Ep 235: AI Forced Him to Pivot So Here’s How He Made It Work with Ron Desi

I asked Ron if AI was going to eat his job for lunch and he said “yes and no.”

That mix of realism and optimism sets the tone for this episode. When AI started disrupting his on-camera spokesperson business, Ron Desi didn’t panic—he pivoted. And he used the same technology that threatened his income to build a completely new opportunity, including an email list of 1300 people in just 55 days using a personality-based quiz that hit all the right notes.

Ron Desi is the founder of Growth Vids and a seasoned video strategist with a background in business education. For over a decade, he’s helped companies communicate with clarity and authenticity through video. Now, he’s embracing change and leading the way on how to adapt—creatively and strategically—in an AI-powered world.

WE ALSO TALKED ABOUT:

• The reality of AI’s impact on service-based businesses
• Why Ron is pivoting away from video production and toward video strategy
• How authenticity beats automation (especially in industries like law)
• Ron’s thoughtful use of Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude to brainstorm, write, and research
• The surprising way Dungeons & Dragons is helping autistic teens build confidence
• How he created a quiz that deeply resonated with his niche audience
• The step-by-step approach he used to design the quiz with AI input
• Ron’s long-term plan to build a business around what he loves—and why YouTube is part of it

If you’re worried about how AI is changing the game, this episode is proof that you can use it to create new opportunities, not just survive disruption.

Get regular access to tips, techniques and advice from experts about growing your business:
👉 https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• GrowthVids.com – Ron’s site for video strategy and spokesperson services
• Dungeon Noob – Ron’s D&D YouTube channel
• Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude – AI tools Ron uses to strategize and create

My newsletter is for people who need a way to make money from home so they can build a better life for themselves and their families:  👉 https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

My newsletter is for people who need a way to make money from home so they can build a better life for themselves and their families:
👉 https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

_____________

Trudy Rankin is the host of the Online Business Launchpad Podcast, Director of West Island Digital and the founder of the Online Business Lift-Off program.

Affiliate Disclaimer: If you click on links on this page and then make a purchase, I may earn a commission (at no extra cost to you).  I am a proud affiliate of these resources because I use them in my own life and business.

TRANSCRIPT

Episode 235: AI Forced a Pivot So Here’s How He Made It Work with Ron Desi

[00:00:00] Trudy Rankin: I asked Ron if AI was going to eat his job for lunch, he said yes and no. Some companies are going to go all in on avatars, but others will never ditch the human face of their business because authenticity matters more than automation. In today’s episode, I’m talking with Ron Desi, entrepreneur, strategist, and founder of Growth Vids.

[00:00:25] Trudy Rankin: About how video is evolving in the age of ai. We have a look at how business owners can avoid wasting money on dead end video marketing. Why just being on camera isn’t enough, and the surprising role that Dungeons and Dragons plays in building empathy, connection, and even revenue. Ron also shares how he built an email list of 1300 people in just 55 days using a cleverly crafted quiz.

[00:00:53] Trudy Rankin: Ron brings a unique combination of business savvy and creative ingenuity, and [00:01:00] with over a decade of experience as a video spokes, as a video spokesperson and strategist, he understands what actually works when it comes to using video to generate leads. Plus his thoughtful take on AI authenticity and adapting in uncertain times offers exactly the kind of grounded.

[00:01:19] Trudy Rankin: Real world insight that today’s online business owners need.

[00:01:22] 

[00:01:35] Trudy Rankin: Welcome to the Online Business Launchpad podcast. I’m Trudy Rankin and I help people who need a flexible work from home option grow the online side of their business so that they can earn more Stressless and have greater freedom in how they live.

[00:01:50] Trudy Rankin: So welcome to the podcast, Ron. Thank you for being here.

[00:01:54] Ron Desi: Thanks, Trudy. It’s a pleasure to be here and I’m glad we could figure out the time zone difference because I know there’s a challenge there. So thank [00:02:00] you so much for having me. 

[00:02:01] Trudy Rankin: Time zones are always a challenge. But, it’s good we finally managed to make this thing work.

[00:02:06] Trudy Rankin: And just for the benefit of our listeners, can you just really briefly explain what you do? 

[00:02:12] Ron Desi: Sure. I’ll try to keep this as quick as possible. So basically what I started off about. 12 years ago is presenting on camera and the term could be called video spokesperson at the time where I would be on camera for companies looking to hire me for their YouTube ads, for their, um.

[00:02:34] Ron Desi: Online presence for training videos for their website videos, their FAQ videos, basically any kind of video where they needed to be in front of a customer and they didn’t want to be on camera. So I kind of replaced them in a way. And recently I’ve been looking at kind of how the market’s been going, and I’m still doing that, but I’m shifting more to video strategy because what I’m seeing [00:03:00] is that a lot of business owners.

[00:03:02] Ron Desi: No, they have to quote unquote, do video, but they’ll hire perhaps maybe a, a big production company or a local video agency to create this video that costs them 5,000, $10,000 to do. And then it sits on their website and it collects dust. Or they hire someone like me or someone, you know, or they create a explainer video or they get a video done by AI, which I know we’ll talk about AI later.

[00:03:27] Ron Desi: And they don’t. They put it somewhere on YouTube or whatever, but then it falls flat. They don’t know what to do. So I’m kind of changing my strategy. My bread and butter is still being on camera, but I’m looking at from the strategic standpoint, how can business owners utilize video to get leads? Because that’s really what it’s all about.

