Have you ever wondered how some entrepreneurs seem to effortlessly build authentic connections with their audience through video content? 

In today's episode, we get to know Deb Szabo, an expert in video and AI, who joined the Empire Builder show in November 2022 and quickly launched her course by January 2023. Deb has been instrumental in helping businesses enhance their content marketing, build brand credibility, and create strong, authentic connections using technology.

Deb Szabo empowers businesses to achieve tangible growth, by helping you build credibility, nurture a loyal community and accelerate the buyer's journey. Business owners work with Deb because of her ability to;

•  Uncover their unique selling point
•  Articulate their messaging
•  Provide strategy to optimise their content marketing
•  Create a clear pathway to bring ideas to life, stand out from the crowd and make more money

She is an ardent advocate of using video to create authentic connections and elevate your brand. Her mission is help people get unstuck with tech, tell their unique story and amplify their message so they become the catalyst for change in someone else's world.

Throughout her 3 decades working in marketing and media, she has embraced the evolution of the digital world and it's powerful ability to let us talk to our audience anywhere in the world, anytime for free.

Deb is a self confessed tech geek who teaches you how to leverage video and ai inside CONTENT CATALYST membership. She gives you the strategy and tools, so you know what content to make, how to create it and where to share it so you go from forgettable to credible.

 

Where to find Deb Szabo:

LinkedIn here

Instagram here

Website here

Tina Tower [00:00:00]:
Hi friend, and welcome to her Empire Builder show. Thank you for joining us today. I have for you another episode in our member story series and today I have Deb Savo joining us. Deb is a champion of a woman and an absolute expert in video, which she's going to talk a little bit about today as well as her story. So Deb joined us inside her Empire builder in November 2022 and then launched her course in January 2023. So it was pretty fast to be implementing and what she has achieved in the last year is incredible. She's built her whole Kajabi website from scratch, set up all of her lead magnets, launched one on one coaching, done webinar Promotions, hosted live workshops, resigned from her full time job, launched a course and then launched a membership as well. So incredible in terms of what she has done inside of a year in her empire builder.

Tina Tower [00:01:03]:
But Deb is definitely a woman that like, go gets what she wants. So a little bit about Deb Deb Deb Sabo empowers businesses to achieve tangible growth by helping you build credibility, nurture a loyal community and accelerate the buyer's journey. Business owners work with Deb because of her ability to uncover their unique selling point, articulate their messaging, provide strategy to optimize their content marketing, and create a clear pathway to bring ideas to life and stand out from the crowd. She is an advocate of using video to create authentic connections and elevate your brand. And her mission is to help people get unstuck with tech, tell their unique story and amplify their message so that they become a catalyst for change in someone else's world. Throughout her three decades working in marketing and media, she has embraced the evolution of the digital world and its powerful ability to let us talk to our audience anywhere, anytime, for free. Deb is a self confessed tech geek who teaches you how to leverage video and AI inside content catalyst membership, and she gives you the strategy and tools so you know what content to make, how to create it, and where to share it. So you go from forgettable to credible.

Tina Tower [00:02:15]:
And that is something that Deb and I share a lot of together. And we're talking about our shared mutual love of tech and AI in the conversation today and how Deb's evolution has come from, you know, having all of those business iterations into what she now has with her course and membership ascension model setup. So I know you're going to find it super inspiring. The journey of the wonderful Deb Sabo. Hello and welcome to her Empire Builder show. I'm your business strategist and host, Tina Tower. And I am so happy you are here. My goal with this show is to bring you the inspirational and informative conversations with interesting humans, as well as the tools, tips and resources to help you build your online business.

Tina Tower [00:03:02]:
Starting my first business at 20, I have built and sold four times. And in 2018, while traveling around the world with my family for a year, I tripped and fell into this wonderful world of online courses, and I instantly fell in love. I'm a million dollar cost creator, a world traveler, best selling author, a mummer of two man children, and a lucky wife. There's no playing small here. It's your time to grow to run a highly profitable business that makes a you wildly wealthy while you positively impact your clients and the world around you and have the life you've always dreamed of. Let's get it. Gorgeous. Deb, welcome to her empire builder show.

Main Episode

Deb Szabo [00:03:45]:
Thank you so much for having me. Tina.

Tina Tower [00:03:47]:
Hey. I'm excited to have you here. I love, I am loving all of the member story series. It's so good getting everyone's backstory and even people I've known you for years now and going still, I get to uncover little bits that I have I haven't ever found out about you before.

