The Future of Child-Safe Technology with Taylor Cote, AngelQ

‍This has been generated by AI and optimized by a human. 

‍

[00:00:00] Taylor Cote: Being connected isn't a bad thing. It is a bad thing when it's abused and it goes unregulated, and so it's finding that common ground of where the technology still remains a tool. It still remains a resource, but it doesn't take over the child's life.

‍

[00:00:18] Nicole MacLean: I'm Nicole MacLean, and this is Content Matters. Created in partnership with Share Your Genius. This show is your digital partner for filtering the trends and focusing on the content that matters most, creating connection that drives results. Let's cut through the marketing chaos together. 

‍

[00:00:37] Taylor Cote: I'm Taylor Cote.

‍

[00:00:38] Taylor Cote: I'm the Senior Director of Marketing at AngelQ, where we are building a safer internet for kids. Using AI. I know we'll get into a little bit more of what that means, but I, in true startup form, wear a lot of different hats. My job primarily is focused on our go-to-market strategy, but that also means doing a lot of brand strategy, brand positioning, all of that sort of thing, and that helping out as well on the product marketing side as well.

‍

[00:01:02] Taylor Cote: So, lots of hats, a lot of different marketing lanes, but nonetheless focused on marketing. Yes. 

‍

[00:01:10] Nicole MacLean: Well, I'm very excited. It's a, it's a. A timely topic to get into the AI and especially as it relates to children and our youth, but also just being a team of one and building a very needed but doesn't maybe have product market fit or like going to market as a kind of team of one.

‍

[00:01:29] Nicole MacLean: So I'm excited to hear about what that looks like. I'm sure you have many late nights. Yeah. 

‍

[00:01:36] Taylor Cote: Playing the app world is very interesting, especially in the kid gaming space. Especially when you're trying to develop something that's non-addictive, it's very challenging. And so yeah, definitely on our toes pivoting, finding that right fit and making sure that we can deliver our mission without having to sacrifice it and make sure that protecting kids and having kids learn is still at the core of who we are and we, we don't have to change that.

‍

[00:02:03] Nicole MacLean: Yeah. So you mentioned mission. If people have heard the show for a minute, you know that I said that I used to spend a lot of time in employee engagement. My first job was an employee engagement measurement, and one of the biggest drivers of employee engagement is meaning like the individual meaning.

‍

[00:02:18] Nicole MacLean: And that can both be just, I mean, that can be defined in a lot of ways, but you are in a seat where the mission of the organization, I would imagine has a lot of meaning behind it. How does that, I mean, some of this is personal. I have so many questions, but like, how does that. Drive you personally to go through like the grind of being a marketer, but then also how does that fit into, does that shift your go to market and messaging strategy when there's this really strong underlying mission?

‍

[00:02:47] Taylor Cote: Yeah, I mean, I think for me personally, it's like, look at my career as a whole. There's been two constants in my career. One has been working for startups and small businesses, which some people think that's crazy. But I see these huge companies and I think that's terrifying. So startups is kind of where I've always been.

‍

[00:03:04] Taylor Cote: And then the second component has always been that there's some sort of impact. I knew like right outta college that I wanted to work for a mission. I wanted to work for a cause. I wanted to do something that. Just had that meeting and so. My whole career has been that way. I worked for a nonprofit marketing agency for a very long time, working with nonprofits and mission driven orgs.

‍

[00:03:25] Taylor Cote: And so when Angel, you know, approached me, yes, they're a for-profit, but they have such a deep mission to basically create technology that's in the wellbeing of a child, and that's just not what big tech is today. And so I was like, yes, absolutely. I'd stand behind this. And I'm a millennial. I grew up with tech and I.

‍

[00:03:45] Taylor Cote: I'm like, this is the wild, wild mess. My parents were like, Hey, here's a phone. Go for it. There is no, no restrictions. And now I see my nieces and nephews, I'm expecting my first child, and I'm like, I just don't want that. And I see how bad and how addictive and toxic technology has become, especially for such a vulnerable group.

