Ep 311 | Using AI To Support Video Creation with John Gargiulo

Are you struggling to create engaging video content for your nonprofit? In this episode, I sit down with John Gargiulo, founder and CEO of Air Post, to explore how artificial intelligence can revolutionize your video production process. We discuss innovative ways to leverage AI tools that can help you connect with donors, save time, and stretch your budget.

Harnessing AI for Impactful Video Creation

John shares insights on:

• Using AI to generate realistic video content from text prompts
• Repurposing existing footage with AI-powered editing tools
• Creating personalized video messages at scale
• Translating video content into multiple languages effortlessly

Practical Applications for Nonprofits

Discover how AI can help you:

• Craft compelling fundraising event videos
• Produce Netflix-quality content on a shoestring budget
• Streamline your video editing process
• Expand your reach with multilingual content

Addressing Ethical Concerns

We tackle important questions about:

• Maintaining authenticity when using AI-generated content
• Balancing efficiency with transparency
• Communicating your use of AI tools to stakeholders

Getting Started with AI Video Tools

John recommends practical tools for:

• Creating AI avatars for spokesperson videos
• Enhancing video quality and removing filler words
• Generating storyboards and scripts

Whether you're a seasoned video creator or just starting out, this conversation offers valuable insights to help you leverage AI in your nonprofit's video strategy. Learn how to create more engaging content, save time, and stretch your resources further.

What to skip ahead? Here are some key takeaways:

03:54 The Excitement of AI in Video Production There have been rapid advancements in AI video technology, especially with Google's VO3 as a significant leap forward. AI can now create realistic videos with sound, opening up new possibilities for content creation.

06:22 Authentic Use of AI in Nonprofit Video Production You can use AI to repurpose existing footage, create personalized videos, and translate content into multiple languages. This allows for better efficiency and expanded reach.

12:40 The Future of AI in Video Production AI is revolutionizing video production, replacing traditional methods. AI helps you create high-quality, Netflix-level content at the click of a button, opening up new possibilities for nonprofits to create compelling video narratives.

15:54 AI Tools and Job Security in Content Creation AI won't replace human creativity but will act as a highly capable assistant. Human input in content creation will always be critical.

19:21 Recommended AI Video Tools and Final Thoughts  There are several AI video tools for different purposes, from caption generation to avatar creation. Experiment with AI tools and communicate with them effectively.

Resources

VO3 AI Video Generator
HeyGen AI Video Generator
 Synthesia
ChatGPT
Pippit AI for TikTok
Pika Labs AI
SORA

Full Transcript

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] We've talked a lot about AI on this podcast in the past and today I'm excited to kind of dive into video. How can we use AI to help us in our video creation and actually creating the content, coming up with the ideas, all of the things, because we know that video is so important at connecting with our donors, with our audience. We know that video is so important for the algorithms for the platforms that we're on. So how can we speed up that process? How can we make it more intentional? And how can we really leverage video and the AI tools that are out there to support us if we're just not experts at creating video and we don't have the budgets to hire people to do it for us? Right? And so my guest today to talk about just this is John. John is the founder and CEO of Air Post, an AI driven platform automating video and production. Former global product marketing lead at Airbnb, he launched and scaled new products and features for millions of hosts and guests. He's a seasoned marketer with over 15 years of experience in creative direction, digital marketing and online advertising. He's a frequent speaker on the future of AI marketing, user generated content, and advanced creative strategies for consumer brands in E commerce, fintech and mobile. Now, if you've been thinking about mobile or mobile thinking about video, but you just don't know where to start, this is going to be a really great episode for you so that you can find some tools to help you streamline, speed up and get it done. Because that's really the thing that I find most organizations struggle with is the getting it done piece. Whether it's just being nervous in front of the camera. There's some tools that he has so that you don't have to be on camera. There's so many just different ways that we can approach video now and AI can help us do it. So let's dive into this episode. But before we do, it is brought to you by Oh My Hi. Again, if you're looking for simple tools to get visibility and your website just isn't doing what it needs to do for you, oh My High is the go to website builder for beginners. People that are not crazy tech savvy or people that just really need some support with getting it done. Now, there's so many different website builders that are out there, but what I love about oh My High is that they are there with you every step of the way. It's a visual builder, very easy to use, customizable, and they have live, weekly Q and A Training sessions where you can come in if you're stuck, if you have a new person on your team to support you in getting the thing done. Where do I put this block? How do I add this thing? Where's. How do I put this email? Opt in. There's people that are there to help you every single week, as well as their really vast and broad knowledge based tutorial videos. It's a great community of people that are all there just trying to get visibility for their business, grow their business and hit their goals. So if you want to check out Oh My Hi, you can do that at thefirstclick.net/ohmyhi H I. You can hear a bonus episode I did with co founder Becky Launder about the purpose and brilliance behind having a great website that works for you and supports your business. So I hope that you'll check it out and see what you think about websites and the Oh My Hi builder. We love it here at the First Click and it's a great place to start when you're trying to have a professional website that can get visibility and conversions for your organization. Let's get into the episode.