Deb Szabo [00:04:04]:
Yeah, absolutely.

Tina Tower [00:04:06]:
Okay, so in a nutshell, tell us what you are currently doing. We were just talking about, before we hit record, what an exciting time it is at the moment to be in our industry, but give us a rundown on what you're doing at the moment.

Deb Szabo [00:04:18]:
Yeah. So I am helping people use video and AI to get seen, build their brand and make more money, essentially, because, you know, we still need to be out there promoting what we do. And we've got two of the most incredible tools available to us to be able to do that. So I want to just help people navigate that because it can be, you know, a bit tough for some people who aren't tech savvy, you know?

Tina Tower [00:04:48]:
Yeah, it can be a bit tough for the tech savvy, but it's also, there's something about putting your face on video as well that can be really difficult for a lot of people.

Deb Szabo [00:04:57]:
Incredibly difficult. So it's not just about the tech, it's actually just getting people through that mindset of what it takes to show up and the importance of it, because often, and, you know, we're all guilty of this, is that when you're running your business, you're so busy just doing the things that marketing in general is the thing that gets pushed to the side.

Tina Tower [00:05:17]:
Yeah. And it's the most important part of being a cost creator.

Deb Szabo [00:05:21]:
The most important part. And so for me, in my own business, I'm literally dedicating a whole day every week just to content creation.

Tina Tower [00:05:30]:
Great. You're going to do amazing things with that. Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:05:34]:
So I think that that's the biggest thing with businesses is knowing how important it is to dedicate that time. And then it is about getting over ourselves of going, okay, showing up on video is hard. I mean, I've been doing it for years, and if my hair and makeup's not done, that's an easy excuse to go. I'll record tomorrow. Right. And so that's half the thing. Why? You know, I'm, you know, done my hair and makeup today for this, you know, recording. And I'm going to record my podcast afterwards.

Deb Szabo [00:06:02]:
But if you go to my Instagram page often, you'll see me with a cap in my running gear because I want to give people permission that it's okay just to turn up as you are. And I feel that if we remove as many of those barriers, especially as women, especially older women as well, is that we, we've come from a generation where, like, if you, you know, my mum, for example, she, like, never go out without a hair and makeup done.

Tina Tower [00:06:25]:
And I still remember my grandma going, like, you can't go anywhere without your face on, Tina. And I like, without my face on. And as you know, I don't do hair and makeup. So it's like, it's a different, foreign thing. I mean, I was thinking of that. Like, this is a really good point because I was thinking of it this morning because today I have a very full zoom call day. I've got, like four podcast interviews, masterclass, which is like my most important thing in the month in my schedule, like, a lot of things. And I even set my alarm early to get up to do my hair.

Tina Tower [00:06:56]:
I got a new Dyson airwrap. And I'm like, I'm going to become the woman that does her hair and looks presentable. I am old enough that I need to do this now. Anyway, the alarm went off and it was pouring with rain. And one of our kids is sick, so he hasn't gone to school, so he was still in bed. And my husband was like, I'm just going to lay in for a little bit. And I'm like, okay, so I can either get up and do my hair or lay there and hug my husband. I'm going to choose lay there and hug my husband.

Tina Tower [00:07:18]:
And then I still had a little bit of time left and then I was like, okay, can do the hair and then go straight to my desk to kick off the first session, or I can go to my desk and get on top of emails knowing that I can't look at them until tomorrow, otherwise. So which choice? And I always choose the thing that is not my hair and makeup. And it's something I had to get comfortable with early because I knew I would repeatedly choose that choice. And it was also stopping me from showing up. And then I had to really accept, you know what, this is just how I am and this is how I look. And hopefully, I mean, I don't come on looking like a slob. I think that difference, but I think hopefully people will judge me for my ideas and my knowledge and not my face.

Deb Szabo [00:08:03]:
There's two points of that, too with Tina, is that when I get up, like today, if I'm going to be on camera, I need high energy and I need to sustain that high energy. So I think about what is it? What's going to make me feel good and bring the energy to me?

Tina Tower [00:08:18]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:08:18]:
So I want to be on brand number one when I am going to be on camera because I know that I've got so much more opportunity to repurpose that content as well.

Tina Tower [00:08:28]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:08:28]:
I know that when I get up and I do my hair and makeup, I don't mind looking at myself for the day if I have to endure that.

