How to Build Deeper Human Connections Online With Robin Nathaniel

AI has become freaky good. On one hand, the realism can blow you away.

But on the other, it can freak you out, an example of which you’ll hear on this show. So, how can your human stories be heard in a world flooded with AI sludge, automated posts, hollow comments, and voices that all sound the same?

Our guest today, Robin Nathaniel, author of Social Media SYNC: A Framework for Intentional Human Connection in the AI Era, is a former hip-hop artist turned social media strategist.

He shows you how to blend the best of AI tools with your authentic voice, so you can simplify your content creation and deepen the impact of your storytelling.

To use a singing metaphor, I think of AI as the inhale of air a singer uses to expand their lungs, ready to belt out a tune. But only the person can bring the tone, voice,  nuances, inflections, and passion to the song.

That’s what separates us from the bots. Robin will show you how to make your content sing.

TEDx Speaker Robin Nathaniel has a story of resilience, creativity, and reinvention.

Beginning his career as a musician, Robin’s artistic roots laid a unique foundation for his journey. This experience in music, with its emphasis on connection and storytelling, naturally paved the way for his transition into the professional world of social media.

Living by the motto “Connect. Create. Contribute,” he aims to inspire a wave of positive transformation.

What’s In It For You:

• How AI tools can streamline content creation processes.
• Vanity metrics do not equate to meaningful engagement.
• Authenticity is key in the age of AI.
• The line between creativity and morality is thin.
• Human connection will be the most valuable asset in the future.
• AI can assist but should not replace authentic voices.

Chapters:

Links:

• RobinNathaniel.com
• LandTheTalk.com
• Social Media SYNC book
• Robin Nathaniel on LinkedIn
• Robin on X
• Robin on Instagram
• Robin on Facebook
• Land the Talk Podcast
• FREE Social Median SYNC Bundle

Popular Related Episodes You’ll Love:

• How to Turn Minutia Into Marketing Momentum for Rapid Growth with Mike Allton
• How a Brand Story of “Turning AI Into Actual Intelligence” is Driving Growth with Aaron Godby
• How to Refine Your Brand Story Strategy in Minutes, Not Months, to Rocket Your Revenue with Sean Schroeder

Your Storytelling Resources:

 

 

Connect with me:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parkhowell/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BusinessOfStory

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0ssjBuBiQjG9PHRgq4Fu6A

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ParkHowell

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parkhowell/

Website: https://businessofstory.com/abt/

Transcript of Show:

Park Howell (00:00.899)
Hello, Robin, welcome to the Business of Story.

Robin Nathaniel (00:04.462)
Thank you so much for having me, Park. I’m pumped about today’s episode.

Park Howell (00:07.855)
Yeah, we’re gonna really explore that intersection of humanity and AI driven storytelling and how you really connect deeply with people today. But first, where are you coming to us from?

Robin Nathaniel (00:21.834)
I’m recording from the Atlanta metropolitan area. I’m originally from New York City.

Park Howell (00:26.644)
I’ve got you. And have you been down in Atlanta for a while?

Robin Nathaniel (00:30.19)
I think we’re going on four or five years. Yeah, we moved down. We are people who escaped New York City during the pandemic. So that was kind of a wake up call for us as a family. We looked around at each other, looked at our kids, and me and my wife said, this is the time. And we just packed up our stuff, sold a bunch of it, and moved down to good old Atlanta.

Park Howell (00:39.149)
Yep.

Park Howell (00:53.485)
You know, our son escaped from Hollywood because of COVID and he and his now wife moved out to Austin, Texas a few years ago and they’re starting their family there. And he says it was the best move they ever made. You he was in Hollywood for about 10 years, 12 years, and that was good. But now he’s doing this. And our other son was in Las Vegas during COVID and he’s escaped down to Hacamba Hot Springs. His name is Kaden and he actually

produces this show. So he will get our files and make it sound beautiful and we’ll have it ready to go. So yeah, I know what it means to my wife and I escaped from Phoenix during COVID. We built a home up in Northern Arizona and we moved up near Flagstaff and we’ve been up here four years and just love it. I get the COVID transport concept.

Robin Nathaniel (01:28.216)
Very cool.

Robin Nathaniel (01:43.106)
Yep, so many stories like that. For me, even in the book, I know we’ll talk about it little later on, I kind of illustrate our story of departure. My wife came home one day in February and she was like, Robin, go to CVS, which is our local pharmacy, and grab all the toilet paper you can. And I’m like, are you crazy? Like, what? What do you mean? She’s like, trust me, just do it. Couple weeks later, complete shutdown, shelves cleared. So yeah, we’ll talk more about it, but I’m glad that you can relate to that.

