The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Unlocking UX Marketing: Humanizing Brands in an AI-Driven World with Ginny Delaitre

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

Unlocking UX Marketing: Humanizing Brands in an AI-Driven World with Ginny Delaitre VDSdigitalagency.com About the Guest(s): Ginny Delaitre is the founder and CEO of VDS Digital Agency and the creator of UX Marketing. With a rich background in design and technology, Ginny has innovated a new marketing approach that places user experience at the forefront. Her work emphasizes the importance of trustworthiness and user-centric marketing, utilizing AI tools to enhance brand loyalty and optimize the user journey. Her professional journey traversed mobile app development, design, and architecture before pioneering UX marketing. Episode Summary: Welcome to another enlightening episode of The Chris Voss Show! This week, Chris Voss is joined by Ginny Delaitre, the innovative founder of VDS Digital Agency and the creator of UX Marketing. With a rich tapestry of experiences in design and technology under her belt, Ginny shares her unique approach to marketing that places user experience at the heart of her strategies. By doing away with traditional marketing models and embracing user-centric methodologies, Ginny emphasizes building trust and long-lasting relationships with clients in this AI-driven world. In this insightful episode, Ginny discusses the creation of UX marketing, explaining how it revolutionizes traditional marketing strategies by prioritizing user experience. Listen in as Chris and Ginny dive into the impact of AI in marketing, exploring how brands can maintain their human elements amidst rapid technological advances. Ginny also reveals her unique perspective on how storytelling can counteract the disconnect created by AI tools and establish authentic connections with audiences. This episode is a must-listen for entrepreneurs and marketers seeking to innovate their brand strategy and leverage the latest tech in user-focused marketing. Key Takeaways: UX Marketing Approach: Ginny introduces UX Marketing, focusing on creating effortless and trustworthy user journeys that place user experience at the forefront of marketing strategies. AI and Trust in Branding: Discussion around how excessive use of AI can erode trust and the importance of maintaining a human connection to strengthen brand loyalty. Storytelling as a Solution: Highlighted the importance of storytelling in marketing to foster genuine connections and mitigate the adverse effects of the uncanny valley. Ginny's Background and Insight: Ginny shares her diverse background in mobile app development, design, and architecture, detailing how these experiences shape her innovative marketing approach. Tools for Efficiency: Demonstrated the use of AI tools developed by VDS Digital Agency to streamline social media content creation and improve marketing efficiency. Notable Quotes: The way we can counteract AI's disconnect is with storytelling—show how you got there, not just the end result." "People don't like being pushed to buy a product; they want a personalized experience with a brand." "By showing the backstage, you counter the lack of trust that comes with AI." "The prime with AI tools is it's very easy and fast, but you should always ensure the user sees something they want to engage with." "Once you connect with the brand, you're more inclined to overlook little AI mishaps."

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Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. I'm host Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. Woo! Ladies and gentlemen, there are the things that makes official welcome to the big show. As always, the Chris Voss show. The fan that loves you, but doesn't judge as harshly as the rest of the world because you're here trying to learn, trying to be better, trying to get knowledge and all that

good stuff. Some of you just are here for the funny jokes I tell, which aren't funny at all. They're just dumb. Anyway, go to Goodreads.com, Fortress, Chris Voss, LinkedIn.com, Fortress, Chris Voss, Chris Voss one, the TikTok, and all those crazy places on the internet. Opinions expressed by guests on the podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the host or the Chris Voss show. Some guests to the show may be advertising on the podcast, but it is not an endorsement

or review of any kind. Today we're joined by a wonderful young lady. We're going to be talking to her about some of her experience in marketing and some of the things that she does. We have, Ginny, give me your last name. So I know I don't hit this wrong. You say it much better than I would. You have that, or whatever. I'm not, I'm trying to do French, but it's not working. I think, I think people know what I mean. Anyway, you have the idea that class.

So Ginny is joining us. She's the founder and CEO of VD, VDS digital agency and the creator of UX marketing. It's a new approach that puts user experience at the heart of marketing. Instead of chasing clicks and hacks, she helps brands design a marketing user journey that feels effortless, trustworthy and genuinely helpful. Who thought that should be a thing? Shouldn't that be a thing?

I don't know. It should be. Trustworthiness and helpfulness in business. Every cable company needs that at this point now. Through the UX Marketing Institute, she is setting new standards for marketing that respect the user and build long-term loyalty. Janie, welcome to the show. How are you? Thank you. I'm very good. Thank you for asking.

Thank you for coming. We certainly appreciate you coming on the show. Give us your dot coms. Where can people find you on the interwebs and get to know you better? Sure. So you can find me on VDSdigitaagency.com or on LinkedIn. I use my Monday name. So I use Virginie Deletre on LinkedIn. What's the origin of that name? Is it French? It sounds French. I am French.