Tina Tower [00:08:33]:
Yeah, it makes you feel. Yeah, right. Like the flick that's happening at the moment.

Deb Szabo [00:08:37]:
Yeah, yeah. It's like, therefore my mindset is going to be better and helps you confident to be more upfront. And that's why for me, whenever I, you know, in my course in my membership, that's one of the things is how to turn up confidently and how to empower yourself to bring the energy because. Because being on video, you know, like, it sucks the life, you know, sucks more life out of you and so therefore you have to amp up your energy. So when we present, I stand, I stand up. You know, when I do my masterclasses, I stand up. And whenever I record, I stand up and I'm not today, I'm sitting down chatting. But generally speaking, and these are the things of what will help me show up and share what I do because it's more funny.

Tina Tower [00:09:25]:
Do you know I sit down because I have to calm myself.

Deb Szabo [00:09:28]:
Yeah.

Tina Tower [00:09:29]:
If I stand up, I get too overexcited and I think it's the add thing and I end up, like, dumb enough that I actually, for my mom, like, I make sure I sit down and calm down. Take a breath, tina, relax. Like, isn't that funny? The different things. But this is your point is going do what works for you. And that's what we have to find 100%.

Deb Szabo [00:09:50]:
And it's hard, like. And that's why I say, like, for me, yesterday, I was like, I need to record a live because I've got to, you know, da da da. And. And then I was like, no, I'll just put this up. So even when you have got all the tools and you are confident in showing up, we still struggle, as in me going, I'm going to press record today. So that's why having. I have routines that I know, like, record first thing in the morning, do a story first thing in the morning. I know that if I've got all my tools around me in my studio, that I've got a tripod that sits right here.

Deb Szabo [00:10:24]:
So it's like a trigger that I come in, put my phone on there, and so therefore, I don't have the excuse of, I can't find my mic, I can't find my gear, I have my lights here, so have everything set up. And those are the things that will, I think, help people to just get past that thing of pressing record.

Tina Tower [00:10:42]:
Yeah, definitely. Okay, so I want to talk a little bit more about your story, because you went from full time employment into business not too long ago. In the scheme of things, how did that transition happen, and how did you get the idea to go in and back yourself and go all in on it?

Deb Szabo [00:11:02]:
I've been. I've, you know, had businesses over the years. I love being self employed. It's just how my brain works, I guess, that entrepreneur brain. And, you know, I've been a single mom, and, you know, it's like, you got to pay the bills and all the things. But I just had this yearning desire to go back out and work for myself and out of that as well. It wasn't just about my lifestyle. It was because I knew that I had the ability to help so many more people than just one business.

Deb Szabo [00:11:29]:
And it's funny, because I'm going back through my phone the other day, and I found an old video from 2021, and it was me, like, literally doing a, I'm gonna help businesses. You know, you've gotta post that.

Tina Tower [00:11:42]:
Have you posted it yet?

Deb Szabo [00:11:44]:
No.

Tina Tower [00:11:45]:
Gotta post it.

Deb Szabo [00:11:46]:
I know I do. Right? And three years ago, I must have been having a glass of wine one night, and I was like, this is my. So I really had it in my brain. Of like, my purpose was going to be this.

Tina Tower [00:11:58]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:11:58]:
And so it took me that long to set up all the groundwork and. But I just knew that I had to do this business and I wanted the freedom and the flexibility, and that's why an online course really appealed to me as well.

Tina Tower [00:12:12]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:12:13]:
And then when I started the foundations, I was like, every night and every weekend I'd be learning kajabi. I'd get up at three in the morning to watch webinars in America, you know, to learn how to use the funnel and how to build a funnel and how to create a landing page on Kajabi. And so he's doing all these things and I've got a marketing background, so I've already got that advantage, but there was still so much to do to set up.

Tina Tower [00:12:40]:
And it's always changing as well. Like, it's always changing. And so one of the questions I wanted to ask you, because you've got that marketing background and you're super into marketing, you're super into tech, but you've niched into video, of which, you know, we talk a lot about niching and the advantages and disadvantages in being able to do that. How come video, and did that start more abroad and you went in? Or were you always like, I'm going to be the best at video?

