“Why are you doing this?” — Fearful Freddy
“It’s a waste of time!” — Nasty Negative Nelly
“Stay in your lane!” — Cynical Cedric
(That’s the chickens talking.)
It started as a joke.
Could I make my puppy talk using AI?
I know that sounds obvious. But every time I post a Talking Darcy video on YouTube, I get comments that just say “AI.” So apparently it’s not as obvious as we think.
Also, if I put out a talking parrot, expectations would probably be different.
So I took a picture of our pup, Darcy, and used HeyGen to animate it with a few cute lines.
I sent it to friends.
They loved it.
I sent it to clients.
They loved it.
That’s when I said to myself, “Self… you might be onto something.”
So I went to Suno and created a Darcy theme song.
She sang it beautifully.
That opened the floodgates.
What if I leaned into this?
Darcy dad jokes. Short videos.
YouTube. Facebook. TikTok. You know the drill.
Fast-forward: 100,000+ views later, I learned a few things.
1. The right story gets attention
Every story starts with a hook. The highest-performing videos grabbed attention immediately.
Keynotes work the same way.
If you want people to listen, you have to earn it—fast.
2. Cuteness sells
This isn’t groundbreaking insight. But it’s a reminder.
Emotion opens the door before logic gets a say.
3. If I’m having fun, the audience is having fun
Making talking dog videos is fun.
Finding the right AI tool is fun.
Tweaking timing, tone, and delivery until it’s just right is fun.
And that energy shows up on the other side of the screen.
AI is absolutely a topic.
I sell the hell out of it.
It’s also a tool I use constantly.
The biggest lesson:
Every time the chickens tell me I’m a keynote speaker, it’s a limitation. I’m not in the speaking business. I’m in the communication business. I’m in the business of helping humans any way I can.
That communication can take a lot of forms.
Stories. Slides. Songs.
And sometimes… a talking dog.
Turns out, the fastest way to fry a chicken is to try it and see what happens.
In this case, what happened was a talking dog.