We're getting the band back together.

That's right.

I'm Paul Comfort, and on this episode of Transit Unplug, the podcast we bring

back in two friends of the show, who you may have heard quite a bit a few

years ago, regular contributors, Mike Bismeyer, the King of Kindness, and

Alaya Carey, our marketing expert.

Both of them now have after they appeared for a couple years,

pretty much every other week on the Transit Unplugged Podcast,

during and just after the pandemic.

Uh, they've now gone on to become, um, well known in the transit industry.

Both of them are speakers and trainers.

Keynote.

Mike speaks as keynotes at conferences all over and Alaya, I've seen her.

Uh, she's amazing, the talk and she talks today about some of the great things you

can do right now to market your system.

What the role of AI is.

Uh, Mike talks about the power of mentorship in his life and in

others and in this transit industry.

It's a great blend.

At the end, we talk about kind of the antidote to artificial intelligence, which

is real personal relationships and the role they play in public transportation.

I think you'll find this a fascinating discussion between two.

Now, three good friends on this episode.

I also wanna bring your attention to what we've got coming up for you in September.

We're gonna have a super September here on, uh, transit Unplugged.

I feel like one of those guys on TV selling cars.

We're gonna have a super September, but we are, man, you will not

believe the guests that we are gonna have lined up for you the best.

The biggest guests in America are coming on.

Transit unplugged in September.

Some of the top CEOs of the largest transit agencies are coming on.

Take a look at our social media to find out more.

It is gonna be one super September.

If you ever wanted to invite a friend to listen to Transit

Unplugged, now's the time.

Tune them in to September's all four episodes for the Top Leaders in

Transit in America on Super September.

For those of you who, uh, have been listening to our podcast for

a while, you might, . Remember the voices of Mike and Elea.

They were both regulars on our show, , through the pandemic, and, uh, thought

we'd get the band back together, as Elea said, and, uh, catch up with everyone.

So, uh, Mike used to do so.

Y'all remember during the pandemic, things got crazy and, uh, people got a

little out there and outta hand sometimes.

And so Mike was the, uh, king of kindness and still is.

And so I thought it'd be great to have a friendly, uh, reminder,

about the importance of kindness.

I mean, really, Mike, that's what that's at the soul of what we

do right, is kindness to others.

Yeah, it is, it's great.

I mean, I, I've always said, uh, I believe that, uh, transit is

kindness and action, so, right.

We're giving people opportunity, uh, that they may not have without

the availability of transit.

So, uh, inherently it's good and I think it's important to.

To bring that through to the workplace and build our own sort of brands

internally and sort of lead with that.

And, uh, as, as we know, things have changed and, uh, it was very

crazy for a while, which, uh, we talked about quite regularly.

But I want, you know, one of the really neat things that's evolved is sort of

kindness really has become, uh, one of the key leadership traits now when you

read a lot of the new literature and a lot of the new studies, a lot of the new

public speakers that are talking about it.

And for me it's.

, I've had a lot more interest to, to come and speak to workplaces

about sort of workplace culture.

So, yeah, it's great, Paul.

It was a great platform and of course, uh, it was a great segue with, uh,

you know, Elea's, uh, mix of how we change branding at at agencies

that sort of all played together.

So it was great.

Uh, uh, I, you know, as much as we don't always wanna say we enjoyed the pandemic,

it was great to be part of that for sure.

Yeah.

And Alaya, your, your regular contribution to the show was, uh, marketing

agencies, uh, during the pandemic.

Ridership dropped down dramatically.

Uh, I used, I was calling it a gut punch, uh, to the industry where

most, uh, agencies dropped more than.

Half the regular writers and as we started to come back, you're a marketing

expert and uh, so we had you talking to transit agencies about how to improve

their marketing and reach more customers.

Yep.

That was a great opportunity for me.

As you well know, I came out of Silicon Valley , in the pandemic and

really, uh, when the pandemic hit, I wanted to do something that, I love

that phrase, kindness in action.

You know, I wanted to do something that would really leave a great

legacy for, for, uh, wider.

Wider group of people and I found you and Comfort's Corner,

the old version of the podcast.

And I started listening to, um, people in transit, uh, talking leaders

in transit, talking about transit.

And I was like, wow, I wanna be a part of this.

So I think I shot you a note on LinkedIn and we started talking about

what Transit really could be doing.

And we both saw that moment of the pandemic as this incredible

moment of opportunity.

