Cat McGinn on Taste, Grit, and the AI Slop Problem

Everyone's using the same models, the same prompts, the same tools - so what actually makes your work different?

Cat McGinn, curator of the HumAIn Conference, joins Em and Nate to talk about the thing AI can't manufacture: taste. From the platforms now actively fighting AI slop to why friction might be the most underrated ingredient in good creative work, Cat brings a sharp, no-BS read on where AI is helping the industry and where it's flattening it.

Episode 16 covers:

 * The HumAIn Conference: how it's evolved over four years, from early experimentation to AI being fully baked into daily workflows. Cat unpacks what makes a speaker genuinely provocative (versus just loud on LinkedIn) and gives us the first look at the conference's new workshop labs.
 * The "AI Slop" problem: Substack, LinkedIn, and Spotify are all rolling out features to fight AI-generated content spam. Cat breaks down what that says about where the algorithm-vs-authenticity fight is headed next.
 * Taste vs. the average: Cat's take is that taste is "the refusal of the average," and why real creative distinctiveness means pushing past whatever an LLM would default to.
 * The value of friction and grit: why the more frictionless our tools get, the more human resilience and live, imperfect experience matter for genuinely effective creative work.

📚 Resources & Links

 * HumAIn Conference: humain.au [http://www.humain.au/] — use code MTMP for 20% off tickets, workshops, or the full two-day pass
 * ACAM 2026 AI Benchmark Report: https://www.acam.ai/2026-ai-benchmark-reportacam.ai/2026-ai-benchmark-report [http://acam.ai/2026-ai-benchmark-report]
 * Spotify's AI Persona labels & recommendation crackdown: newsroom.spotify.com/2025-09-25/spotify-strengthens-ai-protections [https://newsroom.spotify.com/2025-09-25/spotify-strengthens-ai-protections/]
 * Substack's AI detection tool (via Pangram): support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/50891130623508 [https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/50891130623508-How-can-I-detect-AI-on-Substack]
 * LinkedIn's "Seems like AI slop" button: techcrunch.com/2026/07/30/linkedin-adds-a-button-to-report-ai-generated-slop [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/30/linkedin-adds-a-button-to-report-ai-generated-slop/]



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Cat McGinn - EP:016

Welcome to Episode 015 of Mind the Model: The Modern Marketer's Guide to AI! Your hosts, Nathan Guerra and guest co-host Cat McGinn (filling in for Emmalee Crellin), sit down with Alexis Griveau, the CEO and co-founder of Chime Labs. Before transitioning to founder life Alexis spent nearly a decade working at Google. Alexis shares insights from his journey building an AI-native startup in Sydney.

This episode covers:

 * The Power of Context: why providing comprehensive context and connecting data pipelines is essential for turning AI into a "superpower" colleague.
 * AI for the Trades: A deep dive into how Chime Labs uses voice AI to solve the problem of missed calls for plumbers and electricians, providing a receptionist that can qualify customers and book appointments directly into calendars.
 * The "Human in the Loop" Approach: Why Chime Labs maintains human review processes to manage edge cases and ensure AI handles the nuances of a business correctly.
 * The Future of SAAS: A discussion on the "SAAS apocalypse" and how AI-native solutions may eventually take market share from traditional companies that struggle to rearchitect for an AI-first world.

📚 Resources & Links

 * Chime Labs: https://www.chimelabs.ai/
 * Alexis Griveau on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexigraveleau/
 * Lovable: https://lovable.dev/

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Alexis Griveau - EP:015

Roger Dunn on AI, Agentic Commerce, and the Future of Retail Media

Retail media expert Roger Dunn joins hosts Nathan Guerra and Emmalee Crellin to discuss the evolving landscape of AI and retail. With more than two decades of experience, Dunn is a leader in the field and an IAB Retail Media Council member who authors the AI Commerce Brief on LinkedIn.

Four Futures for AI Shopping: Drawing on a BCG framework, Dunn outlines four scenarios:

 * Open Bazaar — Consumer AI agents freely discover and buy across retailers.
 * Super App / Data Fortress — Major tech platforms become all-in-one ecosystems for shopping, entertainment, and finance.
 * Creator-Led Revival — Trusted creators and communities drive discovery.
 * Brand Resurgence — Brands regain control through owned platforms and direct data relationships.