Deb Szabo [00:13:07]:
It's really an interesting question because I have been working in tourism and the wine industry for the better part of 20 years and I thought I'd actually go down that track. And I really struggled with the two of where am I going to do this as a business or this? And I'm like, why I chose video is at the time I was still working full time and I thought that I was going to, I could see a need for people in my industry, in the wine industry, of actually needing using video badly or not at all. And I knew that the business that I was working with, how much it catapulted the business, like it turned it around, completely backflip the business to losing money, to making money. So I knew the power of it and I thought that if I went out and helped those people in the industry, that I could leverage and help them with all the tech and the video, because I just spent all that time learning it myself and I wanted to share the knowledge. And then what happened is I ended up finding this whole other community in business that actually needed the help and they were the ones that were actually jumping on everything. So when I launched my course and when I launched my membership, it was everyone else in the world that actually wanted it. Yeah. And it's only now, you know, a year and a half later that I have people in the industry that will come up and go, oh, yeah, I've been seeing all your stuff.

Deb Szabo [00:14:39]:
Oh, yeah, I should do that. So it's almost like they're the laggards.

Tina Tower [00:14:43]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:14:44]:
Taking it up.

Tina Tower [00:14:45]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:14:46]:
So they need it, they recognize it, but they're just still sitting on the fence. And in the meantime, I've been able to help all these course creators, for example, industries that are like, that's exactly what I need.

Tina Tower [00:14:57]:
Yeah, for sure.

Deb Szabo [00:14:59]:
And I guess from that, using video, I think I've always had this curiosity with a camera. Like at 16, I worked in Kodak, you know, and so I recognize the power of being able to turn up. But when video, like, as soon as I got a mobile phone with video, it was, that's like, if you look on my phone right now, I think I got 19,000 videos on my phone.

Tina Tower [00:15:20]:
Amazing.

Deb Szabo [00:15:21]:
I need to clean that up. Right? Yeah.

Tina Tower [00:15:23]:
That's going to take a long time.

Deb Szabo [00:15:24]:
Yeah, I know.

Tina Tower [00:15:25]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:15:26]:
So that is my obsession, I guess, because I'm a visual person and I just know the impact about when we turn up face to face. It's so powerful, for sure. Connection one to one. But when we couldn't turn up face to face, when we actually leveraged video, that was when you could talk to anyone, anywhere in the world, anytime you like, and it just still blows my mind that it's for free and people don't leverage it.

Tina Tower [00:15:52]:
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And so how has your offer kind of changed since you started? What does it look like now? Because I know that a lot of people, when they, when they first start, it's like, what do I put into it? Did you put too much? Did you price it too high, too low? Like, how has that changed over the last couple of years?

Deb Szabo [00:16:09]:
What I did when I started, I first did a. So in my brain, it's like January, I kicked off last year, and then I did webinar. I offered one to one coaching and purely experimental. I purely undercharged that. I just wanted the tick, the box and get, like, the sales so I could, I think there's a lot of.

Tina Tower [00:16:31]:
Merit in that, too. Like, you need people that get good results and come through and love it.

Deb Szabo [00:16:37]:
And it's really interesting because I gave people what they needed so I could give them, I gave people what they wanted so I could give them what they needed. And that's kind of where, I guess the first part of like, all right, you need to do some social media planning because that's where it all starts from. Right. And so then I offered that, and then I offered, and then I did a workshop the month later, and that was about video essentials for social media because that was where most people were using video. And then I launched twice last year, and I adapted each time I launched my course.

Tina Tower [00:17:10]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:17:12]:
And then I had to look at how I was getting branded as well, because one of the things that I found is, like, when I first started, because I'm a marketing strategist, like, I'm really big picture business. Like, I look at, I can look at a business and I'm like, that they're there and there, right. But I was like, getting branded as the Instagram girl, and I'm like, okay, what am I sharing to give that in business? Yeah, right. And then it was like. And then I was, and then I was getting branded as a videographer. Now, I've studied that. I know that. But I didn't want to work as my day job as a videographer.

Tina Tower [00:17:49]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:17:50]:
I wanted to empower other people and create content as well, but I didn't want to wake up in the morning and go, here's my list of videography jobs.

Tina Tower [00:17:58]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:17:59]:
So twice last year, I had to look at my. How I was getting branded myself.

Tina Tower [00:18:03]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:18:04]:
And then what I also found is when I launched my course is, like, once AI hit the ground, the first thing I did was incorporate that into the course. So I. And I presented it live as well, over six weeks. So each week was a session that layered on each. And then I was like, okay, because it's live, I can modify it.