For people to, um, really be able to promote transit and really people to,

for the public to see what was really vital and important about transit.

And so I got the opportunity to talk about how to promote

all of Transit's great aspects.

. And since then, you both have gone on to some amazing things.

We, I'd like to think maybe we had a little something to help you do that,

but both of you, both of you were very busy and active during that time.

But since then, uh, Mike, tell U.S. um, well, well, let's start here.

Actually, the day you and I are talking, uh, is a big day in the electric bus

industry because John Walsh, our, our buddy just got announced today as, uh.

Uh, president and CEO of some of the folks that are helping run what's,

uh, what was Proterra and I think when, when you and I got together,

that's where you were working right.

Right.

Yeah, that's a great segue for sure.

I mean, uh, April of 2019 is when I joined Proterra, uh, April Fool's

Day, which I guess will always resonate with me, but, uh, but yeah,

I mean, I, I believe I was, uh.

You know, and I was there four years, had a great run.

It was a great day, but I, I think it was my first week in, um, you

happened to be in, on a, uh, sort of a leadership call internally.

And then, uh, you and I connected on, uh, sort of Facebook and

all the platforms after that.

We connected.

You were in Vancouver shortly thereafter, and sort of, uh, yeah, had a great, uh,

sort of great forming of a, a peer-to-peer friendship that's, that's really grown.

I'm still, you know, in the e mobility.

Side on the charge management software on my day-to-day, but have really

sort of, as you said, you know, the platform of, of Mike's minute on

comfort's corner, you know, for sure.

Really, um, helped propel that public speaking.

And I can tell you I probably do six to eight functions a year now just on

sort of workplace culture for agencies.

I was just in Ohio last week for an architecture firm that brought

me in that had been at a transit conference where they saw me speak.

So yeah, I mean, I, I owe a lot of.

Uh, kudos to you and, and Elea for being such good advocates together.

I think we had a, a great thing, but yeah, I mean, this industry's amazing.

There's a lot of good people, and you're right, it does go full circle

to, you know, our friends keep showing up in, in new, new roles,

different challenges, and, uh, yeah, never, never a dull moment for sure.

Yeah, the industry constantly changes.

Elea, you've, um, you also tell U.S. about what you've been doing lately.

You've been doing more of this.

I've seen you both in action.

Actually just recently.

Mike, I saw you speak at a TripSpark conference as a keynote speaker.

You were phenomenal, by the way.

I mean, I've seen you before, but.

Really good.

Uh, keynote talk you've been giving and Elea, I saw you at the

Transportation Association of Maryland conference, I think last year,

which is coming up again real soon.

And you were speaking there and I think I've seen you somewhere

else lately talk and just amazing.

Tell U.S. what you do now.

Yeah, you and I were at CTAA in San Diego in was that

That's where I just saw you in June.

Yeah,

May.

Yep.

Yep.

Early June.

Yeah, so Transit Happy is the company that I launched, , with somewhat having

this platform from you of being able to talk to, to trans people about marketing.

And I've grown that company to, um, I couldn't tell you how

many clients I have right now.

Maybe I should know that number, but I don't.

, But I've got clients all over the country and they are mostly small,

urban and rural public transit agents.

, Writing marketing plans for them, which is a great, um, thing.

I love to research.

We also produce full campaigns, uh, conceptualized , promotional campaigns,

and then produce and implement campaigns.

I work with a graphic designer, um, who's probably the single

most experienced person.

In, uh, transit graphic design who working on his own in the

country, a guy named Rick Schuster.

And I also get to work with Selena Barlow, who is, uh, on the verge of retiring and,

um, supporting me a lot, mentoring me.

, Mike has talked a lot about the importance of mentoring.

So if you, Paul, by the way, and Selena.

, 30 plus years in marketing for public transit, rural and small

urban public transit, and, , has been very supportive of me.

So I just got off the phone, , talking in Southern California about a new

campaign that we wanna launch that's both a clean air, it has both clean

air element and also a, um, trade.

Trade.

One of your.

Car trips a wink for transit, uh, to take a transit trip.

And this just gets right to the heart of what I want to do real, um, behavior

change and marketing for behavior change and promoting public transit..

We now produced both this, uh, podcast, but also a TV show where we're traveling.

I'm traveling all the time to different cities, um, and, uh, showcasing.

Their food fun and culture and their public transportation behind the scenes.

