#325 Technology Meets Marketing: A Game-Changing Dialogue with Michael Becker

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Mehmet: Hello and welcome back to a new episode of the CTO Show with Mehmet. Today I'm very pleased joining me from Dubai, Michael Becker. Michael, thank you very much for being with me here on the show today. The way I love to do it is I keep it to my guests to introduce themselves, tell us a little bit about [00:01:00] you, um, your journey so far and what brought you up to Dubai.

Michael: Yeah, thank you so much. Happy to be here. So, uh, 10 year marketing technology veteran, have worked Uh, as part of content and marketing functions for several startups, as well as several enterprises back in the States have also partnered with CTOs and I. T. across of those enterprises. So, uh, for your audience of technologists, I'm sure we will get into a little bit of that.

Michael: Uh, as Mehmet had mentioned, I'm here in Dubai now for Antler's, uh, Accelerator cohort, very excited and, and honored to be a part of that for my startup, which I began working on about five or six months ago. So still very much in its infancy, but I am here with my co founders and, uh, looking to get off to the races with that.

Michael: So I've also got a book coming out next month, which we can [00:02:00] chat on called content capitalist. Outlining a new system or new model for online businesses in this new marketing environment. So Uh, that's kind of what i'm focused on those two things right now and Excited to to go deeper on any of them.

Mehmet: Absolutely. And you know, i'm always happy michael to host In my podcast that it's called the cto show, but i'm a big believer that you know technology Should touch on everything including sales marketing and all these things stuff. Now, I want to start a little bit to talk about the book, actually, because, um, it's something, you know, the, the, the topic is close also to my heart because I'm into that domain also as well.

Mehmet: So the, the, the content capitalist, right? Um, So, so as someone who's veteran in this domain, Michael, uh, I'm sure like you have [00:03:00] observed the evolution of different marketing strategies and let's a little bit focus a little bit on, on, you know, maybe startups, because I think, you know, this is why I like also to talk a lot about, so how have you seen, you know, this transition from traditional sales and marketing techniques to more content centric model that you add, you advocate in, in the book?

Mehmet: So two things. 

Michael: The, the one I'll start on is we're seeing a shift right now in terms of content and publishing where it's very different from 10 years ago when I began my career, right? Because you had in that old way. I call it in the book. You had one person typically heading up content and or marketing.

Michael: You might have like an editor in chief. For a blog or a content manager who heads up production in terms of your content hub, and then maybe, uh, allocates work to a group of three to five writers. Um, the marketing function may just be an extension of that, [00:04:00] where you might have like a CMO or a VP of marketing who runs the show, and then they delineate further into the functions that roll up to them or the team members, which do.

Michael: Uh, as well. And the constraint there is actually twofold. You're only exposed in terms of the insight, the knowledge and the content that you can produce to the knowledge base of your actual team. And there's bias there, right? And, and there's limitation in terms of what you're able to cover it cover and the depth and the extent to which you're actually able to present the not the insight that's required in order to connect with the team.

Michael: With your audience in a meaningful way, because let's be real as marketers and as technologists, the people that we're typically trying to reach out to their baseline level is not one on one. You know, we're, we're really wanting to connect with people who have a baseline of like a three or one or four or one level knowledge, [00:05:00] and so.

Michael: One of the shifts that I discussed in the book and that I'm seeing come to the forefront is what I call it. Decentralized or distributed newsroom or content house where you're actually flipping the old model on its head instead of having one person in charge of content, managing a team of three or five, you're looking to your entire organization and every employee in some capacity to be a contributor, if not a An actual creator of content to where they can actually get on your hub.

Michael: They can, uh, write articles, record. You know, takeaways from their day. It can be as simple as that and shoot video. Um, however, makes sense for them. You could then turn your content manager into the person who, who curates and puts those things together, who edits and compacts it, for example. For maximal benefit or presentation for your external audience.

Michael: [00:06:00] So that's one, that's one big shift that I'm seeing. Um, the other shift is really more in your mentality of your commercial organization and how you usher people toward that sale. That sale process or that stage to where we want to start to pull people in. It's less about pushing and those invasive, annoying DM messages that I know I don't even read anymore.