Park Howell (02:11.899)
absolutely. we, you know, again, looking at artificial intelligence and humanity and that sort of thing. What caught me about your bio too was your background as a musician. And you say that you bring a lot of that musicianship to your thinking and coaching and how you approach and help people be very human online so that they can connect on a much deeper level with that other human on the opposite end.

of that digital stream. Tell us a little bit about your background.

Robin Nathaniel (02:43.992)
Yep. Yeah, so for me, I started out my career as a musician. In the early 2000s, I packed a duffel bag full of CDs and I jumped on a plane to London from New York City to go pursue my dream of starting up a hip hop movement. A few years later, we had started chapters in London, France, Germany.

And today the same organization that I work with it’s called end of the week EOW they end now we have 15 chapters all over the world and we have Rappers actually come to compete in world finals in their native tongue with multilingual judges So it’s a really cool concept something that I was very passionate about and I found that in my journey of especially connecting with people who English wasn’t their first language I had to really

dig deep in terms of my humanity to connect with people. And I think that’s something now at this stage of my career as a social media strategist and an author and a speaker that it’s kind of helped me to progress.

Park Howell (03:54.155)
And what is it about the hip hop genre that number one attracted you and maybe has helped inform your approach to storytelling?

Robin Nathaniel (04:04.642)
Yep. So, you know, it really starts when I was about eight years old. I grew up in the early eighties in New York City and Brooklyn, New York to be exact. And I can remember walking down the street park and there were puddles of water filled with empty crack vials.

and I could see them floating different colors. And that was my upbringing as a child. I grew up with immigrant immigrant parents, so I didn’t understand that maybe we weren’t well off. I was just kind of living my life as a kid. But that’s where I fell in love with hip hop at nine years old, just listening to some of the the old school emcees like Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie. And as I got older, where other kids were like, hey, I want to be a doctor. I want to be a scientist from that.

third grade year, I knew that I wanted to be a rapper. And that’s why I pursued that journey of being a musician.

Park Howell (04:58.359)
And what is it about rap? And I’ll be honest with you, I don’t listen to a lot of rap. You can tell I’m a little bit older than you are. And I grew up on, the genres, a good old fashioned rock and roll of the seventies with some of the great bands out there. And of course, pop music and rap is not something I’ve ever been able to, well, wrap my head or ears around.

Robin Nathaniel (05:22.198)
Yeah, that’s good. I love what you did there. love what you did there. would… No, you’re rolling, Park. I would say this, for me, you I can’t speak for everyone, but I think generally for me, what pulled me towards it was the opportunity for me to kind of create poetry in a way that could make people move. That was the thing I kind of carried with me. It wasn’t so much about…

Park Howell (05:24.943)
I’m terrible at bad, bad dad jokes. So there you guys just got one.

Robin Nathaniel (05:49.772)
hey, I wanna get on stage and rap as much as I wanted to get in front of an audience and share my message. And I think that’s what kind of led to me having this transition into landing my TEDx talk and speaking to talk about social media and different topics. But the love for emceeing and the art of rapping was because it gave me a voice to kind of illustrate those pictures that I was trying to share with folks.

Park Howell (06:18.935)
And how do you use that influence today in your work?

Robin Nathaniel (06:24.088)
think writing is a big part of it. As a songwriter for many years, I think that skill set got refined as I moved through in my marketing career, getting certified as a copywriter and then kind of injecting my creative writing side and my musical side into one space. So I think it helps me to create unique narratives when I’m crafting copy for clients or for my day job or even when I’m doing it for my own content.

Park Howell (06:51.851)
And what do you do today for people specifically?

Robin Nathaniel (06:56.642)
So really, my whole mission is to make social media easy for nonprofit organizations, speakers, and small businesses, really trying to give them the frameworks needed to kind of understand this messy world of social media. Because so many folks are overwhelmed by it, intimidated by it, or they ignore it totally. And

For me, I know the power of social media and I understand that folks who have a mission, people who have a purpose, whether it’s aligned with their business or aligned with their creative ventures, it can create an avenue to just reach a limitless amount of people. And that’s why I lobby so hard for folks to give it a little bit of TLC.

Park Howell (07:43.937)
And you have brought in a brought in, is that even a word? You have brought a lot of AI tools to social media to make it a little bit easier. Are these writing tools or are they management tools or can you walk us through some of the tech that you are using so that users can focus on their humanity when communicating by making their life easier through AI and tech?

Robin Nathaniel (07:50.178)
Broughton Broughton.

Robin Nathaniel (08:11.756)
Yep, so I don’t particularly create any AI or own any AI tools. I do use them. So the big one out there that folks are using is Chat GPT by OpenAI. However, there are a whole other layer of AI tools out there that folks could dig into, specifically when it comes to content creation. I think that’s an area that many folks are maybe neglecting.