I also, , wrote a book, the New Future Public Transportation, which was a

compilation book like most of them have been, where I included 30 other

folks in the book that are leaders of various segments of the industry.

And, uh, and we've done a bunch of book signings together, , and,

and various events together.

Mike was in the cookbook, my latest book is, um, coming out next year.

I think I've written a book a year for six years and I'm writing one in the seventh

year, but it probably won't be published until, it won't be published until 26.

'cause I'm working with a really big publisher and those

timelines take a lot longer.

It's like a nine month process to get a book out and it's more

of a personal development book.

So we've all had a lot of things going on.

In our lives, but our focus still remains the same.

Mike, uh, one of the things that, uh, that Elea mentioned earlier is that

you've been focused on mentorship and kindness and talk to U.S.

about that.

You're, you're real active in CUTA, the Canadian Urban Transportation Association.

You and I will be up there together this fall at a conference

where we'll be filming an episode of our show in Montreal.

But tell U.S. about the, the role of mentorship, uh, and what

you're doing there with CUTA.

Sure, no.

Great.

And yeah, so some of the other changes, I mean, as things have migrated over

the years, you know, I, I ran for a position with the business members.

I, I sort of got elected and so through aggregation, you know, served, served

a, you know, a secretary and then vice chair, I just moved into the chair of

the business members on the CTA in.

Canada at the May Spring Conference.

Yeah, we have our fall conference, but I've also been heavily involved

the last two and a half years with the, um, uh, leaders building

Leaders mentorship program that, uh, initiated, uh, through, through CUTA

through the Young Emerging Leaders Task Force, which I'm also part of.

So, um, yeah, it's really exciting.

And this fall we will have, so every second year with CUTA,

the fall show is our Young Emerging Leaders, uh, conference.

So we'll have the Young Leaders Summit, uh, that's tied into CUTA.

Um, there is a mentorship part of that.

I'm actually speaking at that as well during the sort of speed networking event.

But yeah, I mean, uh, for me, mentorship has been really the

key to my career, I would say.

And I, and I, I, I know I say this every time I speak, is that people say, you

know, what sort of education do you have?

And I always say, I have APTA and CUTA.

And they always look at me 'cause I have no idea what I'm talking about.

And I, and to me it's really been the key to the success is meeting our

peers that wanna share the stories.

, I always say, um, you know, being invited into the rooms and, and just

transit is a very unique business where people want to share hits, misses,

successes, and they want to see everybody.

They want to be a thought leader and then they want to be an, and.

I'm, I continue to be amazed, and this is probably the next question, but

just on, you know, from a mentorship perspective, it's, it's great to have

all these people that you can get.

You know, sort of these value adds and put 'em into your own personal tool case.

But the adaptability of our industry always amazes me too.

And just the people that are in it.

So I think that's something we're gonna talk about a little later,

but that's one of the things that continues to inspire me.

But mentorship, uh, it means a lot to me this year.

I'm going through as actually a mentee, so I'm being mentored by, uh, I, I chose

to go through our program the other way.

I've, I've mentored someone for the last years and this year I have a

transit director, uh, on the East coast.

Uh, Judy out in St. John's.

That's being my, , mentor and she's just teaching me a lot about just sort

of how she prepares for board meetings and some of the political stuff.

And I just love to hear the different challenges and

stories from, from our CEOs.

I think people have no idea what goes on to get a bus on the

road really behind the scenes.

So really, really inspiring for sure.

If you like this episode of the Transit Unplugged Podcast, then you

will love what we have coming up.

We're calling it Super September because we're creating an All

star guest lineup just for you.

Let's face it, the world is rapidly changing and everything is so fast,

and our industry is speeding up.

So in September, the Transit Unplug team is bringing you some of the biggest

voices in the industry from New York, Chicago, maybe even at the federal level.

I don't wanna tip our hand yet.

But you'll get a chance to learn how to manage all the policy and funding changes

the post COVID funding, fiscal Cliff, how to do all of it, and so much more.

If you haven't yet subscribed to the podcast, do it now so you

don't miss a thing when Transit Unplug brings you Super September.

Subscribe right now before you get distracted because we know something's

gonna ping or a squirrel will come by, so please subscribe and we'll bring you

some great shows in Super September.

Now back to Paul Comfort and this episode of the Transit Unplugged Podcast.