Tina Tower [00:18:24]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:18:25]:
And then I found, when I went to launch this year, I just kept coming up with a roadblock of going, I just don't feel aligned with this. And the reason was, is because there was so much more. And that's why this year I launched my membership. And so each month we layer on layer on layer, and then there's a community and that support as well, because it changes so quickly with tech.

Tina Tower [00:18:49]:
Oh, it does? Yes. Ridiculously quickly. What's been your favorite, like, what's been your most mind blowing thing with AI so far?

Deb Szabo [00:18:58]:
Just everything it can do. And I use this as, like, my son wanted an electric scooter on the weekend, and he came in, he's like. And he's like, me, when we want to know something, we go down a deep rabbit hole of research, that hyperfocus ability. And I went, all right, well, let's just ask perplexity what it says. So I asked it to review it, rate it, give me the top ones. And his research was right. But I could, you know, save hours of research and consolidate it into just one thing. Yeah, it just blows my mind, the capacity and capability of what it can do.

Deb Szabo [00:19:35]:
And I'm not just talking about what you can type in and ask it to do. I'm talking about video editing as well. What used to take.

Tina Tower [00:19:42]:
Oh, yeah. Hours and cost so much as well.

Deb Szabo [00:19:46]:
Costs so much, I can jump in now, create one hero video, repurpose it 15 different ways across all the different platforms in a few hours.

Tina Tower [00:19:56]:
Yeah. What's your favorite tool to use to repurpose?

Deb Szabo [00:20:02]:
I love perplexity AI. I think that is my most favorite thing. I use a pro version, so it taps into chat, and Jim and I claude everything, and I just love the comprehension of it as well. I've done the side by side test of asking chat GPT this.

Tina Tower [00:20:19]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:20:20]:
And then I put the same thing into perplexity. And perplexity is next level. So I think that perplexity is my most favorite.

Tina Tower [00:20:27]:
Does that repurpose all your long form video content, too?

Deb Szabo [00:20:30]:
So what I do is when I record, so I start with my video. So my long form video, which is my podcast, I then take that video and I put it, I edit in premiere pro.

Tina Tower [00:20:44]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:20:44]:
And so what I do with that is I put into premiere pro, I take the mp3 and then I take the transcription. I take the transcription, I put it into perplexity. It will then give me my time stamp, my chapter, my show notes. Yeah. Then it'll give me my blog, my email, my captions.

Tina Tower [00:21:07]:
Just cut down so much time in what it used to take us, 30 reels. Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:21:12]:
Like, everything is just from that one thing. And I also love text based editing as well, because I find that from there, and I know there's a lot of, and I get asked this question all the time, is what software should I use for getting the little snippets? And I know you did one recently with Opus, and I love opus, I love Munch. But what I find is most of them all do snippets these days.

Tina Tower [00:21:35]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:21:36]:
It's just about how much time do you want to spend getting that, right? Snippet?

Tina Tower [00:21:40]:
Yes, exactly.

Deb Szabo [00:21:41]:
So for me, I would rather like, go in, take my snippet that I want and download that, and I can still get ten videos of a 20 minutes, you know, video out of that.

Tina Tower [00:21:55]:
Yeah. Nice. And what are your thoughts on the fake AI videos of yourself, our clones, because I know this is something that I shared a couple weeks ago, and we had such mixed results, and I was like, what are your views on it?

Deb Szabo [00:22:11]:
So here's my thing, right?

Tina Tower [00:22:13]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:22:14]:
I love tech, and I will experiment with everything, and I do. It's costly and expensive and time wasting.

Tina Tower [00:22:23]:
When we did our budget the other day, and I was like, I think I spent an extra $800 on software subscriptions last month just because I'm buying everything and playing with everything, which is our job also.

Deb Szabo [00:22:33]:
Yes. Yeah, absolutely. So that's why I'm happy to do that. But then I had to do the same thing. I had to go through and cancel what I don't need as well. But I think with being able to use the AI. So TikTok have got this symphony editor at the moment. I don't know whether you've looked in the back of TikTok.

Tina Tower [00:22:55]:
No, I don't go on TikTok at all.

Deb Szabo [00:22:58]:
They have this incredible machine, essentially, to help you with all of your content, and they're all about the AI person. And it's a really interesting thing because it's quite controversial with a lot of big creators as well. I'm a bystander in the way of, I'm just observing everyone's opinion and watching everyone, how they're reacting with it. Yeah, I want to experiment. I am actually experimenting with stuff at the moment to compare me turning up and someone else turning up.

