I used to hate AI.

I thought it was all hype.

But it turns out, I was just a terrible prompt writer.

So, I spent 3,000+ hours inside ChatGPT, Claude, etc.

Here are 5 ways I use AI to write high-quality content (with the exact prompts):

1. Make AI your personal idea generator.

I turned my “Endless Idea Generator” framework into a prompt:

• Step 1: Take the “2-Year Test” to identify core topics.

• Step 2: Add specificity to match your credibility.

• Step 3: Use the “4A Framework” to generate proven content ideas

Here’s the full Endless Idea Generator prompt (it’s a “mega-prompt” for a reason!):

Read more

Going viral isn’t an accident.

Most people believe they need to have profound ideas to generate attention online. They never start publishing content, fearing they have nothing of value to say.

But what they don’t realize:

In the past 10 years, I’ve accumulated over 1 billion views across the Internet with our writing — and in the process, I’ve created a repeatable system for going viral.

The best part?

It only takes 4 steps.

Step #1: Make a lot of noise.

You can’t go viral if you don’t publish.

The aspiring digital writer gets stuck in an endless cycle of procrastination. They spend hours researching and think that once they know “enough” — they’ll finally have ideas worth sharing. But the truth is, it doesn’t matter if YOU think your writing is interesting.

It’s always about the reader — and the only way to learn what resonates with them is by posting (a lot) and making noise.

Now, before you just start throwing things at the wall, here’s some things to keep in mind:

• Don’t wait for perfection. Instead, post even when you think it’s not “ready” or “interesting enough.” At this stage, volume wins so we can learn and iterate at a rapid pace.

• Keep posting consistently. Every time you publish, your writing improves. And the more often you post, the more noise you create (which we need for Step #2).

• Experiment with different content types. Find a long-form X thread or LinkedIn post framework you like? Try it yourself, but with a new idea. Find a tweet you like? Expand it into a thread. Find a great hook? You get the idea.

But just posting a lot isn’t enough — you also need to:

Step #2: Listen for signal.

Something interesting happens when you make a lot of noise:

Patterns emerge.

But most writers never notice them because they’re paying attention to the wrong things. They look at total growth instead of percentage. For example, when you look at one post with 10 likes and another has 15. Your first impression is that it seems pretty small — so the signal gets overlooked.

When in reality, there’s a 50% difference in performance between these 2 posts.

And when you reframe things this way, you should start to ask yourself questions like:

• “Did this resonate because of the topic?”

• “Was the framework that I used here interesting?”

• “Did people like this because it was a short, easy explanation?”

And once you hear the signal, it’s time to:

Step #3: Double-down on proven data points.

Because one breakout piece isn’t proof — it’s a theory.

But most people don’t know how to turn a one-off success into a repeatable framework. They take their post and try to recreate it exactly — hoping to capture the same magic. Instead, you should be testing individual elements to see what resonates.

For example, here’s a few ways you can double-down on proven data points:

• Turn a tweet into a thread to test the topic.

• Use a format with a new idea to test the structure.

• Repeat an opening sentence with a new angle to test the hook.

Note: Proven data points don’t have to be yours.

Every viral post in your niche is a data point someone else has already validated. The attention is already there. Which means one of the fastest ways to double-down is to skyscraper on top of someone else’s viral post — quote-tweet it with a hot take, a reframe, a “people forget” callback, or a personal receipt that pushes their point further.

And right now, the X algorithm rewards this.

Here’s a prompt to give it a try:

Read more

I’m sure you saw, but Anthropic/Claude recently announced they will be placing an invisible watermark inside everything you create using their platform.

Uh-oh:

We are going to be talking a lot about the implications of Watermarking in our next Start Writing Online 5-Day Sprint—and how to get around it.

*We kickoff Monday, August 31st. If you want to join us, click here.

But we’ve been getting so many questions about Watermarking, that we thought it would be helpful to share a few of our perspectives here with you (in case this is something you’re worrying about).

High-level, a few things to keep in mind:

1. The Problem/Solution Cycle is infinite.

New problems require new solutions. But new solutions also create new problems.

Back in 2022, the world had a problem called: “Every single business owner on the planet wants to create more text-based content, wants to build an organic audience, wants to build a personal brand, etc., but doesn’t have the time, skill, or budget to do so.”

Then, in 2023, ChatGPT came out. All of a sudden, that problem didn’t exist anymore! With AI, anyone can now create as much text-based content as they want, essentially for free.

Which created a new problem—now in 2026, text-based content is a commodity. Everyone can create it. AI Slop is everywhere. The barrier to entry went to zero, allowing exponentially more people to create “good content.” It’s not great. It’s not exceptional. But for the vast majority of people, it’s “good enough.”

Which requires a new solution! If you have infinite text-based content, where do we go from here? Well, we need a way to start identifying what was machine-made vs human-made. Watermarking seems to be the first proposed solution here.

The point is… the Problem/Solution cycle is infinite.

As soon as Anthropic/Claude announced Watermarking, we saw a dozen startups get launched overnight selling “AI Watermarking Removal.”

New problems require new solutions, which create new problems.

So this is not “the end.” This is just the beginning.

2. Watermarking punishes brain-dead writers, and rewards writers who “write with AI” correctly.

As soon as Anthropic/Claude announced Watermarking… we were happy!

Because we almost never copy/paste outputs directly from Claude, or any AI platform.

Instead, we use AI for:

• High-level brainstorming

• Conversation & feedback

• And low-leverage content remixing

The most effective way of writing with AI is NOT to have AI write for you.

(This email you’re reading right now was written 100% with human hands!)

The best use-case for AI in terms of writing is for YOU to write net-new things on a consistent basis, and then use AI to do all the low-leverage manual labor to squeeze as much juice out of the content you write as possible.

• Ask AI to pull Tweets from the long-form piece you wrote
  ​

• Ask AI to expand sections with more examples—to turn a medium-length piece into a long-form piece
  ​

• If you’re really advanced, you can train an Agent to cross-post content on your behalf across multiple platforms
  ​

• Etc.

What Watermarking does is punish people who use this powerful new technology in the laziest way possible.

Yes, if your prompt is, “Write me a newsletter,” and then you just copy/paste whatever output Claude gives you… you SHOULD get Watermarked!

So we view this as a massive positive, and a step in the right direction in terms of rewarding the people who use AI effectively (and still use their brains), while punishing the people who choose to defer all of their thinking and brain activity to a machine (like they do in WALL-E).

3. For the vast majority of writing-related use cases, Watermarking has 0 impact.

All of that said, for most people the Watermarking inside Claude doesn’t have any implications.

• You posting AI-written or AI-assisted content on LinkedIn? 0 implications.
  ​

• You posting AI-written or AI-assisted Tweets on X? 0 implications.
  ​

• You publishing AI-written or AI-assisted newsletters to your email list? 0 implications.

These are all free publishing platforms, and since it’s “your content,” you own it.

Nothing to worry about.

Where there ARE implications (and this is something we’re thinking about a lot) is when you use AI to create products—especially things like books, art, etc.

For example, let’s pretend you write the next-great Fantasy series. Like the next Harry Potter, but even better. You self-publish it. It goes viral. Readers love it. And a big publisher decides it’s time to bring you up to the big leagues, and offers to buy your series for $11 million.

…until they find out 50% of your series was written using Claude, and has Watermarks all over it.

Uh-oh.

This is a good example of where deferring too much to technology can come back to bite you later. We believe industries like book publishing, for example, will be very slow to adopt these new technologies—and may even rotate in the opposite direction, requiring some sort of proof your book was written without AI.

We’re not sure yet.

The point is: Watermarking is the beginning of a new era.