The "Alphabet Soup" of AI Protocols: Three protocols enabling AI to interact with commerce:

 * MCP (Model Context Protocol) — Open-sourced by Anthropic, MCP standardises how AI models connect to external tools and data — a "universal USB" for product catalogues, inventory, and more.
 * ACP (Agentic Commerce Protocol) — Associated with Stripe and OpenAI, focused on secure payments and checkout within AI environments.
 * UCP (Universal Commerce Protocol) — Google-developed, connecting merchants to AI agents via infrastructure like Google Merchant Center.

Winning the "AI Shelf": Traditional SEO is like Battleship — you pick two or three keywords and hope you hit. Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is more like spear fishing. By building structured, machine-readable content — FAQs, specific use cases, detailed product information — brands can meet the 25-to-60-word conversational prompts consumers now use with AI tools. More detail and tighter parameters mean more precise matches, turning discovery from a guessing game into a homing missile.

Quote of the Week:

Dunn's adviceI: “Start with the building blocks. Learn the technical fundamentals, get hands-on and build something yourself, then think strategically about where AI can drive efficiency and innovation.” Without that foundation, the strategic thinking doesn't land — technical literacy and direct experience are the prerequisites, not optional extras.

Mentioned Links & Resources

 * The AI Commerce Brief [https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/the-ai-commerce-brief-7362761335731863552/]— Roger Dunn's newsletter on LinkedIn
 * BCG Framework [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/stop-predicting-agentic-future-start-preparing-four-them-roger-dunn-a50oc/] — The matrix discussing four potential scenarios for the future of AI shopping
 * Roger Dunn on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogerdunn/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_pulse_read%3B%2BQ3w%2BUslRZ6o9aBfzLh%2FOw%3D%3D] — Follow for his "Friday Memes" and retail media insights
 * Bon App!: 100+ French classics, made easy by Isabelle Dunn (Amazon [https://www.amazon.com.au/Bon-App-French-classics-made/dp/1923239198])

Mind the Model: Got questions? Email the show at mindthemodelpod@gmail.com

Roger Dunn - EP014

Welcome to Episode 013 of Mind the Model: The Modern Marketer's Guide to AI! Your hosts, Emmalee Crellin and Nathan Guerra, sit down with Millie Marconi — a seasoned entrepreneur who spent nine years growing a marketing agency before founding TestFeed, a VC-backed AI platform that's reimagining how businesses access market research.

Millie breaks down the world of "synthetic audiences" — AI-generated panels built from real human data that make consumer insights accessible to businesses that could never afford traditional research. She walks us through how it works, where it gets it right (and wrong), and why she believes over 70% of market research will be synthetic by 2028.

This episode covers:

 * Democratising Market Research: How TestFeed delivers on-demand synthetic audiences — putting consumer insights within reach for companies of all sizes, not just the big players.
 * Trust & Reliability: How TestFeed uses peer-reviewed "semantic similarity rating" to validate AI panels against real human panels — and course-correct when they diverge.
 * Marketing to AI Agents: Millie's vision for a future where AI agents make purchasing decisions — and why marketers will need to learn how to market directly to machines.

📚 Resources & Links

TestFeed: https://testfeed.ai/

Millie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/millie-maronei-11b22b7a/

Prompt Cowboy: https://www.promptcowboy.com/

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Mind the Model: 013 Millie Marconi 

People First, AI Second — with Catherine Rushton

Episode Overview:

Nathan Guerra and Emmalee Crellin are back to dive into the intersection of human intuition and machine learning. In this episode, they sit down with Catherine Rushton (affectionately known as "Crush"), the Chief Strategy Officer and Partner at ⁠This is Flow⁠ [https://www.thisisflow.com.au/]. Crush shares how her agency uses AI to empower their team and why she believes human intuition remains the ultimate competitive advantage.

The TL;DR

 * The AI Breakup: Both Em and Crush discuss their recent "divorces" from ChatGPT in favour of Claude, citing better tone and writing capabilities — though they note Claude's high token consumption.
 * The "Happy People Project": Rather than a technology-first approach, This is Flow uses a people-first philosophy. They empower junior staff to audit their own workflows and identify "unhappy" manual tasks for AI automation — speeding up the menial so humans can slow down on what matters.

About Our Guest

Catherine Rushton is an award-winning strategist with over 15 years of experience driving high-impact communications for global brands like Dove, Chanel, and Volvo. Now a partner at This is Flow, she focuses on building elite, high-performing teams that can outperform algorithms by leveraging human intuition.

