Social Media News Live: Discussing the latest social media tools, tips, and tactics with industry experts, innovators, creators, and storytellers

AI Secrets Every Small Business Must Know

13 snips

Jul 2, 2025

Guest

Phil Pallen

Phil Pallen, a branding strategist and author of 'AI for Small Business', discusses how small businesses can leverage AI while maintaining a personal touch. He shares a practical framework for identifying tasks to keep, delegate, or automate. Phil explains how to train AI to reflect individual brand voices and explores tools like ChatGPT for enhancing customer interactions. The conversation highlights the balance of creativity and technology, emphasizing that AI can boost productivity without sacrificing human connection.

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ANECDOTE

Synthesia Avatar Sparked His YouTube Side Hustle

Phil accepted a Synthesia avatar project but only after he verified safety via the Content Authenticity Initiative.
That early experiment helped spark his content creation side hustle and public learning journey.

ADVICE

Track Minutes, Then Delegate Or Automate

Track your working minutes and highlight tasks that bring joy or high impact.
Delegate or automate tasks you don't enjoy or that aren’t high impact using AI or other tools.

ADVICE

Chunk Prompts With A 'Don't Take Action Yet' Step

Use stepwise prompting like "Don't take action yet" to feed context in pieces before asking for output.
Provide briefs, example transcripts, and competitor examples so the model drafts faster and you finalize in minutes.

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Trying to keep up with AI while running a business? You’re not alone. In this episode of Social Media News Live, we’re joined by Phil Pallen, branding strategist, keynote speaker, and author of AI for Small Business, to talk about how solopreneurs and small teams can use AI to boost productivity without losing the personal touch.

Phil shares his practical framework for using AI in ways that actually make sense for your business, starting with tracking your time and identifying the tasks you should keep, delegate, or automate. He also walks us through how to train AI to sound like you, how he uses ChatGPT and Adobe Acrobat’s AI tools in real client workflows, and why embracing AI doesn’t mean sacrificing human connection, it means amplifying what makes you unique.

We cover everything from chatbots to creative automation, ad management to brand voice, with real examples from Phil’s own work as a creator and consultant. If you want to work smarter, not harder, this episode is packed with takeaways to help you get started or go further with AI.

Key Points:

A simple framework to decide what to keep, delegate, or automate using AI
How to track your working time and use that data to build efficient systems
Why brand voice matters more than ever in the age of AI, and how to train your LLM to use yours
How Phil uses “don’t take action yet” to structure better ChatGPT conversations
The difference between AI assistants and agentic AI (and why it matters for customer service)
Tools for smarter advertising, including Otis and Magai, and what to know about data security
Why branding is evolving, but your personality still sets you apart

Resources:

Phil Pallen’s Website – philpallen.co
Book: AI for Small Business – (affiliate link) Available on Amazon
Follow Phil on YouTube & Instagram – @philpallen
Explore Phil’s Recommended Tools – philpallen.co/tools

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