[00:03:47] Ron Desi: If you’re not using video to get leads, it’s really … there are other ways to use video, but for most business owners that I’ve talked to, that’s what they want. They want their video to be that sales agent that is there [00:04:00] 24 hours a day, seven days a week when their salespeople are sleeping. The video is still working behind the scenes to get leads, to get sales and, and all of that.

[00:04:08] Ron Desi: So that’s probably at the highest level and the shortest level and the most briefest level that, uh, I can go through. And of course, we can go into details if you’d like. 

[00:04:16] Trudy Rankin: Yeah, so I think it’s a really interesting business model and I have I’ll have more questions about that as we move forward, but I’m really curious even sort of the 12 years ago when you first got started, what made you get into that?

[00:04:29] Trudy Rankin: What made you pick that as your way of making a living? 

[00:04:32] Ron Desi: So the origin story is that I used to be the director of a graduate level program in my area. I’m in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States, which is about an hour north of Washington, DC and I was the MBA director, so a Master’s of Business Administration and.

[00:04:50] Ron Desi: I noticed that when I was in that role, I would get the same questions over and over again. What is, what GMAT score do I need? What’s the GPI needed [00:05:00] as an undergraduate? Just a lot of basic questions that I got over and over and over and over again, and I was always answering those same questions and I thought, what if I just put a video, a bunch of videos out on YouTube to answer these questions?

[00:05:17] Ron Desi: And so I did that and. Students would email me and other advisors, et cetera, and instead of taking their time and, you know, replying back with everything, they’d say, hi, Joe Smith, uh, thanks for the question. Here’s a video that’ll answer that question. Copy and paste the video, and then they send it out.

[00:05:36] Ron Desi: And that MBA program started embracing that. And then I thought, huh, if I’m doing this for them, I wonder if other people would hire me to do it as well. And the answer was yes. I kind of threw my shingle. I hung my shingle on a website, which you probably know and your, your listeners probably know, called Fiverr, and I started on Fiverr.

[00:05:59] Ron Desi: Probably about [00:06:00] 12, 13 years ago. It’s fuzzy now, how long it’s been, but it’s been a long time. And I started as a spokesperson and ever since then, that’s pretty much what I’ve done ever since. And I enjoy doing it. I love being on camera. It’s, you know, we all have our superpowers and I’d say if anything I’ve ever done in my life, that’s the one thing I really enjoy doing is being on camera and, uh, trying to help

[00:06:24] Ron Desi: business owners, sell their products, their services, educate customers, and, and all of those things. 

[00:06:31] Trudy Rankin: Yeah, I think that’s always interesting finding out what people’s superpowers are and because it is, 

[00:06:37] Ron Desi: yeah. 

[00:06:38] Trudy Rankin: Once you learn to hone in on to what that is and figure out how to use it in a way that’s going to help support you, it just, it’s just kind of almost, almost magic, but not really.

[00:06:48] Ron Desi: Yeah. Right.

[00:06:49] Trudy Rankin: Because a superpower is only a superpower when you actually use it. Because you can be good at something, but you can’t be great at it unless you practice it and do it and work at 

[00:06:58] Trudy Rankin: it.

[00:06:59] Ron Desi: Exactly. And [00:07:00] it’s, it’s funny you mention that because I look at videos and this is for anyone and I’m sure anyone who has any, if you superpower is whatever it might be, and you know you’re really good at that.

[00:07:12] Ron Desi: You look at something you did even like four or five years ago, and at least for me, when I look at videos I’ve done five years ago, I’m kind of embarrassed by it because as you, you might have that superpower, but you learn and you grow and you try to adapt. And right now being on camera is way different than it used to be five years ago.

[00:07:34] Ron Desi: And I can get into why that is. AI has a little bit to do with it, if I’m being honest, but that’s kind of the, the role. I think everyone who has a superpower realizes that they’ve grown. And in order to really keep that superpower and to keep your, your competitive advantage and whatever you’re doing, you have to continuously grow and learn and improve and do all of that.

[00:07:57] Trudy Rankin: Yes, absolutely. And it, it can sometimes not be [00:08:00] all that pleasant, but sometimes it’s just fun, you know, just being, allowing yourself just the, the permission to make mistakes and to learn and do stuff. I’m really curious. I want to, I want to get into the AI side of things, because one of the questions that I had, when I was doing a little bit of research was, if you are the person who’s being the spokesperson for an organization and typically that that video that gets created is, could go up in lots of different places, but it’s typically going to go up on YouTube, but it could go up on LinkedIn, it could go in other places as well. How are you thinking about, well, I’m going to split this question into two bits.

[00:08:41] Trudy Rankin: First of all, do you think that AI is going to eat your job for lunch? I’ll start with that one. 

[00:08:49] Ron Desi: Okay, so I will say. So I’m going to be ambiguous. I’m going to say yes and no, but I’ll give you the reasons why. I will say yes. Because there are a subset of business owners [00:09:00] and companies that would replace a spokesperson, a real human spokesperson for an AI avatar.

[00:09:09] Ron Desi: And I think to be honest with you, I think in some cases they are something that you should use. And I think that. That will displace some of the work that I do. ’cause I’ll, and I’ll be honest with you, I have seen my sales go down, which is one of the reasons why I’m kind of pivoting to this more strategy, strategic compartment of, uh, video.