‍

[00:04:06] Taylor Cote: So to your point, yes. Like it's, it's so motivating to be. Behind the company and a product that you know is doing something different and something you can believe in and it does make late nights or you know, some of the challenging things worth it because there's such a greater cause and that does help you go a little bit later or a little bit more at night or whatever it may be.

‍

[00:04:29] Taylor Cote: So, yeah, I mean, I think definitely motivated by it. To see a company stand by our mission and not kind of wave at it, not get into anything, says a lot about our leadership, and that's even more so, you know, easy to get behind as well. 

‍

[00:04:47] Nicole MacLean: Well, and as someone who's been in and out and just like watched the iterations of this, like I've even seen that the forefront of any business decision has been, what's the mission?

‍

[00:04:57] Nicole MacLean: What helps us accomplish that? What kind of stands by those principles and not just the quick. Let's just go to market. To get to market. It's very, it's seemingly again, as someone kind of on the outside, Ben. Yeah, very 

‍

[00:05:09] Taylor Cote: intentional. Very intentional. And I mean, anytime you're working with children, you should be intentional.

‍

[00:05:14] Taylor Cote: And that's been lost in the message for a very long time. You know, intentionally doing things that you know are gonna harm and hurt a child is insane. Like I, I don't know how you can kind of get behind that or don't see the other side of it, and they just prioritize the bottom line over it. And that's just.

‍

[00:05:33] Taylor Cote: So unacceptable. And so being on a place where we're very intentional, we want our tech to be a tool. We don't want it to be an addictive destination. That in itself is just a huge improvement than where technology has been for children. 

‍

[00:05:48] Nicole MacLean: Well, you mentioned being a millennial, which I am as well, and we are in that weird.

‍

[00:05:52] Nicole MacLean: In between where I still remember the days of no technology. I remember, you know, rewinding a cassette or rewinding your VHS and also then having my phone with me at all times and the balance, and I, I can't imagine growing up in that, in the accessibility and there's so much positive and access and education and connection that can come from it with, of course all of the, the downsides of it too.

‍

[00:06:21] Nicole MacLean: So it's definitely a noble. Cause which is only gonna get more complex with, with AI 

‍

[00:06:27] Taylor Cote: and, and all that. Yeah. Guardrails are the name of the game. I mean, we do not think that kids should be restricted from technology for those reasons that you just mentioned. It is great for education. It is great for learning.

‍

[00:06:39] Taylor Cote: It's great for children to grow. Being connected isn't a bad thing. It is a bad thing when it's abused and it goes unregulated and so. It's finding that common ground of where the technology still remains a tool. It still remains a resource, but it doesn't take over the child's life. It doesn't consume them.

‍

[00:06:57] Taylor Cote: You know, we're not giving smartphones to 10 year olds. Like they're just not ready and the technology isn't built for them either. And so finding that balance and, and as a parent too, finding resources and tools that align with that balance is sort of the direction that I think so many parents are starting to go.

‍

[00:07:15] Taylor Cote: Yeah. 

‍

[00:07:16] Nicole MacLean: Now remind me, is your target market, your target market is parents? Yes. And then they would choose to use Angel for their children? 

‍

[00:07:26] Taylor Cote: Yeah. And that presents its own challenges. You know, we are marketing to the buyer, we are not marketing to the end user. And so as we even think about like developing our product, our messaging, all of that, it's to the parent.

‍

[00:07:39] Taylor Cote: But you know, aside from a parent being like. You know, Hey, Tammy, here's your, your access time. You have to use this app. That's it. Like some children are gonna say, absolutely not because Pandora's boxes have already been opened. And so it's a really tricky dynamic, especially as children get closer to eight, 10, tween years, that sort of thing.