Elea, one

of the, um, one of the things that's also changed, I think since the pandemic

when we were doing our show together is, um, social media has become even

more relevant in people's lives.

There's a new saying called doom scrolling, which, uh, I'm not a

hundred percent sure what, I know what it is, but I think it's when you

just sit there on your couch and you just scroll through your Instagram

feed or your TikTok or whatever,

, Especially young people, but even, you know, adults really spend a

lot of their time on social media and transit agencies have gotten

into social media in a big way.

I know when I was at the MTA, I was just back visiting the Baltimore

MTA recently for an episode of our TV show for September and, um.

I remember we were there, we got on 10 social media platforms, uh, and we had a

different, different goal for each one.

You know, Twitter would be, now it's X, but it would be

service disruptions, right?

Facebook would be stories of our drivers, and Instagram would be pictures

of cool places you could go writing the system and those kind of things.

Tell U.S. about the role of social media and transit now as you see it.

Yeah, I mean, I'm glad you mentioned doom scrolling because transit's got an

opportunity to offer something to the Doom scrollers that isn't so doomy, right?

Like, we can, we have good news to share about transit and as you

mentioned, um, you know, certain, some channels you can also share

alerts, uh, uh, rider alerts as well.

But, um, I just wanna make sure that we're not.

That we're not thinking of social media as a marketing cure all.

It doesn't do everything for you.

You know, your, your critical pieces of information are, uh, your

passenger information, and that might be print or on your website.

Um, you might have a system for alerts, like simplify transit, for example, or

something that, um, Modaxo offers that is, you know, people can sign up for alerts.

Um, so social media is.

It's a place for your community to gather to see what's new with you.

But, , in terms of like your, your biggest news and things that you really

need to get out there, , there there should be other channels and social

media shouldn't be used for that.

I love the ideas you mentioned, um, Instagram for beautiful pictures of

your system, and I think that's a great.

, Opportunity, including a great opportunity , for riders and other people in the

public to contribute those images.

, I've been working right now with YARTS, which is the Yosemite area Regional

Transit System, and they recently set up a second Instagram account , that

riders can contribute their photos of Yosemite two and then YARTS will, um.

Promote those photos and it's sort of like a scrapbook of Yosemite that

YARTS, that YARTS is developing.

Yeah.

And then the other, the other opportunity that I think is Metrolink does this,

um, they also do a daily kind of, we're here for you on Facebook.

They used to put their alerts out on Facebook, but they got

a system for their alerts.

They now, instead of putting their alerts out, they remind everybody every morning,

Hey, we're here for you from 6:00 AM to.

11 00:16:41

59 PM or whatever it is, and they post , an image of that somebody

11 00:16:47

in the community has sent them.

11 00:16:48

So they have like a guest photographer every day from their ridership group

11 00:16:52

that they post on Facebook and that kind of thing gets a lot of engagement.

11 00:16:56

Finally, , something else I see that's really very popular and uplifting on,

11 00:17:01

um, especially Facebook and Instagram.

11 00:17:04

Is, interns, transit interns making video because you've got some 21 year

11 00:17:09

olds or some college students, they're fantastic at that kind of thing.

11 00:17:12

They're digital natives.

11 00:17:13

They're not just digital natives, they're social media natives and

11 00:17:17

they know, um, you know, they can do this kind of stuff very quickly

11 00:17:20

and, and put out really cute videos.

11 00:17:22

Plus they have social communities of their own, like real live in,

11 00:17:26

in-person social communities.

11 00:17:27

And those people will follow that social media.

11 00:17:30

So it's a nice way to grow your market.

11 00:17:33

Yeah, Elea, I love, I like that.

11 00:17:34

And, and Paul, one of the things I'll add about the social

11 00:17:36

media for sure, I think, yeah.

11 00:17:38

And then I know you've seen me speak, but I typically have a

11 00:17:40

slide where I talk about, you know, sort of changing your feed, right?

11 00:17:43

Like, because the more you click onto some sort of thing, the

11 00:17:46

more, and, and you know, from, and me, I obviously talk about.

11 00:17:48

Sort of workplace culture, kindness and trying to search some of those items.

11 00:17:51

But the one thing I will say, I love social media.

11 00:17:54

I think we all, it's part of our brands, whether we think it is or not, we've

11 00:17:57

really seen, um, just an abundant amount of how people have changed from links

11 00:18:01

to QR codes and all these really cool things that take you to different places.