Michael: I'm just ignoring people when I get those standard run of the mill messages. So the new way is about attracting going beyond the buzzword. And actually pulling people in by making our product and our entire organization, our brand feel exclusive and scarce. And so I present various ways to do that using content in the book, Mehmet.

Michael: And so that's kind of the big shift that I'm seeing and that I think startups can really start to embrace. 

Mehmet: Uh, and I think Michael, you know, maybe I am biased because although I come from a technology background and [00:07:00] shifted later to sales consultancy, um, I'm a big believer in marketing and I'm a big believer in what you just said that nowadays to your point, I used to be on the customer side as well.

Mehmet: And back in the days, like when I started my career, that was like more than 22 years ago. So the knowledge and the information was very scarce. And yes, I needed someone to come to me and tell me, Hey, Look, there is this new technology. You should have a look at it. Nowadays, you know, customers, they are already, uh, aware about the technologies, you know, I would say like maybe 99 percent of the time and what differentiate people is just, uh, um, you know, the way, how you present to them and to your point.

Mehmet: I had another episode the other day, which was released, of course, by the time we're releasing this, it will be like three or four episodes ahead. Um, so when I spoke with, uh, Steve Tafaro and, you know, he, he's a veteran in, [00:08:00] in, in, in tech companies, and he was exactly mentioning that the people who gonna win now are the people who knows how to do the content.

Mehmet: So I'm happy, you know, like, uh, these things are taking shape, but now, of course, you, you know, Michael, there are always the naysayers and the people who would disagree with you. And I still see people that they swear on their own life by outreach. From a marketer perspective, do you think that the outreach will fade or it will be still part of what we call the cadence in our sales process?

Michael: Oh, no, I, I, you should still be doing outreach. It's just the angle or the appeal with which you do that needs to evolve. If you're still falling back on or reliant on the typical, um, cadences and word structures that may have worked 10 years ago in five or 10 years from now, there, you're not going to be having the success that you [00:09:00] need to drive your, your commercial org, right?

Michael: So I'm, I'm not saying not to do outreach. Absolutely. We need to be doing outreach right as part of part of this modern, uh, sales and digital climate, but it's, it's the way that we frame that outreach. And one of the, uh, techniques that I discuss in the book is really shifting toward more of an invitation style where your Lowering the, uh, the, the investment, uh, that you're asking for from the individual, from the recipient, from a sales call, which doesn't make sense.

Michael: Why would a stranger want to jump on a call with somebody that they don't know? No trust has been established. They have no idea what you do or why you do it. You're just another person to them. Right? So framing it from. That needy kind of, um, I call it like, uh, not desperation, but almost like you're putting yourself in [00:10:00] a, a relatively lower status position by asking for something first from your, uh, from your recipient, when we can flip that on its head and invite them to a high status, uh, high leverage content community, for example.

Michael: Where we can continue to nurture them over time in a much more personalized way, especially a community that has a high volume of people who are in it that completely shifts that dynamic on its head. So that's one strategy that I discuss at length in the book. There are other ways to sort of frame this and to approach it so that it's different from what people are used to.

Michael: I talk about, uh, using self recorded videos. So holding your phone, you know, just recording. Uh, yourself sharing a message with somebody surrounded by or, uh, accompanied by text or a, a selfie, uh, picture to add that human element right against the backdrop of so much automation and [00:11:00] roboticism that we're now seeing flood the market injecting that humanity into your outreach will go a Long way to opening the dialogue, which is all that you're trying to do with outreach is just open that dialogue and show that you are a real person.

Mehmet: Absolutely. Now, one thing that a founder, or even we're talking about like maybe a scale up, um, with founders, from pure technical background, Michael, they might tell you, Hey, like, yeah, we, we got it. We know that we need to do this, but we we've never done like marketing before we've done, we've never done content creation before.

Mehmet: So if, if you can shed some light on some strategies of, you know, Some maybe actions that they can start to take so they can build the momentum. Of course they will not become like kind of a rock stars from day one. And I know this from myself also as well. Uh, but I'm sure like you have some [00:12:00] techniques for especially people who come from tech backgrounds to build, to build the momentum.