Park Howell (08:25.262)
Mm-hmm.

Robin Nathaniel (08:37.836)
that they can kind of streamline their creative process using it, specifically tools like Opus Clip, where they can take a long form of video content and have AI chop it up. And I think that that’s another way to do it. And also, if you guys are creating ads, if anyone is working with Meta Business Suite and creating ads in their ads manager, that’s

Inside of Meta, there are tons of tools that I’m using on a day-to-day basis. One thing that AI, that Facebook rolled out for the AI initiative is their enhancements on their ads. They’ll literally rewrite or create new versions of your copy on your ads. They’ll also adjust your creative, whether that’s lightening, darkening, just to kind of optimize it for.

the viewer, there are a lot of tools out there that I leverage, but at the moment I don’t have an AI company or like sell any AI products.

Park Howell (09:34.381)
Yeah, you’re using the general AI tools that are available to everybody out there. Do you have any concerns about hallucinations or it just comes back with sort of generalized content that doesn’t really differentiate your brand or your voice?

Robin Nathaniel (09:50.402)
I think that’s a great question, Park, and I think that’s something that we’re seeing a lot. There’s a lot of sludge online right now being created by AI, and I think that one way to address those concerns is really adding that layer of human touch to the content that’s created. Obviously, you can train AI at this point to speak in your voice and create content that aligns with your brand.

standards and what you’re trying to represent. However, it’s always worth an extra step of making sure that you can get that human touch to make sure things are in shape before they go out to the public.

Park Howell (10:32.175)
Can you give us an example, Robin, of where you’ve used OpenAI to create something and it got you maybe 80 % of the way there and then you brought your wrapper humanity to it and really built a powerful communication, be it a blog post, a LinkedIn ad or whatever?

Robin Nathaniel (10:52.3)
Yup.

So I’m actively trying to create chats in OpenAI for specific tasks. So one that I’m using a lot is my LinkedIn templates. So these templates kind of help me to speed up my workflow. So really, I’ve already fed it a bunch of my content. And then if I see frameworks from creators that I like, whether it’s the way they structure their posts, whether it’s the length, the white space in their posts, I might feed it to them and let them

know, hey, make sure you take this structure, but we’re not interested in taking the voice or content. And then I’ll feed a prompt, and then from there, I’ll refine it with the conversation. A lot of the work that I do with OpenAI’s chat GPT is with audio. I use the audio version in my car. I’m just talking to it and letting it spit it back to me. And then once I can get to my desk,

I’ll copy it over to a Word document and then I’ll really put my touch on it. And I always have to do that because, you know, nine times out of 10 when it spits something out, it’s not truly my voice.

Park Howell (12:00.749)
Yeah, when did you start working with AI and testing it out and trying to determine if it was going to work for you? And then take us to the moment where you had this aha like, I get it. This is how I work.

Robin Nathaniel (12:19.288)
think for me it was when OpenAI first came out with ChatGPT. We had other services and tools out there before then, but like Jasper for example, I worked a little bit with Jasper. There was some other social media apps that I would use. The captions app for example, I used that one. That was in the early days. But when…

Chat GPT came out, that’s when I really leaned in. And I think the aha moment for me, Park, was when I started seeing automated comments on LinkedIn specifically, like so many automated comments come out. That’s when I kind of took a step back to really assess what I was doing, you know, with the tools, but also,

the way I wanted to encourage and train clients and teams that I work with. really seeing how diluted the comment section got on LinkedIn, for example, a post about productivity, then the AI generated comment might start with, I really like your post about productivity. It was so clearly like.

purely generated AI as opposed to giving the human touch that I wanted to get in and start creating content about that and encourage people to add their voice. Use the tools to optimize your output. However, let’s try to maintain our human voice.

Park Howell (13:51.437)
Yeah, so you could immediately read through that and you felt the veneer of AI on those comments and you’re like, yeah, this isn’t probably a real person. This is just a bot doing its thing. What’s the danger? mean, I think actually we all know what the danger is of just being flooded with very artificial comments, but how do we avoid that? How do we overcome that danger, that plague that we’re now experiencing?

Robin Nathaniel (14:21.048)
Park, sad to say, I don’t think we can. I think that it’s gonna continue, especially when we think about…

the size of this planet, right? You know, we got eight billion people here from all over the world. So there are so many content creators. I’m spending a lot of time on Substack these days, and that is a platform that I’m advocating for people to try out if they haven’t. So if you haven’t tried out Substack, it’s an amazing platform, and they just released or updated, I should say, they updated their social media platform within their ecosystem. It’s called Notes.