11 00:18:05

I mean, LinkedIn does it now too, but one of the things I will say that I've

11 00:18:08

noticed even myself in the last two, three weeks on the social media aspect is

11 00:18:12

just with all the ai, just how much fake.

11 00:18:16

Information is like constantly bombarding each day.

11 00:18:19

So I think we need to be careful, and I've even seen it where they've, they've

11 00:18:21

made fun of someone else's social campaign and, and they've twisted it.

11 00:18:25

And so, you know, it's, I I imagine this is gonna pose another

11 00:18:29

challenge for, uh, our transit agencies and, and their campaigns.

11 00:18:32

I mean, I, I, I live in, in Vancouver, BC and we.

11 00:18:35

Both BC Transit and TransLink, absolutely incredible at their marketing.

11 00:18:39

I mean, uh, TransLink, TransLink just had a big promotion on the weekend.

11 00:18:42

They did their first ever trading cards, and it's got all the old, and,

11 00:18:46

and it was, I mean, it was lined up around the block people to get these.

11 00:18:50

But you know, it's interesting.

11 00:18:51

You still see these naysayers and all these other things that this

11 00:18:54

creates, which is unfortunate, but I think we've gotta remain positive

11 00:18:57

and, and it's an amazing tool.

11 00:18:59

, There is a, there is a very different side of it with AI and

11 00:19:01

how that's evolved since probably we all were last together as well.

11 00:19:05

Yeah, well, I'll talk to Ale about that in just a minute about the AI thing, but I, I

11 00:19:09

do wanna comment on that with Kevin Quinn.

11 00:19:12

Uh, that, that idea of doing the trading cards, what did you think of that Alay?

11 00:19:15

You saw that, I'm sure.

11 00:19:17

I thought it was a brilliant idea.

11 00:19:19

Yeah, it's fantastic and it, it will work for agencies like TransLink.

11 00:19:23

Uh, I know, um, king County Metro, , SEPTA in, um, Southeast Pennsylvania, , muni

11 00:19:29

bart, they have significant fan bases and they're also in locations where

11 00:19:34

there's like a high concentration of.

11 00:19:37

Transit geeks and city planning geeks and very engaged citizens.

11 00:19:41

, That builds loyalty and awareness.

11 00:19:45

It doesn't reach out super broadly.

11 00:19:48

You know, it's not gonna bring you a lot of, , new followers who are

11 00:19:51

like, oh, I like trading cards, but I've never thought of transit before.

11 00:19:55

Like, that's not gonna happen, right?

11 00:19:57

They're starting with transit, but it will deepen your relationship with

11 00:20:01

your already established community.

11 00:20:03

And this just comes on the heels.

11 00:20:04

They, they just did another promotion probably two months ago where they,

11 00:20:08

they partnered with, um, a local brewery to do a, a transit collaboration beer.

11 00:20:13

And it was a, it was called pla, it was called Platform Pilsner.

11 00:20:16

And it has the can is the front of a train.

11 00:20:18

And again, it.

11 00:20:19

Created a bunch of buzz.

11 00:20:20

People went to this, they wanted to buy the four pack and take pictures.

11 00:20:23

I mean, I went with my family just 'cause I'm in transit and I know them very well.

11 00:20:27

And it was funny, the day I actually took my, my in-laws for lunch to

11 00:20:30

the brewery, I ran into the head of marketing and, and, uh, community

11 00:20:33

outreach for translate was there, grabbed a four pack as well of his own.

11 00:20:37

It was own branded beer, so it was pretty funny.

11 00:20:39

Uh, but, uh, but yeah, they.

11 00:20:40

They've sort of taken it to the next level on things they

11 00:20:43

do, and I, I really like that.

11 00:20:44

Again, the passion in our industry and just how people will, will think outside

11 00:20:49

of the box and, and take a chance, right?

11 00:20:51

I mean, that's really what it's all about sometimes too.

11 00:20:53

Yeah.

11 00:20:53

The next, um, conference presentation I wanna do, you talked about running into

11 00:20:57

each other at conferences recently is I wanna do, um, big, big city ad campaigns

11 00:21:04

and how smaller agencies can get those.

11 00:21:07

That kind of bang and um, on their own budgets.

11 00:21:11

Yeah.

11 00:21:11

. Yeah.

