August 19, 2026 – Next On Scene Jaclyn Zukerman Delory and Superskills Rahim Hirji

00:00 Intro 1: In the AM, radio network, broadcasting from AM and FM stations around the country. Welcome to the Small Business Administration Award-winning School for Startups Radio, while we talk all things small business and entrepreneurship. Now, here is your host, the guy that believes anyone can be a successful entrepreneur, because entrepreneurship is not about creativity, risk or passion, Jim Beach.

00:20 Jim Beach: Hello, everyone, welcome to another exciting edition of School for Startups Radio. I hope you’re having a great day out there, riding the roller coaster that we call entrepreneurship, business creating job creating, saving America, building a future for our family, our kids, our grandkids. It is the ultimate calling. I so believe that. God gives all of us a basket of skills, and some people have more skills and useful things than some people have less than others, and it’s just, you know, luck of the draw, right? And they use those skills. The best way we can is to become an entrepreneur.

00:55 Jim Beach: Some of us are not given the skill of present presentation and are not comfortable presenting. So God gives us the ability to uh, a little bit present, but we have to learn it to become successful entrepreneurs. And lo and behold, we discover that eventually we are very good at presenting it, selling that particular thing because God gave us just enough to get started and to push us forward and we wouldn’t have done that if it hadn’t been for entrepreneurship. We could have had an entire life where that skill was not used at all.

01:27 Jim Beach: And so I think being an entrepreneur is the highest calling for you, for your country, for your family, for everything. We have a fantastic show today. First up, we have Jaclyn Zukerman Delory. She is building a company called Next On Scene. It’s a PR Agency, and they focus on the TikTok and stuff like that. Some great advice for getting on AI creating Q&A videos and other things that AI just absolutely loves. She has a new thing she’s doing called the newsroom. And it’s uh, just a really cool uh, setup for everything else.

02:00 Jim Beach: And so I’m really impressed with Jacqueline and how she has driven her own agency, but how she could help you with yours and get the videos out there. She’s got lots of great instructions and formats and advice at the end of the interview. Then after that, we have… I’m sorry, Rahim Hirji. He has written a new book called Super Skills: The 7 Human Skills for the Age of AI. It is the truth about what we need to hear. What do you need in this time when all of the skill sets are changing.

02:30 Jim Beach: You know, we used to think being a programmer was safe forever, and now that’s one of the most attacked professions because the computer can do it so well. So what are the skills that we can have that we would not lose our profession because of AI. And so very, very interesting conversation with Raheem. And I took a lot of notes on this. So I’m glad you’re going to be able to hear it as well. And we’re still on billionaire. Thats right. We have a billionaire coming up soon. Can’t tell you who, that would be rude. But anyway, a billionaire alert. We will be right back with a great show.

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04:12 Jim Beach: No crying, dear. We are back and again, thank you so very much for being with us. Very excited to talk about one of my favorite topics. Getting publicity and PR for your growing business. Please welcome an expert in that. Jaclyn Zukerman Delory is the founder and CEO of Next On Scene Media. It’s a full service PR media company that helps small businesses grow and be heard and understood and remembered. She has had a really cool, uh, pull it up here.

04:42 Jim Beach: Started in 2014 with the platform and then also created a podcast which was then followed up by a magazine in 2015 and now she is coming out with a newsroom that we will be learning about. She’s been featured on CBS, NBC, Fox, USA Today, and she has herself interviewed celebrities and influencers for her own show, which is in the top one% of all podcasts. Jacqueline, welcome. How you doing?

05:06 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Jim, thank you so much for having me. I’m good.

05:10 Jim Beach: My pleasure. Excited to meet you. Next On Scene. Cool name. How did the name come around?

05:16 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah, thank you for asking that. So I originally started my business with the name called Get Seen and I learned very young that if people own other names that aren’t yours, you can get sued for them. So, um, I learned all about trademarking at a really young age. And I was like, well, if Get Seen exists already, which it really like, all different states and people from different places around the country can have similar business names. It’s more about like who had it first to be honest is what I learned.

05:49 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Um, so, but if you use something that’s a little similar, but doesn’t have the same beginning words, it could be trademarkable I learned. So I came up with Next On Scene because my whole brand was like, who’s next? Who’s going to be seen in the world? And so that’s how my name came about.

06:08 Jim Beach: I love it. Very similar to my name. I was writing a book and we just, we’re going to call it the book the entrepreneur school. And I think we registered that URL and put some stuff up and I got a cease and desist letter. Guess who it was from. Who is the youth, think about this. The least likely person to sue or group, person group company to sue young entrepreneurs? Who should that be? Would it be…

06:35 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: No idea.

06:36 Jim Beach: Huh?

06:37 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: I have no idea. I’m waiting to your answer.

06:40 Jim Beach: Would it be like a mean socialist who’s trying to destroy the economy? That’s A, or be a person out there who’s just trying to be a jerk or C entrepreneur magazine? Which one of those do you think it would have been, Jacqueline?

06:55 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Probably Entrepreneur magazine.

06:56 Jim Beach: Entrepreneur magazine sued us for the entrepreneur school. 400-year-old French word, entrepreneur. They got a trademark on it. It’s an easy story. They made a movie out of it called Trademark Wars, which I was interviewed for, but didn’t make the final cut, but there’s a lot of organizations, including Susan G. Komen for the Cure. They own the trademark for the word cure, and they will, if you’re running a local cure for leukemia race in your neighborhood, they will sue you.

07:24 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Wow.