‍

[00:08:01] Taylor Cote: They have buying power. They are going to their parents and saying, Hey, I want X, Y, and Z because I saw it at so and so's house, or I saw it on tv, or whatever it may be. And so. That, you know, buyer dynamic is really tricky. But yes, ultimately we are fully in just to the parent really selling to them and hoping that they see the value in this to kind of get their child on board.

‍

[00:08:24] Taylor Cote: But that also means our products still has to be fun enough to keep the kid around. So it is this kind of like constant push and pull between the parent child dynamic. 

‍

[00:08:33] Nicole MacLean: Yeah. And we've talked a lot about that on the show of whether it's a marketplace or. Where you kind of have to manage multiple personas, where one's maybe a buyer and one's a user.

‍

[00:08:44] Nicole MacLean: You need to, you have two buyers, if you will. Yeah. And it's a, it's a hard dynamic 

‍

[00:08:50] Taylor Cote: and it gets trickier too because what we found too, in like the household, typically one parent leads the charge on the tech side, and then the other one's the one who like enforces it or sometimes like buys it. So then you're adding in even more buyer dynamics where, you know, one parent might be like the one doing the research, but then they're handing it off to another and saying, Hey, go, go do this.

‍

[00:09:10] Taylor Cote: And so now you are kind of getting in front of two for buyers. Same cause, same purpose, but different messaging. Yeah, I didn't even think about that. 

‍

[00:09:19] Nicole MacLean: Either, but that, yeah, that makes sense. Tricky. I would imagine it's very easy to have a fear mongering message just by the nature of what this is. How do you think about that and balance, you know, like a fomo, emotional based messaging with like a value, not features based messaging?

‍

[00:09:40] Taylor Cote: Yeah, I mean, I think. It's funny 'cause we were talking about millennials more like the nostalgia does well and it still keeps it a little bit lighter because you see the articles, you see things that are out there and it is very negative and, and it's almost so negative that it's hard for us to attach ourselves to it.

‍

[00:09:57] Taylor Cote: It's hard to be like, well we're AI but we're different like that. That is a really challenging, slippery slope. And so it is more about resonating with parents on like level setting. Like, do you remember when you were a kid and you could do this? And it's like, well. You can do these kind of things on Angel in a different way, but then it is still healthy.

‍

[00:10:18] Taylor Cote: It's still safe, it's still like, we call it chalk covered broccoli. Like the kid doesn't know that they're, they think they're getting the chocolate, but really they're hidden broccoli. And so we try to lean into that a little bit where we are spinning it still positively underlined in safety, underline in age appropriateness.

‍

[00:10:36] Taylor Cote: And not getting too attached to the fearmongering because it's reality like there are really bad AI users in the space right now, and we are seeing it firsthand and the impacts on children. 

‍

[00:10:48] Nicole MacLean: Well, and I just saw a just saw a week ago, so by the time this this episode comes out maybe a month ago, but Sam Altman kind of talking about like we are not going to be the like policing of ethics and morals of the world and maybe letting some more suggestive content be part of OpenAI and you know, ChatGPT and I mean, it's an interesting.

‍

[00:11:11] Nicole MacLean: Uh, discussion, you know, like you would hope, freedom of speech and free will. Yeah. And all of that is important. But then also there are, there's ramifications of everything that we're evolving. You know, before this we were just talking about as jobs get a. Eliminated in AI gets better over the years. Like what is progress for the sake of progress versus like what humanity actually needs.

‍

[00:11:36] Nicole MacLean: And you're like right in this, at the epicenter of that, with the, with the youth, like I can't imagine what adult, like the four, the children today are going to be as adults who are growing up with not just technology at their fingertips, but AI at their fingertips. Yeah. 

‍

[00:11:51] Taylor Cote: It's interesting. I was also looking at a, a thread from Sam as well, and it was about, you know.

