Produced By - AI and Authenticity: Creating Content that Connects in a Digital Age | #82: Jérémy Grandillon

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

Jérémy Grandillon is a sales and AI specialist who transformed his career trajectory from heading Sales and Marketing at a software company to founding his own sales agency, TC9. After years of learning, overcoming fear, and building an impressive online presence, he decided to take a leap into entrepreneurship, fuelled by his passion for helping others succeed in sales. Now, he empowers businesses to scale using AI-driven strategies, sharing valuable insights on leveraging technology for greater efficiency and success. In this episode, Jérémy dives into his journey from humble beginnings to becoming a prominent voice in AI and sales. Expect a mix of inspiration and practical advice on following entrepreneurial dreams, along with Jérémy’s unique perspectives on French culture, directly from a Frenchman himself. Connect with Jeremy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremygrandillon/  https://x.com/jgrandillon TC9: https://tc9.ai/ Connect with Tommen: LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasloucky/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thisistommen/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/TomasLoucky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Podcast: Links: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/produced_by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Support: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ProducedByPodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Produced (email newsletter): ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://produced.beehiiv.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ More: Trailblazed (marketing agency): ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://trailblazed.digital/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Epixtory (podcasting agency): ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.epixtory.digital/⁠⁠  Produced (LinkedIn newsletter): ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7092551882589528065⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Produced By with Tommen is your weekly dose of inspiration where ambition meets creativity. Join us as we dive into the journeys of content creators, entrepreneurs, and other remarkable individuals who break barriers and redefine success. Each episode shares unique stories, challenges, and triumphs. From heartfelt struggles to incredible successes, these conversations will motivate you to push beyond your limits and chase your own dreams. Whether you're on a creative path or just love great stories, tune in and become part of a community that constantly strives to push the boundaries. Sit back, relax and enjoy. Connect with Tomas:X: https://x.com/TomasLoucky⁠⁠⁠Stan: https://stan.store/TommenLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasloucky/⁠⁠Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisistommen/⁠⁠Unproduced:Newsletter: https://unproduced.substack.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@unproducednotesSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033Ddo8ibDlLYoaP7FFLIWMore:Links: https://linktr.ee/produced_by⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://producednewsletter.substack.com/⁠The Podcast Club: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/25420030/Tools & gear that support the show:Metricool: https://f.mtr.cool/HRJBZKRiverside: https://riverside.sjv.io/vDnDodFavikon: https://www.favikon.com?fpr=tommenRa Optics: https://ra-optics.myshopify.com/discount/TOMMEN?rfsn=8803777.591d19JamX: https://jamx.ai/podcasters-offer?ref_id=e02d48af-ef66-4e76-b804-c2e8d282a8bfSome links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you find them useful, using these links helps keep the podcast running. Thank you!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So you can basically learn faster, but still you will always have to practice yourself. And at some point, you can save a few months by paying something if it's a quality course, but you will still do the mistakes and learn by doing. That's how human beings are built, you know. Exactly. And AI won't save you at all. Like you can find good AI tools to produce content that is fine, but it will never be the same if you do it yourself. And then it's the same logic, you know,

If you have the skills, then you can use AI tools to accelerate the process because you know what you are doing. You know what is a good hook. You know what is a good post. And you can then take the output of the AI tool that you have used and tweak it to make it a good post. Because if you just copy and paste without knowing what's good, what's not based on your skills, it will just be average.

And average is not good enough on the platform like LinkedIn, which is a bit more mature now. Before we dive into today's episode, please hit that subscribe button. Your support helps us grow and inspire more people on their journeys. Thank you. Hello Jeremy. Thank you for joining us today and welcome to the show. Hi, Thomas. Thank you.

I'm happy to be here with you. So Jeremy, can you please introduce yourself? Yeah, sure. Jeremy. I'm the CEO and co-founder of TC9. we are the AI all-bound agency. We are trying to invent or at least spread this new word, all-bound. And yeah, basically we do sales prospecting and content creation on LinkedIn.

That's what we do. And can you tell us a bit about your background? Of course, people who are listening based on accent, you are probably from France. Yeah. You guessed it. I see. Or from the name. Yeah, I'm French. I was born in Versailles. Some people know the city. And I live in Paris for the last, I've been living here for the last eight years now. I've always been around this area. And yeah, my background, I've been always been a bit geeky. I've tried to go to the developer way and realize that code was, was true.

too hard for me, but I still love the technology itself. So always been involved in tech, more or less. And then I pivoted into more business school management stuff quite general at the time to learn a bit more about business. Then I've been a project manager in a communication agency. I've been an IT consultant. Then I pivoted to be a business developer in 2019. Then I had the opportunity to create the entire sales and marketing department for another startup in France.