Michael: Yeah. You know, you should look for force multipliers that you can do relatively easily. Easily that you can relatively mechanized and that can create outsized results for you. Against, uh, other more costly or more time consuming options. And so, so the point that you just made, you know, you definitely don't need to be this mega influencer, nor do you need a decade in marketing in order to start doing great marketing.

Michael: There are a number of different ways and different things that you can start testing in order to see, okay. Are any of these moving the needle? Then once you start to figure out what's working, just double down, double down, double down, stop doing the things that aren't working. This is [00:13:00] where I see so many startup and scale up founders, you know, kind of miss the mark is like, they just assume that they need to be present on Facebook.

Michael: For example, because. They never gave it a second thought and they just that's they've always been there or twitter or to have a youtube channel up just for the sake of having one like Fundamentally and independently no single channel or tactic is good or bad It's all about what works for you and then being consistent with high quality output On the channels or in the places that you choose to go in on so content Very much needs to be viewed as an investment.

Michael: You know, it's more about choosing to commit to something for the next 24 to 48 months, plus, plus, and showing up there, um, when and how your audience expects. And what we're doing with content dissemination is where we are. We're teaching our [00:14:00] audience in a sense, and we're conditioning them on who we are, what our brand stands for and what they can expect from us in the future.

Michael: And so people subscribe to various content people or platforms based on a prediction of the future value that they'll be able to extract from that place. And so when you can, can show up consistently providing that that's really where you're going to win. Um, focus on, you know, becoming an evangelist, getting on podcasts, uh, The one that we're having here, right.

Michael: You know, uh, reach out to people. who are already producing great content, see how you can collaborate and co create with them. You know, these are just sort of like table stakes things. Um, put out, you know, your own thoughts, your own insights across LinkedIn. If you're in business, you know, if you're targeting consumers, maybe that's part of it.

Michael: Pinterest or Twitter or, or Instagram. I can't say exactly what it is for you, but that's what I would, would recommend. 

Mehmet: Absolutely. And, uh, I don't know the guy personally, but the one, one founder [00:15:00] that he's currently doing it absolutely, you know, fantastically well, uh, and you know, much of the time I comment and I like all his posts on LinkedIn is Jyoti Bansal.

Mehmet: He's the founder of AppDynamics, which was sold to Cisco. He's now running two company. Two companies traceable and harness i'm not affiliated by the way guys, but what he's doing he's sharing, you know His experience as a technical founder and how he shifted into understanding, you know the different techniques in sales in marketing and you know, and i'm starting to see this really works because to your point michael this establish also the the emotions Between you and your potential customers because they say hey, yeah, this guy is not a robot He's he's a real person.

Mehmet: He's sharing his experience and he's not only here after Let's let's be frank and say it. He's not only after my my purchase order or my money He's also trying to to [00:16:00] add value in other ways So 100 with you on this one now, I know like other parts that um, you know, you you Specialize on and you you Touch on, on, in, in the book, which like some new, I would say techniques or let's say new, getting new technologies within this story.

Mehmet: For example, immersive experiences. Right. And I believe, like, you know, I talked about it when I used to do the solo episodes about the immersive experiences. So how do you see these technologies like ar, vr, transforming the content creation and consumption, like, uh, and how do you see it like, uh, impacting the engagement with the audience?

Michael: So companies today are not product companies who sell products. You need to make the shift to becoming a media company who happens to then sell a product. And we alluded to it a couple of minutes ago, but you know, for the most part, technology and [00:17:00] products today have become commoditized. It is going to be increasingly hard to win there.

Michael: Where you will win is on great content and furthermore, the network that you're able to create off the back of that content, which is at the end of the day, just a conduit to building your audience and to cultivating that network for you. And that is more defensible in many cases than is your technology or your product.

Michael: And so. Given that logic, the question then becomes how do we create and facilitate the types of content led experiences that can generate the most engaged and yes, the biggest audience possible for what we're able to do. And, you know, I, I see a couple of, of options and opportunities there. One of which I think, I mean, in general, video needs to be at [00:18:00] the core of your content strategy, regardless of who you are or what you sell, but investing even over investing in video, I think that you're going to start seeing more product companies or tech companies producing documentary style films over the next couple of years, for instance.