‍

[00:11:56] Taylor Cote: Then bringing back these different features and like erotic messages and like, yeah, like going down this rabbit hole and the comments in it were people being like, yeah, I've got too sensitized. And like I'm like, okay, we have to separate the age demographics of these folks. If that is what an adult wants time you do, you, you, you can do whatever you want.

‍

[00:12:19] Taylor Cote: You have your free will, but children should not be a part of that equation. And those. Like safety nets and guardrails need to be enforced and they need to be stressed. This is where you think about all of the stuff with big tech and social media and like the different challenges on TikTok and all these things where you've seen all these teens.

‍

[00:12:38] Taylor Cote: Take their lives, whether it's 'cause of bullying or because of so many crazy challenge and it's just gone too far. And when we don't have these guardrails, we let it go too far. So to your point, yes, it, it can go too far away too quickly. And for children, we have to be mindful of it. We, we can't just exploit it or exploit them.

‍

[00:12:58] Taylor Cote: Like what does that say about us as a society if we're willing to sort of let that happen? And so. I think there is a world where we just have to take a step back and say, is this technology that's for an adult appropriate for a child? And if it's not, then figure out a way to separate the two or hold the company accountable or not give it to our children.

‍

[00:13:20] Nicole MacLean: Well, I even have friends who have said that they kind of, you know, name their chats and when they're feeling overwhelmed or anxious, like we'll go and use the talk function and Yeah, help. Regulate it and I'm not close to a psychologist or a, any sort of medical knowledge to say like, is that healthy? Is that a great use of our resources?

‍

[00:13:42] Nicole MacLean: Should we maybe not be using a robot to like regulate our emotions? Yeah. But I know there are children and teenagers who are going through things who are turning to what may feel like a really accessible and maybe their only outlet to get that processing. But that is not what. These have been built for that is not, yeah, they're built.

‍

[00:14:03] Nicole MacLean: We don't know the ramifications yet, honestly. 

‍

[00:14:05] Taylor Cote: And they're built for you to come back in a back and again. And that's part of the problem. Um, and they're meant to say yes. They're meant to find a right 

‍

[00:14:14] Nicole MacLean: answer. 

‍

[00:14:15] Taylor Cote: There's 

‍

[00:14:15] Nicole MacLean: not always the right answer to human problems. And 

‍

[00:14:18] Taylor Cote: with Angel. So we have a chat functionality.

‍

[00:14:20] Taylor Cote: We let children ask, you know, their craziest, wildest questions. You know, do butterflies. We have rain boots all the way to like what is the furthest planet to everything in between. And our biggest thing is we don't form relationships. We never will. Like, that is not who we are. We don't want this to be addictive.

‍

[00:14:38] Taylor Cote: And so if the child says. Are you real? Or like, I love you. You're my best friend. We defer. We will say, you know, we're just an ai, you know, you have friends In the real world, we do not engage because we don't wanna form those relationships. That's not, that is where the addiction happens. It's where those relationships become toxic.

‍

[00:14:57] Taylor Cote: But if a child does say, you know, I felt sad at school today, or maybe I was bullied on the playground. What can I do? We will give some suggestions of like, talk to a trusted adult, you know, or try these different things. But it's such a clear line that we're not like a clinician. We are not gonna be their therapist.

‍

[00:15:19] Taylor Cote: We are not gonna be their best friend. We, we are providing resources and then getting it back to the parent. So the parent also knows that these questions are happening. So the parent is always informed of what's going on, and then they can nurture those things offline with their child. 

‍

[00:15:33] Nicole MacLean: Yeah. That's great.

‍

[00:15:34] Nicole MacLean: And again, the purpose built, you're thinking about this, the demographic. Yeah. And also that, that play between, okay, here's what your children child is looking at, and making sure that that's visible and. Yep, absolutely. Deadlines looming, and you're chuckling a million projects. Maybe you've tried outsourcing to an agency before, but how can you be sure that they're going to deliver on your specific goals on time and on budget?