You're listening to the Digital Marketing Therapy Podcast. I'm your host, Sami Bedell Mulhern. Each month we dive deep into a digital marketing or fundraising strategy that you can implement in your organization. Each week you'll hear from guest experts, nonprofits and myself on best practices, tips and resources to help you raise more money online and reach your organizational goals.

Hey friends, Please join me in welcoming John Gargiuolo to the podcast. Thanks for being here, John.

[John Gargiulo] Yeah, happy to be here.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Okay, so we've been talking about AI a lot over the last few months on the podcast. Today we're talking about video. But before we kind of jump in, why AI? Why is that something that is exciting for you?

[John Gargiulo] AI is eating the world. It's changing everything. I think the whole planet will look different in five or 10 years. Something's better, something's weirder. I think that's why it's exciting. I just feel really grateful to be building something in AI video at this moment.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Yeah. Okay, so video is not something we've talked about on the podcast yet with regards to AI. And I feel like it's something that makes people nervous. Like, okay, I don't know. I have not seen a video that generated from AI that I haven't been like, that's AI. But I feel like there's a breadth of different types of ways that you can use video. So what are your favorite ways to use AI to help with your video creation.

[John Gargiulo] Yeah, I think that what you just said is true. Maybe still true, but maybe just changed completely at the beginning of summer here when VO3 came out. V E O3, the number three from Google. You can try it. If you go to Google, like Google Gemini, VO3. It's a big leap. It's a ChatGPT level leap in the sense that. And I've been playing around with it, you can go in there and say, I want a president speaking to Congress talking about how Sammy has really come a long way this year. You send it to somebody and they think it's real. I mean, it's really creepy. Good. I think the biggest thing that's left forward with VO3 in AI is they have sound. So instead of, you know, Will Smith eating spaghetti or some of these memes or famous things in AI video past. And of course, the deep history. The deep past is about three years long, maximum, maybe two. So stuff moves quickly. This is like you hear them talking, you hear sound effects. One of my favorite prompts for VO3 is like, Netflix thriller. Two people talking intensely, you know, at a European train station about something. It just looks really, really real. So I will say for the record that I think we have turned a corner there.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] I love that. So, okay, so before you get freaked out and scared, I think there's a couple creative ways that I think this could be used for nonprofits. And I would love your thoughts. Is like video at your fundraising event. Like, now you have an opportunity to take your real content and use it authentically. Like, how might we want to use AI to help us create video as opposed to having to maybe spend all the money on a production company?