07:24 Jim Beach: So anyway, we had to change our name from entrepreneur school to school for startups. Fun fact of the day.

07:31 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yes.

07:32 Jim Beach: Boy. That ticks me off that entrepreneur magazine is that kind of an organization.

07:37 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: You learn your things every day, right? You never know.

07:40 Jim Beach: What do you want to do in 2014, 15 when you started your own business? What were you thinking? Why do you want to be an entrepreneur? What flaw did you see in the world? What were you thinking?

07:54 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah, no, great question. So I’m originally from New York. Now I’ve lived in Boston since 2014. When I moved to Boston, from New York. I didn’t know anyone and I come from an entrepreneur background. I had a career in casting. So I would help place babies and eight-year-olds in movies, TV, and Broadway, and I had a background in event planning, promoting nightclubs, and I was always doing a lot of different things. So I was like, when I relocated.

08:23 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: I didn’t know anybody and I was like, I’m constantly out networking and I’m learning that all of these people that are that I’m networking with don’t have connections to get themselves out there. And this was back in 2014. So, you know, PR was a different world back then. Social media and podcasts like it just podcasting wasn’t even really a thing back then. Um, so I just wanted to help their voices get shared. And so I started a podcast in 2014 in my guest room closet. And I would interview people. And it started for $50 because I was my only income at the time. And people were like, this is great.

09:02 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: What else can you do? Like, we’re getting attention. And so that really funneled into like my 360 visibility business that I have today. So clients come in and I will do strategy with them with how to get more eyes and opportunities for them to get on television and magazines. So we helped do social media strategy, help them go viral to getting on, you know, the bigger platforms. So that’s what we do today. That’s how we got there.

09:30 Jim Beach: I love it. Very good story. Well, you said $50 people paid $50 to be on the show.

09:36 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Oh yeah. Oh yeah, totally. Like in 2014. Yep.

09:40 Jim Beach: Okay. Do you still do it that way?

09:43 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: No, I don’t. My business has changed a ton since then. But you know, you make you make your bootstraps work, you know? So.

09:51 Jim Beach: Well, I’m impressed that you could get people to pay $50 to be on a young show.

09:57 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah, no, it was, it was really like, obviously, of course, I started the free route and then I was like, I had the audience. I had the numbers and I started selling it. So I was really selling like an influencer concept platform because I had the audience back then. So people wanted the viewership of those types of people. So that’s how I was able to sell it.

10:21 Jim Beach: All right, and now. It sounds like, is PR the main driver now of the business clients come in looking for PR?

10:29 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah, I would say a mix. So I think what’s unique to my business model is because I’m very good with social media, I know how to combine your social media to get PR opportunities. So I think that that’s like a combination of how I differentiate myself in the market.

10:46 Jim Beach: Okay. And when founders and entrepreneurs come in, uh, have they been doing something wrong prior to looking for talent like you or what mistakes are we making doing it by ourselves?

10:57 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah, no, great question. I think, I mean, everybody has to try on their own to see what works, right? I think a lot of people I’ve seen come into my funnel. One, have no idea where to start. They get overwhelmed and they’re like, well, where do I even go if I want to get on TV? Like, how do I even, what’s step plan A, right? So I love doing that media prep with them? That sort of thing. I tell them too, like, it’s really important to show up on video on social media because especially for TV bookings. Like they want to see how you’re going to be on camera.

11:37 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: You know, like, are you confident on camera, those sort of things? Um, so I would say like those are great stepping stones and things to think about. Um, other things is people just hired publicists for a lot of money and had really bad experiences. You know, so I think I’ve seen it all. Um, so yeah, that’s kind of the different avenues that people find me.

12:00 Jim Beach: What’s your pricing model, your company now?

12:03 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Um, so if you’re doing like one to one PR monthly retainer, including like social media, my packages can range like $5,000 monthly up. Um, in terms of retainer. And then if you’re looking more into like small business PR and marketing, which is why I’m, we can talk to about my newsroom I’m doing. I wanted to create everything under $1,500 because I know the value of getting out there. I get about 100,000 viewers on my Instagram alone monthly. So I know like how to get brands out there. Um, so that’s yeah, those are the different avenues that I’m exploring now.

12:39 Jim Beach: Well tell us about the new newsroom.

12:41 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah, so, um, I have found over the years that there are a lot of small businesses that can’t afford high end PR. You know what I’m saying? And they have great business models. They want to get themselves out there. So I wanted to create either a one off opportunity to share what you’re doing. So I have 3 different avenues. You could be like a top 10 entrepreneur, whether and every month I’m theming, so like there’ll be businesses to watch, there’ll be like self-care experts of the month. It’ll be like, if you’re a psychic or a medium, like they’ll be like magic October. Like every month will be themed.

13:20 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Um, and then I also have a section where there’s business launches because I found my business Next On Scene is all about what’s next. Like, who are the brands and founders launching new things, rebranding. So we’re doing a lot of business launches or rebrands. And then I always think, and I’m sure you see this a lot, is like thought leadership is so huge. And now with AI and Google and people looking for you online, I’m creating this whole section of thought leadership, so like opinions in different industries of like how you can be found in what you do.

13:55 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: So we’re using a lot of like keyword SEO to be found for speaking opportunities for, you know, getting picked up by media based on your industry because I know things people look for. So I wanted to create those avenues to get the word out.

14:10 Jim Beach: Okay, so that sounds awesome. How are you populating with all of the information or do people submit information to be included?