And that means you need to learn the right ways, and the wrong ways of writing with AI—and being very intentional about what types of things you allow yourself to use Claude to write, and which things you’re better off writing yourself.

​Come join us for the 5-Day Start Writing Online Sprint​

We’ll help you.​

Chat soon,

Dickie & Cole

Co-Founders of:

• Write With AI

• Ship 30 For 30

• Premium Ghostwriting Academy

• Typeshare

• Ghostbase

PS... When you join before Friday, August 21 @ 11:59 PM, you’ll lock in $50 off the Start Writing Online Sprint.​

Just use code EARLY50 at checkout.

If you’ve been meaning to start writing online, this is a little extra nudge to stop putting it off and actually get started.

You’ll save $50, join us for the Sprint, and start building the habit, skills, and momentum to get your writing out into the world.

​Join before Friday at 11:59 PM and use code EARLY50 to save $50.

Everyone wants to focus on the fun parts of running a writing business.

• Closing a client.

• Writing the weekly newsletter.

• Coming up with a new big marketing idea.

But the moment you start treating writing like a business, you inherit a long list of less exciting responsibilities:

• Confirming meetings

• Following up with leads

• Updating your CRM

• Requesting missing files

• Preparing for client calls

• Sending post-call recaps

• Remembering who needs what by when

None of these tasks are particularly difficult.

But there are a lot of them.

When you are trying to write, sell, deliver client work, and run the business at the same time, the small tasks start piling up.

One by one, your daily tasks don’t seem like much of a problem.

• A follow-up email takes 5 minutes.

• Updating the CRM takes another 3 minutes.

• Writing a post-call recap takes 10 minutes.

No big deal, right?

But multiply them across 10 prospects, 5 clients, and an entire week, and suddenly you’ve lost hours to administrative work.

This is where AI automation becomes valuable. Not because these tasks require some sort of superhuman intelligence. But because they happen repeatedly.

Here are 3 simple AI automations for your writing business that will help you save time and get more clients:

Automation #1: Follow Up With Every Lead

This is the money-maker.

Because the easiest way to lose a prospect is to assume they will remember to follow up with you.

They won’t.

They have meetings.

They have deadlines.

They have 100 unread emails.

Even if they liked your offer, your conversation will slowly get buried under everything else happening in their business.

So, you need a system that remembers for you.

Our head of sales, Tristan, uses AI to help send personalized emails after sales calls.

Instead of finishing a call, opening a blank email, reviewing his notes, remembering what the prospect said, and writing a recap from scratch, AI can help turn the call into:

• A short summary

• The prospect’s main problem

• The solution discussed

• Any questions still unanswered

• The agreed-upon next step

• A personalized follow-up email

This saves him roughly 10 minutes per call.

More importantly, it ensures every prospect receives a fast, specific follow-up while the conversation is still fresh.

You could give ChatGPT Work this assignment:

Review the transcript and notes from my latest sales call.

Identify the prospect’s main problem, desired outcome, objections, and agreed-upon next step.

Draft a short follow-up email that summarizes the conversation and makes the next action clear.

Do not send the email. Give me the draft to approve first.

Then, create a second workflow that checks whether the person replied.

If they haven’t, ChatGPT Work can prepare another follow-up for you to review 3 or 5 days later.

No lead quietly disappears because you forgot to check in.

Automation #2: Confirm Every Client Meeting

This is the trust-builder.

Clients should never have to wonder:

• Are we still meeting tomorrow?

• What are we discussing?

• Do I need to prepare anything?

• Where is the meeting link?

A simple confirmation answers all four questions.

Tristan uses AI to proactively confirm meetings, remind prospects what the conversation will cover, and make sure they have everything they need before the call.

You could create a workflow that reviews tomorrow’s calendar and prepares a confirmation for every relevant meeting.

For example:

Review my calendar for tomorrow.

For every prospect or client meeting, prepare a short confirmation email that includes:

- The meeting time

- The meeting link

- The purpose of the call

- Any files or information they should prepare

- Any unfinished action items from our last conversation

Use the previous email thread and meeting notes to personalize each message.

Do not send anything until I approve it.

This seems like a small detail.

But reliability is built out of small details. The writer who confirms the meeting, remembers the last conversation, and arrives prepared feels easier to work with.

And clients keep working with people who make their lives easier.

Automation #3: Turn Loose Ends Into Tasks

This is the workflow streamliner.

Every writing project produces loose ends:

• The client still owes you a source file

• A prospect missed a call

• Feedback hasn’t arrived

• A draft needs approval

• A deadline moved

• Someone promised to make an introduction

• A question was raised but never answered

The danger is that these loose ends are scattered across email threads, meeting transcripts, Slack messages, and your own notes.

Unless you deliberately turn them into tasks, they get forgotten.

So, you could ask ChatGPT Work to review your client activity and create a list of anything that requires action:

Review my recent client emails, meeting notes, and project records.

Identify every unfinished commitment, unanswered question, missing document, approaching deadline, and overdue follow-up.

For each one, create a task with:

- The client or prospect

- The required action

- The owner

- The due date

- The source where you found it

- The consequence of leaving it unfinished

​Show me the task list before adding or changing anything in my project-management system.

Now, instead of relying on memory, you have a system that looks for unfinished work.

AI Automation Is Not Just For Technical People

You do not need to become a programmer.

You need to understand three things:

1. What event should start the workflow?

2. What information does the AI need?

3. What finished action or draft should it produce?

That’s it.

The goal is to remove the repeated administrative work that keeps pulling you away from it (not remove yourself from the business).

Because writing might be the craft.

But following up, staying organized, and doing what you promised is how you build a profitable writing business.

That’s all for today.

Chat soon,

Dickie & Cole

Co-Founders of:

• Write With AI

• Ship 30 For 30

• Premium Ghostwriting Academy

• Typeshare

• Ghostbase

PS...Inside our ChatGPT Work For Writing Businesses bootcamp, we’re going to help you automate the boring work in your business….so you can make more money.

You’ll build systems for:

• Lead generation

• Outreach

• Sales follow-up

• Client onboarding

• Client management

And more!

We’ll do everything live together over Zoom in two weeks.

​Click here to join 30+ others already inside the ChatGPT Work Bootcamp

Over the past several months, almost everything we’ve taught about AI has centered around Claude.

And for good reason.

Claude Cowork was the first tool that showed us what happens when AI stops acting like a chatbot and starts acting more like a coworker.

Instead of asking Claude to complete one tiny task at a time, you could give Cowork an entire project:

• Research a market

• Analyze hundreds of customer reviews

• Build a lead magnet

• Create a marketing campaign

• Organize all the finished files

We’ve now helped hundreds of people build these sorts of workflows inside Claude Cowork.

But recently, we started experimenting with ChatGPT again.

OpenAI just released ChatGPT Work, an agent that can work across your apps and files, complete multi-step projects, and turn a goal into finished documents, spreadsheets, reports, and other deliverables.

And after spending some time with it, we realized something:

The most interesting use of ChatGPT Work for writers might have very little to do with writing.

Let me explain.

Writing Is Only One Part Of A Writing Business

When writers open ChatGPT, they usually ask it to help them:

• Brainstorm ideas

• Write headlines

• Outline an article

• Draft a newsletter

• Rewrite a paragraph

• Repurpose a post

These are all perfectly good uses of AI.

But if you run a writing business, writing is only one part of your job.

You also need to:

• Find prospective clients

• Research their businesses

• Figure out what they need

• Personalize your outreach

• Follow up with leads

• Prepare for sales calls

• Onboard new clients

• Keep track of deadlines

• Manage client feedback

• Look for additional work

And for many writers, these are the parts of the business that get ignored.