Michael: Where you can simply tell the backstory of your industry, where you can provide color commentary on why what you do matters on, you know, some of the nuances around the industry that, you know, most of your competitors probably aren't even thinking about, let alone covering in their content. Um, this could include things like customer interviews where you're actually going out or flying your customers in to do sit down series or like walk alongs, you know, being innovative with.

Michael: techniques like this, even things like going out in public and doing man on the street style interviews that may have seemed [00:19:00] stupid five or 10 years ago, or purposeless to potentially older, more legacy minded folks. Are now going to start to come to the forefront where there's a real opportunity to get out into the real world to capture that content, uh, and then to bring it into the digital universe where you can disperse it in a way that younger generations like mine are actually seeking and correlating with business value.

Michael: People are looking to watch and listen to those types of, uh, real life engagements more than they ever have before. And so with video at the core, I would be thinking about how can I bring what I do to life? How can I engage my users, my customers, my employees, and really create a cohesive multimedia, uh, content led experience.

Mehmet: Again, two names comes to my mind. Who did that [00:20:00] fantastically one is Gary Vee, I think Uh, he he you know, remember the guy was selling wine, but he he was doing content all the time and Patrick, but david, you know He was in the insurance industry and then he built a media empire that of course is helping him in in doing his own business So to your point michael like these are two successful examples.

Mehmet: Maybe they are not from tech necessarily, but I believe You You know, we are on the verge of seeing this in, in, in the tech very soon. Like this is my, my own expectation. Michael, of course, one of the other technologies that everyone is talking about, some people are shouting out loud. They are angry. Some people, they believe this is the future, which is AI.

Mehmet: Now I got it that sometimes using AI. Too much, you know, people, they start saying, Hey, like, you know, like this message is written by AI, certain by chat GPT, uh, yaks, you know, but I have seen also people who are leveraging AI completely [00:21:00] perfectly and people are not showing these reactions. So when it comes to adopting a technology, which is.

Mehmet: is fantastically also very beneficial, like chat GPT or any other genitive AI tool. How do you think they can blend that into the strategy of building, you know, the emotion with the customers and taking it next level? 

Michael: Yeah. I want to hear your thoughts on this too. After, after I share, um, of course, you know, AI needs to either be an amplifier of productivity Or of output.

Michael: If you can't correlate your AI tech with either of those two things, it's probably not being used correctly, or it's probably too early to be adopting for the use case that you're looking at. So, um, that's the first thing is like, don't just use AI just because everybody else is talking about it, or there's rhetoric emerging in the [00:22:00] market about it.

Michael: Like use it for a specific use case that works for you. And if it doesn't work, it's not like a law that you need to be using AI, right? But with that said, there are a couple of interesting use cases that I'm really excited about and that I'm experimenting with, uh, as we speak for AI, uh, one of those is obvious, uh, you see a lot of creators doing so with.

Michael: Um, video shorts and just auto generation in terms of pumping out a bunch of high quality shorts that are dynamically created in some instances from raw video, being able to chop that up for you. and pump out snippets with captions, uh, and graphics in some cases assigned, um, in the perfect spot for those.

Michael: I have been using a tool called Opus Clip. I know others are also using that, but, um, it also applies AI, uh, for this tool where it actually ranks each of the clips that it produces. Let's say you upload a [00:23:00] 10 minute video. It'll spit out five or seven, uh, video shorts, and then it will rank them like 90 out of a hundred or 70 out of a hundred.

Michael: And it'll tell you why it gave it that ranking. So that's one interesting use case. Um, video. The other that I'm also really bullish about and excited for is the potential of AI for sales and marketing. As well as customer support and calls sales calls and customer support calls inbound and outbound.

Michael: There's a tool called air dot a I, uh, full disclosure. None of these. platform sponsor the book or me. I'm just again excited for the potential there. Um, I think with tools like that, that are going to be customer facing, you need to make double, doubly sure that it can cross or pass the Turing test for you, your specific Use case and for your organization.