14:18 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah, so it’s a mix of both. It’s a mix of both. It’s honestly just launching. It’s officially launching the end of this month. Um, and then I’m gonna, people can apply. So I will have a button on the site that people can apply to. It is, it’s definitely vetted. Like, even though there are fees for this, like, it’s vetted because it’s, it’s not for everyone. Like, I know what the audience is look, so I might make, you know, people apply and I’m like, okay, maybe you should think about applying to things this way or like reevaluate this part of your marketing because I do this day to day.

14:57 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: So I love giving feedback to people of like, come back to me when this is done or how to make this maybe just critique this in your marketing, you know, so I think that those are added benefits that I can really help people even outside if they’re not ready for my platform yet. Um, that sort of thing.

15:17 Jim Beach: Which verticals?

15:18 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Um, verticals, like, where is it going? You mean once it’s live?

15:23 Jim Beach: No, like, uh, what industry sectors? Are you talking about online businesses or my grandma?

15:28 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: No, great question. Great question. Yeah, no.

15:31 Jim Beach: And let me tell you about my chitlin business. We have the greasiest bag guarantee. We promise our chitlins will soak through 2 paper bags within 30 minutes, Jacqueline.

15:41 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Amazing.

15:41 Jim Beach: So is that going to be included?

15:43 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah, why couldn’t it? I’m doing like a gift guide and stuff. So this December, like November, December.

15:50 Jim Beach: Guide, too.

15:51 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah, so I’m doing like a…

15:53 Jim Beach: There you go. It’s perfect. It’s perfect.

15:56 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: So yeah, no, definitely. I’m really doing lifestyle focus So food and beverage, um, services, you know, like travel, fashion and beauty space. I’m definitely focusing on lifestyle because that’s really my area of expertise. I’ve done PR over the years. So.

16:10 Jim Beach: Yeah, so again, back to your agency. Are those the same clients that are working with you now?

16:17 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Correct. Correct. I also have a lot of nonprofit work. I do. Um, so I, I mean, I absolutely love that. I mean, those are definitely part of my passions for sure. So.

16:29 Jim Beach: All right. Let’s pass on some knowledge to some entrepreneurs. They can’t, their their budget, their startup budget is $1,500. You know, that their entire budget. That’s for production, you know.

16:40 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: For sure, for sure.

16:41 Jim Beach: So they can’t afford any PR off the bat. Let’s help those people for a little bit. What can they do to just start with PR at the very beginning? You know, very, very beginning. What should they do?

16:55 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah Well, I’m going to say, love this. Okay, so I always say create a content day for yourself. Get a tripod and really think about frequently ask questions that your customers or people you network ask you about your industry or what your services are and create a video series where you do one video a week. So the consistency is really important about educating your audience on frequently asked questions. I tend to find that those are huge. People love them. I mean, that’s really some of my clients’ most viral content they’ve done. Um, it’s really important. You post the same time every week.

17:32 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: So if you’re doing Monday at 11 AM, really keep the consistency of that so people know every week Jim is going to do a video at 11 AM on Monday. You think people don’t pay attention, but the consistency over time is key. You also want to make sure I think people have mixed feelings about like hashtags with their social media. I think that’s so important too, because I know from a journalist side of working with so many news reporters and journalists over the years. They’re looking at hashtags to find people to get picked up for editorials and opportunities.

18:06 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: So like, don’t throw hashtags out the window, like see what the news reporters and the editors and journalists are covering and use some of those hashtags.

18:15 Jim Beach: How many?

18:16 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Um, I usually say probably 10 to 15 like within that range is good.

18:21 Jim Beach: Wow. I would have said, yeah.

18:23 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah, I think, well, you know, Instagram, the people who run Instagram do say like it, they can’t say have updates. You could use 3 to four. You can use 10 to 15. Like, obviously you can keep up to date with those currents. I still think people use like the people are trying to target, the more you use, the better. I wouldn’t use 30 because then the, you know, the social media starts to think you’re a robot because 30 I think is the max you can use. So I would say be in the middle and have like a sweet spot.

18:59 Jim Beach: Okay. Keep going. Sorry, I interrupted.

19:01 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: No, no.

19:02 Jim Beach: Great Q&A videos. All right. So I should do one a day.

19:07 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Just do one a week.

19:09 Jim Beach: One a week every Monday.

19:11 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah, so like set aside. So I always tell people all the time, set aside a content day for yourself, set aside 2 hours, even an hour, because all videos now should really be 90 seconds and under. So like if you’re just doing this for the first time, set aside 2 hours for yourself, but that should give you plenty of time to get 4 to 5 videos. You know, and make sure it’s vertical format. Um, and then, I mean, obviously, you now, especially want to make sure to add captions, so like closed captions are great. Um CapCut’s awesome. They have a splice app.

19:48 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: They have tons of different apps you can use now with AI that does that pretty quickly.

19:53 Jim Beach: Make sure people understand what you just said. CapCut is awesome. You said CapCut is the free video editing software, right?

20:01 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Well, it’s not, I mean, you can upgrade. It’ll be basic things you can do for free. Um, but it’s great. You’ll upload your video there. It can give you options to make the video more exciting. You can add captions with it. I mean, I think that’s definitely an app worth exploring with your video, especially for a small business startup that has super low budget to get off the ground.

20:26 Jim Beach: All right. And vertical, you were going purely for social media video. We’re not going to try to put it on our website and horizontal landscape.

20:35 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah, I would say for those Q&A’s. I wouldn’t put that on the website. The more videos you put on your website. It actually makes it slower to upload, like in terms of loading for people to access your website. I always say for, obviously, for your website, I think it should be horizontal for sure. And that can be, you know, a 2 minute video, like summarizing what you do. Like, I always, I require all my clients that come in. I’m like, you need this because it allows that personal touch with people.