‍

[00:16:01] Nicole MacLean: Well look no further than Clutch the number one leading marketplace for B2B service providers. Let's streamlines your search, helping you kick off projects faster so you can focus on what you do best. On Clutch, you can select from over 2000 unique services and specialties to quickly narrow in on a comprehensive list of the agency's best for your project.

‍

[00:16:20] Nicole MacLean: Then filter down to a short list of qualified providers through filters or use Clutch’s project brief technology to match you to the best fits. From there, just compare the providers by reading in-depth, verified client reviews to learn more about the work that these agencies have done for businesses like yours.

‍

[00:16:35] Nicole MacLean: So you can make a confident hiring decision, get matched to the best agencies for your business, and request quotes at clutch.co/contentmatters. You'll be one step closer to having those projects off your never ending to-do list, so you can shift focus back to the big picture. That's clutch.co/contentmatters.

‍

[00:16:56] Nicole MacLean: Pivoting a little bit to kind of the business side of it. So we talked about. I mean, it's such a cool space you're building, going to market. What has been maybe some of your biggest learnings over the last year and a half as, and like challenges and things you overcome? And if you could do it differently to get to where you are now, would you or did you need to take those bumps?

‍

[00:17:18] Taylor Cote: I think the bumps are always learning. They're always good and on the other side, hindsight's always 2020, but it really does take, going through it to have that perspective. I think we underestimated how hard the app space is. It is so challenging to enter the app space, especially in like the gaming world.

‍

[00:17:35] Taylor Cote: The gaming culture. It's really pay to play. I mean, and so many industries are that way really. But it's like a very churn burn industry where you're putting in X into paying media and you're getting out y and there's a lot of churn in between. And so unless you are lucky and you kind of go viral, which everyone wishes, they can press a button and go viral, or you're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on paid advertising.

‍

[00:18:02] Taylor Cote: And so as a startup, it's really challenging because we have lean teams, we have lean budgets, and so to enter this like consumer app market. It is very, very hard, and I think we underestimated that a little bit, just like how costly it will be. Because when we talk to parents, parents are like, yes, I need this.

‍

[00:18:22] Taylor Cote: This is exactly what I need. We're solving a problem. But then in reality it's just a really crowded market, even though we are different. 

‍

[00:18:31] Nicole MacLean: So you mentioned pay to play. Are there. Other things you're looking at? Like I imagine the, you know, going back in the day of mommy bloggers and mm-hmm. Getting some of those really important voices in that space that are trusted.

‍

[00:18:46] Nicole MacLean: What 

‍

[00:18:47] Taylor Cote: does that look like? Yes, yes. I mean, this is where, so I would kind of dive a little bit into our content and to me, like it's hard to, like, everything's content to me. Like it's hard to slice it where, where, where lines are. But. Building credibility and trust within parents is so huge. And to your point, like the mommy bloggers forming relationships with them, the influencers forming a relationship with the UGC content creators, people who we can get the product in their hands and see it firsthand with how they're using it with their children is so invaluable for us.

‍

[00:19:18] Taylor Cote: And making sure we're telling those stories because. The second someone hears AI in children and translation of the internet, it's scary. And so we need to make sure that we can bring those stories to life, whether it's through blogs, whether it's through mommy bloggers, whether it's through influencers, really bringing that content forefront so that we can build the trust with the parents and they're like, okay, yes.

‍

[00:19:38] Taylor Cote: You are someone I can trust. I see the value in this, and this is something I really do need. And so a lot of our content is just formed around building that trust with really credible folks in the space, and it tends to be a lot of the moms. 

‍

[00:19:53] Nicole MacLean: Have you seen like a trend in searches, whether it's on an AI search or organic Google, you know, are people searching for this type of tool or is it more that they know they have a problem?

‍

[00:20:06] Nicole MacLean: But they don't realize there's a solution. 