[John Gargiulo] Well, you used a great word, which is authentically. So I think everyone listening here has different view of that word. I think the true meaning of that word is no, no, it's real donors. It's real people who are benefiting from our nonprofit. We cannot put big people. That's very inauthentic. And that's. Get that. Let me go to the other side of the continuum, and I'm not recommending this, but I'm just saying this. And if it sounds nuts and head shaky 10 years from now, my guess is it will be the norm whether we like it or not. Which is I really want to show, you know, okay, we don't want to, like, lie. Right? So maybe it's. I've got all these great quotes over the last few years in my nonprofit of what people really love about Us and what we do. But I want to show a video at this big event fundraiser that we're doing. So I'm going to make all these people that look like they were interviewed in nice lighting that I spent 20, $30,000 to fly in a documentary team. And I want them to like talk passionately about these things and I'm gonna have them use the same quotes that these are actual people actually said. I mean you could do that today with, with. I keep saying it's like I'm feeling like I'm pitching VO3, but again, I'm kind of obsessed. You ought to check it out. V E03 but you. Because, because like everyone listening could go in there right now and be like, show me that and have them say this. And it will work. Now in terms of other ways people and nonprofits could use V Video AI the there's a lot of editing and orchestration tools where they're using footage you already have. I just had a call with a CEO yesterday. Five year old startup, not five year old person. She's. She's 45 year old startup that does editing in the browser. Think like Cap Cut for Mac or that, you know, competitor, right?

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Yeah, yeah.

[John Gargiulo] And she's working on something where you prompt what you want. Right. Hey, here's all my footage. Like a lot of you probably have folders full of stuff that you really want to get to using or. Or you only used it once and you want to get more leverage out of it. You can dump it in there and say make me a rough cut in this editing timeline of a video talking about this angle of what we do at Go and then it'll make a okay version and then you can edit it from there. So those are the. Some of the things that are coming.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Yeah, I love that because it's not like you're not going to pretend like Tom Cruise is your advocate at your event and like put your voice like that would be inauthentic. But using your own words content and manipulating it through AI so that you can save time and effort. I think that's fantastic. We do the same thing. Like we use AI to cut this podcast to create the shorts that we. The short videos that we want. Right. It's our content, but we're saving time by taking our stuff and splicing it up into a bunch of different things. Okay. So the one thing that blew my mind that I learned about a few years ago is like using AI to personalize video. So I'd love for you if there's a new tool or whatever that you love, but creating, like, a video that says, like, hey, hey there. Like, thank you so much for coming to our event, donating, and blah, blah, blah, blah. And then AI goes in and adds the name so that they get a person be like, hey, John, Hey, Sammy. Hey, whatever. Like, I think that's also a really cool thing that people don't think about that AI can do.

[John Gargiulo] That's a great idea, 100%. And there are companies like Heygen he y g e N Synthesia, where you can make an avatar of yourself. You know, the head of the nonprofit could be talking to camera just like you and I are, and say, Jeremy, I just want to say thank you, love that you came to our event in St. Louis last week and gave $410. That was really generous of you. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it will look. It will be imperceptible. It will look exactly like you. It will sound exactly like you. Jeremy will be thrilled. Jeremy might be in his 70s, by the way, and not, like, looking for every AI. Uncanny. And you know what? If Jeremy complains, it's like, well, I could have sat there and done it myself. President, you know, Clinton could have, like, sent Christmas cards where he sat there and signed everyone. But they just print the signature. You know, it's printing the. You know what I mean? So that's. That's how I look at it.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Well, and I think, too, if somebody complains, it's like, hey, do you want me to spend my hours and your money recording videos? Or did you love the fact that we sent you a video and, you know, yes, we used AI but it meant we got to touch points with everybody in a quick period of time and connect with you while we're still going out and nurturing and raising more money for the cause that we're doing. Like, it's all on how you frame those conversations.

[John Gargiulo] Yeah, agreed.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Okay. So the other thing that I wanted to touch on is AI for how we deliver our services. So if you're, like, delivering video content to your families or your community, and maybe you have community that's in multiple languages, like, AI now is also getting really good at taking your existing video and translating it into multiple languages so you can serve a wider variety of people, right?

