index audio
- Learn about and stay updated on how Google crawls audio
“The better Google can understand your content over time, the less text you’ll need.”
In the meantime, follow Google and keep using SEO best practices for your accompanying written content.