‍

[00:20:09] Taylor Cote: It's a little about both. So a lot of folks who are looking for like a safer internet for their kids. Or maybe like a safer browser for their kids, and we position ourselves as like a super browser. We can kind of do a lot of everything. You can search, you can chat, we can filter YouTube videos, so your kid is only getting appropriate YouTube videos.

‍

[00:20:28] Taylor Cote: And so there's a video component as well. And so we translate and filter the entire internet. So it's a little bit different than a traditional browser. And so people are looking for those things like safe alternatives. Where it gets tricky is, I don't know that people are really looking for like AI for kids yet.

‍

[00:20:45] Taylor Cote: Yeah, that's still so early. I think we're getting there, but it's more, no one knows they need that really yet. Or Aren Sure they want it, quite frankly yet, which is also okay. So yes, they're searching for safer internet. They're searching how to get their kids off YouTube. They're searching how to better manage YouTube so their kids aren't getting sucked in stuff like that.

‍

[00:21:04] Taylor Cote: So it is a mix of like pain points and, and just looking for a better alternative. 

‍

[00:21:09] Nicole MacLean: So you've mentioned influencers, trusted voices. Case studies, customer stories, really telling like the human side of it, education, maybe some search like pay to play, paid ads. All of these could easily be, if not single focus for someone's job, but teams focus to this and this rest solely on you.

‍

[00:21:33] Nicole MacLean: How do you prioritize? I think that's a big thing for, for folks right now who maybe have the slightly smaller teams, but still trying to get the biggest bang. What does that prioritization look like in your day to day? 

‍

[00:21:45] Taylor Cote: Yeah, I think a lot of it I kind of think through too, of like, how can we reuse and repurpose, and that's not an original theme by any means, but you know, if we're gonna create a piece of content, how can we give it the most likes possible?

‍

[00:21:59] Taylor Cote: So if we are creating a story or a case study, like, let's make sure we get that in our email comms, let's figure out how to turn this into visual content for social media. Like how do we just take one thing and multiply it pretty quickly? And what I will say is AI has been so helpful for all of this.

‍

[00:22:17] Taylor Cote: When I think about how we use it in our day to day, it is manipulating things and multiplying things. It's building those efficiencies that then free me up to do other things. There's no way I could do what I do honestly without AI in that speed that I have to do it in. By being just sort of myself executing.

‍

[00:22:35] Taylor Cote: And so I've been leaning into AI a lot for just like research, like if we're doing competitive analysis, that can take hours of just churning through materials, trying to analyze things, and using AI it can happen instantly. Or for pulling benchmark numbers, you know, having that at our fingertips. And so really using AI to help.

‍

[00:22:58] Taylor Cote: Build efficiencies is really where we lean in. It does help with strategy and things like that, but ultimately, like we're always in the driver's seat. It is a passenger with us. We use it as we need to produce more work or better work, but it's never driving it completely unlike the self-driving cars that are 

‍

[00:23:17] Nicole MacLean: awesome.

‍

[00:23:19] Nicole MacLean: That's, that's a whole nother discussion on, on AI and ethics there. But no, I think that's a good analogy of. It should be your partner. Yeah. And if you're not figuring that out, I think it's, and it's not just about prompting. I mean, that's the thing, like yes, I will use it a few times a week to prompt to, to get things, but it's that operational, like where it can sit in to really help that operational workflow.

‍

[00:23:43] Nicole MacLean: And yeah, that almost feels the most daunting, at least to me, as someone who's not a Zapier expert or isn't maybe a, an engineer coder. Yeah. HTML, you know, extraordinaire. Totally. I'm like, oh, I feel like it could do these things, but like, I don't even know where to start. And I've said this before, but I think that's the, that's what I expect 2026 to be focused on is not, I feel like 2025 was 2024 was like, oh, it's so cool.