[John Gargiulo] Yeah. Video and text. In fact, OpenAI just early this summer came out with a much improved model that can reliably, you know, culturally, like, take something in Tagalog or Spanish or Latvian and put it into English or vice versa very, very well. So if you're using any kind of translation company for any kind of work already, I would switch to just chatgpt and then video. Same. Absolutely. I'm guessing the lip sync, which is already not 100% of the way there, maybe it's 92% of the way there, but, you know, a year ago it was 70% of the way there. Will be a little harder for, you know, German. But I could be wrong because they got a fit like, oh, but this guy said, welcome to France. You know, welcome to Chicago. But in German, it's like Wilcomen.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Yeah.

[John Gargiulo] You know what I mean?

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Anyway, yeah, but it's a great way to, like, expand your services still. And I think nobody's gonna come at you for being like, well, you weren't actually speaking Spanish. Well, no, but do you want access to these resources or not? Like, yeah, we're doing what we can, 100%. Yeah.

[John Gargiulo] It's all about, like, more efficient, helping people as efficiently as possible. So, like, that's what AI can enable.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So what other things are you seeing on the landscape? Like, what other ways are you excited about video being used and how AI can help us streamline that?

[John Gargiulo] I think it's gonna. I mean, you know, I have a lot of friends directly in the production world. I'm in the production world. Nothing we can do about it. I think it's going to replace production writ large. It's going to put Netflix level production with 80, 90 people running around and craft services and this great DP who's got a great resume at your keyboard, and you can just make whatever you want. I mean, again, you already kind of can now. And then, what does that abundance open up? Like, what do people actually go and do with that? What happens when it's not make a shot of two people talking in a Netflix thriller for eight seconds. What if it's make a Netflix thriller that's all about our nonprofit, you know, for eight episodes. And they're all good. I mean, we're only a few years away from this. That's where I can't even imagine where it goes. It's hard to track back how it helps the nonprofit. Maybe it's that, you know, you and I, when I prompt, AI just always use the microphone, little button to the side of the cell at the bottom, and talk. And I'll talk sometimes for 3, 4, 5 plus minutes to give it context. Maybe you want a really amazing welcome reel at a big event. And it's. It's like a minute and a half long and it's going to take you months to outline it, storyboard, and find the right people to edit it. You go back and forth in a million revisions, or you can just talk about what you're envisioning. And it just makes all the footage. It has the spokesperson welcoming you or has your help avatar welcoming the audience. And it has all these like, yeah, they're stock footage. They're AI footage. They're. They're really well done. They're not cheesy people high fiving in Eastern Europe. Instead, it's like, looks like they got some really handsome Netflix actors to talk about this problem that your nonprofit solves. I mean, that's the kind of stuff that we're going to be seeing in a few.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Yeah, and I think too, it's because I had this conversation with my kids the other day because we just recorded another AI episode a couple days ago, and they're like, mom, you're not going to have a job pretty soon because AI is going to take it over. And. And I'm like, no, I don't think that's the case, because I think there's still that human element that goes into it. Like if you do, you said you talk to it for like five minutes and give it all this context. Like that is you giving it your creative genius, your knowledge, your information. If you didn't have that, you wouldn't get the good results. So I think it's the matter of like, understanding what we want to get out of it, really being thoughtful about what that process looks like and then going back to the conversation about authenticity. That's how you become authentic with AI. And it might be that you have a great relationship with a production company and you don't want to cut them out, and that's great, but you can then still save yourself money and time by creating the storyboard, which you might not know how to do very thoughtfully because AI is helping you, like, figure that out and then you can get better produced, better quality video.

[John Gargiulo] Well said. That's absolutely right. Yeah, I couldn't put any better. I got nothing to add.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Oh my goodness. I love it. Okay, so what is, what are some of your. I mean, you already mentioned the one tool, but what are some of your other favorite tools that you use to kind of streamline or create video? I'm mostly also thinking, like, if I have long form blog content that I'm already creating, how can I turn that into video? Or like, you know, we know that social media is video forward. Like, how can we kind of Use tools to do all of that.