So it was taking the big leap, you know. And also just briefly speaking of Paris and France, what is it like living there? Do you enjoy there? Yeah, it's great. I mean, it's a noisy city, so you have to enjoy those kind of environment, for sure. If you like calm and quiet situation, that's not really for you. But if you like an active city, Paris is one of the biggest in Europe, I guess. So probably behind maybe London, which is not exactly in Europe anymore.

But yeah, I think it's one of the biggest we have here. So you have to like big cities. And I do. I visited it a few years ago and I enjoyed it. So are you planning to stay or planning to move somewhere else? The ideal situation would be to be successful enough with the agency to travel while still having something in Paris, you know. So I can stay here. The ideal situation would be I can stay here in Paris when the weather is nice.

and when it starts to be too cold like now in November, moving somewhere with Mawson, maybe. That would be a good situation. Have you got like a specific place in mind that you would like to move to? I don't know. I think it's a... I really like Lisbon. I don't know if you have been there.

Yeah, I visited it too. Yeah. I enjoyed that city. I love the mindset over there, the general mood of the city and the weather for sure. Yeah. And it's not that far away, is it? And it's not that far away. So, you know, from family and friends that are staying in France, it can be comfortable as well.

But I would love to travel a bit more, like going to the US. I have most of my clients based in the US. So I would love to visit them as well. Asia. I like Asia as well. So many things to see. If it will be Southeast Asia, like a digital nomad? Not really.

I'm not really in the backpacking and digital nomad thing, but I really enjoy when I travel, and that's also part of the motivation of having your own business and having a remote work at least, is that when you travel as a tourist for two weeks, you want to see everything, so you are in the mood where you don't really stop and live, how people live in that specific place.

And the few experiences that I had when I was traveling and stay for a long period of time in a different country, it doesn't happen much for me, but the few times I did that, I really enjoyed the fact to live like people do locally. So I would love to do it more, like as I can work with just my computer, you know, stay for a month somewhere and just enjoy the global local mood, I would say. I totally understand. and I can rely. So is then your current job online or is it in offices or hybrid or what is it like?

Yeah, everything we do, we do it remotely. So we work on, you know, cold emails, LinkedIn, everything is online. And as I told you, most of my clients are in the US and the rest of them are not in France at all. So to me, to me, you know, so it's always good. you see and visit your clients once in a while, but it's not required to work. So we can be based anywhere. Is that the rule not to work with French clients or is it coincidental? I mean, when I first started, my first thought was, okay, I have two options.

First, I do 100% French and target the French market. or I try to use my English language skills and grow worldwide. And I just did the mat like, okay, the market is bigger if I just target everything instead of just friends. So I give myself more chances to find clients and grow a business that works. So that was the very first out. And also I always wanted this opportunity to work with different people. because I know French people, the French people, I know them. And I know that, especially in our industry and in, you know, sales prospecting, it's a bit hard.

And especially in our case, because we are kind of on the age of the new wave of sales prospecting, using AI, using, you know, automation, using many, I would say, advanced things. And some part of what we do is to educate our prospect and our clients on that. because many people are not aware of what we can do with those tools. And I know the French are a bit, you know, maybe I want to make many friends if some French people are listening. No, it was actually my question. If you can try to describe or maybe for people who never visit it or don't know many French people, if you, you know,

a bit of a description of French people. Okay. So that's a tough one because maybe I won't have many friends in front of that but you need to paint a perfect picture no I mean as everywhere and with every

culture I would say we have positive sides and less positive size and we are well known it's a bit of a cliche but we are well known to be a bit against things in general

like we prefer to say no first and then think of what comes next, which is a bit different. For example, in the US, they are more open to pay to see. In France, it's not like that. You have to prove that you can do something before they're receiving one euro. So it's not exactly the same strategies. And as I was training you with new technologies, new methodologies, it's difficult to prove without.

especially at the beginning, you need to, you know, try first, fail a bit and then learn and build something that's walking. And it's, I think, it's just my opinion. I think it's more difficult with French people. That's it. But we have also good sides, you know. No. We are quite welcoming. We are quite welcoming.

We like people when they come in Paris. We have this reputation to never smile. It's a bit too much. It's not really true, I would say. And you have some delicious cuisine and food. Of course. There are many benefits. The best in the world, for sure.

I'm sure that audience. And wine. You know, good baguette and good wine. That's all saying. Those are great points. And were you then always someone who had like the opposite or not traditional mindset, which are open to trying things? Myself, you mean?