Michael: And until it does, you should not be deploying [00:24:00] AI for human touch points. The same goes for chatbots, which again is another great use case. Just make sure that they can, um, they can connect with your customers in a way that either feels human. If you're positioning the tool as an actual human, or if customers know that they're interacting with a bot, um, it still needs to bring the same or even more value than a human would.

Michael: given the fact that it's a robot and that people are naturally going to be skeptical. Those are two, two really interesting use cases, um, that, that are, are, have potential to really upend, uh, creation and then also sales and customers. 

Mehmet: It's great to hear that from someone who's in the field. That's very important for me.

Mehmet: Now you asked me what I think, just one thing, you know, about AI in general. And I tell people, they ask me, how are you able to do all these things? By yourself, I say, yeah, because I, I leverage AI because you know, AI [00:25:00] is a, is a, is a tool to us. Now, do I, do I use it? Do I use these tools? Absolutely. Do I write sometime written content?

Mehmet: Yes, but the people, you know, the problem with the AI, what's happened, because And this is something normal with any technology that you can put it in the hands of the mass, right? So when everyone get access to the tool, because remember chat GPT, of course, there's the plus version, but anyone with an email account can get access to chat GPT and now Gemini from, from Google.

Mehmet: So of course, people started to put as many of my guests, they say you put junk, you get junk. Absolutely. So the way I use it from. writing perspective. And I tell this, I even wrote this on LinkedIn multiple times. I say, guys, I'm not a native English guy. You know, I learned English when I was like 15 years old.

Mehmet: Right? So I need still till now, although like I live in Dubai and everyone speaks English here, I still need someone to proofread to me. Right? [00:26:00] So the way I use it to generate written content is I don't go and say, Hey, I want a LinkedIn post about this. Okay. Of course, it will give me junk if I just say this the way I do it I put my ideas I give it to chat gpt and they say hey Proofread it and just fix the flow.

Mehmet: That's it So it keeps my own wording and it do this when it comes to to producing this podcast You know, transcription, it's, it's using AI to do the transcript. It uses, I use AI sometimes. I don't copy paste, for example, the titles from, from ChatGPT, or I use other tools also as well. And I'm not affiliated, by the way.

Mehmet: So, for example, I use Descript for editing. And Descript has the ability to generate for me the show notes, You know the the titles and all this but still I put my judgment and I say, okay, this is good Maybe it needs a little bit tweaking. I use office also as well for generating the clips because Everyone needs I need to [00:27:00] promote the podcast and you know, I need Of course to, to, to be flexible in my timing and you know, I have a busy schedule for the podcast.

Mehmet: So absolutely. And I become, I don't claim I'm a marketer, but of course I start to see, because to your point, they added a fantastic feature in Opus, because before they used to give you just the ranking, they say, okay, it's like 96 out of a hundred. Now they show you, You have a good hook. It has a good flow and it has something which is trending currently.

Mehmet: So absolutely, you know, it's a fantastic tool and I'm very excited as well about, you know, AI in sales and marketing. And I liked what you said, Michael, about the human touch because we need to do the human touch. And this is why from time to time, you know, of course I have the podcast, but sometimes still till now I record myself on video and I post on LinkedIn because LinkedIn is my main, you know, I don't do anything else.

Mehmet: I have Twitter X, I don't use it much, but I say, Hey people, [00:28:00] I'm the real guy behind, you know, all this. So, so this is me. It's not like someone doing that to me. So to your point, a hundred percent, I agree on this. Now, one thing, you know, which attracted my attention in, you know, when, when we were preparing before for this episode, you talk about the neuro emotional techniques, right?

Mehmet: So, um, um, Pretty much very excited to learn about this aspect and how this also can help entrepreneurs, startup founders, uh, to get these, this technique, these techniques to incorporate it in their content strategy. 

Michael: Yeah, and that ties nicely to the, to what we were just discussing with AI, because I was going to say as well, if you're looking to protect yourself against AI, sort of overtaking your space, or even your role, um, you know, you need to start looking to spaces, um, And use cases that [00:29:00] AI actually cannot take from you.