[00:09:31] Ron Desi: But there are other companies, and I think, and, and of course this is all my own philosophy. I’m sure Trudy, you’ve listened to podcasts and many other people have had this philosophy that in a sea of AI, how are you going to stand out? And one of the ways to stand out is to be authentic, to be, you know, a human on camera.

[00:09:53] Ron Desi: And I think that’s what people are looking for. And I think as AI continues to march forward and it will, [00:10:00] I think there’s going to be this yearning for just that human connection. And a lot of my clients now, because I’ve kind of found myself in a weird position where I’m the face or the the creator for many business YouTube channels, and I’ve asked them, at the risk of giving them the idea of firing me and finding an AI avatar, I’ve asked them, why don’t you just use an AI avatar?

[00:10:25] Ron Desi: You could probably save a lot of money every month. And they specifically said that they would never do it because it’s not authentic to their customers. They feel that they need to put an authentic presence online that’s real in order for them to get the customers they want. And you know, I work with law firms.

[00:10:44] Ron Desi: Um, I work with a large what’s it called? Uh, concrete Coding Company. And so these are larger companies that realize that their customers… There’s no way they’re going to buy from an AI avatar, which right now looks great, but still kind of has that little bit of an [00:11:00] uncanny valley to it. Mm-hmm. 

[00:11:01] Ron Desi: And, 

[00:11:03] Ron Desi: and I think that’s what’s going to happen.

[00:11:04] Ron Desi: I think they’re going to be those businesses where they have a type of customer who they would never put out an AI bot, so to speak. And a good example is, let’s say I’ve seen now that AI bots can call customers. And, you know, they could have conversations with customers. I’ve seen some wild black mirror kind of, and twilight zone kinds of things, and I think in certain ways I think that’s good for, uh certain markets, but I can guarantee that a high level executive C-suite sales opportunity, they’re not going to give to an AI bot. They’re just not. So I think that there is that bifurcation of who’s going to use it. And also, like anything else in life and in business, you’re going to use the tool.

[00:11:54] Ron Desi: That’s going to be most effective for what you want, what goal you want to achieve. So I don’t know if that answers the [00:12:00] question. I hope it does, but that’s kind of my philosophy on AI and whether it’ll put me out of a job. And like I said, it has, I’ve definitely seen a decrease in the number of the orders that I’ve gotten.

[00:12:11] Ron Desi: And there are actually other factors as well. Uh, specifically a lot of owners now want to be on camera themselves because of that authenticity factor we talked about. Mm-hmm. It’s probably much better for, let’s say you, Trudy, to be on camera for your business than to hire someone to do it for you. But the people who hire me, they just either don’t have the time to be on camera, they don’t want to be on camera.

[00:12:36] Ron Desi: They’re embarrassed to be on camera. They don’t want to deal with all the lighting and everything else. So hopefully that answered your question. I’ll stop now because I can keep babbling. 

[00:12:46] Trudy Rankin: No, I think it’s really valid because, I mean, there’s lots of reasons why people might not want to be on camera.

[00:12:51] Trudy Rankin: You can go onto YouTube and see so many videos about how to be, make faceless videos.

[00:12:56] Ron Desi: Yes.

[00:12:56] Trudy Rankin: And, and they work to a certain extent. In certain contexts.

[00:12:59] Ron Desi: [00:13:00] They do.

[00:13:00] Trudy Rankin: But you’re right. You know, I, I was just thinking when you were saying that about lawyers, I, I, I’m pretty sure I would not hire a lawyer based on some sort of AI avatar because there’s too many stories around of where, yeah, AI’s gotten it wrong. When it comes to the legal side of things, it’s like, ah, don’t take the risk

[00:13:15] Ron Desi: Yeah. 

[00:13:16] Ron Desi: And the other thing I’ve noticed now, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but on my Facebook feed, and I know it shows my age because I’m still on Facebook, but I’ve noticed that whenever there’s an obvious AI.

[00:13:28] Ron Desi: Avatar or an AI, uh, let’s say, uh, picture, and I saw this, as you can see, I play Dungeons and Dragons. You can see the dice thing up there, and I think we might talk about that later, but kind of my own side, little project, but I get this, it was like this whiskey glass, and it had like the, a dragon on it.

[00:13:47] Ron Desi: It looked really cool, but it was obviously AI. And I looked at the comments, and the comments were like, why would I buy something? Why would I buy a real glass that you’re going to send to me when you can’t even take a [00:14:00] photo of the glass? You’re making an AI image of it. It, and the comments were just funny.

[00:14:05] Ron Desi: And I’ve also, I dunno if you’ve seen this, where someone puts an AI image or something like that and the comments are like, AI slop, stop the AI slop. So you know it. I think that like any business owner has to look at their target market, their avatar, and determine is it worth. The price to hire someone like me or any of the other people that I know who are in my industry to get that level of authenticity and humanness and everything else, or is it good in some places?

[00:14:35] Ron Desi: Sometimes it is. Yes. Hiring or building an AI avatar, or an AI image, or an AI voiceover, whatever it might be, might be the best way to go based on who your target market is, your product that you’re selling, or whatever else it might be. 

[00:14:51] Trudy Rankin: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and it’s just been interesting watching, watching things progress.

[00:14:56] Trudy Rankin: But having said that, you know, having said there’s times when, you know, it [00:15:00] just does not make sense to use AI, there are times when it does make a lot of sense to use AI, and I’m curious about how you use it in your business or if you do use it in your business at all. 

[00:15:11] Ron Desi: I use it a lot, probably more than than I should, than I should.