Yeah. I, that's why I'm asking. Yeah, it is French because I am French. So I was born in France and raised in France. Yeah, I, I do. I was just having a wonderful morning here and it's glad to have you guys on. So give us a $30,000 overview of what you guys do there. Yeah, sure.

So we are a full, full stack marketing agency. So we do marketing for clients. I work for example, for people who are PCSing in the US military, a brand called Muswands, I work for some doctors in my area. So I have really various clients. But what I'm promoting here, and that's why I'm here for the show is like, having all these clients, I realized marketing was a lot about advertising, and not a lot about actually the journey on how you discover a brand. I mean, as I say, it should be some people are already doing it. But that was

just like, we need to do it better. And we need to sort of create a framework for that. So that's why I created UX marketing, which is basically very easy user experience marketing. That's why. So that's what I do now. Why do you call UX a new type of marketing? Sure. So basically I call UX a new type of marketing because a lot of people are doing UX. A lot of people are doing user experience because a lot of people are doing UX. A lot of people are doing user experience. A lot of people are doing UI. It's really something very popular, but most of the times they do that for website or they do that for the product itself. Not a lot of people are actually bringing this knowledge of the experience and how you engage with users to marketing. So I was just like, okay, it's very easy.

Why don't we blend them together? So the experience come before you actually become a client in the whole marketing process. And that's sort of what people want now because there are people are getting a little bit like, I don't know, they don't really like when you push them to buy a product and they like to know you better before.

So they like this, they want this experience. Everyone wants this personalized experience with a brand. And why does that make it being trustworthy and human? Why does that engender better sort of brand loyalty from clients? Yeah, sure. And that's actually, that's a really important thing because I'm going to introduce a new word is, I mean, the words that everyone's want to hear like AI, artificial intelligence makes things really easy right now.

You can sort of do everything with it. But the problem that it creates is like, I mean, AI everywhere, brands are just using it a little bit too much, and people are afraid of it. So there is a lack of trust. So returning to the human touch is actually how you bring back the trust. Because if you do too much AI and automation, people don't trust you anymore. It makes sense. Yep.

Yep. And so tell us about your journey through life. How did you get into marketing? How did you grow up or some of your influences, stuff like that? Yeah, actually that's funny because so I grew up in France. I had my own design. So I started my career doing mobile apps. It was a time of the iPhone was brand new. So it was like 12 years ago and I was in France and I was just like, I want to do mobile apps. So that's how I started. I was very technical learning about user experience, like because of mobile apps,

we had this little screen, it was brand new and we had to put some things that we had on a big screen on a very small one. So a lot of design issue. And then after I moved my career to really being a designer, because at first I was a developer and a designer. And then I was just like, I prefer design. So I moved to work being a designer. I know. And then I become so it's very funny, but my degree are in internal design. So I really study design in with a big D, like, like internal design, I study architecture. And then slowly, I was just like, I'm still missing the technical part. So I went back to doing like web and digital experiences with this whole background in design and being a developer. And when you bring everything together, that's why I created UX marketing. Because at the end of the day, when you bring the technical aspect, the design aspect, and then also the link with people because being an Intel designer really learned me the psychology and understanding people. You bring that together.

That's marketing. So that's how I get, I got there. So 12 years of trying and experiencing and having multiple companies. And then I created that one three years ago and now this is where I am. Nice. That is awesome. So that one three years ago and now this is where I am. Nice! That is awesome. So, some people find their, if, yeah, everyone has to kind of find their place in life and what they like and what, you know what motivates them, what turns them on, makes them show up for work every day and go, yeah, you know, I've definitely lived my life

in businesses that I wasn't excited about and it's hard to show up. And it's hard. You know, you're like, Oh God, this again. But when you have something you love that you enjoy, it makes all the difference. Now that you talk about the AI driven world, how is brands going to be able to stay human in this AI world, especially when, you know, like some of the artwork, there's kind of a, there's kind of an interesting concept of AI. You've probably heard of it. It's called the, I believe it's called the something valley, but it's a term where we

understand when we visually see something from a biological aspect that something is fake. And when we see someone that is fake, we see that as dangerous to us because there's an attempt to fool us. Uncanny Valley is the term. And I don't know what your thoughts are on some of that and how is the human AI driven world? That's very interesting.

