Inspired with Alexa von Tobel
00:29:16 · Alexa von Tobel, Thomas Berolzheimer
[00:29:16] S2: you most excited about? What are you most worried? [00:29:18] S3: I think the... What we're gonna see is, like, obviously, we're already seeing with, like, AI stuff and just, like, how much content. And it used to be just, like, written, and now it's, like, pictures and video. And and and so I think there's gonna be a natural response to that. It's, like, how can people find those people that they actually know and love? Because it's it's... From our perspective, it's harder to get them to be able to see that. And so I think there's both a scary thing and an opportunity of, like, how do we have better connections? That's why we love Substack because it's like, you know, once that person subscribes, like, they should be able to be able to see those messages a little a little bit better. It is not the best experience if you're subscribed to, like, 50 Substack or 20 Substack. It's, like, not the easiest thing to keep up with. We get that. But, you know, sometimes I think, like, it's it's people are gonna follow maybe 10 people instead of a 100, but they're gonna have a deeper relationship with those those 10 people.
00:30:12 · Julia Berolzheimer, Alexa von Tobel
[00:30:12] S0: I mean, I think, again, that connection, like, the real relationship, and that's again, something that's really important to us and that we've spent fifteen years building is is a relationship. It's not just transactional. Like, you know, there's lots of things that we do that that don't drive revenue that aren't, you know, strategic. But they're important because, again, these are real people. We're real people. It's it's a real relationship, and it's meaningful to us, and it's meaningful to our community. So honing on that even more because with AI, you know, AI can't compete with that. It can't compete with, like, real connection. And that's how we can, you know, really stand apart from just this sort of like mass scale of things. [00:31:06] S1: Julia, you said something. You and
00:31:06 · Alexa von Tobel, Alexa von Tobel
[00:31:06] S1: Julia, you said something. You and [00:31:07] S2: I were just out of the country together, and you said something that really stuck with me, which is you said that you wouldn't use AI to write your content. And your point was part of why people come and trust you and follow, and you have millions of followers across all your platforms combined. And by the way, you have one of the highest conversions of any influencer out there, which is really... And and people are trained to come and trust your style and your taste, and and people shop from you pretty powerfully. You were like, I'm not gonna use AI because I don't want somebody not to trust that it's my voice for the second someone feels like you're mailing it in and creating less high quality slop, you were like, I'm just not gonna do it. I built this audience. It's... You know, it... That is trust is everything, and you're like, it's just... Where would you use AI? So that for me was a moment where I was like, there is just very clear places where people aren't gonna throw AI. Where would you use AI?
00:32:06 · Julia Berolzheimer
[00:32:06] S0: Yeah. I think there's there's... You know, I would I would... It would not be smart of me to not integrate AI into certain parts of my life. And thank you... Thankfully, I have Thomas who who has been really smart about adding it into the parts of our life that alleviate things that we, you know, we shouldn't be doing still. But to me again, like, yes, I use AI. I use it as an editor. I write my post. I get my voice out. And then I say, you know, I ask it questions of, you know, helping me figure out, you know, to get to the point that I'm trying to get to or to give suggestions. I think there's smart ways you can use it without just, you know, write this for me. How can you write a personal post when it's it's not you, it's not your voice? And then the same comes from having it curate too. I mean, you know, we've... We were like, how amazing would it be to make Julia bots and have it curate the Internet for me? And we've played around with that, and there's different apps and lots of things to try and do that. But it it's just pulling from the past. It's not looking at the future. And I think taste and aesthetic is constantly evolving and it's so nuanced and it's not something that's predictable. And so how can AI predict that? And maybe it will get better and it will over time. But right now, that's just something that's... That is really important. I mean, it's it's like the core of our brand. So we would never sort of pass that off to AI. But I think there's a lot of ways, I'll let Thomas talk about this, that we can incorporate into our business that just keeps our workflow better.
00:33:51 · Thomas Berolzheimer
[00:33:51] S3: Yeah. I I think one of the good examples is we're talking earlier about, you know, in DMs of, like... Or comments or, like, just all this information that we get. Like, we have so much great data or, like like, data analysis is somewhere I use AI a lot. Bringing in all of our affiliate sales for the year, bringing in every comment from q and a on Instagram, and being able to analyze that to see what people are talking about. You know, we did that recently on a styling request, and we found out that, like, 30 or 40% were related to, like, travel wedding things. So we're like, okay. Let's create more content around travel weddings. So it's like, use the data to better understand what people are looking for so that we can create... That we can service them even better. You know, Julia and I are both writing, as I talked about, on Substack. I I do things slightly different. I will do a ton of voice to text and do a lot of voice mode where I'm just talking aloud. I have an idea that hits me on the street, and I'm just, boom, right into writing mode, capturing as much as I possibly can. And then we'll take that into a draft I do for when I write. And so then I'll start iterating for there. I always say that, like, I am such an iterator that I... It would actually be faster for me to go sit down and write everything typing out, but I want it to be so good. I I I ask it to be devil's advocate. Like, I'm going through different angles. How can we... I'm like, by the time I'm done, I'm like, I probably could have written this. It'd be not as good, but I could have written this faster with with... Just by myself without the help with AI. Or I think of it more as like a coworker collaborating together at the best possible version of that skill that you're looking for, like an analyst or a... Or an editor, then so as, like, someone... Something that's just doing everything for me.
00:35:41 · Alexa von Tobel, Julia Berolzheimer, Thomas Berolzheimer
[00:35:41] S2: I love that. I'm gonna move to the quick fire round where I'm just gonna ask questions. You guys have to just tell me the first thing that comes to your head. I'm gonna start with Julia. Julia, favorite outfit? You gotta just quickly tell me. Which one of your favorite outfits you've ever worn? [00:35:54] S0: Like, a cotton midi dress, like a crisp cotton midi dress in in the summertime with a ballet flat. Just like easy uniform. [00:36:03] S2: I hear you, girl. Thomas, the thing you're most excited about right now. [00:36:08] S3: Can I talk to my own my own home book? [00:36:11] S2: Yes. Of course. [00:36:13] S3: We are just launching something called Coreli, which, you know, we talk about, we learned about, you know, our our website. We're still operating it, but so many other bloggers have shut theirs down, and we wanna... Coreli takes your Instagram and turns it into a web page in five minutes, and it's kind of that central hub for anyone to point everyone back to from wherever they're posting content online. [00:36:38] S2: And everybody, you can check out mine and Julia's by the time this podcast is up. So check it out and become a follower. I wanna know a business book that you really, like, changed your life. Thomas, you go first.