Tina Tower [00:23:30]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:23:31]:
I always come back to authentically you.

Tina Tower [00:23:34]:
I think so, too.

Deb Szabo [00:23:36]:
For me, it. And I know, and I see this with a lot of faceless marketing. Yeah. So, yeah. And this is one of my things. Right. I'm always observing what people do, and I'll trial it and I'll call B's if it's B's. Right.

Deb Szabo [00:23:51]:
And when I see people online going, you can, you know, get millions of followers if you just do these faceless videos. And I'm. And I'm like, but you're all, all of your videos. Are all of you telling everyone to do faceless videos, right?

Tina Tower [00:24:07]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:24:08]:
At the end of the day, there's going to be times like you did one with the different language.

Tina Tower [00:24:15]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:24:16]:
So if you want to attract an overseas market and you want to do a sales video on your website. Wow, that's so powerful.

Tina Tower [00:24:23]:
Yes.

Deb Szabo [00:24:23]:
That is so powerful that you can do that. And, you know, you're going to Europe and you're a business over in Italy. How cool is it if the owner could actually do a video come to my business, but it's them, but it's not. And it's in their language. That's cool. I love the idea of that, where I'm probably full circle around with. It's all about human connection. And that's the reason why at the moment, I'm doing all these things out in the road, because I have a personal brand.

Deb Szabo [00:24:54]:
There's business brand and personal brand. Right. And personal brand will always come back to. There's nothing more powerful than showing up face to face. The next best thing is video. 100%. And with that video, it has to be you.

Tina Tower [00:25:08]:
Yeah, I agree, too. I had a play with them, and I will be creating different avatars that are pure fake avatars that we are very upfront about. But there's different things in going, I think it's a trust issue when it's not you, but it looks like you and it sounds like you, like there's something about it that, yeah, it just sat wrong, but I had to play with it in order to go, yeah, I don't think this is. This is. I'm not going to love this.

Deb Szabo [00:25:36]:
So it's consistency and relevance. Right. So consistency is that if I'm showing up in Instagram Stories every other day with my face and it's like, well, that's really dead. Right. So when I actually turn up and go, hey, I've got this to sell, would you like to buy it? Hopefully we've had this connection, community and that you'll go, yeah, I want to do that, you know, because I trust what Deb says. So here's the thing, is that when I. When I see people that don't turn up authentically, them, the trust is minimized. And we know there's never been more of a time where we have less trust in what we buy.

Tina Tower [00:26:12]:
Yeah, yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:26:13]:
And five years ago, if you put a video online, you go, oh, there's a UFO landing. That must be UFO, because it's video, right?

Tina Tower [00:26:21]:
Yeah. No one trusts anything at the.

Deb Szabo [00:26:23]:
No one tries anything. And I think this will be the biggest thing that we'll see.

Tina Tower [00:26:27]:
I was talking to my kids about that. At the moment, they don't trust pictures, videos, none of it. They're like, none of it is real. Even if it's real. They're like, we don't trust anything, which I think is difficult for their generation.

Deb Szabo [00:26:42]:
So, interestingly, there was a thing on Paris with the Eiffel Tower, and there was this whole controversy. This was on TikTok. Right. But the Eiffel Tower was on fire and it went, it scooped through the Internet and. But it wasn't really, it was AI generated.

Tina Tower [00:27:01]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:27:02]:
But it was hot news for the day because people were like, oh my God, is that really a problem?

Tina Tower [00:27:06]:
Isn't it? Yeah. Or it is already. Yeah, totally interesting.

Deb Szabo [00:27:11]:
Hey, that sounds so interesting.

Tina Tower [00:27:13]:
So you mentioned before that you're going on the road. How did this come about from a marketing point of view, to go, you know what, I'm gonna hit the road. I'm gonna go meet people in person because I love this idea. It's one of my favorite things to do.

Deb Szabo [00:27:27]:
I think I'm an introvert, extrovert. These days. It's like I work from home and I love being able to work from home, but I love being able to get out and talk with people and hear their stories and connect with them, because at the end of the day, I work with the Groundswell foundation, which is about helping combat loneliness in Australia, affecting mental health. And so one of the biggest things that comes out of the report with the connection matters report was about we are so connected, but we're so disconnected in our world these days. So the stats on loneliness are just through the roof. And so it's so important for us to go back out and make an effort to, you know, connect with people again and have real conversations because I love having the flexibility to do, you know, a business online.