Yes, because that's the prime with this AI generated images. And I know Chagy Pity went really far and now we can generate images that they say it's almost unrecognizable. But I think there is a little part of us that knows that knows it is not real. And you're right, it can be frightened because you see something that's, that seems real, but that's not and you and you start to doubt. And that's also where you sort of lose the trust because you doubt the company, you doubt them, you're like, okay, what I'm seeing, maybe it's not real, maybe they don't, you know, maybe they are not real people, maybe they don't really do that. And we have been like, we received scam for so long. And it's sort

of we are afraid of scam and being like, especially when you put money in a company and your product, you you bring your money in it. So you want to make sure that this is something real. So you're right. There is this fear. So the way we can counter that is basically with storytelling. It's by telling the story of your brand, instead of showing only the final result, you can show how you got there. And that's an AI that can, an AI cannot do that. You are the only one who can do that. So, for example, with my clients, when they go to an event, I make them taking pictures of them, of the people they work with, of their partners, you know, and by showing the backstage, the backstory, that's how you sort of like, you can keep using AI for doing blog articles or helping you writing, but then the story,

it cannot be, like, it has to be real. And that's how you writing, but then the story, it cannot be like it has to be real. And that's how you counter it. I think storytelling is the answer. Storytelling is so important. We talked about that on the show. But yeah, for those who aren't aware of the uncanny valley is a phenomenon where an object's appearance and behavior that is almost but not quite human triggers and negative human response emotionally, often a sense of unease or revulsion. And I'm starting to see this more. I'm starting to see ads from companies that use AI and AI bots, if you will, or visuals or a woman or a man talking in a robotic sort of sense.

You can tell. It's interesting how's, it's how smarter brains are, but sometimes that can step into, you know, the issues of trust and, you know, that feeling, the uncanny value refers to this weird thing where you're like kind of flight or fight mode. You see weird AI stuff that's now being incorporated into ads. I see it in dating, you know, these, these filters that people can put on that make them look like freaking cartons. And somehow that's becoming a norm too. And then when you meet these people in real life, you're just about

jump out of your shoes. But it seems like the people that use them the most, the people you never want to meet in person and find out that you got calfished. But the same thing's happening, I think, in AI with business companies, you know, if they've got to be careful how they utilize trust and whether or not maybe AI images are destroying that trust or interfering with that trust. If you're creating that uncanny valley, a lot of people don't realize what it is. I didn't realize what it was until we had someone on the show come on to talk about AI and uncanny valley a lot of people don't realize what it is i didn't realize what it was until we had someone on the show come on and talk about ai and the uncanny valley concept and i was like that's why i feel weird that's where i get fight or flight mode i feel that something's funny and off and so

that's a real big deal i think for marketing nowadays and what marketers have to ask themselves maybe yeah no i totally agree because the prime with marketing is it costs money and nobody sort of want to put this money in. So when they see eye tools, they are like, this is so fast. We can do everything without a team. You know, we just, instead of having a photographer taking a picture or buying a picture, we can just generate one and it's done. The problem is you're right.

It's like some people don't ask themselves the prime with marketing. Some people don't ask, don't put themselves in the shoes of the person actually seeing the ad enough. So we're like, oh, we want this. It's like a company wants things. We want users, we want to sell our product, but they have sort of to return the thoughts and say, what's the user are seeing? You know, are they seeing something they want to engage with? And you're right, these feelings can be sometimes I don't like it, you know, and they seeing something they want to engage with? And you're right, these feelings can be sometimes, I don't like it, you know, and sometimes you don't even know why you don't like it. But you don't. And if you don't like it, you're not going to engage with this company. So I think yeah, you're right, it's very important, especially in the marketing aspect. Because when you are already a client, you can let things go. I mean, if the company you already work with do some AI, you're just like, yeah,

I'm not doing that with them. You know, it's just, it's just their marketing. But if you don't know them yet and you want to try to engage, that's when you shouldn't, you know, you say dating is the same. It's like when you're not engaged with a person yet, you're more careful of all that. You're just more careful of all the little things. And one thing can be like, I'm going to use a French word, I don't know the translation, like a faux pas, you know, something that you mistake. And then if there is this

mistake, it can be enough for just running away. I totally agree. I think for marketing, it's even more important. Because when you are already a client, there are things you can just let go. But when you're not a client yet and they start doing that, you can say, okay, I'm not trusting them. And that can destroy the full contract or the people can avoid signing proposal because of that. Oh yeah. And now tell us about some of the services that you guys offer there at the VDS, your digital agency. Sure. So basically what we do is, so I don't have a lot of clients. I'm really like, when I work with the clients, we do everything. So that's why I cannot take on board like a hundred of them. But when I onboard a new client, I really first work on this marketing strategy.