You know you should send more outreach. You know you should follow up with old leads. You know there are probably companies out there that desperately need the service you provide.

But researching them one at a time takes hours.

So you keep writing.

And you hope someone finds you.

Where ChatGPT Work gets interesting

OpenAI is already positioning Work for sales tasks like researching accounts, deciding who to contact, identifying why now is the right time, preparing outreach, and recommending the next action.

Which means you can give it a much larger assignment than:

“Give me 25 companies I can pitch.”

That prompt will probably give you 25 companies.

But they won’t necessarily be good leads.

There is a difference between a company that could hire you and a company that is showing evidence it might need you right now.

How To Find 25 Prospects Who Need Your Writing Services

The easiest way to build a bad prospect list is to start with companies.

The better approach is to start with buying signals.

For example, imagine you sell executive ghostwriting services.

Which person is more likely to hire you?

• Prospect A: A random CEO with a large company.

• Prospect B: A CEO who just launched a podcast, started posting on LinkedIn, and is currently hiring a Head of Content.

Prospect A has money.

Prospect B has money and evidence of intent.

They are already investing in content. They are already trying to build an audience. They are already spending money to solve the problem you solve.

That does not guarantee they will hire you.

But it gives you a real reason to start the conversation.

So instead of asking ChatGPT Work to find companies, ask it to find evidence.

Here is the full assignment:

ChatGPT Work Lead Generation Prompt

Help me find 25 qualified prospects for my writing business.

Here is my ideal client:​

Type of client: [DESCRIBE THE CLIENT] Service I sell: [DESCRIBE THE SERVICE] Typical price: [PRICE] Geography: [LOCATION OR ANYWHERE] Company size: [SIZE] Industries: [INDUSTRIES] Clients I do not want: [EXCLUSIONS]

Research public sources and look for prospects showing a recent signal that they may need this service.

Useful signals might include:

1/ Recently launched a product, book, newsletter, or podcastPublishing frequently but inconsistentlyHiring writers, editors, content marketers, or ghostwriters
​
2/ Recently raised moneyExpanded into a new marketStarted posting regularly from an executive account
​
3/ Has valuable expertise but little long-form content
​
4/ Has an outdated or inactive newsletterIs already investing in content or audience growth

For every prospect, provide:​

1/ Person

2/ Company

3/ Role

4/ Website

5/ The specific buying signal you found

6/ The date of the signal

7/ A link to the original source

8/ Why this prospect fits my service

9/ A personalized outreach angle

10/ The best public contact path

11/ A qualification score from 1–10

12/ A short explanation of the score

Do not guess facts, contact information, or email addresses.

Exclude any prospect unless you can provide evidence supporting the recommendation.

Create a spreadsheet containing all 25 prospects.

Before drafting any outreach, show me the 5 strongest prospects and explain why you ranked them highest.

ChatGPT Work can create and edit spreadsheets directly, including native Google Sheets when the relevant Google Workspace app is enabled.

So instead of getting a giant wall of text, you should end up with a working prospect sheet you can sort, review, and improve.

But Don’t Stop At The First List

AI is very good at giving you something that looks finished.

That doesn’t mean the work is finished.

Once ChatGPT Work gives you the prospect list, run one more prompt:

Critique this prospect list.

Identify any leads that appear impressive but do not show a strong reason to buy now.​

Replace weak prospects with companies showing clearer urgency, stronger fit, or a more recent buying signal.

Do not prioritize a famous company simply because it is famous.

Prioritize evidence that the prospect has the problem I solve and is actively trying to solve it.

This forces Work to question its own recommendations.

Because the goal is not to build the longest possible list.

The goal is to find the smallest number of prospects with the clearest reason to talk to you.

This Is The Bigger Opportunity With ChatGPT Work

Finding leads is only the beginning.

Once you have your prospect sheet, ChatGPT Work can help you:

• Research each person

• Find a personal reason to contact them

• Match the right service to their current problem

• Prepare your outreach

• Create a follow-up sequence

• Get ready for the sales call

• Organize your notes afterward

• Track the next action

• Onboard the client if they say yes

That is the part of ChatGPT Work we are most interested in exploring.

Which is why we’re putting together a new live bootcamp:

ChatGPT Work For Writing Businesses

Over two weeks and six live sessions, we’re going to build practical ChatGPT Work systems for:

• Lead generation

• Prospect research

• Personalized outreach

• Sales follow-up

• Client onboarding

• Client management

We are still early with these tools.

And just like Claude Cowork, the people who benefit first will be the ones willing to move beyond the obvious chat box and figure out what the tool can actually do.

​Click here to hop on the waitlist (and be the first to know when the doors are open).​

Chat soon,

Dickie & Cole

Co-Founders of:

• Write With AI

• Ship 30 For 30

• Premium Ghostwriting Academy

• Typeshare

• Ghostbase

PS…We built this workflow natively inside Ghostbase (and in the bootcamp, we’ll show you how you can do this with ChatGPT Work).

But if you want a sneak peek of what this looks like or you just want to give Ghostbase a try, then check out the video below.

Hey, Shlomo here.

Let’s be real. Most people HATE ads.

Because most ads talk to them like they’re dumb.

But these 9 timeless copywriting techniques help me write ad copy that can make even the worst ad haters smile...

Let’s dive in (don’t miss the master prompt at the end):

1. Self-Deprecation

Admit your flaws to make your brand more relatable.

2. Understatement

Find your biggest advantage. Say it like it’s not a big deal.

3. Downsides

When your product benefit creates a new problem.

4. Reverse World

Swap words and expectations to hook readers and make a point.

Subscribe now

5. Self-Aware Ads

Break the 4th wall, and admit it’s an ad to disarm skeptics.

6. Chuck Norris

Exaggerate the benefit until it becomes a funny scene.

7. Tricky Threes

Two things establish a pattern. The third one breaks it. Surprise.

8. Reverse Psychology

Tell readers not to do what you want them to do or vice versa.

9. Slap ‘N Hug

Start with something negative, then flip it into a positive.

Subscribe now

Master prompt

Run this prompt to try all these techniques at once:

✂️ Paste this aI prompt into Claude or ChatGPT

Context [AI, don’t run before user fills in]

My website: {e.g., clickup.com}
My promise: {e.g., keep all your team’s projects and communication in one place}
Pain point I solve: {e.g., work scattered across email, chat, and a dozen tools}

––––––––––––

Task:

Write 18 ad headlines using the 9 techniques below, two per technique. Label each headline with its technique. Headlines only, no explanations.

––––––––––––

Self-Aware Ads: break the fourth wall and admit it’s an ad to disarm ad-haters. Example: Superside: “We’re too busy designing for the top tech companies to care about our billboards.”

Chuck Norris: exaggerate the benefit until it becomes a funny, over-the-top scene. Example: Bai: “Flavor so juicy you could sell it to a tabloid.”

Tricky Threes: list two normal things to set a pattern, then break it with a surprising third. Example: Bumble: “Tall, dark, and actually reads that book you recommend.”

Reverse Psychology: tell readers not to do what you want them to do (or vice versa). Example: Wathan Funeral Home: “Text and drive.”

Slap ‘N Hug: open with something negative, then flip it into a positive. Example: Nike: “Some people take tennis too seriously. We make shoes for them.”

Self-Deprecation: admit your own flaws or weaknesses with confidence to make the brand more relatable. Example: Buckley’s: “It tastes awful. And it works.”

Understatement: take your biggest advantage and say it like it’s no big deal. Example: Uber One: “A membership for people who eat food and go places.”