[00:15:16] Ron Desi: And I say that because the one danger with AI, well, let me back up. Let’s go answer the first question. I use it a lot primarily for strategy, and I’ve noticed that the three main tools I use, like, I actually don’t use any of the image tools or the, uh, the video tools or anything like that. I look at it, use it for more or less strategy.

[00:15:38] Ron Desi: Like for instance, I use, I’ve noticed that Gemini AI is, in my opinion, the best tool for strategy, just strategy sessions, brainstorming and all of that. ChatGPT is better at analyzing data, looking at data taking data from a spreadsheet or a YouTube channel, analytics and kind of really taking it and giving [00:16:00] you what it means.

[00:16:01] Ron Desi: Claude, I think, is the best for writing. So if you’re going to write a script or anything else, that’s the best thing. So I use all three of those tools. In those different capacities, like for instance, for my D and D channel, I’ll have a conversation and I, I call a conversation with Gemini about, you know, where the strategy should be.

[00:16:21] Ron Desi: I’m doing this right now, this is what I’m looking to do. Give me the pros and cons of going in this direction versus that direction. And it’s just a good… kind of almost a litmus test. And then sometimes for the scripts, I’ll research for my D and D channel. I’ll research won’t get into the boring details about D and D, but like a monster that’s in D and D.

[00:16:41] Ron Desi: I’ll research that. Then I’ll get all the information and I’ll put it into Claude and say. Write the script on X, Y, and Z, and it gives you a great first draft, and then I take that draft and kind of put my own voice to it because I don’t know how you are true to it. For me, if I’m staring at a blank screen and I have to just [00:17:00] start typing.

[00:17:01] Ron Desi: I’m not good at that, where Claude can immediately say, okay, this is a YouTube video, so I’m going to create a great hook. I’m going to, it knows the template that you should use and it, it’s a good first draft. And I think one of the problems is that I’ve seen is that many business owners take that great first draft.

[00:17:19] Ron Desi: That’s what they use, and it becomes very obvious that it’s an AI written script or a LinkedIn post or Facebook post or whatever else it might be. So that’s how I use ai, at least at the 30,000 foot level. 

[00:17:33] Trudy Rankin: Yeah. And I think it’s smart to do that. I think for me, certainly I use AI a lot as well for strategy, for the analytics side of things, just getting it to analyze certain data, but also in terms of process flows but the one thing that I’ve been sort of really enjoying and getting into a lot more is using custom GPTs to enable people to do things they couldn’t do [00:18:00] otherwise, or they would really struggle to do otherwise. Cause I coach people on how to create their own business and that process of building it mm-hmm. Setting it up mm-hmm. And all that.

[00:18:09] Trudy Rankin: And, I have a subspecialty where I work with people who are carers or caregivers. Okay. Or they have a disability. Uh, and sometimes. The disability can be really limiting in, in how fast you can do some things. And you know how frustrating it is when you’re trying to keep up or trying to build a business and, and you need to move quickly, but you can’t because of certain factors, then

[00:18:29] Ron Desi: Yeah, very true.

[00:18:30] Trudy Rankin: Then the GPT side of things can really, really liberate you. It’s been really fascinating, but, but at the same time, you know, you do, there’s, we could talk ai, this whole

[00:18:39] Ron Desi: Oh yes, yes, we can. Yeah.

[00:18:41] Trudy Rankin: But one of the reasons that I wanted to chat with you today is because you and I are both in Pat Flynn’s, SPI communities.

[00:18:48] Ron Desi: Yes. Mm-hmm.

[00:18:48] Trudy Rankin: And, uh, we’ve both been there for a while. I certainly get a lot of value out of it. And I suspect you do as well. 

[00:18:56] Ron Desi: I do. 

[00:18:57] Trudy Rankin: Yeah. But one of the things that I noticed is that, [00:19:00] one, somebody else commented this and said that you were, that you ran workshops or game nights or whatever for… and D and D. For anybody who doesn’t know D and D means Dungeons and Dragons. 

[00:19:11] Ron Desi: Yes. Yep. 

[00:19:12] Trudy Rankin: And, you do it with people or teenagers that are autistic. Is that correct? 

[00:19:17] Ron Desi: Yes. Uh, so basically what I do is I run a D and D campaign. It’s every Monday or every other Monday.

[00:19:23] Ron Desi: And, uh, it’s a, it’s a group of four individuals who are young adults between the ages of 18 and and 20, around that age group, and they are on the autism spectrum and each one of them is on different levels of it, and I met them, believe it or not… So in the United States there’s this coffee place called Panera Bread.

[00:19:46] Ron Desi: If you’re in the US you probably have heard of it. It’s probably one in your city or many in your city. And that’s where I like to go to do laptop work because I can just get my coffee, I can sit down on my laptop and go to work. [00:20:00] I guess it was about a year ago, these group of guys and their, I guess it would be, what do you call it?

[00:20:06] Ron Desi: Their, um, uh, not their caregiver, but yeah anyway, the person who kind of, the case manager. Case manager, that’s right. So the case manager was there and brought in these group of guys, and at first, you know, I didn’t.

[00:20:18] Ron Desi: It was just ignoring. They were doing their thing. I was doing my thing. And then I got to just to know them, just as you know, individuals and we talked about movies and sports, what they like, what they didn’t like, and all those kinds of things. And you know, we developed a kind of a friendship and I one day brought out in Dungeons and Dragons, which is a role playing game, that there’s this thing called the Monster Manual, and it’s got all of these monsters.