11 00:21:12

Well, we, speaking of, uh, of getting Big Bang outta it, we're gonna have,

11 00:21:14

um, Kevin Quinn, the CEO of TransLink, uh, who used to be the CEO of the

11 00:21:18

Maryland Transit Agency here as well.

11 00:21:20

W he's gonna be Mike with U.S. at CUTA at the fall conference in Montreal.

11 00:21:25

And he'll be on a CEO round table that I'm hosting, uh, beyond the CUTA schedule.

11 00:21:29

So if you wanna.

11 00:21:30

See and hear more, I'm gonna ask him to bring some of those trading cards

11 00:21:33

with him and show everybody kind of what he's doing there because they

11 00:21:36

are a big city agency, but Elea, as you mentioned, could, could smaller

11 00:21:39

agencies kind of pick up ideas from that.

11 00:21:42

And, and, uh, one of the things that people are doing now that Mike

11 00:21:45

mentioned that I want to ask you about though even more Alea is ai.

11 00:21:48

Um, and, uh, what is the role of AI in marketing?

11 00:21:53

Yeah.

11 00:21:53

So I mean, it depends on the size of your agency, right?

11 00:21:56

If you're, if you have a big agency, you're already implementing AI tools,

11 00:22:01

they're, um, you know, they, they could be very useful in project management.

11 00:22:05

They can be useful in content creation.

11 00:22:08

, You know, it's a little bit like turning a 4-year-old loose on, on certain things,

11 00:22:12

you know, you've gotta pay attention to.

11 00:22:14

What you get out.

11 00:22:15

But, um, for example, for YARTS, I just used, uh, an AI platform

11 00:22:20

to quickly write up three blogs for, for them just as samples of

11 00:22:25

what they might put in their blog.

11 00:22:27

, So bigger agencies definitely I know are already very

11 00:22:31

plugged in, , smaller agencies.

11 00:22:34

I feel like they might be experiencing some fomo, some fear of missing out,

11 00:22:38

that they're not up to speed on ai.

11 00:22:40

But I wanna reassure people that you, you can be, um, uh, you know,

11 00:22:45

it, it's not gonna change your life in, in these enormous ways.

11 00:22:50

It's not gonna do your marketing.

11 00:22:52

It still can't really do great campaigns like a human being can think up.

11 00:22:57

, It might be able to make some of your workflows more efficient, uh, and it

11 00:23:02

might be able to save you a little bit of time, but it's not, it should not.

11 00:23:07

, Replace your CMO or your, um, your marketing staff?

11 00:23:11

One of the, you know, one of the fear pieces I've heard about ai,

11 00:23:15

of course, that we've all heard, is that it's gonna make U.S. lose jobs.

11 00:23:19

The level I see that happening at is sort of that intern level.

11 00:23:23

Um, you know, produce, produce this thing for me really fast or set up

11 00:23:27

this spreadsheet for me really fast.

11 00:23:29

Um, so, uh, as a young person being able to, to use the, you know, AI

11 00:23:34

to make that tool happen, I think is gonna be a very important skill.

11 00:23:38

But I don't see it replacing, um, CMOs and, and senior marketing people.

11 00:23:43

I certainly hope it doesn't, and I also don't see it.

11 00:23:47

Um, putting anybody in a position where there can be, you know, on a beach

11 00:23:51

with a, with a nice cocktail while, uh, AI does their marketing job for them.

11 00:23:58

I think still thinking about, um, still thinking from the human perspective

11 00:24:03

and also managing human from the human perspective is still really important.

11 00:24:08

And I think that the, um.

11 00:24:10

The really the most critical thing we do in marketing.

11 00:24:13

There's so much fun stuff you could do, you know, trading cards and beers

11 00:24:16

or just a couple, couple of examples.

11 00:24:19

But really I think the most important thing we do in marketing and

11 00:24:22

transit is working directly with our community partners and having,

11 00:24:27

you know, a hand, even just a hand.

11 00:24:29

Full of community partners who run, uh, social service agencies,

11 00:24:33

educational institutes, uh, government offices and marketing through them.

11 00:24:39

That's, that's your real kind of, uh, real art, real intelligence, right?

11 00:24:44

Is being able to scale your marketing.

11 00:24:47

By having a handful of contacts to whom you push out your marketing materials,

11 00:24:52

and then they market to their audiences because those audiences, you know,

11 00:24:56

people who might be the audience of marketing or might be in the lobby of

11 00:25:00

a social service agency, they're not following the Transit Agency's Facebook

11 00:25:04

page, they're not looking at the Transit Agency's website, but they may see a

11 00:25:08

lobby sign that changes their lives and really makes them understand that they

11 00:25:13

can get to their appointments affordably.