21:08 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Um, but that’s really as you grow because that you don’t want to half ass and do that on your phone. Like, I’m just being honest about that. Like, you want to spend money and put some time into that video.

21:22 Jim Beach: All right. Wow, great advice in there. 90 seconds or less. Yes, so glad that was good nuggets. 90 seconds or less is what you said.

21:32 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Correct.

21:32 Jim Beach: Is that just because of that gets you on shorts versus…

21:36 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: So reels and shorts on YouTube, like the max capacity for video length where you can get picked up by more people to be seen is 90 seconds. So I even say like sometimes if it even hits 90 seconds, it can roll over into not becoming a real or short. So like 89 seconds is a sweet spot.

21:56 Jim Beach: And what is your favorite format for those 89 seconds? So I’ll just use this as an example. I have a daily audio feature that we put out called minutes. They’re 90 seconds long, but they’re minutes because there’s a commercial in the middle. And we use the Paul Harvey format. You might not remember him. He’s the guy who would tell you something and then he would always go, and now you know the rest of the story. You know, so he was famous for that in that, you know, little tagline. But he always did half of the story, then did a commercial, then came back and answered his own question.

22:35 Jim Beach: So who do you think is the most moral man in the world. I’ll tell you right after this commercial. Jim Beach is the most moral man in the world, and now you know the rest of the story. And so anyway, that’s the format we use for that and it’s, you know, radio only. We give that to the radio stations and it runs about on 100 stations a day. Um, they like it because of that standard format. What other formats would you use for your 92nd vertical videos?

23:06 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah, I always say, like, start with a hook, like, start with a hook. So like whatever’s going to trigger an emotion. The first 3 seconds needs to hit an emotion. So like I always say, make sure you start with that. And then you talk about like who you are. You know what I’m saying? Because it’s like, oh, you caught me, like I’m actually going to watch this. So I always say that I think that that’s key to start your video.

23:35 Jim Beach: Okay, can you give me an example of one?

23:38 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Um, this is a great question. I’m trying to think of like what’s going on in the world that people like are, you know, obviously this whole, I don’t know when this podcast is going to be out. When is it going to be out, Jim?

23:54 Jim Beach: Today is the Tuesday the 18th.

23:56 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: So I would, I mean, yeah, I mean, I would say right now what’s obviously trending around and nationally is like the Lindsay Clancy case, right? So there’s a lot of postpartum things that are going on, like anybody that can relate to something that triggers an emotion, right? So if you’re saying like, I went through postpartum and I know like these are 3 symptoms, like 3, um, I’m trying to think of an example of like some. Postpartum or not.

24:24 Jim Beach: I’ll give you 3 answers in a minute.

24:27 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah, perfect. I, uh, I don’t know if I would do that because you’re kind of like questioning if they have it or not. Like, I would even just be assertive or affirmer and say here are 3 symptoms that, like, you should probably go to talk to your doctor of, like, you know, triggers you may be having, like, are you like more depressed than usual? You need to trigger the emotion? You know what I’m saying? So like figure something deep. The more vulnerable you are, the more it goes viral, the more it gets picked up, right?

25:02 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: So sometimes talking about uncomfortable conversations is what’s really going to make you skyrocket in terms of visibility.

25:08 Jim Beach: What do you think about that woman? What would you if you were on the jury, how would you vote?

25:15 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: I know. I don’t even, I’m so torn about it. I’m so torn about it, to be honest with you. It’s so horrible what happened, you know, like now there are all these people saying that like it could have been the husband and I’m like, oh my God, like I’m seeing all the things, you know? So I don’t really know what side I’m on right now. It’s just horrible. I like to be like kind of in the in between until the end.

25:44 Jim Beach: Okay. I, uh, I would vote innocent. I do believe.

25:48 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah, I mean, I almost think you have to because there’s just too many things. What ifs, like…

25:54 Jim Beach: Well, it’s just… A basket of medicines that deep. Right is, uh, one, and I think malpractice and two, I think, uh, going to mess with you, you know, I have had family situations where there are mental, you know, situations and, um, uh, I’m afraid I, you know, what else? The young psychiatrist, have you seen this young doctor who’s on the stand?

26:16 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah, I just saw her go.

26:19 Jim Beach: Yeah, yeah. She needs to use her license so fast.

26:22 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: I know. I agree. I saw that too. And I was like, wow, he definitely is making her lose her job. Like definitely.

26:31 Jim Beach: I haven’t heard anything about the husband being involved.

26:34 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Oh my god, there are all these things. There’s all these things. I mean I’ve seen it all on TikTok. If you’re on TikTok, now they’re all these things.

26:44 Jim Beach: I actually pay someone to go there for me.

26:47 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: There you go.

26:48 Jim Beach: So, but would you use something this controversial in, I guess if you were dealing with postpartum? You know why?

26:55 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Well, you know what? So as somebody who works in PR, it’s with trending right now, all the news stations that’s all they’re covering. So, like, if you want to be relevant and picked up, talk about some of it on your social media feed. There was just, um, [unclear outlet/name] that picked up somebody from TikTok because she was talking about the case. So there you go. That’s prime example.

27:22 Jim Beach: Let’s go back to… Entrepreneurship. How important is your birthing story, your origin story, the Pez dispenser that birthed eBay? Uh, complete lie made up by a publicist. You know, I have a really good birthing story for my businesses. I can tell that story. You told a very good story for your business. Do all entrepreneurs, should they have that? Do they have it? Do you have to work on them and massage that? Do you ask that question?