📚 Resources & Links from this Episode

 * Crush's Prompting Tip: "Outsource" your prompting by asking the AI itself to write the best prompt based on your verbalised thoughts. Take your AI for a walk!
 * Speech vs. Typing Efficiency: A Stanford University study found that speech recognition is over 3x faster than typing on mobile keyboards for English users. Level up your dictation game with Wispr Flow:⁠ https://wisprflow.ai/⁠ [https://wisprflow.ai/]
 * Switching to Claude?: Divorcing ChatGPT and flirting with Claude? Import your context and memory from other LLMs here:⁠ https://claude.com/import-memory⁠ [https://claude.com/import-memory]

🎧 Enjoying Mind the Model?

If you liked this episode, follow, rate, and share Mind the Model with your fellow AI-curious friends.  It really helps us grow and keep these conversations going!

💌 Got thoughts or ideas for future episodes?

We'd love to hear from you!

Drop us a message at mindthemodelpod@gmail.com. Your questions and suggestions help shape the conversations we have on the show.

Mind the Model: Ep 012 Catherine Rushton

Hosts: Nathan Guerra & Emmalee Crellin

Guest: Pip Bingemann, Co-Founder and CEO of Springboards.ai

Hosts Nate and Em welcome Pip Bingemann, CEO of Springboards, a company he co-founded with his wife, Amy Tucker, after a 2022 layoff. Initially built to address agency "pitching problems," Springboards evolved with the addition of co-founder Kieran Brown. The company uses AI as an inspiration tool, baking in variation to "inspire the most interesting idea" rather than giving the "most likely answer."

The Meat & Potatoes:

 * Springboards: AI as an Inspiration Engine: The core mission is to inject variation into AI, shifting its role from an "answer generator" to a tool that inspires original ideas, countering the homogeneity of models like ChatGPT.
 * The Future of Agency Billing: Pip advocates moving away from head-hour billing to value- or outcome-based models. The current system misaligns incentives in an AI-accelerated world, with pressure for change possibly coming from traditional sectors like law and finance.
 * Creativity as Pattern-Breaking: Pip defines creativity as "breaking patterns." He questions the capacity of pattern-following AI models to genuinely achieve radical, unpredictable creative input, necessitating architectural changes.

Quote of the Week

"The idea of billing for time in a world of AI doesn't make any sense.” - Pip Bingemann

Mentioned Links & Resources:

 * Anthropic’s Super Bowl ads that takes aim at OpenAI - https://www.thedrum.com/news/claude-s-first-super-bowl-campaign-asks-if-ads-belong-in-ai
 * Springboard’s recent ad that mimics/mocks OpenAI - https://www.bandt.com.au/stop-outsourcing-creativity-to-machines-springboards-highlights-the-peril-of-ai-produced-ads-with-parody-spot/
 * Check out the work of Springboards here - https://springboards.ai/ and their monthly newsletter Sparks - https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7393517069868228608/
 * Mind the Model: Got questions? Email the show at mindthemodelpod@gmail.com
 * Reach out to Pip via his LinkedIn if you’re interested in beta testing their latest version: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pipbingemann/

Mind the Model: Episode 011: Pip Bingemann

Hosts: Nathan Guerra & Emmalee Crellin

Guest: Kiri Masters (Retail Media Breakfast)

Retail media is booming, but are AI shopping bots about to disrupt the entire ecosystem? We brought in the big guns. Kiri Masters is the host of Retail Media Breakfast Club, a daily podcast and newsletter that provides sharp, actionable insights into the fast-evolving retail media landscape. Informed by a decade in the industry, she built the award winning agency Bobsled Marketing before its acquisition in 2022. She writes regular columns for Forbes, The Drum, and WARC, and has been named a Top Retail Expert by RETHINK Retail for four consecutive years.

She drops in fresh from the NRF Big Show in New York City to break down the future of retail media, "agentic shopping," and exactly how brands need to adapt.

Quote of the Week:

"Look at this agentic pathway as a new surface to reach customers."

