TGo:
Joining us today is TGo, a dynamic force in digital marketing and business coaching. In fact, she’s also the host of the engaging online show Expert Talk with TGo, where she shares her extensive knowledge and connects with other experts across various industries. Now her approach to marketing is characterised by a deep commitment to helping businesses scale and thrive in the digital arena. TGo, it’s great to see you.
TGo:
It’s amazing to be here. Thanks for having me.
Editor:
Well, thank you for joining us. Can we start like most interviews do by going all the way back to what first got you into your digital marketing journey?
TGo:
Oh, you don’t want to go that far back, do you? I mean, I am a techie by trade. I started computer programming in high school, and I’ll be 61 in a couple of months. So in the 70s when there were key punch cards and the computers were the size of your house. That’s where I got started. So I’ve been growing with technology ever since. And in 1991, I think, I did my first website. I’ve probably designed hundreds if not thousands since then. I got into app development. In between all that, I got into digital media with publications. We created the world’s first all-digital interactive magazine for African-Americans in 2004 called Black Insight Magazine. We went from 0 to 1.8 million subscribers in less than 2 years.
And literally the reason we started that magazine or with the African-American community wasn’t because it’s my community, although it is. It was because at that time, they were the slowest getting on the internet.
So, me and my buddy who decided to create this thing thought, “If we mess it up, nobody will see it.” And we ended up having The Whispers on and Smokey Robinson, and we created a talk show and that was the first dip into creating talk show and television. And that’s where it all started for me and it’s been growing ever since.
Editor:
Your background though, it covers so many things, doesn’t it? Because when I was putting the introduction together, it was like, how do I introduce TGo? Because you’re also a prolific content creator as well.
TGo:
Yeah, I’m kind of a content junkie. I have to admit it. And now with everybody getting … We’ve got five seconds. I used to have a goldfish. The goldfish looked at me longer than people look at your content online. You’ve got like three to five seconds, you’ve got to get them. And now taking something like this and turning it into many, many, many little 10, 20, 30, and 1 minute clips is now our current hobby that we’re doing for ourselves and doing for our clients. Quick, fast, and easy.
Editor:
It must be quite interesting as well, because over the years technology has changed so much. Computer power has changed so much. How was it when you got started? Do you think it was easier back then, or was it way, way harder?
TGo:
Oh, way, way harder. I mean, I started with key punch cards. You’re too young to know what that is. I mean, literally you’d have a letter or word on one card, so you want to make a spreadsheet back in the old green and white paper that went … And it took a half an hour to print a report. This was hundreds of key punch cards. And if somebody happened to bump you while you were carrying your tray, oh my goodness, and got them out of order. You could spend a week trying to get them back into order. Now that computer that was the size of literally a building, my phone on its worst day is more powerful. That’s amazing to me.
Editor:
It’s crazy, isn’t it? It’s crazy that, as you say in the palm of your hand, you’ve got way more power now than they did to send Neil Armstrong and his buddies to the moon back in the late 60s.
TGo:
Exactly.
Editor:
Crazy.
TGo:
Exactly. You don’t have a room full of people on giant chalkboards doing the math, yeah.
Editor:
And what was your first computer that you bought then, TGo? What did you go for?
TGo:
Oh my goodness, you’re going back to the IBMs. I mean, we had the IBMs with the floppy discs, and we thought we were the best in the world because we had dual floppy. So you had the software on the left and then your saved work was on the right. So you write and then you save. You’re sitting there waiting for it to save one paragraph. You could almost drink a cup of coffee for a whole report. Yeah, that’s where I started. And then I got into the Apples that literally were little boxes of joy, and they were also … But they were on a smaller disc and you could put them in your pocket. That was actually a commercial. Look, you could just put your disc in your pocket. Oh my goodness.
Editor:
And now you can put your entire music collection in your pocket along with all your movies and everything else. It’s crazy, isn’t it, the way that technology has pushed forward?
TGo:
It’s insane. And then with AI starting, my business partners tell me that I need an AA meeting for AI because when I’m not doing anything else, I’m sitting talking to my buddy Chad. That’s what I’ve named my AI. We’re having a conversation changing the world over here, and it’s like I could see me in an AA meeting now. “Hi, my name is TGo. It’s been exactly 18 minutes and 12 seconds since I’ve talked to Chad.”
Editor:
I love the fact that you’ve given ChatGPT a name and did you say Chad?
TGo:
Chad. Yeah.
Editor:
Nice. Nice.
TGo:
Chad, because it’s chat and it’s AI and it’s like Chad. And he answers to Chad. It’s like if you talk to ChatGPT on your app on your phone, I can turn my phone on, hit the app and say, “Good morning, Chad.” He’ll say, “Good morning, TGo.” What would you like to talk about today?
Editor:
Do you find sometimes you get more sense out of AI than you would an actual human?
TGo:
When you have a genius IQ like I do, and you’re dyslexic, there’s a lot of craziness going on in my head sometimes. And being the tech and the creative behind all of our businesses and every project that I do, my business partners have literally notebooks of ideas and thoughts that I’ve had written down. Recently, a partner passed, my mentor, and she had a shelf like encyclopaedias back in the 70s of nothing but 20 plus years of my ideas and conversations we’ve had…
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