We try to understand what is already in place and where we want to go. I work with them, so they have a brand, most of the time I don't do branding, I take their branding. And from that, we try to figure out who are their clients, what their clients want, and where can we find them. And then we start building the strategy around it. And when I say the strategy, it can be social media. I do a lot of social media marketing. We can do email marketing. We can do print.

We can do going to events. And I'm really doing that for depending on who is the client and where are the user we are trying to target. Because the mistake I think a lot of people do, they want to be everywhere, which is good, but also it's a lot of energy. And do you have to be on TikTok if you don't do videos? You know, sometimes it doesn't make sense to be in some places and by targeting and really be there where we should, it's how we build

better marketing, I think. Definitely. Definitely. You have on your website several different VDS AI tools. Yes. Tell us about some of the stuff you have there. So it's something new. So I didn't have it. Actually, it's the first time I'm going to talk about it in video because it just appeared like a month ago.

I created three tools right now that I'm using with my clients. You have to connect to use them. But basically, there are tools to create social media posts. So you can one is to create a series of social media posts, or one social media post or a blog article, the way it works. So actually, I can tell the backstage of that, it is an N8N that takes the data you put in. So it's just a little form. You put the name of the company, what you want for the social post and then who is actually the target. If it's B2B, B2C and what you want the CTA for. And then behind that, there is a full workflow on N8N, which is an AI tool, if you ever heard about it. Take all that and create a social media post that is exactly how it should be,

written with a nice CTA and you can just copy and paste it. So that's something I use every day. I create all my social media posts like this. It's very fast and because there's this full workflow and it's an AI agent that I pre-configure, it's a little better than just a random chat GPT. It was a little bit of work, but I did that and it's running on my own server. So I have these free tools for now.

I have only three, but I'm working on improving them. And so what makes it helpful about using the AI to make your posts? What is the benefit of that? The benefits I found since I've started using that is that first we can react faster because the prime with social media is it's always time. When a client gives me an information, I have to take that information, then we have to do the design of the post, we have to do the content of the post, and then we have to post it on social media. It sounds easy when you are alone with your social media, but you have to imagine that a company like me has probably 40, between 40 and 50 social media accounts. So this is not

something we can do on the spot. We have to plan ahead. So having this tool really help us to make sure we are consistent first, because the posts are always made the same way, whoever is doing it. So we have this consistency across all platforms. And also we can react a little faster than we were in the past. Yeah. And so, you know, a lot of... Is there a certain minimum that your client needs to... Clients need to have a certain ad spend that they need to have for spending for their advertising when they work with you? That's a really good question. It's hard to say. I think I can,

I start working with a thousand, a thousand five hundred, which is a really low budget. My majority of clients are more than that. When I say that is per month. So it works, it's a monthly budget because marketing is constant. It never stops. When I say that is per month. So it works. It's a monthly budget, because marketing is constant. It never stops. So I like working with my clients with a monthly budget, I will say starting point is like 1500. And with that, for small company, we can already do a lot of things. And then my best clients are more like around 3000 4000 amounts, because we try to really like nourish, I will say a lot of things. So it depends the size of the company. But I think it's still very affordable. Because when you think about it, like, if you put 1500, and you sell at least like one or

two products, amounts, just with marketing, it's like, it's covered. So it's pretty low. I work really low budget, I will say. How can people reach out to you? How can they onboard? How can they find out they're a fit and work with you in the future? Sure. So the best way is to go to VDSdigitalagency.com. You have my email there and you have also a contact form. And my email is really easy.

It's jenny at Vgsdigitalagency.com. So really easy to find. And then I'm going to do a first meeting with them to understand their needs and see if it's a match. There is a personality match. We used to be able to work together. And then there is also a brand match, seeing if what they sell works with my principle. Most of the time it does. As I say, I work for healthcare company, I work for mobile apps company getting in the cloud marketplace, so really technical. So I can work with many people, but we really need to have a fit. Like I will say personality fit and the way we work together.

That's the steps. First step is the meeting with me, we discuss, and then if there is a fit, we can start working pretty quickly. It's been very insightful to have you on. Give us your final pitch out, tell people they can onboard with you, reach out, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, the final pitch is that if you are interested by what I do and by UX marketing, I'd say get in touch with me on LinkedIn or by email.

This is really the best way to get in touch with me. LinkedIn, just send a message, ask for connecting and then by email, jenny at VDSdigitalagency.com. Once we are connected, we can do a quick meeting and start chatting on how we can really work together and very important. I do only marketing. It's really what I'm focusing on and I do marketing for users. So user experience marketing, really user centric marketing.

So if you are interested by that, I'm the person to go to. Thank you very much for coming on the show. We really appreciate it. And we've learned a lot. Yeah, it was very interesting. And I also learned a lot. So thank you for that. Thanks for tuning in.

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