Brainz Magazine Exclusive Interview
Thomas "Ai Nerd" Helfrich is the CEO and Founder of InstantlyRelevant.com – an AI startup hyper-focused on solving the problem of time, the time to create content, engagement, and strategy. He is also the "Ai Nerd" YouTube channel host and is a B2B Technology Influencer. Thomas brings energy and polished humor to disarm you in the first few moments of meeting him. He is married with three kids and lives in Alpharetta, GA.
As the founder of InstantlyRelevant.com, you have created a successful brand that has helped hundreds of people and companies streamline their content creation, engagement, and marketing strategy on social channels. You Aare also a B2B Technology Influencer with over 169k followers on LinkedIn. Can you tell us more about your work and how you ended up today? What has your journey been like, and how did you get to where you are today?
It has been an exciting and educational journey!
For about 20 years or so, I have worked in the technology business, and my work is born out of the ".com" era. I definitely remember myself being a better developer than I was jokingly. But I've always spoken very well about technology. I have the availability to interact with executives and, in the same breath, be able to come down to the technical level. That's been a gift of mine.
During my journey, though, from just starting as a developer to where I am now, I kept seeing this recurring problem as my career advanced; it took forever to create content. It took forever to take the time to engage with that content. And often found myself guessing at the strategy of what needed to happen to become relevant in digital. It could take me weeks, sometimes even months, to create it; the problem, however, was no one read it. And so, in 2020, I experimented on my website ainerd.com. And on that site, I had all this excellent professionally created and curated content.
So I had a theory that I could accelerate my digital relevance using AI to accelerate content creation and engagement. So I experimented. I wiped all the content on ainerd.com and replaced it with a bunch of AI-created content only. And to my amazement, the blog monetized in 42 days. At that moment, I proved this problem could be solved, so I launched InstantlyRelevant.com.
It is essential to understand that my expertise is rooted in intelligent automation. And that's where you leverage the right technology and the right moment and the right human in the right moment. The intent is to automate as much of the process as possible to accelerate humans, not replace them. I apply these intelligent principles to InstantlyRelevant.com, where we use AI and several other technologies to create content, improve it, and leverage expert diversity to create richer tonality.
Additionally, having content by itself isn't enough. You need engagement. If you don't have engagement, it doesn't matter how good is the content.
So you might be wondering - how do you improve engagement? Better engagement derives from leveraging best practices and consistency in social media. It's not rocket science; however, it can be time-consuming, the algorithms are constantly changing, and you have to be in tune with multiple social media platforms. That's how InstantlyRelevant.com helps.
You need to apply specific strategies because that's often the other missing piece. Though everyone's plan will include content and engagement, the most effective strategy comes together when you align your individuality to a single goal.
So if you don't have good content, if you don't have a good strategy, and if you don't have a sound engagement methodology, you're not going to get where you want to go. So we put all three of those things together.
You're called Thomas "Ai Nerd" Helfrich - How did the nickname originate?
I am a nerd at heart. People always keep telling me I'm a nerd, so the nickname stuck. I wear the Ai Nerd Badge with honor! I own ainerd.com and figured I wanted to do branding around something I had a passion for - AI.
I am a nerd at heart.
"I wear the 'Ai Nerd Badge' with honor!"
What else have you done? Do you run any other companies?
InstantlyRelevant.com is my startup. I started it in 2020. It sparked from the idea that AI could accelerate content, engagement, and strategy. And AI Nerd is a brand to enable a community for startup founders, technologists, and, you know - just nerds! It was started so that they have a place to go, promote themselves, talk about technology and have a bit of fun and humor. I insert a bit of humor to keep the mood fun and allow the guests to showcase themselves.
Tell us a little bit more about InstantlyRelevant.com. How does it work?
It is simple, straightforward, and customized!
We start with your goal. It is the only thing that's important—achieving your goal. Once we intimately understand your objectives, we form a strategy to make the most compelling content and drive viral engagement. The content could be text, posts, articles, videos, podcasts, or whatever is needed to accomplish that goal. Then we determine the cadence and on which digital media platform to post. We leverage Ai and other emerging technologies to create, engage, and refine your strategy all along this journey.
We keep an expert human in the loop to bring it all together. Because right now, AI writing isn't where it needs to be completely autonomous. You need a human in the loop. The second part we do for our customers is helping them with engagement. And that could be for managing their social media profiles, driving consistency in posts, hashtag research. You get your customers into relevant conversations by giving content, information, and relevant content. We ensure that our customers receive compelling content and engagement to meet their goals.
Who is InstantlyRelevant.com for? Who benefits from using InstantlyRelevant.com?
Anyone from an entrepreneur, founder, startup, and marketing professional needs scale and gaps filled with higher volume, great content, and better engagement strategies. It's not for people who are perfectionists who need to refine content endlessly. That kind of goes against what we think is best for content creation. Which is: Good is Good Enough. Don't Chase Perfect.
So if you're a perfectionist and can't let go of some of the creative processes, you're probably not a good pick for us. As a persona, we best help energetic people who have lots of ideas and thoughts and need to create content but have no time to create it.
We find that many technology startups are a perfect fit because we understand the tech space very well. The technology leaders, typically in those organizations, don't have the time to create content and engage. They need to code and develop their service or product. Where help them as a high-value, cost-effective marketing service. If you are looking to capture the US market, we can help.
Where does your knowledge and interest in AI come from?
My business technology background is 20+ years of advisory and entrepreneurship. Additionally, because of the AI Nerd YouTube channel, I meet an endless supply of technology companies and founders.
I meet dozens of companies every week in the AI space, and I always have a love for technology and respect for it. I have a practical sense of the art of possible Ai in business. In practicality, it's not all about the tech. It's about actually what does it for business or humanity.
What are the 3 biggest mistakes people make when trying to create content for their business?
“We, we, we” Companies talk endlessly about their own product or service features and less about what problems they solve for the industry and customers. Understanding the techniques between telling others about what features you have and what problems you are actually solving is often a marketing misstep.
Not Leveraging Personal Profiles of Key Individuals. Most organizations do not create content that enables and enriches the personal profile brands of their key people. By doing this, the business brand gets a better following and position. People buy from people they trust. If they trust the people working for the organization, they will engage more with their content. When this happens, prospects are more likely to buy what you're selling or the services that you provide.
Not Taking Calculated Risks with Content. You need to stay in brand, however, businesses need to try more types of content and tonality. You must mix types such as blogs, videos, podcasts, etc. Try new tones in your delivery but stay on point with your messages. If you don’t get creative and take a risk, then you fall flat over time.
What does the future hold for InstantlyRelevant.com?
The future of InstantlyRelevant.com is clear. We are building the next-generation seamless digital platform experience that brings together AI content creation, viral engagement, a data-driven strategy, and humans.
We Create Content, Engagement, and Strategy with Ai.
Book a call with me via Calendly and connect!
For more info, check out InstantlyRelevant.com, youtube.com/ainerd, and connect with Thomas on LinkedIn.