Downsides: joke about an absurd new problem caused by the product working too well. Example: Franklin Park Zoo: “7 Acres. 300 Birds. Wear A Hat.”

Reverse World: swap words and expectations around to hook readers and make a point. Example: Evita Anti-Aging Balm: “Tock Tick.”

––––––––––––

Go!

You made it!

These 9 techniques come from my complete library of 63 timeless copywriting techniques at CopyTemplates.com.

And as a Write With AI subscribers you get 30% off with code WWAI30.

Click here to get all 63 copywriting techniques

That’s it!

—Shlomo

Have you seen these headlines?

• “AI is making us dumber.”

• “ChatGPT is rotting your brain.”

• “A new study shows people who use AI can’t think for themselves anymore.”

They aren’t completely wrong.

Because if you use AI the way most people do, it absolutely will make you dumber. But that’s not AI’s fault. That’s a user error.

So today, we want to show you the 3 prompts we use to flip AI from a crutch into a thinking partner—the kind that sharpens your ideas instead of rubber-stamping them.

Let’s dive in.

First, here’s why AI makes most people dumber.

Two reasons.

• Reason #1: AI is a sycophant by default. It is literally trained to keep you chatting. Which means it’s going to agree with you, praise your ideas, and tell you your half-baked business idea is “brilliant”—even when it’s Uber for dogs.

• Reason #2: AI has a bias toward the shiny new thing. Researchers tested AI business consultants across dozens of companies and found the same pattern: when given a choice between “improve the old thing” or “chase the new thing,” AI almost always picks the new thing.

So if you use AI as a yes-machine, here’s what happens:

• You pitch an idea → it tells you it’s genius.

• You ask for strategy → it tells you to chase the shiny thing.

• You ask “am I right?” → you’re absolutely right.

That’s not thinking. That’s a mirror with a vocabulary.

The fix is to force AI to disagree with you, get specific for you, and argue against you.

Which is exactly what these 3 prompts do.

By the way, we use versions of all three prompts inside Ghostbase. They help writers pressure-test their ideas, catch weak arguments, and make the thinking stronger before Ghostbase ever touches the writing.

Read more

Hey there!

The biggest mistake writers make with AI is thinking voice is universal.

• They build one giant voice.md file

• They dump every rule, every example, every framework into a single project.

• They open one chat and use it for newsletters, LinkedIn posts, YouTube scripts, sales emails, and everything in between.

And then they wonder why the output keeps getting worse.

After writing thousands of pieces with AI across newsletters, social content, books, and marketing materials, I can tell you the problem is almost never your prompt. The problem is how you’ve organized your workspace.

So today, I’m going to share the 3 rules I use to get consistent, on-voice output from AI every single time.

Let’s walk through each one.

Rule 1: Isolate one thread per content type.

Voice isn’t universal—it changes by format.

The way you write a newsletter is different from how you write a short-form post, which is different from how you write a YouTube script.

When you try to cram all of those rules into one thread, the AI is essentially juggling multiple rulebooks at once. Which means the output gets less consistent, less sharp, and more generic over time.

Instead, dedicate one thread (or project, or chat) to one content type. One thread for newsletters. One thread for short-form social. One thread for marketing materials. One thread for YouTube scripts.

Why?

Because AI performs dramatically better when the rules are narrow and specific. When you say, “All we’re doing here is writing this specific type of thing, and these are the rules for writing this specific type of thing,” the model can actually stay in its lane. The output gets sharper, more consistent, and closer to your actual voice.

The moment you start mixing formats in the same thread, you’re asking the AI to hold conflicting rules in its head. And that’s when the writing starts drifting toward the generic middle.

Rule 2: Even within the same format, know when to start a new thread.

Let’s say you’re writing newsletters, and you spend a month writing a bunch of really strong, opinion-based newsletters in one thread.

They’re all bold takes. Personality-forward. Punchy.

Then one day, you decide you want to write a newsletter that’s more fact-driven and data-based. Same format (newsletter), but a completely different style.

Even though these are both newsletters, the rules are different.

The rhythm is different. The tone is different. And if you try to write that data-driven piece in the same thread as your opinion-based ones, the AI is going to smuggle in the personality from the earlier writing—because that’s the pattern it just learned.

Here’s my rule:

If the style of what you’re writing changes significantly (even within the same format), open a new thread.

Yes, it’s more work. But the output will be worth it.

Rule 3: Set up a context hub to solve the “AI forgets” problem.

Unfortunately, AI doesn’t have a great memory.

You spend hours uploading documents, explaining your target reader, sharing your voice guidelines, walking through your niche... and then a week later, you open a new chat and have to do it all over again.

The workaround is a Notion or project hub.

For example:

Build one central Notion page for your business that includes:

• A full write-up of your target customer (who they are, what they care about, what they’re struggling with).

• Your positioning and niche (what you write about and why).

• Your voice guidelines (voice DNA, editing rules, examples of your best work).

• Your content principles (educational vs. opinion, formats you use, formats you don’t).

• Any proprietary frameworks or language you’ve developed.

Then every time you start a new chat for a specific content type, you link that chat to the Notion hub. The AI reads the hub, absorbs the context, and then you tell it what specific thing you’re writing today.

Think of the Notion hub as your persistent brain. The individual chats are your working memory. You separate them so neither has to do the other’s job.

You open a new chat, say something like, “Hey, we’re writing newsletters today. Here’s the Notion hub with all of my context: [link]. Read through it, then we’ll get started.”

The AI goes and reads it, and now you’re operating with full context.

From there, you can write as many newsletters as you want in that thread—as long as they follow the same style rules. When those rules change, start a new chat and repeat.

Digital Writer’s Voice Lab

Now, "write down your voice guidelines" sounds simple until you actually try to do it.

So I built a free Claude Skill called the Digital Writer's Voice Lab that walks you through it—you paste in samples of your best writing, and it extracts your voice DNA into a profile you can drop straight into your Notion hub.

Just click on the link below to get access to it—and click on the “Duplicate” button near the top right corner to make a copy.

Read more

After writing thousands of viral short-form posts on both X (Twitter) and LinkedIn, I have identified 5 formats that typically out-perform the average over and over again.

These formats also make for a great compounding library of content. (For example, you can take your entire short-form content library on X and copy/paste it over to LinkedIn, and then copy/paste it over to Instagram as screenshots/carousels, and then copy/paste it over to Instagram Threads, etc. etc. etc.)

Let’s dive in!

Format #1: Paragraph Style

This is where you write a thought-provoking paragraph connected to your core industry/niche/topic.

There’s something about this formatting, especially on a fast-moving platform like X, that immediately makes it “stand out” simply because it’s formatted differently. As a full paragraph, you (as the reader) inherently assume it to be “smart.” (Ironic, I know.)

It works so well for a few reasons:

• It takes a strong stance instead of hedging.

• It uses concise, economical language and alternates long and short sentences to create rhythm and emphasis.

• And it leans on subtle, barely-perceptible literary touches—a bit of alliteration, repetition, or antithesis (an obvious observation followed by a non-obvious one)—to make the writing more “satisfying” than plain prose would.

One of my favorite formats!

Format #2: What, How, Why

This is a very repeatable formula:

• “What” = The first line is “what” you are trying to say to the reader.

• “How” = The middle 3-5 bullets is “how” to accomplish the “what.”

• “Why” = The last sentence is “why” this is so important.

It works well for a few reasons:

• The first line/hook grabs attention up front.

• The bullets deliver tangible, differentiated, actionable items—no fluff.

• And the closing line motivates action or warns of the cost of inaction, so the reader walks away with a push to actually do something.

You can apply this format to literally any topic, in any niche, and it will work well.