27:50 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Massage it. I love this. I think, yes, I think massaging it is very important. I think when you’re first starting to get your message out there, like, I think that that’s something that I also like to say I’m very good at because I’ve been doing this for a long time, less is more when you’re first putting yourself out there. So like, don’t give everybody like paragraphs long, especially to journalists and stuff. Like, they don’t have the mental capacity, even though they want to do it. They don’t have the mental capacity to read. Paragraphs and paragraphs.

28:25 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: So I always say like, start with like a paragraph, like try and break it down to a paragraph. And then from there, it’s like, can we dive deeper, you know, like bullet points are so great for pitches and things like that. Um, so I would say like with, when it comes to your story, the most emotional parts of your story, if you can break down into a paragraph is really what people want to know. Like, what was that turning point for you, that you knew, like, exactly what you asked me, like, what was the reason that you did this, you know, like, why, what did you see that was missing?

29:04 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Like, come up with 3 bullet point answers for people, like, that’s what they want to know.

29:10 Jim Beach: Right. How big is your agency? Now, how many employees are you?

29:14 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah, so I currently have… [false start]. Yeah, no, I currently have 3 other girls that work for me. So I’m definitely more a boutique agency. When I go on site for jobs, like video shoots, production things, I obviously have a bigger team for like hair and makeup and styling and things like that. But I would say day to day, I have 4 It’s 4 of us. So.

29:38 Jim Beach: Does the fact that you’re all female make any difference?

29:42 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: I definitely, um, it’s so funny that you ask this question. So I actually have had a guy work for me more recently as well. Um, I actually like the dynamic of both. Um, but I think in the past, especially when I’ve been on site for jobs, people have been very impressed, especially if it’s a woman owned business that I’m working with, they’re like encouraged by that, you know?

30:06 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Um, but I know for sure now that I’m actually looking into more government work myself as a marketing and PR agency, they do give women priority, women own business priority because we are considered a minority in terms of like, um, partnering with them.

30:21 Jim Beach: Sure.

30:22 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: So.

30:22 Jim Beach: Very cool.

30:23 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah.

30:23 Jim Beach: So what are your goals for the next five, 10 years, grow it and sell it to someone bigger and then live on the beach with a boat?

30:33 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Sounds pretty sounds pretty great. Um, I haven’t. And really, right now it’s kind of a day by day thing. For me, I have 2 little kids myself. Um, I really do eventually want to get. My daughter’s 2 and my son’s 4.5 . Um, yeah, so I’m definitely in it for sure. But my business is also my baby. It’s 11 years old this year. So, um, I think my goal is, is I really want to get a space.

31:01 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: I feel like there is not a lot of media companies where you can come in and especially in Boston where you can come in, be interviewed, like I see people coming in for like entertainment experiences, production days. Like, I really see that, um, that’s kind of a goal that I had that I would be like, uh, a place where people can go for like luxury PR marketing, all encompassed in one space.

31:27 Jim Beach: How do we find out more about you follow you online? Get in touch.

31:32 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Yeah, thank you, Jim. So I’m reachable at Next On Scene.com on all social media channels at Next On Scene or at Jackie, J-A-C-K-I-E Zook, Z-U-K. And those are my favorite places to hang out.

31:44 Jim Beach: Fantastic. Thank you so much for being with us and send some of your clients our way. We’d love to meet them as well, and we hope you’ll come back and tell us how your business is growing. So thanks a lot for being here. You gave us some great, great tips. They were a couple minutes ago. I’m taking up, I got like 20 great points. So great job.

32:09 Jaclyn Zukerman Delory: Thank you. I’m so glad. Thank you, Jim. This was wonderful. Have a great day.

32:14 Jim Beach: Thank you so much. And we will be right back.

32:18 Intro 2: Well, that’s a wonderful question, actually. Oh, my gosh, I love the opportunity to do this. Thank you, Jim. Wow, that’s a great one. You know, that is a phenomenal question. That’s a great question, and I don’t have a great answer. That’s a great question. Oh, that is such a loaded question. And that’s actually a really good question. School for Startups Radio.

32:37 Jim Beach: We are back in again. Thank you so very much for being with us. You know, AI is supposedly taking over everything, and then we get reports that it’s not being as implemented as much as people say and that they’re lying, and it’s just such a quagmire, and we’re all scared. We don’t know if we’re going to be able to be a part of the new future or not. I have a guest who’s going to help us understand this. Please welcome Rahim Hirji to the show. He is author of a book called Super Skills: The 7 Human Skills for the Age of AI.

33:11 Jim Beach: We are going to talk about that and find out if we are going to succeed or not. He has a 20-year background in learning technology, including a company called EtonX, which was built with Eton College. He also built a company called Quizlet as their international growth guy. Super skills now, spans 200 organizations across 30 countries. Very impressive. He also writes A Box of Amazing, which is a weekly newsletter about AI and tech with about 25,000 readers a week. Raheem, welcome to the show. How are you doing?

33:41 Rahim Hirji: Fantastic. How are you doing?

33:43 Jim Beach: I’m very well, thank you. I am well, thank you, and looking forward to learning to find out if I have one single super skill.

33:51 Rahim Hirji: Sure you’ve got all of them.

33:53 Jim Beach: Oh, I don’t know about that. How many super skills do I need to survive in the world of AI?