Yeah, yeah, for sure. As I told you, since my young age, like I am my first computer, I had my first computer at five or six, something like this. I always loved new technology in general. And yeah, so it's kind of in my mindset to try new techs, new stuff. When I was head of sales at a software company before starting my business, I was always saving some time and resources to try. new stuff because this is also how you you find new opportunities you know and most of the time it doesn't work so you're like okay i wasted hours a few hours and a few a few euros but in the end when you find something that's on the edge of what your competitors are doing uh you can leverage this

and and make the difference so i always trying to to go that way but sometimes it's a bit difficult you have to convince, you know, the chain of command when you are in a big corporation and stuff like this. Sometimes it's frustrating. That's also one of the reason why I wanted to, when starting my own business, wanted to make it international. So I can always try new stuff and everywhere. Yeah.

And I know that you told us about your experience before, but what was your idea of your ideal job when you were younger? Did you want to be entrepreneur or technician, engineer? Yeah, that's a good one. I wanted to, I wanted, I always wanted to be my own boss. When I was young, I wanted to do my own thing. But I always have been also quite pragmatic. And so that in reality, it doesn't work like this.

You know, you just don't come with a good idea. And people say, yeah, sure, let's buy it. It doesn't work like this. So I always have been like, okay. What's the safest way to get, you know, to earn money and have a solid foundation to try things without being in danger to not having, you know, an apartment and food at the end of the day? So I've always pictured this like this. Maybe also at some point it was kind of an excuse because it's scary to start your own thing, you know. when I was younger probably

I was like okay now first I need to make money have a good situation then I would be able to do my own thing maybe with the experience looking back at it I could okay let's try it and and it only passed out for for a year that's not a problem

no I understand to me it might sense and it's reasonable yeah I'm quite reasonable when it comes to money Yeah, me too. So then what was the point that, you know, when you decided actually to start your own business? Or what was the idea that... At some point, this excuse couldn't work anymore because I reached a point when I was head of seller at this software company,

where I had a stable situation, good enough to have this solid foundation to start my business. So this excuse didn't work anymore. So you just have to. I don't want to, but I have to. Yeah, it was like, okay, now my excuse is shitty. I can't use it anymore. And at some point, also, you know, I've been doing this job as a head of sales for three years. So at some point, you are like, okay, now is a turning point in my career.

It's easier. I double down on this and become a very good head of sales and try to, continue that way, maybe become a head of sales of a bigger opening next and then a VP of sales and continue incorporate or this is the time to try something new. So I was like reaching this point when I had to choose and decided like, okay, I'm not that young anymore. It's now or never kind of. So let's do it. That's how it happens. And how did you decide what type of business or what would be your competitive advantage or how to stand up in the market? Actually, it was LinkedIn.

I started posting on LinkedIn in something like February or March, 23. And so how powerful it was, how many doors it could open. And I think I quickly understood, like, okay, if I do that for a long period of time, it would become an advantage for sure. And at this time, like in 2023, I had 2,000 followers, like, really low. But I saw the potential and I saw, okay, when you do a simple equation in business, you're like, okay, I have this offer. If I sell this offer that would make money, then I will just to deliver on this offer to my clients

and then continue like this. What's the missing part is the acquisition. You need acquisition channels to have people coming to your offer and then buy. simple version of business, you know. And I was like, okay, I have this amazing acquisition channel already with LinkedIn. So I have done 30% of this plan in business. So I was kind of reassuring myself with that as well. And I was like, okay, that's a good thing to try it.

And my first idea of business in September 2023 was to be kind of a solo printer. you know, selling my knowledge that I acquired during my years as head of sales, helping people in the situation where I was three years earlier to save time by not doing the mistake I did and sharing the tips with them. And so, yeah, my first idea was to be a entrepreneur selling digital products. And at some point, I also did an online course. community. But I realized that it was not what I enjoyed the most doing. And also that if you want to live from that, it's a lot of work and you have to sell to many, many people. And at some

point, reality catched you and say, okay, you don't have that much time with your foundation and the money you saved and how you can survive if you don't make more money soon. So I had to pivot and have a high ticket offer. And that's when I decided to pivot into the agency model. Yeah. And, yeah, best decision ever. I love it. And especially that we created kind of innovative agency with the old bond thing.

It was actually my question that I was saving for later to ask you how you discovered LinkedIn or why you started. So what was, you know, I assumed that you started earlier on LinkedIn, but. maybe when you discovered its potential or when you started to take it more seriously. Yeah. Yeah. So I, you know, I told you when I was head of sales, I always tried new things and and tried new acquisition channels. And I think it started in 2022, like somewhere in the middle of the year, something like June or something maybe May or something like this. You know, I was consuming content myself on LinkedIn and saw those few guys doing content on LinkedIn. I remember, like, for example, one French guy, Guillume Mubesh, who is the founder of Lemnist.