Format #3: Listicle

Anything you can list is a great short-form piece of content.

For example:

• Tips

• Skills

• Tools

• Traits

• Steps

• Goals

• Books

• Habits

• Stories

• Quotes

• Secrets

• Insights

• Benefits

• Lessons

• Reasons

• Creators

• Routines

• Mistakes

• Podcasts

• Examples

• Questions

• Inventions

• Templates

• Resources

• Challenges

• Companies

• Data Points

• Realizations

• Frameworks

• Presentations

The “Listicle” format has a simple opening sentence promising the “what” you’re about to give the reader, followed by a skimmable list that delivers exactly that—tips, tools, books, mistakes, etc.

It works so well because it compresses what could be a long article into a few seconds of reading. Instead of making someone consume 1,500 words to get 7 recommendations, you hand them all the answers instantly.

You’re listing tangible, specific items tied to a clear goal, problem, or outcome (which means you’re differentiating yourself from all the fluff content out there!).

Format #4: Old vs New

This is where you compare the “old” way someone did something (in your niche) to the “new” way.

Or, where you compare any sort of archetype.

Some examples might be:

• Bad vs Good

• Rich vs Poor

• Right vs Wrong

• Productive vs Unproductive

• Legacy vs Cutting-Edge

• Etc.

Here are a few reasons why this works so well:

• The opposing comparison creates tension

• The “new” side subtly sells the reader on the better way

• The symmetry is visually appealing and easy to scan—the two halves mirror each other

Giving TANGIBLE examples on both sides leaves no doubt in the mind of the reader if they’re on the “Old” or “New” side of the equation.

Format #5: 10 Magical Ways

This is where you can mix and match any of these styles by using what I like to call the 10 Magical Ways To Expand Anything:

• Tips

• Stats

• Steps

• Lessons

• Benefits

• Reasons

• Mistakes

• Examples

• Questions

• Personal Stories

These 10 Ways work in any niche and are always valuable to readers in that space.

The key is differentiation—if you promise benefits, list unconventional ones people don’t already know. If you promise mistakes, surface the less obvious ones. It consistently gives the reader something fresh and useful.

So, to take this a level deeper, you can take an idea you’ve already written about in the previous 4 and expand it by adding one of the 10 Magical Ways!

For example, let’s take this short form post from Example 1:

There are AT LEAST 20+ more posts buried in this piece of short form!

You could write another post on:

• Give 5 examples of classic literature every writer should study (then cycle through all the other types of writing here and/or sub-sets of literature, sales copy, etc.)

• Explain 1 mistake writers make when studying writing to hone their skills

• List 3 questions every writer should ask of every sentence they read to help them understand how to construct a good sentence

Etc., etc., etc.

Short-Form Content Skill Pack

Now, to help you put this into action we created the Short-Form Content Skill Pack for you.

This is a custom Claude Skill that turns a single idea into a scroll-stopping short-form post—for whatever platform you choose to write on (X, LinkedIn, or Substack Notes).

It uses the exact frameworks we’ve used to generate millions of views on our own content.

(Plus you get the 45+ short-form templates it’s trained on inside the Pack!)

You do the thinking, and then AI handles all the heavy lifting.

Just click on the link below to get access to it—and click on the “Duplicate” button near the top right corner to make a copy.

Read more

When your newsletter looks nice, it tells readers you take your Substack seriously.

Design builds trust.

The problem is you can burn hundreds of hours debating fonts, hex codes, and which shade of orange goes behind your wordmark.

So today, I’m going to help you design your Substack logo without spending 10 hours pushing pixels around Canva.

So, why does a newsletter logo matter?

A newsletter logo gives your readers a visual shortcut to remember you.

When someone sees the same symbol, color, or mark over and over, their brain starts associating it with a specific source. Over time, that visual cue becomes a stand-in for you and your brand.

This matters for a few practical reasons:

1. It turns your publication into a branded asset

2. It signals that your newsletter is a “real” thing

3. It lets your brand travel across the internet

The problem is it’s easy to get hung up on the design.

You start thinking you need a mark that will last forever. But even the biggest companies in the world didn’t start with the logos you know today. They changed them.

Before Apple has the “Apple” logo they used detailed illustration of Isaac Newton sitting under a tree.

How to design your Substack logo in 5 simple steps with AI

To make this decision easy, we put together a simple Substack Logo Generator for you.

All you have to do is answer 4 questions and we’ll give you a ready-to-paste prompt for Gemini or ChatGPT.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Pick a logo type

Step 2: Choose your style preference

Step 3: Select your preferred color palette

Step 4: Add your newsletter details

Step 5: Generate the prompt

Once you have the prompt, plug it into your favorite image generator and run it.

Here’s an example of one I generated for the Substack Starter Sprint:

Pretty cool, right?

Try 3 or 4 different styles, pick one, upload it to your Substack, and move on.

Tip: If you like a logo but want to change the text or color, just follow up with a simple prompt telling ChatGPT or Gemini to make the change.

For example, the one above came out all black and white at first. So I followed up with:

“This looks great! But can you make the Substack logo orange and the background around ‘Starter Sprint’ orange too. Please use hex #FF6719.”

The takeaway here is your logo will evolve as your newsletter, business, and brand grows, not before. So instead of overthinking it, just get something simple and move on.

Have fun with this one.

Here’s the link:

Read more

90% of writers study legendary sales letters and never make $1 from their copywriting.

They spend all their time:

• Reading copywriting books

• Watching YouTube videos about copy

• Building a swipe file full of other writers’ sales letters

All of this is just productive procrastination.

At some point, you need to STOP studying and START learning how to write great copy.

So, I built a system that helps you practice copywriting.

Here’s how I set this up from scratch:

I trained Claude how to write great copy using one of the most powerful sales letters of all time:

Gary Halbert’s “The Amazing Money-Making Secret Of A Desperate Nerd From Ohio.”

This direct-mail sales letter was sent out in 1990 and generated over 7 million (!!!) responses.

(And, if you’re curious, click here to read the full Sales Letter.)

So, I turned it into a Claude Skill that has Gary Halbert as your personal Copywriting Coach.

Use it to:

• Practice writing copy

• Master this lucrative skill FAST

• Get paid (well) to write for clients

Basically, it’s like downloading 30 years of copywriting expertise into your workflow.

Here’s how this Claude Skill works.

Let’s say I’m writing a sales email or landing page for a new product or reviewing one that a ghostwriter on our team wrote.

Instead of spending 30-60 minutes between reading, compiling my thoughts, and switching from work that’ll grow my business—I can just run my Halbert Skill.

In seconds, I get a table of exactly what needs to be upgraded in our email or landing page, why it needs upgrading, and how to fix each line.

Then I can ask for a full rewrite, a section rewrite, or just rewritten versions of the flagged lines.

And because this has already saved me so much time (and made everyone on my entire team better copywriters)…

I’m going to share this Claude Skill with you.

Inside, you’ll get:

• A skill trained on 17 rules pulled from Gary Halbert’s direct-response sales letter—the same playbook that made him one of the highest-paid copywriters in history

• Audits tailored to the format you’re writing—sales pages, landing pages, sales emails, and nurture emails each get judged against the rules for that format.

• A shortcut from “this copy feels off but I can’t tell why” to “here’s exactly what’s broken and how to fix it”—in the time it takes to make coffee.

Link below👇

Read more

Legendary marketer David Ogilvy generated over $864 million for his clients.

He was a British advertiser known as “The Father of Advertising.”

And in 1982, Ogilvy sent this 1-page memo to his staff:

These are the 10 writing rules he lived by.

And the memo starts with a clear promise:

“The better you write, the higher you will go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well. Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well.”