[00:20:44] Ron Desi: 400 some pages of various monsters from in the game. And when I brought it out, they were like, what’s that? What is that? And I, you know, showed them and they were like falling all over it. They loved it, whatever. And then I thought, you know, I wonder if I could play the game with them. [00:21:00] And one last point of reference is I used to play as a kid.

[00:21:04] Ron Desi: I’m 50, almost 53 now. I played when I was like 10 to 15 years old. So we’re talking, a long time has passed. So I really, have kind of forgotten how to play the game. So I thought, well, maybe a good way for me to relearn the game, a good way to connect with this group of guys, give them something fun to do, introduce them to the game.

[00:21:25] Ron Desi: And there have been studies and research that’s been done that Dungeons and Dragons has a lot of really, and I didn’t know this at the time, a lot of good benefits for individuals who are on the learning differences spectrum, or even people who are in elder care people who have Alzheimer’s or dementia.

[00:21:47] Ron Desi: It’s, for some reason, it, the way that you play the game, it’s really good for that type of interaction or that type of learning. And so, long story short. Did the volunteer application, got all that done, and now we [00:22:00] run these campaigns and it’s been great. It’s been great for me because I’m learning the game.

[00:22:04] Ron Desi: I’m playing the game. It’s great for them ’cause they’re having a lot of fun doing it. And, you know, it’s, it’s something fun that I’ve really enjoyed, enjoyed doing. 

[00:22:12] Trudy Rankin: I think that’s really cool because, blast from the past for me is, is that I learned about D and D when I was at university.

[00:22:18] Ron Desi: Oh, really.

[00:22:19] Trudy Rankin: And I used to, on, on Sundays I would go with some friends and we would play D and D and, actually…

[00:22:24] Trudy Rankin: probably doesn’t even mean anything to most people, but I actually used to play at D and D with the guy who started Wizards of the Coast.

[00:22:32] Ron Desi: Oh really?

[00:22:33] Trudy Rankin: Yeah. And, and he was just,

[00:22:34] Ron Desi: oh, that’s cool.

[00:22:35] Trudy Rankin: He was just a teenager in high school at that stage. And, and, uh, yeah, it was just, it was just really fun.

[00:22:40] Trudy Rankin: It was just really casual. And so when I finished university, you know, obviously married and moved away and,

[00:22:46] Ron Desi: yeah.

[00:22:47] Trudy Rankin: And just didn’t even think about Dungeons and Dragons except for, to, you know, I thought it was pretty cool. I really enjoyed the imagination side of things. Yeah. Until, until, you know, we married, had kids grew up, moved away and our [00:23:00] daughter and her husband got started playing Dungeons and Dragons.

[00:23:04] Ron Desi: Oh, wow!

[00:23:04] Trudy Rankin: And so whenever I go visit them, I always join into the games and I’m like, you, I’d forgotten all the rules. I’d forgotten everything. So I had to, you know, I had to start creating characters. Anyway, long story short. It is a really interesting game and I really do, like you said, there is something there about it that there’s enough of a framework there to provide guidance. 

[00:23:26] Ron Desi: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:23:27] Trudy Rankin: But there is so much scope for using your imagination 

[00:23:31] Ron Desi: Yes. 

[00:23:31] Trudy Rankin: To problem solve. To learn how to work together as a group, to how to manage conflict in that group in a very safe and gamified space. And I just, yeah it’s just really interesting and I was interested because our daughter and her husband. They watch there’s, there’s this channel where the, there’s a D and D dungeon master who runs

[00:23:54] Trudy Rankin: campaigns and they’ve obviously videoed all the campaigns and, and they watch ’em. And they’re like five or [00:24:00] six years old these campaigns, but they’ll still go back and watch ’em on YouTube. So I’m curious, so I want to bring this back now to what you do and to

[00:24:07] Ron Desi: Sure.

[00:24:07] Trudy Rankin: And to sort of YouTube and also i’ve got some more AI questions, but when you do your campaigns and you have a channel, do you monetize that channel? 

[00:24:18] Ron Desi: So that’s interesting. So, uh, a quick history of the channel. I started it about almost, it’s almost the one year anniversary, and I started to get back into D and D of like June or July of 2024. And the problem is, is one of the most difficult monsters to slay in Dungeons and Dragons as an adult is trying to find a group and getting everyone together and agree on the same time, the same date, the same, every, it’s just a disaster. Um, so I couldn’t find a group to play with, and even now I’m still struggling.

[00:24:52] Ron Desi: Besides the group I I play with as the Dungeon Master, I’m trying to find a group that plays as a player and I’m still try still [00:25:00] having trouble doing that, but I thought, how can I be in the hobby? But at the same time, I don’t have a group. How can I do that? So I decided to start a YouTube channel, and I am now at almost 5,000 subscribers.

[00:25:15] Ron Desi: And I don’t know when this will go live, but I can almost imagine that if it’s a month from now or two months, it’ll definitely be above 5,000. And I starting to get to that point where monetization… I am well over the thousand subscriber mark and I’m about halfway through the the 4,000 watch time hours.

[00:25:34] Ron Desi: So that’s one part of the monetization I’m looking at. The other side of the monetization is, and I think that this is really important for all business owners, I know we’re kind of geeking out on D and D, but to bring it back to tangible business, I decided, as you know, Pat Flynn, other podcasters, they all say you need to start an email list.