Michael: And those include things like EQ, um, anything to do with the human element and of course, what we're talking about now, which is what I call neuro emotional marketing. So if you've heard of neuro marketing before, it's basically kind of a, uh, segue off of that, where you want to. Go beyond just talking about what you do, right?

Michael: Or posting, you know, uh, images, uh, with, with hooky headlines about your product. That's like, that's like old stuff of the past, right? That stuff is, it doesn't work anymore, right? So we have to figure out, okay, how do we actually trigger people to want To engage with us as, uh, marketers and as business owners.

Michael: And it's about presenting ourselves in a way that's mutually beneficial, not just for us, like Mehmet alluded to it a couple of minutes ago. You're not [00:30:00] just seeking to get that purchase order or to drive that transaction, but you're actually. Being a person of value and sharing that with, with your constituents in a way that makes them want to learn more and want to sign up for that call and want to engage with you.

Michael: There are a couple of interesting tactics that, that I share in the book as well around this. So things like FOMO, fear of missing out, exclusivity. Exclusivity, uh, scarcity, um, shifting into a high status energy, by the way you portray yourself and just in building your own personal brand online to position yourself.

Michael: To have the polarity, the slight polarity edge in that dynamic that exists and will always exists between a company and a customer. Uh, I also talk about it with like from a tactical approach in terms of, you know, something as simple as driving subscriptions on your website and the way that you use your [00:31:00] email forms.

Michael: If you want to get really into the weeds on this. You know, things like exit intent overlays, uh, using social proof on your call to actions. Um, you know, things like testimonials and, and showcasing social proof in the right ways above the fold on web pages, all techniques like this that allow you to, to not just to hook people, but to, to position yourself as having something.

Michael: That they need when the dynamic is flipped when you need something that your customer has. That's a very unattractive and, and inherently pushy, uh, power balance. So neuroemotional marketing is really about flipping that on its head and stepping into the power position by sort of guarding in a sense, what you have, not just your insights and your content, but your product and making [00:32:00] access a little bit hard to reach.

Michael: To come by. So that's really what neuroemotional mark marketing is about. 

Mehmet: Michael, is there any, uh, like direct example you can give someone who nailed it, who nailed it? Um, let's see. It doesn't have to be a company. It could be, because I don't like you have worked with also solo pronounced as well, you know, like anyone that comes to your mind.

Michael: Yeah. There's, you know, there's a lot of like solo creators and mostly, honestly, like influencers out there that are using a lot of these, these techniques that I think. Businesses can and should start to adopt more, particularly AEs and BDRs who are actually on the front lines doing that outreach. Look, I mean, I love what guys like, um, Andrew Tate are doing and you know, you can love him, you can hate him, but he's a brilliant marketer.

Michael: And he's leveraging several techniques in more of a subtle way [00:33:00] to command that attention, but more so to drive signups for his program called Hustlers University. I allude to it in the book. Um, he has affiliates working for him. He. You know, he's doing a lot of other really, really kind of unique and interesting things.

Michael: I don't want to spill the beans on that, but, um, there's other brands like masterworks that I allude to in the book. Uh, there's a virtual assistant company who uses a really interesting client intake form that separates the questionnaire from the call setup. So it's just little things like this. That you can integrate and, um, they can have a big difference.

Mehmet: Absolutely. Uh, and you know, as you can see, I'm very much interesting, interested in, in, um, in, in knowing these things because I believe the future is content and Of course, we're gonna still have companies, startups, all [00:34:00] this, but to your point that you mentioned before, you need your team also to be a part of the engine, you know, pistons that is pushing the product.

Mehmet: Towards having distraction for you because you cannot rely as you said at the beginning on one person or one department to do this You need everyone to be and I have to give credit again to one of the companies I used to work with before Well, they used they had a motto everyone sells, you know Like this was the motto whether you are in hr whether you are in finance whether you are actually in the sales team This is your job.

Mehmet: So this is something it's becoming You know, mainstream, I would say now, um, now I want to talk a little bit about your, your startup, uh, Michael and, uh, what, why did you like, tell us as much as you can, of course, and why did you choose Antler to be, you know, the The place where you want to start this and why in Dubai?