Tina Tower [00:28:22]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:28:23]:
But when you walk into a room and you can touch people and feel their energy.

Tina Tower [00:28:27]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:28:28]:
Feel their, you know, laughter and conversation, that to me just, yeah, sets my world on fire. So I love that idea. And that's what are you doing at.

Tina Tower [00:28:39]:
These workshops that you're going to run?

Deb Szabo [00:28:41]:
So I'm doing, first of all, content strategy. So one of the biggest things I see is people throw so much time and resources wanting to put themselves out there, but they don't know what they're to actually create.

Tina Tower [00:28:53]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:28:54]:
And so I want to help them, first of all, with the foundations, get their strategy right and give them the tools to be able to shortcut that process as well with Aih. So I want them to be able to go right. I've got a plan, I've got a strategy, and now I can outsource it to a VA. And what happens is that what I see a lot of the time is people outsource their content creation, content marketing. And I'm not just talking about a social media video, I'm just talking about their whole marketing strategy. They'll hand it off to a va going, yeah, I can write an email, a blog and put some social reels up. But they're not getting impact. It's because they haven't got their strategy in place.

Deb Szabo [00:29:29]:
So I want to help them do that first and then give them the tools on how to use video and aihdenae to be able to do that. So that's my focus.

Tina Tower [00:29:37]:
Gonna be super fun. And we'll link to that in the show notes as well so that people can find that in there too. What has been throughout your transition from going all in to course creation? What's been the hardest thing about becoming a course creator?

Deb Szabo [00:29:54]:
The juggling act of having that full time role and that security of income to going in and wanting to do all of the things that I need to do for my business. And I think that's where I have this burning passion, to just keep going like that tenacity, to just keep going. That is the hardest thing of going. I've got my list. My list is like this, but I've only got this much time in my day, right?

Tina Tower [00:30:22]:
I mean, does that ever end though? Dev? I know we go on vacation on Friday and I had our team meeting yesterday, which was the Monday, and I've got a lot of calls this week and different things. 73 items on my task list before we go away. And some of them, most people would spend a day doing that. One thing, I'm like, so this is either going to end in massive disappointment, I'm going to get some things off the list, but I think, I don't know an entrepreneur that is realistic with their time. No, we all think we can do more than what we can do.

Deb Szabo [00:30:56]:
I am so deluded in this thing. I think I can do so much more than what I can actually do. And often that's why my son will come in and knock on the door and go, it's time to go to bed. Like, I think you should tap out. You know, it's like, get off the. Or my dog, actually, my dog sits at the window here and she'll tap in the afternoon at the glass door to go now.

Tina Tower [00:31:14]:
Yeah, it's time.

Deb Szabo [00:31:15]:
Otherwise I'll just keep going.

Tina Tower [00:31:17]:
Like, I just so glad you've got that. Yeah, so glad you've got that. I don't. I was having this conversation with someone this morning because she was saying she gets up at 04:00 in the morning to get her work done before, like, the rest of the household gets up. And I, which I think has been a blessing. I am not a morning person or a night person. I'm like a middle of the day thriver. I thrive between 730 and 04:00 p.m.

Tina Tower [00:31:37]:
that's it. I have never been able to get up super early and I have never worked past five because I just have no brain left. So I hear people do that. I'm like, that's amazing that you have the capacity to do that. But I, I go very hard and fast and then I'm done. Like a toddler.

Deb Szabo [00:31:52]:
Yeah, I get this about, I think it's about 730 to like a 930 peak buzz again. Like if I get up and have a refresh and then I'll come back in but I'm tired at the moment.

Tina Tower [00:32:04]:
So yeah, I think whatever works. I think one of the most integral parts of being successful in business is figuring out what works for you as an individual human and just doing that.

Deb Szabo [00:32:15]:
And I think you just got to like what you do if you've got a mission behind. Like the why. Like if I go, I've got a product that I've got to get up and I've got a. These are the things that I have to do in order to launch it. Then I can just come in on a Saturday or a Sunday, it doesn't matter. I can work 14, 15 hours for the day and just lose all track of time.

Tina Tower [00:32:36]:
Yeah, you're in flow.

Deb Szabo [00:32:37]:
I mean, just, I just want to get it done.

Tina Tower [00:32:39]:
Yeah. What advice would you give to other people who are looking to level up their online business that are kind of in those beginning stages and looking at what to do next?