[00:25:54] Ron Desi: And the biggest regret people have is I never started an email list. And so I thought, how can I [00:26:00] start an email list? And as I continued to think about it I was brainstorming with AI and it came up with some things and nothing was hitting and then I thought, you know what, one of the things I like to do is create characters.

[00:26:15] Ron Desi: When I was younger, I loved creating the characters. And part of the character creation process is what class are you? And for those who don’t know what class is, are you a fighter, a barbarian, a thief, a paladin? It’s, it’s kind of what your profession might be in Dungeons and Dragons, which also gives you what kind of powers.

[00:26:35] Ron Desi: And I thought, okay, maybe I can create a quiz. Maybe I can create a quiz that people can link to from my channel on my videos and take this quiz. And it’s to determine your real life D and D class. But I wanted to go more than that. And I think this is important for business owners is that if you were to create a quiz, which I think is incredible for growing your, your list, your email [00:27:00] list

[00:27:00] Trudy Rankin: Oh yeah.

[00:27:00] Ron Desi: Is to not just do a quiz and say, Hey, you are a this. It’s what can you do that really wows them to help them in their business. And for me, helping the D and D players, I thought, are there personality archetypes? I’m kind of a geek when it comes to self-development.

[00:27:19] Ron Desi: Uh, there’s the Myers-Briggs type indicator and all of these other personality assessments, and I did some research and I utilized AI. I used all three AI tools to do deep research to find, are there legit researched archetypes that can say, if you are a rogue, a rogue, maps to this specific archetype, with these personality profiles, with these strengths, with these weaknesses, all of this stuff.

[00:27:47] Ron Desi: And I thought that, I think that’s it. And so I created a quiz, long story short, ’cause the quiz was… it took about two and a half to three months to create because it was just so complex. So I created this quiz and [00:28:00] basically you take the 13 question quiz and there are 13 questions in D and D. You take that quiz and you’ll get your results, and you get a PDF sent to your email box that gives you the what your class is, let’s say a fighter, it tells you what it means in terms of your personality, not your D and D stuff at all, but what it means in your personality, what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are, what you have to look out for, and kind of I, I say, what’s your first mission? And then your first mission is a way forward in the next week, what can you do to capitalize on your strengths and maybe improve your weaknesses?

[00:28:39] Ron Desi: Not to pat myself on the back, but I was astounded that people who have taken it have said it’s eerily accurate for only 13 questions. And the best part, Trudy, is I reached 1300 email subscribers in 55 days.

[00:28:57] Trudy Rankin: Wow.

[00:28:57] Ron Desi: So, so it, it shows that it resonated [00:29:00] with that audience. And I think if anyone’s going to do a quiz, that’s the most important thing is do your research, ask your audience.

[00:29:08] Ron Desi: Do the research go on AI. Have that, have your, have a deep research, search through Quora and Reddit and all these things to get signals from all of these different online areas to find out what your customers are talking about, what their pain points are, et cetera. And is there a quiz that could help identify and help them with that pain point?

[00:29:27] Ron Desi: Because people. From what I, if you do the right quiz, they love taking quizzes and getting their answers. So I’ll stop there and if you have questions, I’d be happy to answer. But I’m trying to turn that obviously into an email list. I’m working on my first product for that group, and I think it’s just a matter of …my goal,

[00:29:45] Ron Desi: if I’m being completely honest with you is by the time I, I’m age 60, I’m looking at YouTube is a long-term game. I’m almost 53. By the time I’m 60, I want to be making a full-time income on YouTube, a healthy income, [00:30:00] my stretch goal is within five years. So by the time I’m about 57. So that’s my goal. And given the what’s happening so far it’s heading in that direction.

[00:30:09] Ron Desi: And it’s a lot of fun. I love doing it. So it’s, it’s also, to be honest with you, a little bit of a distraction to, for, to my other stuff because I love doing this stuff so much. So much more. It’s great. 

[00:30:21] Trudy Rankin: I think that that’s amazing because I, I mean you, you’re probably aware that I’m into quizzes in a big way, and I think quizzes are one of the best ways to get leads.

[00:30:30] Trudy Rankin: And I think that we’re now getting to the place where we can merge quizzes into, into customized GPTs and things like that and doing some, some thinking and, and some strategizing and some work around that as well. But it, that is amazing. That’s a really good result, getting that many people onto your email list in that short of a space of time.

[00:30:49] Trudy Rankin: It says a lot for the quality of your quiz, because if people are, because you’ve got the curiosity hook and and people are are thinking, well, how is this going to [00:31:00] help me? It’s fun.

[00:31:01] Ron Desi: Yeah.

[00:31:01] Trudy Rankin: All those things that make for a good quiz and getting people to actually do your quiz.

[00:31:05] Trudy Rankin: So I think that’s actually brilliant. Um, and I’m, I’m just curious as you went through that process. Uh, of creating the quiz. And I, and I know a lot of people want to do a quiz, and they, and they don’t because they, they think it’s just too much work and it, it’s too much effort.

[00:31:19] Trudy Rankin: It takes too long. And you said it took you two to three months to do the background research and, and all of that. How did AI help you or did AI help you speed up that process? 

[00:31:29] Ron Desi: Yeah, it did. It helped me speed up the process because a, there was, there would be no way I could have the time. And when I say two to three months, that’s not like full-time into it.