[John Gargiulo] Yeah, I mean, video, first of all, I want to say is very nascent. Like, you probably already talk about this on your podcast a lot, but there's ways to use just like Chat GPT if you're not using deep research, a little telescope at the bottom of your chatgpt. And if you don't see it, you might be in the free plan. I highly recommend. I think it's worth the 20 bucks or I pay the 200 bucks a month to get these new features.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Yep.

[John Gargiulo] Research is just so powerful. It'll. It'll scan 117 websites instead of seven, and it'll take two minutes instead of two seconds or 12 seconds, but it's. It writes you. Just deep research. It's really powerful. Before I go into other tools, I want to go back to something you did just say, though, about replacing jobs. So I was just watching an interview with Jan Lecun. Y A N N Space L E C U N N He's the lead AI researcher at Meta. He has been doing this since the 80s. He's a genius. And he, I mean, there's nobody deeper in this stuff who's built and patented and, you know, won. I think he won like a giant Pulitzer Prize, whatever, the prize for this stuff. Anyways, he said that there is no way on earth that in three years, let's say even that AI will be at a human level intelligence and coming up with ideas and. And prompting all the thing you just said, doing it. Them itself. It will just not. And why? Because what he said is, AI is like this PhD sitting next to you. You know, hey, super intern PhD. Go do this research on, you know, big, deep niche things on our space and whether we should move into this or that. And she'll come back with like awesome stuff. And it's really good. It's like, wow, I'm a PhD too, and I couldn't come up with it. That's great. But like you said, you had to come up with, you know, we ought to think about this. What do you think about that? And what he said is, in three years, that person's going to be really smart. They're not going to be like an intern. They're going to be like a. A genius in every space. And you can tell them that you want. They're really good at listening directions. Not going to be sitting in this chair.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Yeah.

[John Gargiulo] And I thought, man, if anyone knows it's him. And he was so blase about it. Like, he's like, yeah, it's like he politely put it, you know, some of my more adventurous colleagues are like, AGI is coming next year and everyone will be out of a job in two years. He said, no, everyone's going to have, you know, Sammy's going to have a super editor and producer from Netflix sitting next to her that she can be like, hey, go do this for me. Do that. And I think we ought to move into this, maybe do an episode on AI See who's out there. And they're going to be so good at helping you. They're not going to be you.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Yeah, no, I love that you said that because you have to show it to the kids. No, I. Well, I know my kids are weird. They're funny. They're so funny. My daughter, I. She got so mad at me the other day because I couldn't figure out what to make for dinner. So Chat GPT and I had a conversation about it and she was so embarrassed by me. But that's fine. But. But I think it's. The power for me is as a nonprofit with limited resources and limited team, you can actually create better quality stuff so that you can continue to uplevel, so that you're raising more money because you're bringing in more, you're creating content differently, and then you can kind of build more, hire more people. Like, you're actually going to continue to feed the ecosystem because you're able to grow your impact and grow your dollars a little bit more. So. Okay, so let's. Before we wrap this up, let's talk through any of your other favorite tools that you think people need to know about as they're kind of dabbling in.

[John Gargiulo] Yeah, you could mess around with captions. Hey, Jen, for short form video, you mentioned TikTok has a new tool called Pipit. P I P P I T Metas keeps saying they're going to come out with stuff. They've got Instagram Edit.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Yeah.

[John Gargiulo] Search the app store for Edit. You can look at that. You know, Cap Cut's always doing cool things. Yeah. I mean, that's all the ones that are like. I mean, that are either building an app. The stuff that works right now, Sammy, is like, they're either building an avatar that either you or you make one and they can talk to the camera and you can pick their nice background and whatever. Or it's like full, you know, Runway. Pika Labs P I K A V03 from Gemini, which is the best right now. Sora from Sora from OpenAI. Although that sort of looked really exciting. A Year and a half ago, it's sort of fallen behind. I'm sure they'll have their moment where it jumps back ahead. So these things are changing all the time. But that's sort of my bunch of tools that I'd recommend.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] On the video front, I love it.