Deb Szabo [00:32:49]:
Biggest thing is relevance and knowing who you're talking to and using the tools that are available. Like, I started my career in media, in radio and it still blows. Small businesses would have to spend thousands of dollars to advertise their business and it still blows my mind that we have the, our phone in our pocket, that we can talk to anyone for free, like, and reach thousands if not millions of people for free.

Tina Tower [00:33:25]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:33:26]:
And I'm like, take the time to leverage that because it won't always be around. Whatever was 30 years ago isn't today and whatever's today won't be in five years or even a year completely. So I'm just like, you've gotta, if you want business to grow, you have to think about where do you put your efforts? And because that's what I hear as well is a lot of people go, I'd like more people through my door. I'd like more business. I'm like, what are you doing today to do it?

Tina Tower [00:33:53]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:33:54]:
Like, and it's. So have you heard about Google's 711 four rule?

Tina Tower [00:34:00]:
No.

Deb Szabo [00:34:01]:
Okay, so you know the buyer journey to turn a stranger into a buyer? Google did all this research where it takes on average, 7 hours of someone consuming your content or researching across eleven different touch points across four different locations to turn them from a stranger to a buyer. Okay, so years ago it was like four touch points. And I work on 20 touch points in business. So it's like, this is why when people, we talk about quality over quantity, it's so important to think about having one quality piece of content and being able to redistribute it across the platforms that are available for us because we learn different. But we also, like you mentioned in one of your masterclasses, you get really good conversion with carousels. But if you didn't do all of the other stuff that you do, you wouldn't get the conversion from the carousel. I get conversions from stories.

Tina Tower [00:34:54]:
Yeah.

Deb Szabo [00:34:55]:
Okay, so. But I do all the other bits and pieces. It's the email, it's a podcast, it's the video, it's the face to face, it's the somebody else saying everything works together. And if you're just relying on, you know, one thing, it's not enough these days.

Tina Tower [00:35:11]:
Oh, yeah, completely. Yeah. Great advice. And what is your favourite part about being in her empire builder? You, of course, no one ever says that.

Deb Szabo [00:35:24]:
And I got to say this because when I was doing all the research, like, when I was building my Kajabi website, I was literally getting up at three in the morning watching these webinars so I could ask them questions live. And they were all in America. They were all in America. And then when I saw you on the kajabi, I did your lead magnet funnel and I just remember you were just like you. And I'm like, this is what I love is just how you break it down. You make it so approachable and easy for people to come into your world and help them grow their business and cut out all the stuff that they don't need to be doing. And I think that that's the most powerful thing that you have, is that, like, I know how to do all those things, but when you have somebody going, okay, now, do them now, what are you going to do this month? Let's do it. And that's the rocket that often we know so much.

Deb Szabo [00:36:20]:
It's not that we need to learn things, it's that we just need somebody rallying there to go and get it done.

Tina Tower [00:36:25]:
Let's do the next thing.

Deb Szabo [00:36:26]:
Let's do it. Let's make it happen.

Tina Tower [00:36:28]:
Yeah. And so for you, where are you heading? What does success look like for Deb for the rest of 2024?

Deb Szabo [00:36:36]:
It is about helping more people to be able to use the free tools that are available for everyone to promote their business, to get visible and help other people. Because when I help people show up, they then go and help all those other people. That changes lives.

Tina Tower [00:36:52]:
Like, yeah, the ripple effect is the coolest thing.

Deb Szabo [00:36:54]:
Changes lives. And that's why, you know, when you do turn up and tell people what you do using video, it's so impactful. Yeah.

Tina Tower [00:37:04]:
So good. Thank you, Deb. We'll link to your workshops and then your other resources in the show notes below so that people can find you. It was such a pleasure. Thank you for sharing your story with us.

Deb Szabo [00:37:14]:
Thank you so much.

Tina Tower [00:37:16]:
This episode was brought to you by my signature group coaching program, her empire builder. The best online education for female course creators in the world. Check it [email protected]. along with so many free resources to help you get building your empire and seeing those results that you deserve. If you loved this episode, please don't keep it a secret. Share it with a friend on social media and tag Meena Tower and give it a review. It really does help us to be able to bring you bigger and better content as we grow. Have the most beautiful day.

Tina Tower [00:37:53]:
I'm Tina Tower and I'm cheering you on all the way.