First, what I don’t use it for:
Creating my paid products. With the exception of writing fake filler copy for my Squarespace templates, I haven’t used AI to create my courses or templates. That work feels sacred to me. As a designer and educator, I sell my expertise and creativity—and that’s mine, not something that can be manufactured by a robot.
At most, I’ll use AI to give feedback on something I’ve already created, or to help me build tools that make implementation easier for my students and customers. But that’s where I draw the line.
Where I do use AI: writing and editing free content. And I use it in two different ways, depending on the day.
👉 When I write first
I draft the messy, long-winded version of a newsletter, then feed it into ChatGPT. It helps refine word choice, cadence, and readability—cutting my editing time in half.
👉 When the robot writes first
If I’m short on time (like right now), I’ll give ChatGPT a detailed outline: the topic, the points I want to hit, even some phrases I want included. Then it spits out a rough draft for me to refine and make my own. Basically, the opposite of the first approach.
And because I’ve trained a custom GPT on a bunch of my past newsletters, it’s gotten pretty good at sounding like me—though it still takes real effort to arrive at the final version.
Just for fun (and transparency), I even asked ChatGPT to compare its rough draft of this newsletter to my final draft. The result? The two versions are only 6% alike!
Outside of newsletters, I also use ChatGPT for things like brainstorming ideas, editing videos, asking for feedback, mapping out future business plans. It’s especially handy when you don’t have another person to bounce things off of.
But here's the bottom line:
- You get to decide what’s sacred and keep that human.
- You don’t have to reject AI outright to keep your work authentic and grounded in your own creativity.
- And using AI for the “grunt work” parts of writing doesn’t erase your voice—it actually frees you up to use it more.