And it’s a very fun place, but you see a lot of that there. What’s happening is because of these international folks, right? English is not their first language, but using a tool like ChatGPT or using some kind of AI software, they can have a very clear, you know, English, you know, you know, persona and they could present themselves with perfect grammar right down to the T to the point where they might not even speak English.

And they’re like getting clients and they’ve kind of rigged the system in a way where anyone can kind of make money, which again, I would never knock someone for their hustle, right? So I want people to do well. I want people to make money, but I also want to make sure that we maintain transparency when we’re doing business. And also we have integrity and that’s kind of where I am. And I’m fully like aware that not everyone is like that. And that’s okay. But for the people that I try to touch, the people that I try to impact.

Park Howell (15:53.017)
Mm-hmm.

Robin Nathaniel (15:57.28)
I want to make sure that I’m leading with value, but most importantly, authentic human value.

Park Howell (16:03.02)
I’ve got something Robin I want you to look at after this show and I’m gonna have asked my listeners if they want to look at it too because when I watched it yesterday morning I was first it was very compelling but then I thought I think this is a I and what it is it’s on YouTube I’ll put the link in the show notes and it’s called a song of survival comma a duet of hope

And this guy and gal, they are Hiroshima survivors in their late 90s. And they play this most remarkable song that they wrote together on the day they were writing and performing this song on the day the bomb fell on Hiroshima. And this gentleman gets up and he talks about, you know, what they experienced and how he had lost his friend, the pianist.

a company, a company is through for decades. And then they found they were both alive and they became partners. You know, I think they got married and he tells this unbelievable story without a hiccup in his portrayal of what went down. And then they play this amazing song. And I couldn’t help but think that this is made up this something about it just

doesn’t sit right to me. And I started looking at the 4000 plus comments to it and a number of them were, I think this is just AI. And I wish you could watch it right now. But I’ll put a link in the show notes for you to check out. Because I’m curious from your musicianship background too, if you indeed think it is real, or you think it is AI.

Robin Nathaniel (17:55.384)
Yeah, I’d love to take a look at that and give my take. And I think that when it comes to like creative output, know, these tools can help to give people the ability to create things that they couldn’t have created three years ago. You know, there was a, you know, there was a post that I saw recently about AI witch hunts where there’s a core group of writers, right? On TikTok specifically who are

Park Howell (18:08.024)
Yeah.

Robin Nathaniel (18:23.478)
witch hunters looking for people who are writing with AI. So for me, kind of believe, I really believe that folks can use tools however they want to. However, I don’t believe in people tricking folks. I don’t believe in folks being deceitful with how they maneuver. So creating a fake story, you know, to kind of share with people so you can get clicks, for me that that’s an issue.

Park Howell (18:42.767)
Yeah.

Park Howell (18:50.425)
Well, let me try something I’ve never done here on Riverside. Are you seeing my screen right now and I’m sharing it with you? Okay. Let me, I’ve got the sound off, but this is the link here. Let me just play it. I want to see what happens with Riverside here and see if everyone can hear this, but I’m going to first just pull up the conversation, the gentleman telling his story, and then I’ll fast forward to the actual song. So here we go. Let’s give this a go.

Robin Nathaniel (18:55.392)
I am. I can’t hear it.

Park Howell (19:19.743)
And my wife loved it. She brought it and you’ve got to stop everything you’re doing and you’ve got to watch and listen to it. And I did an amazing, compelling story and a beautiful song, but I think she was maybe a bit crestfallen when I said, I think it’s not real. I think it’s AI. So here you go. Let’s see if you can.

Park Howell (19:51.661)
Now I’m assuming you can hear that.

Robin Nathaniel (19:53.57)
Yeah, I can hear it. Yeah.

Park Howell (20:42.191)
So let me pause it for a second. So in looking at that gentleman, this is on like America’s Got Talent, right? So they’re cutting to the judges and they’re cutting to the audience members and they’re all starting to cry and all this. And there’s just something about it that doesn’t feel authentic to me. And he goes on for about seven minutes or something on this. So let’s go to the song. And here they are playing it.

Park Howell (21:35.404)
Okay.

So, and again, I’ll have the link in the show notes. People can go and watch this. But what do you think? I know you only got a little piece of that.

Robin Nathaniel (21:47.726)
Yep, so I’ve seen these clips where they take footage from a performance show like The Voice or America’s Got Talent and then they add some AI to it. I’m 99.9 % certain that that is AI generated, especially the image.

of the people there on stage. So they likely just edited the true footage from America’s Got Talent into it. I would say though, and this is a good point, that the actual story was well written. The words that he was saying was well written. So there’s talent there, right? So there’s someone’s gift, whether it was edited by a human or an AI model was trained enough to write something that good.