He was kind of alone, the only one French guy doing this on LinkedIn. And I saw him every day on my field. I was like, okay, there is something here. Something is happening on LinkedIn. So I decided to do it, but of course, I didn't know much more, much of the, of those about the platform and about content creation at the time. So I did it wrong with the wrong strategy,

the wrong motivation. I tried to pitch a bit, you know, my business at the time and it was not working very well. But, you know, I kept doing it, practicing. And yeah,

I think the summer break came. I went to vacation and stopped posting and never did it again. But the feeling of this potential was still here. And I was like, I need to do it again, but with the right tools and the right skills, I need to learn how to do it properly. So I did an internship on Twitter at the time. Like I tried to create the content, but this time for myself.

Did you do like intership in Twitter? No, it was a joke. Like it was just not a real, real internship. I just started a few months. I told myself, let's do content on Twitter because it was separated. from my business identity attached to my previous company on LinkedIn. And at this time, I was thinking, like many people think always today, like, okay, this is a professional platform.

I should only talk about my business, you know, and my company and stuff like this. Only one there is wrong. Which is wrong. Yeah. But so I saw Twitter as an opportunity. okay, it's not related to my professional activity. It's my name. I can share whatever I want.

So I started posting about AI a bit more on Twitter. I didn't do well, but I learned a lot. I learned a lot. I followed and that's where I start following American creators as well. And I think at least in 2022, they were a bit in advance on content creation and what they call the creator economy in general on Twitter.

And why do you think it didn't do that well? Because again, I was doing it wrong. It was my first experience. And it's super demanding. Creating content in a consistency way and do it right and do it with a very strategy and et cetera. It's very demanding, actually. And if you want to be a content creator,

like, okay, you will, my suggestion would be, okay, learn from the creators that have been doing this for like two years or three years. Buy yourself a real course, a serious one, when you will learn how it works, what is copywriting, what is a good hook, how the platform works, what's the psychology behind creating content, how people consume it, etc. There's a lot of knowledge to acquire. And while you do it without this knowledge, and why you are basically learning, you are basically learning by failing, you fail. And then the content was not good. What I did on the platform

wasn't the right way to do it, etc. But I was learning. So that's why it didn't work that well. I'm pretty sure if I come back to Twitter now with my knowledge that I have acquired since I tried. I probably do better now. Are you still present on Twitter or not anymore? I have my account. I'm consuming a bit of content there time to time, but I'm not really active on that platform. Maybe later. I will maybe diversify a bit in the coming months or years. And outside of LinkedIn and Twitter, any other platforms?

No, I consume a lot of YouTube videos, but that's like more on my personal time. And I like YouTube as a platform. I like how it is designed. You know, you don't have the same. I don't know it perfectly, but I know that it's not the same kind of algorithm based on, you don't have a feed, it's not exactly like this.

And also it's long-form content and it's also kind of an SEO approach. So your video, your content has a long lifetime, you know. It's way longer than on platform like Twitter, for example, is the opposite. So X is the opposite because it's kind of a few hours lifetime. And then it disappeared in the feed because it's thousands of tweets and post every every hour. LinkedIn is kind of in the middle you have. Some posts can last one week or two, but it's still quite short. Yeah.

Compared to LinkedIn, compared to YouTube. It was a valid point because if it's a quality video on YouTube, you can watch still years after. And it's still, you know, never old as long as the information. it's up to date or it's something helpful. Yeah, it's kind of, you know, sometimes it's overwhelming to be a content creator because you are putting pressure on yourself to always post, always try to innovate,

add something, add value, et cetera. And yeah, on YouTube you can post once in a month, very quality, good quality video, then 20 minutes video. And this will continue to be useful for the audience on YouTube for a long period of time. So it's a bit less pressure. And I like also this.

So maybe at some point I would create content on YouTube. It will be maybe blocks from your life. It will be excited for that. Oh, yeah. Maybe. Why not? Are you looking to elevate your online presents? Check out Trailblazed, our digital marketing agency.

Whether it's standing out on social media, crafting a stunning new website or developing impactful visual. trailblaist has got your back. Visit trailbased dot digital and reach your online potentials a day. And then with your experience on LinkedIn what would be I know that you mentioned strategy but what would be some points that should highlight like mistakes that you did before and you would maybe recommend people to focus on if they are starting or if they are struggling. Yeah I think strategy is the very

first point to address you know you when you consume content with people trying to teach you how to create content. They always say you need to find your why, the big why. It's kind of... I need to read Simon Sinek. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And it's kind of true because you need to talk to a specific target to build an audience

that makes sense with what we are trying to say. If you try to, especially now, I mean a few years ago, when LinkedIn had very low, just a few Cruntuncton creators, you could be the one talking about everything and people will see you. It's not really true anymore. You have to specialize a bit in something and then address a specific, you know, demographic in specific audience.