33:59 Rahim Hirji: Well, it’s a funny thing. You said it’s a quagmire at the moment, and I think what’s happening is I think most people are surrendering the skills that they had in the beginning to AI. The first super skill is curiosity. And I think, you know, you asking me the questions, you have got curiosity, and that is the most important super skill of them all. But what people are doing these days is they are going to AI. They’re going to ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini, and they’re allowing the machine to ask the answer and ask the questions for them.

34:33 Rahim Hirji: So instead of doing it themselves and then thinking about it before they go to AI, they let the machine do it. And I think that’s the problem that we’re in right now.

34:43 Jim Beach: What do you mean they let AI do it? How does how does that happen with curiosity? They accept AI’s answer or is 100% of the story?

34:52 Rahim Hirji: Well, I think what’s happening is instead of answering the obvious question for themselves is they’re asking the machine for the answer. And that’s, it’s a fine line between just using your brain and just resolving and outsourcing your judgment to the machine. Essentially, it’s very easy to do all of that stuff and let the machine do everything. You can sit on Claude or on ChatGPT all day and actually not use your brain, and it comes out with all of the answers. And so that’s that’s the fine line that we’re living right now.

35:23 Jim Beach: Okay. So we go through the the rest of the super skills?

35:27 Rahim Hirji: Absolutely, yeah. So there’s, um, there are 7 in total. The first one, Curiosity, as we talked about. Change readiness is another one. You know, we’re in a changing world as we are in right now. Everything is up in the air. You know, people are thinking about whether they’ve got a job or not tomorrow. Um, and if you take a step back and work with your own self, you’re able to uh, predict what the future is and be ready for the, ready for that future. Big picture thinking is about the ability to think both in the short term and in the long term. And then there’s empathy.

36:03 Rahim Hirji: Empathy is the most human of all skills. Um, it’s something that the machine can’t do. A machine can’t live through a very human situation. They can’t have experienced death of a loved one. They can’t have dealt with a problematic situation because empathy is really about lived situations. Then there’s global adaptability. It’s the ability to put yourself in the shoes of others in different parts of the world and being able to change. And then there’s one that I call principled innovation. Principal innovation is not just innovating for the sake of innovating.

36:34 Rahim Hirji: It’s innovating in a very concerted and ethical way, which I think if you look at things that have happened in the past, if we’d done them ethically, we’d be in a different situation right now. And then my most important skill, the one that is new for the world that we’re in right now, is called the augmented mindset. And the augmented mindset is a skill that allows you to decide whether or not to use AI. And if you were going to use AI, you use it in a very concerted way. Now, the reason why that’s important is we are in this quagmire where AI is going to be with us.

37:11 Rahim Hirji: It’s not going away. It’s going to be part of our society, with everything that we do, more so than how we experienced the earlier part of the century, which I think uni both went through was the advent of the internet. So now we are in this new world where AI is being implemented faster than we’ve ever seen any technology that has existed before. We’re seeing it in the US, in Canada. So across North America, across Europe, in, in, it’s kind of the Western world, but it’s permeating across the whole world in a way that, um, people are not quite ready for.

37:46 Rahim Hirji: And so we have to take a framework, and this is my my 7th skill of the augmented mindset to really know about where judgment sits. Does judgments sit in your own, in your own head, or do you allow it to go through, um, uh, the machine. And so my, my whole, my whole point in thesis with the 7 skills, they are very, very human skills. And essentially, they are, they are skills that have existed in the past and they will exist in the future.

38:14 Jim Beach: All right, Rahim, we have been arguing in the last three or four shows about a book that came out recently by a guy named Cory Doctorow, and he’s the man who came up with the word [blank]ification, how the entire internet is going to crap. I can’t say that word on radio. He wrote that book and has come out with a new book that’s arguing that 99% of the Fortune 500 executives that are using AI are lying about it, lying to their bosses because if they say they’re not using it, they will get fired. And so they’re simply making stuff up.

38:49 Jim Beach: And it’s just not the the revolution is not happening because even the people with consultants to help them, can’t figure out agents. And even with, you know, Deloitte coming in to help you. You’re still having trouble with it. And so you just lie to your boss, because otherwise you’ll get fired. What do you think of his thesis?

39:09 Rahim Hirji: Um, I think there is some some basis towards that. I speak to a number of different organizations, both in North America, Europe, and also in Asia, quite a bit. What I think is, what I think is happening is there is this blanket implementation that everyone has to use AI. And to some degree, that is important, but also, it doesn’t need to be used in the same way for everyone. And I do think that what happens with executives is that they think using AI is the same as using Google in the way that we used to use Google in a very transactional way.

39:43 Rahim Hirji: Whereas the use of AI is very, very different. It’s uh, one, it can be part of different workflows that you have within your organization, but also it could be a thinking partner to really accentuate what you do on a day-to-day basis. So I think there is definitely some, I wouldn’t say it’s completely across the board because some companies are using it in a very concerted way. There’s also guidelines and in different industries, for example, the finance industry which wouldn’t allow individuals to use it in a certain way. And so what he’s saying, I think, in bases, in some bases is correct.

40:18 Rahim Hirji: There are also some organizations which are too scared to start. So this whole thing is a scale from 0 to 100. No one’s quoted 100 and people are thinking about getting away from zero, but everyone’s kind of in the middle. And we’re in that phase right now and in the same way that you might have with change management. You know, people are going through that process. Some have dip to toe in the water and some are using it on a very regular basis.

40:46 Rahim Hirji: And so I agree with him to some degree, and I think it scares scares the blank out of everyone when someone says that because actually they have to think about it, and it’s a new way of doing your work.