There’s talent there. I think the issue is, when we try to convince people that it’s actually real. So if it said true story, then maybe that, you know, that might be an issue if they’re like, this is the real person. But if they’re just putting something out and it’s creative, it’s getting traction, and it’s a good story, I don’t see anything wrong with AI generated videos like that. But I believe 99.9 % certain that that is in fact AI.

Park Howell (23:07.811)
Yeah, and what was troubling for me is it moved Michelle so much. Then she’s like, she shared it with our family and I’m glad she did because it’s a beautiful song. She even suggested that, Parker, this could be a song playing in the background when you have our little granddaughter. mean, she was smitten by it and she had me stop everything I’m doing and watch it. And then, like I said, I think she was crestfallen when I said, honey, I think it’s AI. I’m not sure it’s real. I think Claude could write that script.

Robin Nathaniel (23:13.474)
Mm-hmm.

Robin Nathaniel (23:17.422)
Mm-hmm.

Robin Nathaniel (23:35.916)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Park Howell (23:36.495)
So here humans have put together an AI project that really emotionally touched its viewers and listeners, you know, and it’s got like 4.1 million views on it. And how many of those were saying, you know, believing that that was real and I don’t think it was. So they’re kind of being hoodwinked and yet it’s still very beautiful. I, you know, that’s what I fear.

Robin Nathaniel (24:01.687)
It is.

Park Howell (24:04.783)
What’s going to happen next with AI?

Robin Nathaniel (24:08.248)
Yeah, I kind of look at it almost just from an entertainment perspective, Park. So not so much AI versus human as people creating. So we have, let’s say, Pixar Studios for Disney. They create some amazing animation, have done so for years. Well written, well produced. Now, the tools that they use to create the characters,

You know, for me, it’s not as important as the story and as the message. The issue comes up is when we try to trick and bamboozle people into believing what is fake is actually real. And that’s the only issue I have with it. But I’m all for people creating AI content. I got one guy that I work with, he created a tool that does lip syncing of athletes. So he types scripts.

for athletes after their game giving like the raw take of what he thinks they would say, which is hilarious. There might be deep fake issues if that particular athlete doesn’t want to say those things. But I think in terms of creativity, it’s boundless right now. And because there are not so many rules around what you can do and what you can’t do legally, I think that people have the freedom to kind of treat it like the Wild West.

Park Howell (25:29.955)
Well, what happens when they take that athlete and they lip sync and they put in a script that’s very derogatory or very racist or whatever, and is really paints that athlete in a horrible light and they do it as a joke is under the guise of creativity, but they have smeared that athlete’s name and reputation.

Robin Nathaniel (25:51.414)
Yeah, I think that’s where the issues come in. And I think walking that line of creativity and, you know, morality, if you will. And I think it’s really up to the creator to decide on how they handle that. do know with, you know, especially in the United States of America, right, in this country, freedom of speech is something that sometimes the line can get crossed with what people say. And I do believe people have to have…

to maintain some level of responsibility when it comes to the things that they create with or without AI, you know, but especially if you’re using someone’s likeness, you wanna really, really be careful on how you approach that.

Park Howell (26:34.959)
Did you hear about this case in Arizona just a couple weeks ago where it was a drive-by shooting, and in it, this veteran who everybody loved, a good Christian man or whatever got connected with this guy, unfortunately in a road rage incident, the road rage guy pulls out a gun and kills the veteran.

Robin Nathaniel (26:40.216)
Mm-hmm.

Park Howell (27:03.221)
And when they were going to sentencing, they took the vet, they took his likeness, they had his voice and whatever. His sister wrote a script and they created an AI of him as if they brought him back from the dead, essentially, to confront his killer and essentially said, because I’m a good Christian man, I forgive you, even though I won’t be able to see my kids grow up, I won’t be able to do this. And it looked like the real guy, because they used him.

And they use this testimonial and the judge ended up, think, tacking another year and a half onto the guy’s sentence. And now, you know, the guy shouldn’t have done it, obviously, and he needs to spend some time in court. But here’s another example of bringing AI in to mimic a human being and evoke an emotion in, you know, the judge, the jury in this case. And yet it’s fake.

because the guy’s dead.

Robin Nathaniel (28:03.694)
Yep, I think where we’re headed, Park, and this is, you know, like I could go on about this, right? But I think one thing that I believe will happen in the next, you know, 10 to 20 years maybe, is that folks will start recording memories.

Park Howell (28:09.921)
Right.

Robin Nathaniel (28:24.576)
Right? There’ll be technology, because you know they have this technology with the brain chip that, you know, Elon Musk created this that they’ve been testing, like a neurochip. There’s going to be a time in human history where folks can record their memories. And I believe that we’ll be able to generate AI versions of themselves that their family can connect with, you know, when they pass away. And I think that’s kind of where we’re headed. I even believe that

as robotics and artificial intelligence evolves in that space is that AI humans, when they become like full on like terminator level humans are gonna build relationships with humans. So I think that AI humans are gonna marry humans one day. So for me, I could go down this rabbit hole for days because it’s so fascinating to me.