‍

[00:24:09] Nicole MacLean: I actually kind of, not just kidding. And then it was like, okay, well you have to learn how to prompt it. Oh, if you learn how to prompt it well and do that, I feel like 2025 was the use case and the testing and like getting good at. Actually using it. My gut says 2026 is gonna be all about the masses Really figuring out the operation piece of it.

‍

[00:24:27] Taylor Cote: Totally. And that's something even we sort of started playing with as well is like. Okay, you have all these siloed AI assistant and all these ed AI tools. How do you bring them together so they start talking with each other or updating things a little more automatically? Things like that in developing workflows.

‍

[00:24:45] Taylor Cote: And there's tools to your point of like n8n is great for automation, but I can't code, I can't write any like of the scripts needed to then and, and yeah, sure there's things out of the box, but then they need. Web sockets and God knows what else to be paired with it to make them work. And so. You know, that's above and beyond my marketing toolkit, but one tool I have started using is Gumloop.

‍

[00:25:10] Taylor Cote: Um, that's a new one. Not, not affiliated by any means, but gun loop is sort of stripped down for marketers. And so what's been great about that is you can give it a task you can. Say, okay, I wanna go use Gemini or whatever LLM model you wanna use and say, okay, I want you to scrub all these ads on Instagram.

‍

[00:25:31] Taylor Cote: Tell me the headlines, tell me what's working. Put it in a spreadsheet. Based off of that, can you give us some like topics and ideas for creative campaigns for headlines? So like that's one new space, like how do you streamline the creative process a little bit and then you go in and then as the strategist, I can be very strategic with it.

‍

[00:25:50] Taylor Cote: I can jump in, I can, you know, use my knowledge and apply that to the sort of the baseline. Um, it's also great and now I'm like really distracted out of this tool. Okay. I gotta log back in. It's also great for like flogs and things too, if you know you have a new blog coming. Add that into a spreadsheet and then have LLN crawl spreadsheet to give you social copy, meta descriptions, alt tags, you know, whatever it may be.

‍

[00:26:16] Taylor Cote: And so Kamal Loop is one of those things where I've been able to sort of automate things. I go back in, there's always a human element. I don't let anything. Automatically publish ever. Of course. Yeah. But that's a tool that I've been really, you know, exploring a bit more. And it's, it's definitely more user friendly for marketers where you don't have to be a coder and you can still kind of build those workflows and start to let different LLMs and things like that talk to each other.

‍

[00:26:43] Taylor Cote: Wow. Okay. 

‍

[00:26:44] Nicole MacLean: Now I'm gonna be really distracted. We'll make sure this is included in the, uh, the notes, uh, of the episode notes, show notes. Wow. Words. That's, I think what is hard too is it's. Especially being a one person team, how do you find time to experiment with tools and give yourself permission to say, this might take me longer than just doing it kinda the good old fashioned way for the gains, versus just saying, I need to get this out the door, and I like, I would've never probably found this without you.

‍

[00:27:14] Nicole MacLean: You know? Where do you find that 

‍

[00:27:16] Taylor Cote: time? I mean, I think this is like one of the most overwhelming, biggest challenges with AI right now. There's so much. And it's like, where do you begin? How do I keep up with these trends? Might be a little bit of a hot take, but it reminds me when performance marketing really blew up a few years ago and everyone became obsessed with agile testing and optimization and ROI and everyone was like, this is what we have to do, performance marketing.

‍

[00:27:42] Taylor Cote: And that's kind of what AI feels like right now. I mean, I think it's more than a trend to be here forever, but yeah, it's hard to keep up and it's exhausting and so. I'm fortunate enough to work on a company that values it and values the testing. So that by all means, very much so helps. But I think too, like it's kinda like training a new employee, if you will.

‍

[00:28:05] Taylor Cote: Like when you train someone, you have to take the time, you need to set them up for success. It may take you longer, but in the long run it's the greatest return because now you have someone else who can, you can delegate and pick up the slack with. And that's kind of how I think about. Working with AI too.