So you need to identify that first and why you are doing this. Is it for what is it to create leads, to find leads, to create business opportunities, It's to create a general personal brand so it can serve you in a different situation. So you need to understand, you identify a bit why you do it. And then it helps you to find who you are trying to talk to. And then it helps you to finally say, okay, I know why I'm doing this. I know the people that I want to target now. I just need to find what to tell to them and how.

And then you dive into, I think it's important to educate yourself if you want to be a content creator on copywriting, psychology, marketing, basically, understand how and then how the platform itself works. But how social media works in general, why people consume content, how they consume content, and how you can leverage this to reach your goal, your why. So it's kind of a big package with marketing skills. There are the whole science behind it. It's not as easy as it seems. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And with experience, I've been doing this for almost two years. It would be two years like in March, one year and a half.

And yeah, what seems easy to me now was super hard a year ago. A year ago, I was spending maybe two. two or three hours on one carousel. I've been working sometimes on three hours on one carousel. And this carousel, you're super proud of it, and it doesn't perform at all. And you're super frustrated. And this is where people give up, you know, like, oh, okay, I spend two hours on this, on this thing, and nobody cares.

Shit, I quit. And it's understandable. It's quite difficult. But now a carousel, the same level of carousel, I can do it in 20, minutes because I have the skills and I know what I'm doing. Yeah. Much better. And I think it's important to understand that the majority of people work this way in

the beginning because you need to find out. You need to obviously have a practice. And as you said, those two years of showing up every day and hard work, it pays off after some time. Yeah, exactly. And the only way to shortcut that is to buy a course or something like this from someone who have done it before you. So you can basically learn faster, but still you will always have to practice yourself.

And at some point, you can save a few months by paying something if it's a quality course, you know, that you will still do the mistakes and learn by doing. That's how human beings are built, you know. Yeah, and the course obviously is a great shortcut, but at the same time, you actually need to practice it to find out because theory and practice is something different. Yeah, exactly. And AI won't save you at all. Like, you can find good AI tools to produce content that is fine,

but it will never be the same if you do it yourself. And then it's the same logic. You know, if you have the skills, then you can use AI tools to accelerate the process because you know what you are doing. You know what is a good hook. You know what is a good post. And you can then take the output of the AI tool that you are using and tweak it to make it a good post.

Because if you just copy and paste without knowing what's good, what's not based on your skills, it will just be average. And average is not good enough on the platform like LinkedIn, which is a bit more mature now. And that is what AI professional is saying. So people should listen. Because I feel like I can see it very often as well. I'm not only posting, but even commenting, engaging that people want to save time. And when you go through the comments and you can see that,

one resembles the other one. It's too similar. I'm like, come on. You don't know. You know, I have a good example of that because in the end, again, it depends why you are doing this. If you just want views, why not? But what's the point of having views, only views, you know?

If you have a business based on selling those views to someone else, a sponsor or whatever, why not? I mean, in that case, that makes sense. But if you are trying to sell your thing and then using AI content and AI comment, it won't work at all because if you want to sell something, it's based on relationships. And to build those relationships, content creation is actually a pretty good one, a pretty good way to do it.

But I will give you an example to reduce to what I'm saying. I had this guy engaging with my content every day, like every time. So I don't divide this. Yeah, but I know this profile, you know, I knew this profile, this guy, the name, the picture I identified him. But the comment was AI generated. So it was always shitty. And I always said, yeah, thanks.

Or, yeah, okay, cool. I agree with your AI generated stuff. It's so generic, so I can't not agree, you know. So I identified him, but I didn't really connect with him in a relationship, a real relationship. And the guy did that for months, you know, like. a long period of time. And at some point, he sent me a DM and said, oh, I engage with you a lot. I would love to talk to you and show you my work and whatever.

And it didn't work because I was like, no, I don't know you. I don't feel like we are connected. That's not a relationship. That's not. And you could do the opposite, like engaging genuinely with your own brain for just two weeks. with me then send me a DM and I would be like yeah sure let's talk because I feel like I know a bit of you and you are not trained to scam me at all so you know that's a great point and just as you said that I was kind of thinking of the similar examples not that someone would reach out to me but for

example people engage which is appreciated but at the same time it's always very generic command and the same structure and I'm like, if you typed even, it doesn't need to be, I don't know, grammatically correct, it can be with emojis, it can be just your feelings. But I feel like people often, it's almost becoming like a buzzword, but talk about authenticity. And then it comes to AI, so it's like authenticity, but then like this stuff, it doesn't really make sense. Yeah, exactly. And if you follow a bit of my content and know a bit of what I'm doing, you know that I love AI.