Park Howell (29:15.087)
You

Robin Nathaniel (29:19.766)
And also for the space that I work in with social media and marketing, just kind of seeing how it’s influencing that side of the game is also all fun, fun discussions for me.

Park Howell (29:29.903)
Yeah, well, and coming back, you say 10 to 20 years, it might be 10 to 20 months before a lot of that stuff is happening so quickly. So what out of your book? Tell us a little bit about your book and what is in it to help people really bring their human voice to this AI tech driven world.

Robin Nathaniel (29:34.606)
Hahaha!

Robin Nathaniel (29:49.646)
Yup. So, um, I gave a TEDx talk, um, in 2024, and it was really about being intentional. I did an interview on a different podcast a while back and the guy who was interviewing me, Park, he asked me some questions that I just wasn’t ready for. It went so deep, not just into my talk, but just into my life. And then I knew I had to write this book. So really what I did was I took the framework from my talk.

and made it work for my field with just social media. It’s called, you know, social media sync. And the sync stands for S is for simple, Y is for yield to your intentions, N is for natural, and C is for change it up. And it’s really about looking at social media through that lens to make sure that you’re creating.

human connections went online. think in this age, this is a person who, you know, for me, I’ve had videos go viral on TikTok and grew accounts really quick and been on that ride of chasing and following algorithms and understanding that where we are in this stage of social media with the rise of AI, that we need to focus on creating algorithm proof.

Content that will resonate and connect with people despite what platform it’s on and giving ourselves a new lens that will not so much look at the traditional metrics to keep us going in terms of our social media output and performance, but

thinking about human connection as a new type of metric, thinking about how many direct messages were initiated by a viewer, how many people gave you unsolicited testimonials inside of social media. So looking at it just from a different performance lens, but also looking at it from, looking at it through a human lens.

Park Howell (31:46.351)
So when you look at it through that human lens, how do you keep from defaulting over to AI because it’s so much easier? And it’s like, I just don’t have the energy, time, or attention right now to really, know, to human proof this, to really edit it and work on it the way I should. I’m just gonna go with what AI’s given me. I might make a tweak here and there, but it’s gonna be 98 % AI.

Robin Nathaniel (32:12.48)
Yep, I think it’s really about identifying your bandwidth, right? So I think the reason people get on the AI hamster wheel is because they have limited bandwidth and maybe they’ve overextended themselves. Or if they’re leading a larger company or a larger agency, maybe they haven’t fully delegated to the right people to make sure that…

social media content is being produced on a consistent level. So that’s the first step, it’s just identifying your bandwidth, right? To say, how much space do we have for this? And then how much can we do? Because I believe…

doing less with a really, really distinct human touch is way more valuable than creating a whole bunch of sludge. And I think that’s kind of where we are. You might get a lot of views. However, how many connections are you making? How many of those people turned in the clients? And even if they did turn in the clients, what is the quality?

of the client. Not all clients are created equal, right? So I think it’s really important for folks to identify their bandwidth so they can say, so I’m not on the AI hamster wheel. Let me make sure I know how much space I have for this, and then I can contribute that much to it.

Park Howell (33:29.263)
So they’ve got the time and energy to actually bring themselves to the work.

Robin Nathaniel (33:34.092)
Yeah, and you know, I think that, again, I’m not anti-AI, I’m an AI guy. You know, it’s one of my favorite topics. But I think that humanity piece right now, and this is just my firm belief, the human touch is discounted right now because people can pump out content, right, really fast. So I don’t need to be a thinker. I can just create something and let AI be my thinker.

But I think we’re heading towards a space and a place where the human touch and human connection is gonna be the most valuable asset that we have in this space. How human can you sound in a muddled, AI driven landscape? Who can be the most authentic? Who can stand out where you know that that thing that Park wrote was Park because I’ve seen him so many times. Not having your voice.

be compromised by a tool that you use.

Park Howell (34:35.723)
And I kind of see the trending to like, all right. So I’ve been in the advertising, branding, marketing world for four decades, and we started with the traditional work. There was no digital. I mean, Robin, our first technology was a fax machine. It’s you kind of equates to the telegraph in this day and age, right? And when digital marketing and social media came in, it was all things, all people. got to get as gigantic an audience as possible. I’ve got to have

as much engagement as possible and I bought into that. I thought, yep, that’s what, and that worked for a while. But I think now with the trending of social media, there are so many channels, there are so many voices that you have to get hyper focused and the vanity metric of engagement and number of followers is a misnomer. It doesn’t do you any good if you’re not connecting with them. You’re probably connecting.