‍

[00:28:21] Taylor Cote: If I take the time now, it will pay dividends later on. And so picking and choosing like what platforms or what's the biggest problem I need to solve, and staying true to our company as much as possible, I think is like an another big kind of thing. I think about a lot, especially as it goes to like marketing trends right now in general.

‍

[00:28:42] Taylor Cote: Knowing who you are, who is your target audience? How are they going to respond to AI if used is kind of a big thing. And so for us, another example to kind of call out is we've done a lot of exploration for video and Veo 3, Nano Banana. Like, all these things are great and they're producing some really awesome video content.

‍

[00:29:04] Taylor Cote: It has become much more advanced. But the reality is, is. It doesn't feel that authentic, like there's no way around it. And if we're talking to parents and building trust about their children, how can we produce something that's not authentic? Like we can't, that that's so detrimental to our brand. The child's teddy bear turns into something accidentally in a AI generated video that's not correct.

‍

[00:29:27] Taylor Cote: So for us, like that's a line. I really won't do AI video because I think it's really detrimental to who we're trying to target. And so long story short, try to test things as much as you can. Don't let overwhelm yourself. Just take baby steps, you know, and just really think about like, will this make your job easier, or is this going to stress you out?

‍

[00:29:49] Taylor Cote: If it's stress out, then put it the back burner, like do it. Do it when it's appropriate, but definitely started flooring because it is moving rapidly and you do gotta get your toes wet. 

‍

[00:30:01] Nicole MacLean: This has been so great. Thank you for sharing. I mean, we probably could keep diving into especially the ethics of AI in children for a while, but to kind of wrap us up, what is something that you've worked on in the last few months that you're just really proud of and you know, excited to kinda have in market right now?

‍

[00:30:20] Taylor Cote: We're pushing a pretty big app evolution of our product, and we're gonna start leaning and even into more learning. And so. You know, it's crazy 'cause we launched six months ago and so I feel like we just did this or we do it again. And like that's startup world. There's always a new, you know, a new push, a new thing.

‍

[00:30:39] Taylor Cote: And so that's been really fascinating to take those learnings from our launch and really apply them, evolve the product, and now go back to a next really big push. And honestly, some of that meant like redefining our positioning and tweaking things and adjusting things and so. I'm pretty excited to see this all kind of get back into market with a big push and see how it resonates and how it does and our labor of love.

‍

[00:31:04] Taylor Cote: Getting some more eyes on it. Yeah. That's awesome. 

‍

[00:31:06] Nicole MacLean: Okay. If there are any parents listening or, yes. Really great ans or uncles, how can they find the. 

‍

[00:31:15] Taylor Cote: So we are just on iOS right now, so Android users are gonna have to hold on a little bit longer, but we are on iPhone and iPad. So if you go to iOS store, you can download us.

‍

[00:31:26] Taylor Cote: It is a subscription model. It's 7 99 a month for our premium, 4 99 for our, our essentials. And so it's pretty, you know, pretty reasonable in a sense. Like you can protect your child online for not, not too much for a cup coffee. 

‍

[00:31:41] Nicole MacLean: Yes. Awesome. Taylor, thank you so much for joining. This was such a fun conversation and I think it speaks to what you guys are doing of it is a heavy topic.

‍

[00:31:49] Nicole MacLean: It can seem overwhelming, but there is so much opportunity in it and like I even feel that coming off of just this conversation, let alone. Probably what you guys are doing in the market. 

‍

[00:31:59] Taylor Cote: Thanks, Nicole. It's been a pleasure and it's been great talking to you. 

‍

[00:32:04] Nicole MacLean: Thanks for listening to this episode of Content Matters created in partnership with Share Your Genius.

‍

[00:32:09] Nicole MacLean: If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a review, and share with a friend. Otherwise, you can find all the resources you need to stay connected with us in the show notes Till next time.