I'm really heavy on AI. But it's a wonderful tool for sure, but it has to be used the right way. And just copying and passing generic stuff from AI is not the right way to use it, actually. You could use it in your comments to help you find ideas like, okay, this is the post. This is the idea that I want to share in the comments. Help me structure myself. That's a good way to use AI, for example. help me. Here is my very shitty ideas with just

brand dumping, dumping two lines, make it a structured comment. That's a good way to use AI. But it has to be you. Not the opposite. And then it's actually something that I discussed with a previous guest on a podcast which was personalization and basically your unique voice is something that makes you stand out. So now when everyone is using AI, you read the post and it sounds kind of similar. You don't really recognize if it was by this person or this person just looks the same. But if you benefit for a unique voice, obviously no one else is really able to replicate it.

So I would say try to benefit from this and make it unique to yourself. Yeah, exactly. And I mean, if you study a bit marketing and human psychology and customer psychology, If you are replicating what others are doing, you will always, at best, be average and never stand out. Because you will be, you know, lost in the crowd. Yeah. That's just marketing. You never so great.

You never remember average marketing for anything. So if you want to stand out, if your goal is to stand out, you need to do something different, you know. I think that's an example that comes to my mind. for example, when you post and there are memes, because I saw just recently post it with memes. I'm addicted. Yeah, I'm a big fan of memes as well. And sometimes people take LinkedIn seriously, so when there is something different, and you have a laugh.

So it just makes it stand out. So that's a great way, how to do you know. Yeah, humor is a great way to leverage and to differentiate yourself. when I was talking about, okay, study how people consume content and how you consume content yourself, when you scroll your feed, you have three boring corporate posts, then a guy talking about this product and finally a meme. Of course, it's stand out, you know. It's just normal. So, of course, I'm not telling, okay, do only memes because it would be annoying at some point, but I like to have a meme once in a while in my content. And also, you asked me,

advice on people who want to start posting content. You have to enjoy it because it's quite demanding. It's quite difficult. So you have to enjoy it. And one way for me to enjoy it is to have sometimes jokes. You know, I like to share GIFs in the comments. I like to post a meme to explain and to present my idea. So I'm enjoying it.

So it makes it more natural. And also it makes me more authentic. That's what we were talking about. And I'm actually one of those people who are enjoy it as an audience, so please continue. Cool, good. And I was about to ask a question before, but you probably kind of answered it. But if you see your presence on LinkedIn as a job or as something that you enjoy,

both. Yeah, both. I mean, you have to, if you want to do it seriously, you have to enjoy it a bit because it's, it's, you know, it's every day. Every day you have to be connected on the platform. You don't have really breaks from it. You have to also be super disciplined because, for example, I try, not always succeed, but I try to never spend more than two hours a day on LinkedIn, which is already a lot.

But it happened to me, especially in the beginning, to spend five hours on LinkedIn. And at some point, you're just overwhelmed and it's not good for your mental mentality. else as well. And every notification you're like triggered like, oh wow, I want to see what's behind this button and stuff like this. So you have to also be in control. So yeah, it's both. You have to enjoy it. But also understand that it's part of the work. It's one of my main channel acquisition for sure. And it sells my business. And this is also the what we talked about in the in the, why are you doing doing this. Yeah. It was also valid points with time spend. because obviously the competition is big and I feel like it's even a growing, so it might be even harder to stand out.

But at the same time, don't forget there is life outside as well. Yeah, for sure, for sure. But it's, you know, it's a question of a lie. I mean, if you spend two hours and get two leads or three leads that are qualified and help grow your business, that's worth it. If you spend two hours and have two likes and nothing else, that's not. Yeah, yeah. Just it. And then I obviously have to ask you also the question, how did you discover AI, which I assume based on the discussion on what we discussed was thanks to your mindset and thanks to being open to things.

But can you tell us like how did you discover or when was it? Yeah. So obviously it's really started with the release of chatypity at the end of 2020. 22 years ago. It was November, I think. It's quite almost the anniversary. I think it was end of November. Happy birthday, I'm GPD. So the funny part of the story was like, because as I know a bit of the tech world in general,

when you follow trends in tech, you have been fooled a few times. Like, okay, this is a new revolution and two months later it's dead. So I was like, okay, maybe it's. one more. Like maybe it's like the metaverse. They promise us the big revolution we will all live in the virtual world in 2024 and no, we didn't. The one that came to my mind was getting rich from NFTs and then what happened?