40:59 Jim Beach: All right. I want to go back to principled innovation in particular. And I want to tell you what I’m doing with ChatGPT. I have whole, I mean, completely melded with it. It knows just about everything about me, I think. I have fed my prescriptions in and it told me to adjust when I take them and I would have less sleeping problems. And so I, it’s in charge of my prescriptions. I’m writing books right now. My 6th and 7th book. I’m finishing up right now, and I have a process, Raheem, where I write it. I put it into ChatGPT and I ask, give it a grade.

41:36 Jim Beach: And I’m very sad to learn that when I write by myself, it’s about an 86 and a B. And then I say, okay, well, you be my editor, and let’s make this better. How do I make it better? And through 3 or 4 iterations, with my original text, it then comes out as a 9.9. And it’s it’s better. I read it and go, yeah, that’s a lot better. But it still sounds like me. Is that principled innovation?

42:03 Rahim Hirji: Well, definitely innovation. I think there’s the jury’s out with… Well, I mean, there’s there’s debate, right, about whether whether we should be doing it or not. I think the way that you’re doing it in the way that you are writing the first draft is quite is quite principled. And I think having those, having those thoughts up front and then fine tuning and polishing it. Um, using, you know, an LLM to do that. It shows a level of innovation, which is forward thinking. I think there are other ways that you might be also, I guess, is a suggestion for you, is to use a multitude of different LLMs.

42:40 Rahim Hirji: You don’t need to just use one.

42:42 Jim Beach: Oh, I do. I used to test, right? You know, I use it. Does this pass the, or is this written by AI or was this written by a human? And I was blown away with the answer I got, Raheem? It said, this was written by a human, but massaged aggressively by AI.

43:00 Rahim Hirji: Yeah, you’re 100% right.

43:02 Jim Beach: I mean, um, but isn’t that the exact same thing as you having an editor that helps you fix the book and make it better too? Isn’t that the exact same thing that an editor does?

43:13 Rahim Hirji: It’s not necessarily. I mean, each of these different LLMs, and also depending on which model you use on ChatGPT or on Claude, they are trained on different data sets, right? So, if you were to go to an editor and say, hey, I need, I need, you know, here’s my, here’s my manuscript, I need it to be better. Um, I think that there’ll be a different way of doing it, depending on the target market you’re doing. And good in his eyes, right? It’s good in the machine’s eyes or good in the editor’s eyes on how you might take it to market.

43:48 Rahim Hirji: And I’ll tell you because a lot of people, you know, you’re going through, you’ve had a, you’ve written multiple books. This is my first super skills, this is my first book. And people said, oh, did you use ChatGPT or Claude to write the whole thing? And I said, no, actually in my newsletter, a box of amazing, I’ve got, you know, 1000s of people on there. 100 people put their hands up and said, look, we’ll help you edit it. And it helped me edit each of my my skills to make it better because this is my first time going through that process.

44:22 Rahim Hirji: And I think that something like that is a principled way of doing it. And then you get to the point where I used AI and the LLMs to take it to market. So I was looking at what the best color cover was, um, some of the marketing material, I created this, this, uh, this homage to to different films in doing a book trailer, which I think you should do as well. And, you know, it cost me $50 to do, which probably would have cost like 5 or $10,000, maybe 5 years ago, just using AI.

44:55 Rahim Hirji: So the actual principle of using AI wasn’t within the creation of the content, but actually in the take to market, which I think is a little bit different.

45:04 Jim Beach: Yes. Well, what about asking the AI to create your cover? Is that there?

45:09 Rahim Hirji: It depends. I think if you can disclose it in this day and age. I think if you disclose how you’ve used AI, I think that’s fair game. I don’t, I think a lot of people are, they feel duped if they are consuming something, whether it’s a cover, whether it’s content, whether it’s video, and have not been told that this is real, quote unquote, right? And I think that’s the, that’s the issue. I think what you said before around, um, you know, using ChatGPT in an innovative way to help understand um, your your health.

45:41 Rahim Hirji: You know, I wouldn’t recommend, if you had a big illness, going through the process of just using LLMs, but if you haven’t got access to a doctor at a certain point in time, leveraging all of the traits that you might have to really narrow down what your issue might be is a useful thing to do before you even get to a health professional. But like I said, for example, taking supplement or helping you to sleep, there is data there, which is generic that will help you. But when you get to, you know, life threatening illnesses, I don’t think it’s a place to go.

46:18 Jim Beach: You know, the thing I have found that it helps with my doctor the most is it tells me the question to ask. You know, so if you’re going to the doctor, you’re going to be lucky to get 8 minutes with the doctor and I don’t want to waste them with stupid questions. So it tells me the one thing to focus on. Ask your doctor exactly this, which I have found good.

46:42 Rahim Hirji: So I will tell you something. I mean, I did exactly the same thing and I talk about it in the book. I was gravely ill when I was writing this book. And I leveraged, taped the conversations of the doctors, and I used that with both ChatGPT and Claude, as well as my symptoms and all the data that came back from the blood tests. And I put that into, into ChatGPT and Claude. And you [unclear phrase], and exactly what you just did is asking the doctor, here are four or five different things that I think might be happening to me. What do you think?

47:18 Rahim Hirji: And the doctor was would look at me and say, are you a doctor yourself? Um, because some of some of the information and contextually provided, because it had all of my data, um, that became quite powerful in the way this, in the way that you’re talking to your doctor.

47:35 Jim Beach: Do you know the Reddit subgroup, ‘Am I the [blank]?’