Now, replace “Ogilvy & Mather” with any company, and this holds true.

So, I trained Claude on all 10 of these rules and turned it into a free writing coach.

It audits any piece of writing:

• Emails

• Sales assets

• Landing pages

• Internal memos

Against Ogilvy’s principles and tells you exactly what’s broken—and more importantly, how to fix it.

You can grab that Skill at the end of this Article.

But first, I want to break down these 10 rules. Because even in the age of AI, you need to understand these.

Let’s dive in!

1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it 3 times.

Every company on Earth would be a better place if this book was required reading.

If you are still sending emails with walls of text, read this.

2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.

“Finding your writing voice” is a waste of time.

You already have your voice — the one you use every day.

Here’s how to start using it in your writing:

• Choose a topic

• Record yourself talking about it

Then, transcribe it and start there.

3. Use short words, sentences, and paragraphs.

This one takes practice.

But the easiest way to find when you’re being too wordy?

Read everything aloud before you publish it.

When you find yourself getting caught up, it’s a sign you need to simplify.

4. Never use jargon.

When someone uses jargon, they’re hiding their lack of understanding.

Instead, pretend you are writing to an 8th grader.

5. Never write more than 2 pages on any subject.

99% of books should be blog posts.

And 99% of blog posts should be LinkedIn posts.

But it’s worth keeping in mind:

Never publish more than two pages on any subject.

So if it can’t fit in two pages, it should be simpler.

Subscribe now

6. Check your quotations.

This one is simple enough.

7. Never send a letter or memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning, then edit it.

This is the number one piece of writing advice I give people.

If you are publishing something important, always, always, give it room to breathe.

And always read it aloud.

8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.

This pairs nicely with point number 7.

If it’s something really important, write it, give it a day, edit it, then send it to a colleague.

9. Before you send your letter or memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.

This is so simple, but easy to forget.

Put yourself in the reader’s shoes and identify exactly the next step they should take after reading.

Then, articulate that step for them.

10. If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go tell the guy what you want.

Last and most importantly, writing is never a replacement for a targeted conversation.

Most messages should be conversations, especially ones that require action.

I built a system that helps you apply all 10 of these rules.

Because most writing feedback is vague.

“This isn’t quite working” or “tighten it up” doesn’t help you improve as a writer.

Meanwhile, the principles that produce sharp business writing are well-documented—but scattered across books, memos, and decades of practice.

So I turned Ogilvy’s 1982 memo (plus the Roman-Raphaelson principles he pointed to) into a Claude Skill that audits any piece of writing against all 10 rules.

Here’s how this Claude Skill works.

Let’s say I’m writing an email, a landing page, or an internal update—and something feels off but I can’t tell why.

Instead of spending 30-60 minutes rereading, second-guessing, and trying to articulate the problem—I run the Ogilvy Skill.

In seconds, I get:

• A one-line overall read on whether the piece is working and what the single biggest issue is

• Every violation sorted by severity (Critical, Moderate, Minor) with the exact offending quote, why it’s a problem, and a specific fix

• What’s working (so I don’t accidentally edit away the good stuff)

The skill doesn’t rewrite anything for me.

I use it to keep internalizing these rules so I still do the rewriting.

And because this has already saved me so much time (and made everyone on our team a sharper writer)…

I’m going to share this Claude Skill with you.

Inside, you’ll get:

• A skill trained on Ogilvy’s 10 rules from his 1982 memo—the same principles he used to generate $864 million for his clients

• Audits calibrated to severity—not every violation is fatal, and the skill knows the difference between Critical and Minor

• A shortcut from “this feels off, but I can’t tell why” to “here’s exactly what’s broken and how to fix it”—in the time it takes to make an espresso

Link below👇

Read more

The single most common mistake I see writers make is so subtle that most of them never catch it—even after years of writing.

They use intangible language.

Let me show you exactly what I mean, and why it’s quietly costing you readers.

The Gut-Reaction Test

Quick gut reaction.

Which of these do you value more?

• “Here’s an explanation of how I improved my Facebook ads by 50%.”

• “The Facebook Ads Blueprint: A Proven 5-Step System For Increasing Conversions By 50%”

One more:

• “Why I really don’t like dating in my 50s — and what I’d recommend if you want to find a trustworthy partner later in life.”

• “The Later-In-Life Lovebook: The 5 Mistakes You’re Making When Dating In Your 50s (And How To Fix Them)”

I’ve run this little exercise with a lot of people. And it doesn’t matter who they are. Ask 10 of them, and all 10 pick the second option. Every time. They want the Blueprint. They want the Lovebook.

The question is… why?

Here’s what’s going on under the hood.

Intangibles are ideas.

• “Here’s what I have to say on this topic.”

• “Here’s how to be happy and live a long life.”

• “Here’s my explanation of how to be successful.”

It’s subtle, but notice how all of those are intangible. You can’t hold them in your hands. There’s nothing physical to grab onto. And because of that, they’re hard to value — because now the burden is on the reader to figure out how valuable your idea even is.

Tangibles are objects (or at least give the perception of being objects).

• Template

• Playbook

• Workbook

• Spreadsheet

• Email Course

• Ultimate Guide

Why do those words feel more valuable? Because your brain treats them like things it could pick up and put on a shelf. Things it could own.

Which gives us the rule:

Intangibles are vague. Tangibles are specific.

But this goes way past slapping the word “Blueprint” on something and calling it a day.

Watch how much harder a headline hits the more tangible we make it:

• [V1] Unlock Passive Income!

• [V2] The Passive Income Blueprint: How To Get Rich & Be Happy

• [V3] The Passive Short-Term Rental Empire Blueprint: How To Get Rich From Real Estate & Be Happy

• [V4] The Passive Short-Term Rental Empire Blueprint: How To Land Your 1st Deal, Maintain A Steady Stream Of Tenants, And Build A Portfolio Of Properties Generating $100,000 Per Month

• [V5] The Passive Short-Term Rental Empire Blueprint: How To Land Your 1st Deal, Maintain A Steady Stream Of Tenants, And Build A Portfolio Of Properties Generating $100,000 Per Month (Even If You’ve Never Bought Real Estate & Are Terrified Of Losing Money!)

It should be obvious that V5 hits exponentially harder than V1.

The whole game — the thing I want you to get good at — is learning how to skip straight to V5 from the blank page.

The answer is a skill I’ve become obsessed by—unbundling.

Subscribe now

Unbundling Words, Operationalizing Behavior

This is one of my favorite Alex Hormozi-isms: unbundling words and operationalizing behavior.

Here’s what it looks like in practice. Inside his companies — and the companies they invest in — they don’t train salespeople by telling them to “be more confident on calls.” They hand them a checklist of the actual behaviors a good call is made of. And they get absurdly granular about it. Things like:

• Did you greet the prospect by name, with energy in your voice?

• Did you nod while they were talking?

• Did you repeat the last thing they said back to them to show you understood?

That might sound ridiculous. It’s not. That’s exactly the level of detail a beginner needs.

Because here’s the alternative: you tell someone “be more confident,” and… nobody knows what that means. “Confident” is a bundled word. It’s a folder. And until you unbundle it — crack it open and pull out the specific actions inside — nobody can understand it, and more importantly, nobody can do it.

No unbundling, no change in behavior.

Say a writer sits down to write about confidence. They write 800 clean, correct words about confidence. Every sentence is true. And the reader gets to the end and thinks… yeah, looks good.

Looks good. Not “this is exactly what I needed.” Not “how did you get inside my head?” Just… looks good.

Because the writer handed the reader the word “confidence” back, all dressed up in 800 words. And the reader already had the word. What they didn’t have was the stuff inside it — and that’s the only part they came for.