Yeah, exactly. So many times you have, you know, announcement of big tech revolutions and many times it's not that big of a revolution. So I was a bit skeptical at the beginning. I was like, okay, let's give it a bit. of time. Let's see what it does. So obviously I was like among the millions that just connected to it and asked stupid questions and and asked for, you know, recipes to create cakes and stuff like this. And obviously I was like, okay, that's funny, but that's not a revolution. So I was a bit skeptical

for a few months and at some point I saw, okay, this is still here after two months like, like somewhere like in February, 2023. It's still here. It seems to be valuable indeed. Okay, let's now explore it a bit more and dive a bit deeper into this and see if I, and same.

I was like, okay, let's give it a chance to be useful in my sales strategies as a head of sales of this software company. So we explored this and I also, you know, ask the team. So, okay, let's play around with this. There is a free version of it. Let's just try.

See if we can improve our emails. See if we can use it as a brainstorming body and stuff like this. And yeah, I was quite amazed at what it could do already. And it was, if we remember that it was like chat GPT3, not even 3.5 at the time. It was chip GPD3. And it was already amazing. And I was like, okay, now there is a lot of potential in this. Let's dive it a bit deeper.

into it. And at the same time, kind of the weeks after, we started to see many, many, many, many AI tools popping every day like, okay, this is the new AI tools revolutioning, this thing, this, that, etc. And I was like, okay, that's a lot. I need to identify what's good, what's not. And so I basically spent daily time to do it.

And then after that, I also included it in my, content and that's also part of the way part of why I saw that much potential in content creation when I started to identify okay on LinkedIn many people started posting about AI in general and some of them were doing very was super successful like maybe Ruben acid I met I met him at this time kind of this period of time and it was like yeah man it's it's an amazing and I'm covering it from A to Z. I was like, wow, the guy has understood something. I was like, okay, how can I stand out in that?

I thought it was a bit too late to be a general AI guru myself. So I was like, okay, my value is in sales. So let's talk about sales and AI only. And that's what I did. Now you said a bit too late, but to me it seems like you're one of the, you know, obviously not like Ruben's. but one of the biggest ones. So I think it's a good example.

It's never late because you said it's too late, but that's, you know, other people may think that you are on top or very high. Yeah, and I think it applies to many things. Sometimes you're like, oh, no, I won't do it because it's already too late. But then when you do that, when you say that, you just wait a bit more. And then it becomes even more too late. And then it's even more to late. And it continues like this.

So the rights, if you want to do something, just do it now. And then you will always have the possibility to improve. And that's better to. There is a few quotes that I like. And done is better than perfect. It's one of them. I think it's very true. Do it.

Learn from your mistakes. And you will capitalize on this and it will compound with time. But it's a difficult concept, especially in our society, you when you can have everything within a click. Yeah. When you say people, yeah, it will work, but it will take six months. People are like, oh, I don't want to. But most of the time, this is where the real value is.

No, great quotes, and I can only agree. Just as you said about these quotes, one of the questions that I often ask is, what are maybe some sources of your inspiration, whether it would be any creators that you follow or books or something that you find helpful? Yeah, one which is very obvious is Alex Hormuzi. I've consumed a lot of his content, a bit less now, but I think because I think I understood many of the concepts he was describing, and it starts a bit a bit redundant for me now.

But for, I mean for all 2023 I was consuming his content, maybe daily. One of these quotes that I love is like, if you, you can't lose if you don't quit. this one is really great as well and I think it's true it's kind of the same logic like if you if you want something valuable you have to do it for a long period of time and it will be boring that it will be worse it so

I like that so Ormozi is one of them for sure at the very beginning of my journey I liked Danco maybe you know that guy is more active on K-O yeah K-O-E yeah oh yes yes I know.

So now is a bit more in the inspirational and spiritual content. I'm not really into that. I think he released even a book recently, didn't he? Yeah, probably. It's quite active. More active on X than LinkedIn, but it was part of my learning phase in 2022. I even joined this private community, like made community. I joined it for a few months to learn from those guys.

was very inspiring as well. So those two were creators that I really like. Ruben, in a way, also inspired me a lot. And Guillem Mubesh also. Guillaume Mubesh as well. Yeah.

Because he's French and he was doing like amazing stuff, everybody in the, everywhere in the world. And I was like, okay, okay, I can do that as well, probably. It was my question, what's inspiration from the AI word? like other creators but Ruben is obviously Yeah Ruben is one of them for sure

But I'm kind of lucky because I was actually quite early on that And I was I was in the in that I would say a little group of creators who decided to go all in on on LinkedIn in early 2023 and yeah some of them have been I've become friends friends like Adam adams Adam Biddlecom, for example. He's a good guy that I really appreciate. And he's a friend now and he also inspired me in many ways.