Robin Nathaniel (35:10.765)
Me too.

Park Howell (35:32.707)
with two or 3 % of that audience and that’s the audience you need to focus on and grow. So your vanity metrics of engagement and followers may drop dramatically, but those that are following are really caring about what you are talking about. So that’s to me the way social media in general has played out. And I see it just as you’re saying here too with AI. AI can now, I can create all this content.

I can put it everywhere. It’s going to post automatically for me. It’s the same mindset. I want to be all things to all people everywhere. So I’m just going to push this crap out there when the real key to differentiation is to find your voice, use AI to simplify things, but then bring your own unique voice to it. You are the only person in the world that has this particular perspective.

and talk about it in this way. AI can never replace that. So bring that and get hyper focused on that tight little group that really loves you. And you’re going to expand that type little group by bringing your own human voice after AI has helped you with that bandwidth and made life that much easier for you. But now you’ve got to bring your voice to it.

Robin Nathaniel (36:51.608)
Yep. I love that. And I think that many people, Park, are falling into the trap of that hamster wheel that you’re talking about, of being able to publish everywhere, being everything to everyone, but really reaching no one, right? And I think that what you’re saying, it has a lot of value because, you know, if you take a step back, and that’s the first pillar of my framework, is simple, right? It’s just to kind of simplify things, identify that core message.

really speak to one audience member, right? And just dig deep into that, especially if you’re just starting. The trick is, or how people get tricked into it is, they’re scrolling their phones, right? So people are averaging 96 times a day they go to look at their phone, right? According to studies, and we talk about it in the book. So people are on their phone, and because of that, they’re being influenced as consumers of content. So I’m taking this content in, and everybody’s telling me to pump out

a bunch of content fast and use the tools to get there. However, I think on the other side of that, us taking a step away from that and instead of just consuming content to get influence, actually creating content to influence, think about what your message is. What do you want to leave people with before you leave this planet? And I’ll share it like this and I talk about it in the book, looking at it like a seed as opposed to looking at it like a lightning bolt.

A lightning bolt goes viral, a viral hook, viral headline. How did you get them in three seconds? All of the things that we hear. However, no one’s talking about the slow grow of a seed, how a YouTube video that you posted in 2010 might not take off until 2015 and having the faith to know that your message is impactful enough to resonate with people for decades, not for days.

Park Howell (38:40.811)
I love that. And I would even maybe revise that metaphor with lightning and thunder. And because I love that point of lightning, you see the strike. And I saw a lightning strike across our little lake here last summer and I saw a tree catch on fire. And thank God the rain was there to put it out. But I saw that all go down. But it was the rumble of the thunder that just kept going and going and going. And that’s what you want your content to

Robin Nathaniel (38:49.326)
Mmm.

Robin Nathaniel (39:03.854)
Mmm.

Park Howell (39:10.649)
do. Yeah, it could strike by lightning to those that are following you to get their attention, but you want it to rumble on in their minds and to be thinking about it. And there’s no AI that I’ve found yet that can do that. It’s got to be your own authentic voice. Now, we found with our story cycle genie that it enables you to replace that blank page and that blank stare like, God, I want to write about this subject, but I don’t even know how to get going and whatever. And so the genie will help you.

Robin Nathaniel (39:22.798)
Mm-mm.

Park Howell (39:39.311)
write that in your voice, but then you’ve got to come back in and bring that last 10 to 15 % of your humanity to it. But the beautiful thing about it is you get to spend 100 % of your creative energy on that last 10 to 15 % of the writing. So it really helps in the content creation in that way.

Robin Nathaniel (40:04.418)
Love that, love that. Yeah, I had a chance to review what you sent over from the story, Jeannie, and there was so much value in the assessment that it did of my social media and also of my brand online in general, and it helped me to kind of think about ways that I want to refine what I’m doing. So I’m grateful for that.

Park Howell (40:24.483)
well, I’m glad and I’m doing this with all of our guests now, of course, and you didn’t even know it was coming your way. So sorry for the intrusion, but I hope you found it very helpful. And it said first when it did, you know, just the assessment of your brand. Robin Nathaniel presents himself as a personal brand focused on communication expertise, thought leadership and professional development.

Robin Nathaniel (40:31.404)
did not.

Park Howell (40:50.531)
particularly helping others develop effective speaking and presentation skills through multiple content platforms. Now, that’s kind of accurate, but it’s not.

Robin Nathaniel (41:01.11)
It’s accurate. It’s accurate, but it’s not, that’s not the whole picture. So, again, all of that is absolutely true. However, like we talked about off air at the top, you know, of the brand, it’s really the fact that I support folks with social media strategy. And I think in reading the assessment, there was very little, if no mention of that. And I think because on the front end,

I present myself online as a TEDx speaker, as an author, that that’s what kind of took control of the assessment. And that’s why I believe I came off more as a speaking and communications coach. Also, my professional background and my educational background are all communications and media. And I also believe that fed into it because I have that out there publicly as well.