This is the part nobody tells you when you’re starting out:

You can be 100% right and still be 100% useless.

How To Unbundle Your Writing To Make It More Tangible

The move itself is one question you ask before you write a single sentence:

“Okay — but what does a person actually DO?”

You take the bundled word — confidence, discipline, “good copy,” “passive income” — and you refuse to write until you’ve pulled it apart into things a person actually does. Real actions. Stuff a camera could film. You don’t stop at “listen well,” because “listen well” is still a folder. You keep going until it’s “ask one follow-up question before you add your own point.”

Then:

1. Unbundle wide. List every action and every specific inside the concept. Push past the obvious first three — they’re usually still bundled.

2. Cut hard. You’ll have 12-15. A good piece needs 3-7. Keep the most surprising, the most ignored, the most important. This is where the real writing happens: in deciding what stays.

3. Sequence. Put the survivors in the order a reader needs them. First thing first.

4. Write. Your headers already exist — they’re your actions. Now you’re just filling in the tactical how-to.

Let’s unbundle the word “unbundle” itself.

Concept word: Unbundle

The question: What does a writer actually DO when they unbundle a topic?

First pass, unfiltered:

• Writes the concept word at the top of a blank doc

• Writes underneath: “What does someone DO when they ___?”

• Answers it once, writes it down

• Asks “what else?” and writes that too

• Keeps going without stopping to judge anything

• Runs out of obvious answers

• Asks “what would a beginner skip?” and adds those

• Reads the list back

• Asks “could a camera film this?” for each item

• Circles the ones that still feel abstract

• Asks the question again on the circled items

• Writes more specific versions, crosses out the abstract originals

• Counts what’s left

• Asks “which of these does my reader actually need?”

• Crosses out the rest

• Reads the remaining items in order

• Reorders anything that feels out of sequence

Seventeen items. Several of them describe the same phase. “Answers it once, writes it down / asks what else / keeps going without stopping to judge” are all one action: list everything fast without filtering. “Circles the abstract ones / asks the question again / writes more specific versions / crosses out the originals” are all one action: refine anything still vague. Collapse them.

After the cut:

1. Write the concept word and the question: “What does someone DO when they ___?”

2. List everything fast, without filtering, until nothing comes

3. Push past the obvious: ask “what would a beginner skip?”

4. Read back the list; ask “could a camera film this?” Cross out anything that can’t

5. Cut to the 3-7 most important

6. Sequence them in the order a reader needs

Six steps.

Notice anything? That’s the “How To Do It” section of this piece. The whole newsletter is “unbundle” unbundled.

Subscribe now

When To Unbundle Your Writing

So when do you actually do this?

The instinct is to treat unbundling like a finishing move — something you sprinkle on at the end to make a headline pop. That’s backwards. The real wins come from running it at specific moments throughout your process, and most of those moments come earlier than you’d think.

Here’s where it matters most:

1. Before you write: start with the title.

Your title is a bundled concept. “How to build trust with your reader.” “The discipline of great writers.” “What good copy actually is.”

Sit with that title before you open a doc. Ask the question: what does a person actually do when they have this thing? The answers become your sections. The piece writes itself from there.

This is why some outlines take five minutes and others take two hours. Writers who skip this step have to discover their sections by writing. Writers who unbundle first already know where they’re going.

2. Your draft feels hollow or preachy.

You finish something and it’s technically correct but somehow useless. You’re telling readers to do something without telling them how. That’s a bundled draft.

Go back to the concept at the center of the piece and unbundle it. The hollow sections will become obvious immediately.

3. You get a bundled critique.

“This piece lacks authority.” “Your writing feels flat.” “You need a stronger voice.”

These sound like feedback. They’re labels. The writer doesn’t know what to edit because the critique doesn’t describe any action.

Unbundle the critique the same way you’d unbundle a topic. What does a person actually do when their writing has authority? What observable thing makes a piece feel strong instead of flat? Now you have a checklist you can edit against.

4. You’re teaching something you do intuitively.

Good writers do this without knowing what they’re doing.

If you’re building a course, writing a framework, or coaching students, you need to drag the invisible mechanics into the open. Felt sense doesn’t teach. Unbundling translates it into steps someone else can follow.

(This is also true when writing prompts for AI. “Write something persuasive” is a bundled instruction. Unbundle persuasion first and your prompt gets 10x more specific, which means the output gets 10x more useful.)

Which brings me to something we built for you.

The Unbundle Prompt

Doing this by hand gets easy with reps — but the first few times, it’s slow and a little awkward.

So we made a prompt that does the heavy lifting. You hand it any bundled word, and it cracks the thing wide open into concrete, trainable actions in about ten seconds. Run enough concepts through it and you’ll start unbundling in your head on autopilot, which is the whole point. The prompt just gets you there faster.

Drop it into Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini — wherever you work.

Replace “Term” with whatever bundled thing you want to crack open. Charisma. “Be more strategic.” A workflow that’s been a mess for months.

Here’s the prompt:

Read more

Next week, I’m pulling back the curtain on the email flows powering our $700k/month portfolio of online writing businesses.

I’ll break down every sequence, trigger, and automation we’ve used to drive multiple 6-figure launches.

And I’m sharing all of it at the Personal IPO Summit - a FREE, 2-day virtual event hosted by my buddy Nathan May, alongside speakers like Sam Parr, Justin Welsh, and Chris Koerner.

Here’s what I’ll be walking through:

• The pre-launch sequence that warms your list before you sell anything

• The launch sequence that converts subscribers into buyers

• The post-launch flow that recovers revenue most people leave on the table

• How we automate the whole thing so it runs without us

This is the stuff we built for our internal team at PGA.

And for the first time, I’m breaking it down live - step by step - so you can replicate it.

Click here to save your free seat.

Replays for everyone who registers.

Chat soon,

Dickie

Co-Founder of Premium Ghostwriting Academy

PS… When you register, you’ll also get 2 free bonus resources (just for signing up).

This includes:

• Justin Welsh’s sales emails behind Creator MBA’s $1.6M launch

• Sam Parr’s original cold emails to advertisers from The Hustle.

Click here grab your seat before it's too late.

Hope to see you there!

My third took two weeks.

But now?

I can write an entire non-fiction book in less than 14 days. (Because I stopped writing books the hard way.)

Here’s how:

Every actionable non-fiction book follows the exact same pattern:

• The origin story

• The reasons why

• The mistakes to avoid

• The benefits waiting on the other side

• The how-to chapters, the actionable part people pay for

• The insider tips and FAQs

That’s it.

Once you see it, the blank page basically stops being a problem. And writing your book becomes a fill-in-the-blanks exercise.

In the video above, I walk through the whole process and show you how I trick my brain into feeling 20% done before I’ve written a single sentence.

Give it a watch, it’ll change how you think about writing your first or next book.

—Cole

PS…If you want to write and publish a non-fiction book...

And you’re simply looking for the fastest, easiest way to go from “I should write a book” to “here’s my book on Amazon”...

Without four years of grinding or hiring a ghostwriter...

Then Self-Publishing Studio might interest you.

Inside, I’ll take you live through the exact framework I used to write a brand new book, Writing as a Side Hustle, and show you how I used AI to write and upload the entire thing to Amazon in just one hour.

All the details are at the link below. Enrollment closes May 31st at midnight:

Click here to join 37+ other writers already inside Self-Publishing Studio.

PPS…Want a free sneak peek inside Self-Publishing Studio?

To help you start your book writing journey, check out this free preview.

In it, I break down the different types of non-fiction books you can write and how to craft The Perfect Book Title (with AI) — leveraging my decade+ of expertise and a rigorous analysis of best-selling non-fiction titles.