Mentioned Links & Resources:

 * Check out the current state of AI and frontier model intelligence over time here: https://artificialanalysis.ai/trends#frontier-language-model-intelligence-over-time
 * Google’s recent release for UCP (Universal Commerce Protocol):
 * https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/agentic-commerce-ai-tools-protocol-retailers-platforms/

Find Kiri at:

https://www.retailmediabreakfastclub.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiri-masters/

Mind the Model: Got questions or feedback? Email the show at mindthemodelpod@gmail.com

Mind the Model: Episode 010: Kiri Masters

Season 2, Episode2

Hosts: Nathan Guerra & Emmalee Crellin

Guest: Martin Bertilsson (Founder of AIMSOO)

Is the AI bubble about to burst? Maybe, but it’s not 1999 all over again. In this episode, Nathan and Emmalee sit down with Martin, ex-Google veteran turned AI founder..

From the "devastation" of traditional creative work to the rise of the "AI Butler" who gatekeeps your customers, Martin lays out a future where Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) eats SEO for breakfast. If you aren't optimizing your data for the machines, you’re basically invisible.

The Meat & Potatoes:

 * RIP, SEO. Hello, GEO: Forget clicks. It’s about verifying your data so AI models (the new gatekeepers) trust you enough to serve your answer.
 * The "Butler" Effect: Marketing is no longer about convincing a human; it’s about convincing the AI assistant that summarizes the world for them.
 * Ad-pocalypse Now: Think AI is free forever? Think again. Martin predicts 2026-2027 will be the "golden years" for advertising as ads inevitably flood AI interfaces.

Quote of the Week:

"You must treat AI the way you treat death" — Martin

Mentioned Links & Resources:

 * AMSO: Martin’s startup solving the discovery problem for small businesses. Check out AIMSOO.ai [http://aimsoo.ai/]
 * Check out Martin’s LinkedIn Newsletter: Feed the Machine: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/feed-the-machine-7343126532489388032/
 * Mind the Model: Got questions? Email the show at mindthemodelpod@gmail.com

Mind the Model: Episode 009: Martin Bertilsson

Mind the Model is back, after our Australian Summer break.

This week we’re talking to Adam Goodman.  Adam is the Director of AI in Advertising APAC for Microsoft Advertising, where he is responsible for helping launch new and future advertising experiences.

We caught up with Adam right before Christmas and had a wide ranging discussion.

If you’re after his prompting secret sauce it’s: Context, Outcome, Tone

Get in touch with Adam here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/angoodman/



More info about Microsoft AI:

https://microsoft.ai/

https://copilot.microsoft.com/

https://about.ads.microsoft.com/en

Mind the Model: Episode 008: Adam Goodman

📚 Resources & Links from this Episode

Book Natalia recommended

 * The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
   Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/Creative-Act-Way-Being/dp/1838858660
   
   

Follow Natalia & the Creative Brain Club

 * Creative Brain Club on Substack: https://creativebrainclub.substack.com/
   
   

Connect with Natalia

 * Email: hello@natalkadesign.com
 * Website: https://www.natalkadesign.com/
 * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliatalkowska/

🎧 Enjoying Mind the Model?

If you liked this episode, follow, rate, and share Mind the Model with your fellow AI-curious friends — it really helps us grow and keep these conversations going!

💌 Got thoughts or ideas for future episodes?

We’d love to hear from you!
Drop us a message at mindthemodelpod@gmail.com — your questions and suggestions help shape the conversations we have on the show.

Mind the Model: Episode 007: Natalia Talkowska

Emmalee Crellin (@mindthemodelpod) · Zencastr

Emmalee Crellin (@mindthemodelpod)

Buckle up! "Mind the Model: The Modern Marketer's Guide to AI" is here to cut through the BS and provide insight into how advertising and marketing teams are really using AI. Join Emmalee Crellin and Nathan Guerra, two seasoned advertising pros based in sunny Sydney, as they empower you to confidently integrate AI into your daily work.

Each episode, Em and Nate, along with a special guest—from CMOs and agency leaders to consultants and "aifluencers"—will demystify what's happening in AI. You'll get practical, real-world applications and specific "how-to" insights to immediately start using AI in your work, understanding their concerns, wins, failures, and top tips. We translate the complex world of AI into immediate, day-to-day applications, helping you confidently get started and 'do more' with AI, regardless of your current expertise.

Learn in an engaging and accessible format, exploring how to use AI to get better at your job, and confidently accelerate your journey with it. Send your questions or ideas for future guests to mindthemodelpod@gmail.com.

Mind the Model: The Modern Marketer’s Guide to AI