And then when it comes to any books, if you are a reader, have you got any recommendations? Yeah, I've read Hormosis books for sure. For Hormosis, isn't it to 100 leads or something like that? Yeah, he has 100 million leads and 100 million offers. Oh, okay. The both are good. Let me check the books that I have here.

Oh, just in the shelf next to it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I read many things. One is, which is quite good, is sale like crazy. I don't remember Sabri, Sabri, something, the guy is an Australian guy. He talks a lot of funnels and stuff like this, which also I learned a lot from that. And I read, I read Guillembubech book, 100 million

something. I'm not sure I will need to check that one out. It was pretty good as well. He talks about how he created LEMist and what he learned and then how. If you want to build a SaaS,

it's quite good for you to read that. And you said he's French, right? Yeah. He's got some big names from France. good motivation. Yeah, I mean in the tech industry and in the sales intake industry as well, we have pretty good French companies like Lainlist. We have many others, which are quite the reference in the industry.

Like, you know, for example, Phantom Buster is French. Full and rich is French. I'm forgetting many of them for sure. Is that a coincidence or is it? they're like a hub or just a good environment for it? I think the environment is pretty good. The startup environment in French is pretty good. So that helps for sure.

And I think maybe it's related to our culture and our education model, educational model. Because one thing I know that we are in France, we have very good engineers. We have very good AI engineers as well. Like many big names of like pioneers of AI are French. Like for example, Jan Lecun is the head of AI at Meta now. And he was the guys, he was studying and sharing about AI like for 30 years in France. So that's cool. And many, many French brains are hired by major companies in the US for about AI, for example.

So I think we have this culture and we like engineering. in general and probably we combine this with some laziness and we like to have stuff done for us in the easiest way that's maybe why we have that many tools I'm guessing here again I'm going I'm going to make friends no it's some valid points and I wanted to ask you how do you manage to stay up to date with everything that's happening in the AI LinkedIn. LinkedIn is my source of content, main one. I mean, as I told you, I consume a lot of YouTube videos as well. So I like some YouTube creators about AI. Yeah, that's the main social media in general, I would say, are the main ways. And also, I like to be connected to the source. So I'm following open AI content and following anthropic content. because they are the best to explain what they are doing basically. So quite simple actually.

It takes me a bit of time, but it's worth it. And just as we will be finishing soon, a lighter question at the end. What is it that you enjoy doing in your free time outside of AI and LinkedIn, if you have any free time? Yeah, you know, when you are an entrepreneur and you try to build your company, you don't have that much free time but I mean in general I'm quite basic like I like spending times with friends

traveling a bit I like video games I like movies books quite simple actually and sports I like sports if you like Formula One I'm your guy I used to watch it when I was younger but I'm afraid I don't know much anyway

who's your favorite driver then It's difficult, difficult. I like the French guys for sure, even if the Alpine is quite shitty. I like Charles Leclerc as well. And there is Hamilton. I mean, it's the champion. Yeah. Max Verstappen.

I like Max Verstappen. I would love to contribute to conversation, but not going to lie. I don't follow it anymore, so I don't know much. And then before we finish, is there something that you would like to add something? I should have asked you and did not. No, it was a nice conversation. I enjoyed it. And yeah, I don't know if. Or any final message or piece of wisdom? Yeah, I mean, we shared the quotes that I have in mind every day.

Like, if you don't quit, this one is good. Done is better than perfect. It's another one. So yeah, keep that in mind if you want to create something. And also it's, I like to add that sometimes. it's fine if you don't want to be an entrepreneur. It's fine if you don't have big ambition. If you don't want to chill in your life, it's also fine. And you don't have to suffer from the pressure of people like, okay, you should do more, you should do this,

you should mostly do what's good for you. And one final quote, and don't remember, tell me that, you should only listen advice coming from people that are where you want to be. because we always receive even you know your mom can can advise you like you shouldn't do it because it's whatever she probably cares about you but she she's not where you want to to be so she is not the best person to give you advice so this one i like as well yeah great point and i almost forgot but please feel free to promote yourself and your services as well yeah yeah i mean follow me on follow me on LinkedIn. Hopefully you will enjoy my content, some memes as well. And yeah,

if you have needs about sales prospecting and content creation on LinkedIn, I'm your guy. And as always, I will add everything to the show notes. So Jeremy, want to say a big thank you. I'm also one of the people who's been following you and enjoying not only our memes. So thank you for joining us. And stay in touch and we'll continue following. and supporting. So thank you. Thank you very much. It was a pleasure. Thanks for listening to Produce by With Tomer. Check out show notes for all the links.

And don't forget to like, subscribe and leave your feedback. Speak soon.