11 00:25:15

That is.

11 00:25:16

Still the core of marketing and building those relationships is

11 00:25:19

still really critical to success.

11 00:25:21

Yeah, I think that's a great, great, uh, comment.

11 00:25:23

You know, this sort of hold U.S. cross, uh, I call it cross-contamination, right?

11 00:25:27

The friends who know the friends and it's sort of like relationship building,

11 00:25:30

but when you see, like, for instance, a lot of the sports teams now, right?

11 00:25:34

When you download a ticket, it's got the link on the back to take.

11 00:25:36

Public transit to an event.

11 00:25:37

Right?

11 00:25:38

Those are the type of things where you get together and you leverage off one another.

11 00:25:41

You know, I remember during the pandemic we saw some pretty unique things too,

11 00:25:44

as people were trying to save service, rebrand service, or do certain things.

11 00:25:48

But I remember Missoula Transit up in Montana, Jen and her team, I remember

11 00:25:52

they did this, um, live music series.

11 00:25:55

I think it was on like every second Friday

11 00:25:57

that was him.

11 00:25:57

They, they brought an artist onto the bus.

11 00:26:00

I thought it was just.

11 00:26:00

Absolutely.

11 00:26:01

I mean, you know, Paul resonates, uh, being a ex dj like, like you I

11 00:26:05

am as well, you know, just this live music and bringing in local artists

11 00:26:08

and then they had art on the bus.

11 00:26:09

I mean, I think these are just some great ideas of how the transit agencies, right,

11 00:26:13

they touch these other entities that then also leverage back and, and they get

11 00:26:17

that extra amplification from, from those partners that Lea was referencing, right?

11 00:26:21

So it's great.

11 00:26:22

, One more comment on the AI Elea.

11 00:26:25

I was just listening to a podcast this morning with Doug Ellen, Hollywood

11 00:26:28

producer, uh, I like his podcast and he was talking about how he

11 00:26:32

was using AI to write basically a script and the pitch notes to pitch

11 00:26:37

a new show to the network and how.

11 00:26:40

Everything that AI did for him is what an assistant used to do

11 00:26:43

for him, a writer's assistant.

11 00:26:44

And he said, just what you said.

11 00:26:46

He said, I don't think it's gonna replace like the main ideas.

11 00:26:49

'cause if you ask it just to come up with an idea, it's not there yet.

11 00:26:52

But he said, I'm talking in my phone.

11 00:26:54

I'm giving the whole spiel for 45 minutes.

11 00:26:56

And then I ask it to shape up what I said, organize it, put it in a pitch point.

11 00:27:00

And he said, that's what I used to have a younger assistant do.

11 00:27:02

And so, I mean, I've seen, uh, comments from senior leaders.

11 00:27:06

Outside of the industry, but in banking to say that, you know, within six months

11 00:27:10

to a year, we're not gonna recognize this world, the jobs that are gonna be

11 00:27:14

adjusted and changed as a result of ai.

11 00:27:18

As the mother of, uh, two kids in their twenties.

11 00:27:20

, You know, I'm holding out some hope that there's still some work for

11 00:27:23

young, young careers to develop.

11 00:27:27

I'll tell you, I used, I recently used, um, AI to build a, um, list of.

11 00:27:35

Facebook pages in a county in California that I needed for, for a project

11 00:27:39

in, in Butte County, California.

11 00:27:42

And um, it populated the list.

11 00:27:44

I watched it happen and it populated the list so fast that I actually

11 00:27:48

said the words, I love you.

11 00:27:50

While it was doing this.

11 00:27:52

It just blew me away.

11 00:27:53

And then I had the thought, I better check on these.

11 00:27:57

And I would say.

11 00:28:00

I'm gonna say close to 90% did not exist, and it had completely halluc

11 00:28:05

these, these, these Facebook accounts.

11 00:28:08

And I started going down the list and I was like, well,

11 00:28:10

that account doesn't exist.

11 00:28:12

That account doesn't exist.

11 00:28:13

And then I called a, a young admin person and said, you know, I don't

11 00:28:17

have time to go through the rest of these to see if they exist.

11 00:28:21

Would you please see.

11 00:28:22

If they exist.