Mehmet: Interesting. 

Michael: Yeah. [00:35:00] So our company is called Neo core. We are not in stealth mode as of now. So you can check out our website neocore. co if you'd like. Uh, we are in a frontier market and we're developing, I'll call it a non invasive brain computer interface, but really earbuds that. Can pick up and leverage your brain wave activity to then help to guide your entire content and digital experience on your device.

Michael: And, you know, to sort of tie this back to the main problem that we're solving for is really what I call behavioral personalization, which is sort of kind of personalization, but not really, you know, the way that the algorithms work today and the way that most content interactions Interaction apps serve up media to you is simply based on your previous activity within the actual app or across the web.

Michael: And the problem with this is that, I mean, [00:36:00] it's, it's multi pronged, but you're wasting a lot of time. You're being exposed to stuff that isn't exactly what you need in the moment, given your present, uh, needs, wants, desires, or focal areas. Uh, and you're spending a lot of time either skipping xing out of or fast forwarding through content or swiping through the feed to try to find something that you like.

Michael: A lot of it's also reactive and passive. It's not as, um, it's not as personalized as it can be and as it should be. So, uh, we can read. The brainwaves of individual users and connect that to content, but not just connect. We're actually augmenting, we are consolidating. And in some instances we are, yeah, sort of, uh, reshuffling or recombining content, particularly with podcasting, which will be our initial use [00:37:00] so that it's much more tailored to your individual.

Michael: Uh, we call them attentional. Indexes or indices, your emotional indexes, um, your arousal levels in real time. And we can cut out a lot of that excess just by leveraging your brainwaves. So there's a lot of science behind this and neuroscience. Um, I am not the product or the tech guy, but in essence, this is what we're focusing on building here.

Michael: Um, at antler as kind of our launching pad, you know, we couldn't, we couldn't ask for, for really a better place to come together and to, uh, accelerate this vision. I mean, as you know, Mehmet Dubai is, is very much, I was going to say is evolving, but is already, Becoming a tech hub, especially here in the region.

Michael: Um, we are in the Dubai future lab area. So, um, just a, an amazing opportunity that we're, we're very excited about. [00:38:00] 

Mehmet: Absolutely. And thank you for sharing that, Michael, to your point, the previous episode was also with. You know, if deep tech technology out of Dubai, it was with Roman Axelrod that they are building something mind blowing.

Mehmet: I advise you to go to the previous episode. I will not give you much more information about that, but they really something fantastic. And you know, I feel happy when I see brilliant minds like yourself, Michael coming together, building things that Really has high impact on us, uh, as humans and, you know, the use case I, I checked, you know, actually the website before, and again, I, I wish you all the, the, the luck and success with this.

Mehmet: Now, a traditional question, maybe the Kind of traditional. But again, I love to hear from you, Michael, kind of final words, final advice you want to give to fellow founders or to be founders, because I know, you know, there's a lot of people sitting now [00:39:00] thinking, should I start? You know, they have this hesitation in whatever field they are.

Mehmet: But of course, because you, you come from the marketing background, so maybe it's a call to people who want to be in the marketing tech space. What final advice you can give them both as a founders or if they want to go solo as well? 

Michael: Yeah, I think, let me, let me try to kind of merge. The two topics that we address today, uh, from the technology perspective and the content perspective and something that's really a guiding compass for me, Mehmet, is this idea that Look, we are going to merge with technology at some point, uh, regardless of what we as individuals may think, or how we may feel about that, the singularity, uh, is inevitable.

Michael: And that was something that I didn't want to accept for several years after I had what I call my, my own personal awakening, [00:40:00] like back in 2018, and I was viewing it from a very, uh, dystopian perspective until I sort of came to the realization that, you know, No, it's actually through technology that our species will evolve into the next stage of just our natural evolution.

Michael: And this is actually so exciting because any species that is sufficiently advanced must evolve with and ultimately through technology. And so this technological and spiritual awakening that, you know, we're seeing in that is very much intertwined with my own evolution and my own life. Like it's, if you can zoom out and have the perspective on where we are sort of on our very, uh, our very, Immature cosmic timeline and evolutionary timeline as [00:41:00] humans.

