Dan let AI write his LinkedIn. His own verdict: "really noticeable and subsequently inauthentic." Then we did it properly. Dan runs his own business. His LinkedIn had been neglected for years, so he did the sensible-sounding thing and got AI to write it in bulk. Fast, cheap, consistent. It worked, in the way a fire alarm works. People noticed. For the wrong reason. His words: "AI written copy is really noticeable and subsequently inauthentic, even if you try to be clever." So we started again, the proper way round. One long conversation. His background, his goals, what he actually wanted the profile to do. Then a plan he could see the reasoning behind, line by line, before anything went live. First drafts landed within days, every post explained. Suggested images, specific points to check, nothing published without his say so. He stayed involved. The legwork stayed mine. The result, in his words again: LinkedIn re-ignited. The traction he wanted. New business leads. A consistency of posting "which has the human element that my AI attempts clearly lacked." The human element. That was the whole job. AI gave him volume. It couldn't give him himself. If your content's gone quiet, or AI made it louder but emptier, my door's open.

Scrolled past five posts yesterday. Couldn't tell you who wrote any of them. Not slop tbh. Just nothingness. Tried every model and method going for content creation myself. A long and frustrating Sunday night ended it for me. I spent that much time finessing and re-prompting that it'd have taken a quarter of the time to write it from scratch. Posts start looking identical when the same tools are doing the thinking. The algo doesn't know, but reply counts do. The founders who'll win in the next 12 months are the ones whose voice is recognisable even if you blanked out their handle and profile pic. Your voice existed before you opened ChatGPT. The question is whether you're still using it.

Completely knackered but sleep never feeling further away. Dark autumn night, waiting for the church bells to tell me the phone alarm's an hour closer. Skipped a night of outreach. Chose The Sopranos over the ghostwriting business I'm building in my evenings. Then the guilt kept me awake til 2am. Longer than the outreach would've taken. No one checked whether I did it. No one cared that I didn't. But that's the deal when you're building solo. I knew exactly what needed doing. I've got the tracker and put the hours aside. The shortfall wasn't the process.

Often it’s the prospect who thinks they can do a passable job themselves. Competition isn’t always people doing a similar thing for a different rate. There’s always something more urgent. Doing nothing is free. Doing something costs. When I started I thought I might write a few posts and my inbox would eventually be flooded with clients throwing money at me. Not so. Turns out I need to actually approach them first 😱 And it took me too long to figure it out. So I’m a year in and not where I want to be yet. Cos silence has a price. A lack of compounding. You might not feel the cost. Your pipeline will.

People don’t think ‘that’s AI’, they think ‘I used to like this person’s posts’. Badly-communicated great ideas are a waste. The fantastic product with no distro? Pointless. The great post idea hidden behind a wall of triple beats, not x but y and random Tuesday? Wasted. “We'd been running the same link building playbook for six months. But here's where it gets interesting: the client's organic traffic started climbing from pages we hadn't even touched.” Nobody calls it out, they just stop reading.

“Will it still sound like me?” It’s always the fear. Not ‘will it perform’ or ‘will I get ROI’. The thought of handing over something so personal is tough. But imo there’s a bigger fear underneath. “Do I even have a voice anyway?” And yeah, you do. It just probably isn’t the one you’ve been using to post with.

I ummed and ahhed my way out of the call and got back to the car as quick as I could. Just like an interview, you can’t make a sale within the first ten seconds, but you can definitely lose it. I’ve tried all the (ethical) sales tactics in the world, but if you’re a burden on a prospect’s time or don’t listen, you won’t get far. Ditto content. The scroll is rejection, it just hurts less. Early on in my career I couldn’t wait to get the pitch out. I remember visiting one prospect and as usual went straight into all the best things about my company for five minutes, barely taking a breath. Once I’d finished, the prospect went silent for the longest five seconds of all time then said ‘so what does all that matter to me?’ I’d not asked him anything about him, his business, or what might be important to him. I’d done all the sales training and thought I was following it to a tee. And I’d failed. Dismally. Over and over. That guy taught me a lot with that question.

Two hours a night come rain or shine. Lot of rain last week. Full of cold, dark English afternoons creeping up, but time off isn’t an option. I’m not a discipline bro but who else is gonna move things forward? There’s no award for taking a couple of nights off and there isn’t one for battling on either. But everybody who gets anywhere does it and it’s the opposite of mountain view-cigar-and-Lambo flex. Habits form quickly and nights off isn’t one I wanna get into any more.

“It still sounded like me, just a better version of me.” One of my favourite lines from a client. Nothing gets added, just clarity. It’s extraction more than writing. The voice that gets used for posting might not be the best version of it. Keeping that voice buried keeps you safe, corporate-approved and completely anonymous. The real voice that runs through DM’s and calls is the one that needs turning up.

You tried using AI for content and it felt lazy and unoriginal, but you posted it anyway cos algo. You’ve seen others do it and weren’t impressed. You did it anyway. It doesn’t get called out that much. Instead, people slowly stop engaging. Or people think if they feed it enough good stuff it’ll turn out bangers (trust me, I’ve tried). Buyers might not unfollow, but they will stop trusting you.

My guys! Grateful to you all 🤜🤛 Here’s to another great week ↗️↗️↗️ @OnatAksaray @WillStrategist @jamiejreach