[00:31:41] Ron Desi: It’s like I have my, my job that makes me the money stuff. So it’s, you know, a couple hours here, a couple hours there. So it’s not like a dedicated full-time effort to get the quiz done. So, but with that said there’s no way I could have done the research to find the personality archetypes or actually just even go back to find, [00:32:00] ’cause one of the things I love about deep research is it’ll go out to all of the online communities where there’s all the chatter. Your customer right now is chatting on Facebook groups. It’s, they’re all chatting in Reddit. They’re chatting in forums they’re talking to, various things across the spectrum on the internet. What deep research can do with the right prompt is go out there, search for everything. You tell it exactly what you’re looking for and give it context. I said I’m looking to find a quiz that you know will be beneficial. And you know, what are some of the things, and I can’t remember exactly what I said, but what are some of the quiz ideas, what’s some of the pain points that a lot of D and D people are talking about?

[00:32:47] Ron Desi: Or what is the chatter out there when people talk about what exactly, you know, what’s my D and D class or what monster am I, or those types of things. So you can use AI to speed up that process like it’s [00:33:00] never been done before. For me to go out and do that (a) it would take forever. (b), it, it wouldn’t have been as thorough because I probably wouldn’t have had as much time.

[00:33:11] Ron Desi: I would’ve looked at a few Reddit threads, a few Quora questions, or whatever it might be. Go to the, you know, a couple forums online and then make an assessment from that. These deep research reports give you incredibly detailed results. And I do three of them because I want to make sure there’s a cross-reference, you know, triangulation between the three for one, for accuracy and, and two, a lot of the AI tools will miss certain things.

[00:33:40] Ron Desi: So I want to see where other tools pick up, and I think that’s important when you’re using AI tools. Never, ever, ever, ever accept what they give you. You have to do your own due diligence because they’re notoriously bad at accuracy. But anyway, that’s why I do that. And then from that standpoint, I [00:34:00] use primarily Gemini for the strategy behind the quiz.

[00:34:04] Ron Desi: Trying to come up with the archetypes I would load in… my process at a, at a high level was I would take some of the research reports that I found. They’re actually peer reviewed research reports or journal articles I found, fed them into Gemini, fed some of the deep research stuff into Gemini.

[00:34:21] Ron Desi: All the stuff I could find about mapping D and D classes to personality archetypes. Put it into Gemini. So whatever business you’re in, you do the same thing. You find it, you put it into Gemini, and then you say, okay, this is what I’m looking to do. Let’s get started. And what you really want to do, and I think the power of AI comes from, I always say, let’s get started, but make sure.

[00:34:44] Ron Desi: Ask me questions. What questions do you have for me to make sure you’re giving me the best results possible? Because sometimes AI, as you know, you put in a prompt, it’ll just spit out whatever. And I always say, ask me questions to make sure you’re on the right track. And if you have a [00:35:00] follow-up question, you are my advisor.

[00:35:02] Ron Desi: Uh, you’re my coach. Any competent coach when I go into a session is going to ask questions. They’re not just going to blurt out answers. And so that’s what I use to create the quiz. And then honestly, I probably would’ve failed at creating the quiz and probably would’ve given up on it if it weren’t for AI, if I’m being honest.

[00:35:21] Trudy Rankin: Yeah, because, because in order to do a quiz really well, you do have to do that deep research. You do have to come up with all of the curiosity hooks, the theme, the topic, what, what’s the difference that the quiz is going to make. All of the things that go into making a really great quiz. And it takes time.

[00:35:37] Trudy Rankin: So …

[00:35:37] Ron Desi: it does take time. 

[00:35:38] Trudy Rankin: It’s, it’s really interesting. So I’ve, I’ve got a beta, a beta, um, little product at the moment that I’m working on where it’s basically how to use AI to generate a a quiz.

[00:35:50] Ron Desi: Oh, good. 

[00:35:50] Trudy Rankin: So it’s a drip email, 30 day series.

[00:35:53] Ron Desi: Okay.

[00:35:54] Trudy Rankin: So, so, yeah, so working on that and I’m going to take that and, ’cause I’ve already done it, I’ve already run it and got the feedback and now [00:36:00] I’m going to turn it into a product.

[00:36:02] Trudy Rankin: But I’ve got to actually improve what I’ve got there because one of the things that people said was, is that it’s still …30 days is still a very long time and people want instant success, and it’s like, don’t think it works like that, but we can speed things up a little.

[00:36:17] Trudy Rankin: Ron, this has, this has been fascinating talking with you.

[00:36:19] Trudy Rankin: We could talk about this stuff for a long time, but I’m curious, I’m curious because you’ve got a, a long history as. Like, uh, somebody who’s run their own business. You’ve made the switch from, from corporate, from you know, academia to, to, uh, running your own business. And now you are, you’re pivoting again, and you’re going to keep pivoting and you’ve got some goals, uh, ahead of you that you want to achieve.

[00:36:42] Trudy Rankin: And I’m, for those people who might be not quite as far along as you are, could you maybe just share two or three tips that have helped you along the way to (a) figure out what to do, and (b) keep going when the going gets tough. 

[00:36:58] Ron Desi: Sure. So one question for [00:37:00] you, Trudy. So your audience, do you think they’re mostly in the beginning stages of their business or kind of further along the line?

[00:37:07] Ron Desi: Because I kind of, I could tailor my question to that. I don’t know if you have a specific… 

[00:37:12] Trudy Rankin: Yeah.. So, so it’s it ranges.

[00:37:15] Ron Desi: Okay.