Michael: Like there's no better time to be on the planet. I'm, I'm convinced of that. And so being able to innovate within that context should be super exciting. If you're a technologist, if you're a startup founder, um, if you're working with tech in any capacity, like you have an opportunity to be a part of history in a literal way.

Michael: And even if you're not developing like a high tech product or. If you're not in a deep tech, you know, industry or business, you're still probably able to leverage technology to amplify and to scale what you are doing. And so then the burden falls on us as creators and as business owners to sort of be conscious purveyors of benevolence and to do it in a good way.

Michael: And I think it rests on our generation. To sort of pioneer this, this shift that I was just talking about in as positive a way as possible by caring for the planet, for people, [00:42:00] for our product, and actually like deploying our, our programs, our products, our offers in a The best way possible for everyone.

Michael: And it's not just about profit anymore. It's about purpose and it's about bringing it, bringing, bringing meaning to people through our work. So that's kind of, that would be my summary, um, on the convergence of these couple of topics. 

Mehmet: Uh, I. Thousand percent agree with you that there's no better time to be on earth like now We are on the verge of seeing something and you know, I feel lucky because the other day someone asked me, you know Why you started this podcast?

Mehmet: Why you? You shifted from being you know, I could have completed my you know Continued my career being in in corporate and all this and then you did this shift because I said You Two things. First, from technology perspective, exactly what you mentioned. [00:43:00] You know, I started to see something coming out. It was back in 2022, by the way.

Mehmet: So I knew that AI, of course, I don't have a crystal ball, but I was following, you know, the AI and GPT and all this. And actually it came faster than I expected because at that time, I was, I was following just, you know, the wrappers of GPT, like the Jaspers and the other tools. That they were coming out and then everything started to happen.

Mehmet: So I said, okay, this is the moment I need to be witnessing and documenting this and how you can document this. So first I thought, okay, I can just be kind of reading, you know, the news and analyzing it and giving my tips. I said, no, I need to bring people to bring, you know, the minds behind this, which are now moving forward.

Mehmet: Second thing. It's you mentioned this in the previous question I asked you about why Dubai because also what's happening in Dubai and in the region in general, it's it's [00:44:00] again, you know, we are witnessing the the evolution and immersion of of a new, you know, Startup hub. I said, okay, there's no better time also to be witnessing this and this is why exactly michael I want to thank you very much for you know being with me here on the show today Uh, i'm, you know, very honored to to to have you and you know I am sure that your startup will Have the best success ever and of course Uh, I will put the show notes where people can get in touch in addition to the company website market Is there any website that you can tell us about before we go?

Michael: Yeah, just connect with me on linkedin happy to share more answer any questions again Our corporate website is neocor. co My personal site is michaelbecker. org If you're interested in grabbing my book, it's on pre sale now Not sure when you're listening to this episode, but it should be available on Amazon, uh, [00:45:00] and any place that you get books, um, if not.

Mehmet: Sure. All the links that Michael just mentioned, they are in the show notes, so whether you are listening to this or watching that, you will see them in the description. Michael, thank you very much again for being with me today, and this is how I end my episodes If you just discovered this podcast by luck, thank you for passing by.

Mehmet: I hope you enjoyed a small favor If you can subscribe and share this podcast with your friends and colleagues and if you are one of the Loyal people who keep coming the followers the people who keep writing me their encouragements. Thank you very much. I really appreciate that again Just keep sending me your messages and your feedbacks, your comments.

Mehmet: If you want to suggest a guest, you want to be on the show yourself, you have a story you want to tell us related to tech startups and entrepreneurship, I would be more than happy to discuss this. I know that I have a long backlog, but there's no problem. I can, even if we have to repush back again to [00:46:00] more frequent episodes, we will do this.

Mehmet: Reach out to me because my goal is To get this moment as Michael was mentioning documented as it happens and be something useful for to be founders and entrepreneurs. Thank you very much for tuning in and we'll be again very soon. Thank you. Bye 

bye.