47:39 Rahim Hirji: I don’t know.

47:40 Jim Beach: There’s a Reddit subgroup where you can describe your situation and then it will tell you whether you’re the good guy or the bad guy in the story.

47:49 Rahim Hirji: Right, okay.

47:49 Jim Beach: I’ve used it for that too. You know, here’s what happened in my life today. I had an argument with my 16-year-old. Who was right, you know? Um, because when you’re talking to a 16 year old, you have no idea what kind of a mind you’re talking to, you know?

48:06 Rahim Hirji: [Unclear brief response.] Well, I mean, there’s so many different traits and usages for AI in different guises. And, um, there’s like, how do you, how do you split a car journey when, when you’ve got a married couple in the back seat, um, and you’ve got 2 other people in the car? Do you split it 5 ways? Do you split it 3 ways? Those kind of things that you can get? But also some of these things you can get from the old school internet, right? So you can just search for some of this stuff on Google, which probably will inevitably end up on a Reddit thread.

48:42 Jim Beach: How does Google Bing survive during this? Do they transfer all of their revenue to AI revenue and answering AI questions? Because we’re not doing Google searches anymore. We’ll just take it straight to AI.

48:53 Rahim Hirji: Well, I mean, I would say that Google is in a very good position because a lot of people still use it, or they’re using Gemini, and if they do still use it, it shifts towards Gemini. And you can see it when you’re when you’re searching, you’ll find it on the left. So some people go to Gemini the product, um, which is made by Google, or if they’re on Google, there’ll be an AI answer. So these are the things that are shifting in a big way. And the real fact is that Google had an absolute dominance in the search market and will continue to do so.

49:29 Rahim Hirji: And a lot of people will be are scared of using a new product. A lot of people don’t like change. So a lot of people will just go and continue using Google and not realize they’re using AI and then very slowly shift into using Gemini or it would probably be called Google by the time in 3 or 4 years time. Bing is very similar in its business model as part of Microsoft. Um, it’s got, you know, Copilot is a, as a product. So these companies are diversified in a way that they are in the game for AI and are already entrenched with an organization.

50:06 Rahim Hirji: So a lot of organizations use and have licenses for Microsoft, and they have very quickly shifted into using the Microsoft product, Copilot for their AI usage. And so what is happening is they’re just shifting. And so, um, you know, companies were paying money before and they’re paying a little bit more money to have access to a very safe environment, which is what they’re trying to look for. And it’s just that we’ve got these new guys who are coming in and they’re doing well as well.

50:35 Rahim Hirji: But my thesis of my book is really about how do, with all of these things available, how do we continue to be human and how do we make the judgment ourselves?

50:46 Jim Beach: Did you hear? I don’t know if you heard in the UK or not about the college graduation season. You know, in May and June, all of the big, important people go out and give commencement speeches at the various colleges, and this year they were all on AI, of course, and just about every college audience that heard AI out of the speaker’s mouth started booing. You know, the college students are scared to death of AI and boo whenever they hear it. They need to read your book. I think so they can focus on developing their own super skills. Should we do that?

51:20 Jim Beach: Should we focus on developing my curiosity and my big picture thinking to adapt better?

51:25 Rahim Hirji: Absolutely. You know, I did see about how Eric Schmidt got booed as he gone on the stage. That was the that was the main one that people saw. I mean, these very human skills are the ones that AI is not going to take away. So if people are worried about AI right now, especially college graduates who are trying to get into their workplace and you know, there are less jobs at the moment. These are the ones that are going to be transferable, these college graduates and people in the workplace who haven’t who are struggling with keeping their job or scared of losing their job.

52:00 Rahim Hirji: If they read this, read the book, read the principles behind the book of super skills, they will start to pick up the things they know that are important. There will be traits within there that they know, and they’ll be able to lean into them further. And so this is less scary than people might think that if you become more human in a very AI or robotic or machine driven world, you will stand out because the people who don’t will become like robots, right? Because they’re using the machine all the time.

52:31 Rahim Hirji: You do need to use the machine, but the human traits are the stuff that are going to make people stand out.

52:38 Jim Beach: All right, my most important question, Raheem. T. William or Team Harry.

52:42 Rahim Hirji: Well, I still live in the UK, so I have to say Team William. He’s going to be king one day. Yes. But yeah, I mean, it’s…

52:51 Jim Beach: Well, he’s out there with you, is he still in the US or is he in Canada?

52:57 Rahim Hirji: I don’t know.

52:58 Jim Beach: Yeah. Yes.

52:59 Rahim Hirji: Yeah, he still flies in nowadays.

53:01 Jim Beach: Your website, get in touch with you, all that stuff, please.

53:04 Rahim Hirji: Yeah, absolutely. Come to superskillsbook.com where you can buy super skills. I’m available on Amazon. Um, just uh, look for Super Skills by Rahim Hirji. It’s available there. Please find me on LinkedIn, message me, or come to my business website, which is the super skills. Just search for super skills in Raheem and you’ll find me. Please buy the book. I think you’ll love it. It’s not it’s not a scary place. It’ll make you have hope for the future.

53:32 Jim Beach: Fantastic. That’s what we need Raheem, thank you so very much for being with us. Great stuff, and we would love to have you back. Congratulations on the book.

53:42 Rahim Hirji: Thank you so much, Jim. Take care.

53:44 Jim Beach: We are out of time for today, but you know what we do. That’s right. We come back tomorrow. Be safe, take care, and go make a a million dollars. Now is the best time ever. You can’t do it yesterday.