Park Howell (41:54.447)
So what it may be telling you then is it’s amplifying or it’s validating the things you were doing right in its accuracy. But then it’s also showing you some gaps in your communication of things that you need to change. we didn’t have a website to pull from. We pulled from your LinkedIn profile, your book, podcast, and your substack. But I couldn’t really go deep in there without joining up.

And so it may be telling you that you need to refine some of your messaging in those places because this is how you’re showing up.

Robin Nathaniel (42:30.24)
Absolutely, absolutely. And I think the podcast might actually be a big part of that because the podcast speaks to keynote speakers a lot. A lot of the content is for keynote speakers. And I think that is one of the reasons why it presented me in that light as a speaking coach.

Park Howell (42:51.299)
Yeah, so you’ve got some work ahead of you, it sounds like, to kind of refine your story a little bit.

Robin Nathaniel (42:53.93)
No, I appreciate it. I appreciate it, Park. That really was eye-opening. And again, I’m grateful for it.

Park Howell (43:00.831)
well, I’m so happy that you found it that way. Some people I’ve sent it out to, they’re like, what are doing, dude? How come you’re digging around in my brand? But the beautiful thing about the StoryCycle Genie is you can even put it through a grader. You can put your as in grading how effective your brand story is by just simply giving it your URL for your website, and it will pull up 14 points and give you a grade from A plus to F minus.

Robin Nathaniel (43:27.392)
Mm-hmm.

Park Howell (43:27.415)
And then you can take that and say, okay, here are places I need to go and fix my story or amplify portions of it or whatever. And you can even use that grader to test your story against your top three competitors and see how they are better, how they are worse and where the white space is where you can go in and with your story, really carve out your differentiation from them.

Robin Nathaniel (43:52.77)
Well, know what, Park, I wanna add one more thing on that. One idea that came to mind when reviewing it, besides like, hey, there’s no social media strategy here, was the fact that, hey, should I be offering services for this? So that’s another part. Like, should I have an offer?

you know, in my ecosystem for speaking, for coaching folks with speaking and brand strategy, because right now that’s not one of my offerings. So that’s another thing that got my wheels turning, not so much as it was wrong, as much as is there an opportunity here.

Park Howell (44:25.262)
Mm-hmm.

Park Howell (44:31.373)
Yeah, yeah, well, that’s the third leg of this. So leg number one, it validates what you’re doing well. Leg number two, it highlights the gaps and the missed opportunities that you can close and fix. And leg number three, it provides inspiration. It’s like, you know, I’m not talking about this as much or here’s a different way to talk about it. I need to go in and plug it in. then, of course, once it has your completely refined and defined brand story as you as the human refine it, working with the genie.

then it literally will create any content you need based on your brand voice, based on your personality archetypes, based on the challenges, fears, frustrations and aspirations of your audiences. And my goal, Robin, was that we would get to the point it would give you 80%, get you 80 % of the way there, then you would bring your humanity to the last 20%. People are telling us it’s actually getting them 90%.

of the way there. So they can spend 100 % of their energy on that last 10 % and it’s replacing that blank page and that blank stare with content that you can execute on immediately.

Robin Nathaniel (45:31.54)
That’s great.

Robin Nathaniel (45:45.91)
I love that. I love that. Yeah, I found it very helpful and thanks again, Park.

Park Howell (45:50.413)
Well, I appreciate that. Robin, you’ve got a giveaway for our audience. What is that?

Robin Nathaniel (45:53.962)
I do. do. Yep. It’s called the social media sync bundle. My book is out now, but I want to make sure folks can check it out and also connect with me if they have questions or need support. So if you visit lanthetalk.com, it’ll invite you to my, my email list, but also it will give you a bundle that includes the first chapter and intro of my book as well as three

tools that you can use today, ready to use tools, including two eBooks and a checklist to help you with your social media journey.

Park Howell (46:29.625)
That is awesome. That’s very generous of you. And they can find it at LandTheTalk.com. Of course, I’ll put that link in the show notes as well. So Robin, thank you. This has been an absolute pleasure. I really appreciate you taking the time to be here and to share your wisdom and your rap background with our audience, man.

Robin Nathaniel (46:37.197)
That is correct.

Robin Nathaniel (46:52.376)
Park, you’re doing amazing work. I appreciate you sharing your platform with me, but most importantly, I appreciate the work that you’re doing every day, so thank you. All right now.

Park Howell (47:00.375)
I appreciate that. Have a great day.

 

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