11 00:28:23

And so I got the real human intelligence back involved.

11 00:28:26

And um, basically it had produced an almost useless list for me.

11 00:28:30

Well that, that goes into really our last point I wanted to talk about, and

11 00:28:34

that is the power of human interaction and the power of human relationships.

11 00:28:38

Um, I mean, I met both of you, you know, basically through LinkedIn.

11 00:28:42

Uh, and uh, and then we formed real relationships.

11 00:28:45

It wasn't my AI assistant talking to yours, which didn't, wasn't

11 00:28:49

even a thing seven years ago.

11 00:28:50

Yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up.

11 00:28:52

I mean, especially on the tales of ai.

11 00:28:54

AI is, you know, we're on the verge of a loneliness epidemic and

11 00:28:58

AI is not gonna make that better.

11 00:29:00

And our real lives people are, you know, the people who matter to U.S.

11 00:29:04

are people who are not perfect.

11 00:29:06

And we continue to love them and do things with them, even if they're messy.

11 00:29:10

And AI gives U.S. the opportunity to engage with something that is not messy.

11 00:29:15

It just gives U.S. what we want.

11 00:29:16

And ultimately, that's not good for human beings.

11 00:29:19

You know, we need to know how to negotiate our difference with other human beings.

11 00:29:24

Um, transit is wonderful in that it brings people together in a very messy human way.

11 00:29:29

And sometimes that's not perfect, and sometimes that's why

11 00:29:31

people stay away from transit.

11 00:29:32

But ultimately, the reason, for example, that the three of U.S.

11 00:29:35

are here talking is because.

11 00:29:37

We like to engage with people and we like to, um, we like to

11 00:29:42

kind of negotiate our difference and get to know somebody deeper.

11 00:29:46

And if an AI is writing my press release, that's one opportunity that I've lost

11 00:29:51

to mentor a young person in how to.

11 00:29:53

And how to write a press release.

11 00:29:55

So all of those thoughts I think are related to social engage engagement

11 00:30:00

and yeah, really, I mean, we wouldn't be here if we didn't love Transit.

11 00:30:06

And we, um, and we know that transit really does bring

11 00:30:10

real human beings together.

11 00:30:11

The AI is just a little bit of a tool that can, um, help U.S. maybe be together

11 00:30:16

more efficiently as real human beings.

11 00:30:19

. Well, thank you both for being, uh, my guest today on Transit Unplugged.

11 00:30:23

Great to hear from you and catch up, uh, to have you back on the program.

11 00:30:26

If you wanna, uh, get ahold of Mike Bismeyer or Elea Carey, we'll

11 00:30:29

put links, uh, to how you can get ahold of them in the show notes.

11 00:30:33

And remember that, uh, this is a podcast that is here for you.

11 00:30:36

We talk to transit leaders around the world every week.

11 00:30:39

And, uh, great to catch up with both of you.

11 00:30:41

You guys are, uh, I wouldn't say up and coming because you already

11 00:30:43

established stars in our industry now, and appreciate you taking

11 00:30:47

your time to be with U.S. today.

11 00:30:49

Paul, thank you so much.

11 00:30:51

Yep.

11 00:30:51

Great to see you as well, Alaya.

11 00:30:57

Thanks for listening to Transit Unplugged.

11 00:30:59

I'm executive producer Julie Gates, and this episode was created by host

11 00:31:03

and producer Paul Comfort, producer Chris O'Keefe, associate producer Cindy

11 00:31:07

Raskin and podcast intern Des Gates.

11 00:31:11

Transit Unplugged is being brought to you by Modaxo, passionate

11 00:31:14

about moving the world's people.

11 00:31:15

If you wanna dive deeper behind the transit headlines and get boots on the

11 00:31:19

ground intel on important updates like the Trump Administration's transit

11 00:31:23

priorities, or how to get funding check out Transit Unplugged Insider,

11 00:31:27

our new YouTube show where Paul and I take you inside today's hot topics.

11 00:31:32

Paul knows what's going on in Washington DC and has the inside scoop.

11 00:31:35

He's taking a lot of meetings with a lot of people and we wanna make

11 00:31:38

sure you know what's going on.

11 00:31:40

You can watch and subscribe to Transit Unplugged Insider on the Transit

11 00:31:44

Unplugged Podcast page on YouTube.

11 00:31:46

Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you on the next episode of Transit Unplugged.