[00:37:15] Trudy Rankin: But, but a lot of the people that are listeners and the people are in my audience are people who… they’ve gotten started.

[00:37:23] Ron Desi: Okay.

[00:37:23] Trudy Rankin: But they’re in, they’re in there ramping up really getting clear up to kind of, I’ve been doing this for two years now, and now I’m really understanding what I’m doing, sort of a phase, and they’re just really getting to the place where they feel confident as a business owner. 

[00:37:38] Ron Desi: Okay. Okay. No, that, that really helps.

[00:37:40] Ron Desi: So it’s beyond just someone who’s just starting. So I would say the most important thing, and I I, I hate to bring it up again, but I have to because it’s the reality we live in is you have to look at AI and you have to look at what it means for your business. And I don’t say that to scare people because you just [00:38:00] have to realize that things happen, change happens, and I think that any business owner has to realize that change is going to happen and you have to adapt to that change. It’s been, change has been happening since we first walked upright, and the only challenge now is it’s happening faster than I think sometimes our brains can even keep up with.

[00:38:24] Ron Desi: And I think that we have to be able to pivot. To be able to move and the moment that you stop looking at where your market is going and you kind of, and I hate to use the term, sit on your laurels, but if you do that, that’s when the danger happens. And I’ll admit I was going to be in that danger. I mean, I, if I didn’t see that, you know, was it the look at the tea leaves?

[00:38:49] Ron Desi: Or read the tea leaves? Probably about a year ago. I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in now. You have to make sure that you’re reading where you’re going, or read where the technology’s going, where the, [00:39:00] where SOC society is going, where all of that is going, where your customers are going, and then try to adapt. And sometimes

[00:39:08] Ron Desi: it’s just a little adjustment. Sometimes it’s, it’s massive. For me, I think that this is massive doing this new, the strategy side, and I’ve always done the strategy, but it was always baked into me being a on-camera presenter and then working with my client to say, okay, so now I’m doing this video for you.

[00:39:27] Ron Desi: Let’s talk about how to really get leads for your customers. Now it’s the reverse. It’s okay, so let’s talk about how we’re going to get leads for your customers and then we’ll talk about video and you know, in terms of, well, how video can get leads for your customers. Then we’ll talk about what kind of video.

[00:39:45] Ron Desi: It’s completely independent of me being on camera at this point because, you know, someone may have a target market that’s …doesn’t want some guy with a bald head. It’s 53 years old, you know, they went with someone younger. So all of that to say [00:40:00] that you just have to pivot and be ready for all the changes that that are going to happen.

[00:40:04] Ron Desi: And, you know, I think that’s probably the biggest thing I, I could say about all of this, because there’s going to be a lot of change that’s going to be happening and I think we just have to be on our toes as AI continues to march forward. 

[00:40:17] Trudy Rankin: Yeah, absolutely, a hundred percent. Because, uh, you know what you’re saying about change is that it’s, it’s real. It’s happening. Uh, it’s more about instead of throwing your hands up in the air and going, the sky is falling. It’s about going well, how can we adapt? How can we adapt? So,

[00:40:31] Ron Desi: And truly it’s, it’s, 

[00:40:32] Ron Desi: sorry to interrupt. I was going to say, it’s so easy though because even for me, there have been times when I am, I’m like, you know, it’s like, do I really want to do all this?

[00:40:41] Ron Desi: You know, it’s sort of like, do I really want to do it? And it’s so easy just to say. Oh, AI’s just going to take over. It’s, it’s, it’s, but if you want to survive, you have to move forward. And we’ve always, society has always done this. You know, the, it’s the thing with the, the buggy whip manufacturers went out of business once the, you know, the, the, you [00:41:00] know, the cars came out kind of thing.

[00:41:01] Ron Desi: Mm-hmm. So, you know, we all have to adapt what we’re doing. And sometimes we may not like it. But we have to do it in order to survive and thrive. 

[00:41:11] Trudy Rankin: Yeah, 100%. That is so true. So Ron, it, it has been really lovely speaking with you. If people were interested in…

[00:41:18] Ron Desi: it’s been great. 

[00:41:19] Trudy Rankin: In reaching out to you or maybe even with working with you, where would they, where’s the best place for them to go?

[00:41:24] Ron Desi: So I would say the best place to go is to go to my website, growthvids.com. It’s one word growthvids.com. You can also reach out to me directly [email protected]. And if you want to check out my Dungeon and Dungeons and Dragons channel, if you happen to be in the hobby or you’re just interested, go to YouTube and type in dungeon. NOOB. So, uh, check that out if you’re interested in D and D at all. 

[00:41:48] Trudy Rankin: Okay, fantastic. I’ll make sure that I put those into the show notes. But once again, Ron, thank you so much. 

[00:41:53] Ron Desi: Thanks Trudy. I appreciate your time and have a great one. 

[00:41:57] Trudy Rankin: You’ve been wondering how to make your videos work harder [00:42:00] for your business, or even just where to start without wasting money, Ron’s insights were pure gold. And if you’re anything like me, you might be rethinking how to use AI in your workflow without losing that all important human touch.

[00:42:13] Trudy Rankin: Remember to hit that subscribe button and leave a review. It helps more people find the show and get the advice they need to build a flexible online business they love. And hey, if you want weekly tips, behind the scenes updates and expert advice in your inbox, plus a few short stories about what’s happening in my day that relates back to your business, I’ve got a newsletter just for people building the online side of their business.

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