[John Gargiulo] But airpost is really for larger companies that are trying to like scale meta and TikTok ads like crazy. But yeah, if you know anyone, if you at a huge nonprofit or you know people that are looking to spend, you know, a few hundred thousand or a few million a month on Facebook. My company's called airpost AI and we just help people make video ads for these platforms out of thin air.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] I love that. Okay, so final question and final thing is I think the other thing that people don't know about AI is its ability to clean up and edit your video. So like for example, we're recording right now in the script. We don't actually edit in descript, but we should. But you can use AI for things like when you're reading transcripts, it moves your eyes so it looks more natural or to remove the ums and the odds of the things automatically. So I'd love for you to kind of share some of the hidden features of video AI that is not creating from scratch, it is you creating. But it can help you get things done faster.

[John Gargiulo] You just named them. It's exactly right. Cleaning things up. And I don't, I, I'm not in that long form world to know the best tools right now. I will tell you that the call I had with that CEO yesterday, that's building in the browser based editing space. She said descript is probably the leader in this kind of thing that you're seeing there because you're using this product often. Yeah. And then, you know, I would say if you're looking for these tools, ask ChatGPT. Say, you know, give it a lot of context. Right. This is what I'm trying to do. This is my problem. I, I just want to remove ums and odds. I was just listening to Sammy's podcast and I heard that you could do this. What's the simplest, freest tool that I can do use? Go. You know, and then if you have questions about it, don't even go to the websites. Just keep asking ChatGPT. It's. It'll go to the websites for you. That's, that's what I would recommend. And don't be afraid that you are using AI. I've used ChatGPT to make all kinds of recipes and it's terrific.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Use it as much as we had a great dinner. Okay. So this is great. And I want to just reiterate something because Artie, who we had on the podcast episode 309 just two episodes ago, said the exact same thing that you just said with regards to don't get nervous about starting. Just ask Jack like where you need to start. Like you don't have to have the whole prop. Just ask the question. So I love that you both have said that because I think that's where we get hung up on. I love that you use the voice piece because I think that's super awesome. I'm a verbal processor so it's great to have kind of that person in my back pocket. But any last words of advice that you would want to share with anyone and then how you already mentioned your company but how can people connect with you and kind of see more about what you do?

[John Gargiulo] Yeah. Last little piece of advice going off of this ChatGPT stuff is talk to it like a friend or an intern. Like don't bark at it. Something be nervous. Your prompt's not perfect. Get something back that you're like, that's not really what I meant. This thing doesn't work. No, like you would never do that with a person. It's just a person trying their best. Just talk to it. When it responds, say no, I actually meant this or well, can you, you know, can you, you mentioned that thing. Can you go more into that? Give me a three page answer. Give me a three sentence answer. Be really clear about what you want and it will perform excellent. You can find me on LinkedIn. Just John Gargiulo G A R G I U L O And yeah, if you're. Again if you, if you're working at a company or non profit that is spending, you know, six and seven figures a month on paid social, definitely check out Airpost.AI.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] I love it. Well John, thank you so much for being here. We will have everything linked up including all the amazing resources you shared at thefirstclick.net/0311 but thank you so much for being here.

[John Gargiulo] Happy to be episode 311. Nice to do this.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Big thank you to John for joining me today. So many great tools and resources that he mentioned. So we'll have those all linked up in the show notes at thefirstclick.net/311 that's 3 11. I hope for now you will subscribe wherever you listen and drop us a comment if you're watching us on YouTube. Do it right now. Let us know what was the biggest takeaway? What was your favorite tool or tool that you're excited to try that John mentioned? What was something that maybe surprised you about this episode? We'd love to hear it so that we can craft and bring on guests that continue to help you grow in the areas where you need support in your digital marketing growth and expansion. So for now, subscribe wherever you listen. Share this with a friend who you know is also struggling with video and could use some support. And thank you so much for being here and spending a little bit of time with me each week. I will see you in the next one.