Click here to check it out for free.

I’ve made $250k+ selling books.

Turns out, it’s easy to earn a living as an author—if you self-publish.

And starting Monday, June 1st I’ll be running a brand new Self-Publishing Bootcamp on writing, publishing, and marketing a non-fiction book:

• Everything you need to write your first non-fiction book in 14 days

• Outline and write your book using our proven system (and prompts!)

• How to self-publish on Amazon and market it for the long haul

You can join the waitlist by clicking here.

Enrollment opens Monday, May 25th.

And Self-Publishing Studio LIVE kicks off Monday, June 1st through Friday, June 12th.

It’s gonna be a ton of fun

Now, here’s the simple 5-step process I use to write & list my books on Amazon:

Step 1: Write your book

I can write a 60,000-word book in 14 days.

And I do this in 3 steps:

• Decide on a title

• Outline the book

• Write each chapter of the book

To help you get started, here’s a thread on each step (and a sneak peek of the Self-Publishing Studio Perfect Book Module & Prompt)

How to write a best-selling book title:

Click here for a free sneak peek of Self-Publishing Studio: The Perfect Book Title

Here’s how I outline a book in 35 minutes:

How to write a 5,000-word book chapter in 90 minutes:

Step 2: Hire a designer ($1k - $5k)

Writing complete. Now you need a cover.

Most of the designers who work in big publishing houses also freelance on the side.

I’ve worked with a designer from Penguin Random House for years.

I reached out over email & use her for all my covers:

Step 3: Format the text for eBook & print

This is a lot easier than most people think.

You can either:

• Pay someone to do this for you (~$500)

• Or use a platform like Reedsy (takes a couple of hours)

Now, onto the most technical part:

Step 4: Upload your files to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

No special software required here.

You can upload your manuscript as a:

• PDF

• HTML

• DOC

And more.

Amazon has tons of guides on how to do this—you can’t go wrong.

It really is that simple.

Step 5: Preview and hit Publish.

You’ve uploaded your book to KDP for free.

Now make edits, upload your cover, enter your price, etc. and then hit Publish.

Now every time someone orders a physical copy, Amazon will print it on demand (and deliver it for you!)

Now, the final part:

You have to do your own marketing.

Before you even write your book, you should be:

• Writing online

• Building an audience & your email list

These are your attention engines (and are way more effective than paid ads).

That’s it!

Self-publish your book in 5 simple steps:

• Write your book

• Hire a cover designer

• Format the text for eBook & print

• Upload to Amazon

• Hit Publish!

Ready to finally write your book in 2026?

Then join the waitlist for Self-Publishing Studio.

So you can…

• Attract your target audience

• Become the go-to authority in your niche

• And ultimately turn your expertise into a revenue-generating asset for years to come

Click here to join the Self-Publishing Studio Waitlist.

Chat soon,

Dickie & Cole

Co-Founders of:

• Write With AI

• Ship 30 For 30

• Premium Ghostwriting Academy

• Typeshare

• Ghostbase

In May, I launched the AI Operator newsletter

Inside I share exactly how we’re using AI across media, marketing, sales, operations, support, product, hiring, and fulfillment. These are the actual systems, SOPs, and workflows we run week to week inside our portfolio of businesses that generates $700k/month on average.

And if you’re at all interested in how to build a leaner, faster, more profitable internet business, then I encourage you to check out AI Operator.

With that in mind, today I’m resharing a post here to help you take your AI output to the next level.

Let’s dive in.

If you’re using AI as a business owner but you haven’t armed your LLM with 50+ pages of business context, you are playing on hard mode.

In fact, you might as well not use AI at all—because you’re probably spending more time filling in knowledge gaps or correcting incorrect output than if you just did things manually.

If that sounds familiar, then keep reading.

What I’m about to share is the single most impactful AI upgrade I’ve made in the last 6 months. And I want to help you make the same upgrade in the next hour.

Now, I could write you a 2,000-word intro story about how I came to this realization, but today I’m going to cut straight to the point.

My time spent using AI is up 100% in the last few months, but my output is up more than 500%.

I’m using AI more, and I’m getting way better with it.

And it’s not that I got better at prompting or that the models got better. Those helped, but the real needle-move was one “context architecture” change. I answered 150 questions to build a set of context documents that give the AI a deep understanding of my business. And as a result, every single output I get requires significantly less editing, correction, or additional input from me.

So today I’m going to walk you through each of those 8 documents, what they are, why you need them, and examples of what they look like.

Now let’s dive into these 8 documents:

1. The Money Model Builder — what you sell, how it’s priced, the full money model

2. The Perfect Avatar Map — who you sell to, their pains, fears, beliefs, and objections

3. The Belief Ladder — the sequential chain of beliefs your prospect must adopt before they buy

4. The Acquisition Blueprint — how strangers become customers, funnel by funnel

5. The North Star Brief — your mission, vision, values, and operating principles

6. The Org Chart Builder — who does what, reporting to whom

7. The Tech Stack Inventory — every tool in your business and what it does

8. The “What Good Looks Like” Vault — real examples of your best content, copy, and voice

Create each of these, upload them to one Project in your LLM of choice, and watch what happens to your conversations & outputs.

💰Document 1: The Money Model Builder

• What it is: A complete breakdown of what you sell, at what price points, in what order.

• What’s inside: Your offer name, core promise, transformation, deliverable stack, pricing, and upsell/downsell/continuity paths

• Why you need it: Without this, your AI is blind to what you sell. So every time you ask it to write something relevant to your offer, it lacks the context required to write anything specific. You can also make better strategic decisions around your offer & pricing by asking it to brainstorm ways to make it more efficient

🎯Document 2: The Perfect Avatar Map

• What it is: A deep profile of the person you sell to—everything from demographics to the thoughts they have when they’re considering your offer

• What’s inside: Their current circumstances, 5 tangible pains (and the emotional pain behind each one), 5 tangible desires (and how achieving them would feel), what they’ve already tried, 5 fears and limiting beliefs, the 5 necessary beliefs they need to adopt before they’ll buy, and the top 10 objections they have before purchasing — categorized by uncertainty, timing, spouse, and money.

• Why you need it: This is the doc that makes your AI sound like it actually understands your customer. Ad copy hits different when the AI knows the exact words your buyers use, the exact objections they raise, and the exact beliefs holding them back

🪜Document 3: The Belief Ladder

• What it is: The sequential chain of beliefs your prospect must adopt, in order, before they’ll buy your offer.

• What’s inside: Your destination belief (the single conclusion your prospect must reach), your unique mechanism (the proprietary method that makes the destination belief true), and the belief ladder itself — 5-7 rungs, each building on the last, from their current faulty belief to the belief that makes buying the obvious next step. Plus an argument summary that walks the whole chain in one paragraph.

• Why you need it: This is the doc that turns your AI from a random copy generator into a persuasion strategist. Without it, every ad, email, and sales script says different things. With it, every piece of content follows the same logical and emotional argument.

🧲 Document 4: The Acquisition Blueprint

• What it is: A map of every channel you use to get customers and the step-by-step funnel that turns a stranger into a buyer.

• What’s inside: All your acquisition channels (organic, paid, referrals, partnerships, SEO, community), then your core funnel mapped end to end — capture step, conversion step, and every bridge touchpoint in between (what happens, who does it, when).

• Why you need it: When you ask AI to help with your marketing & sales, it needs to know how your funnel actually works. Otherwise it gives you advice for a funnel you don’t have. With this loaded, it can spot gaps in your bridge, write emails that fit your sequence, and suggest improvements to your actual system.

⭐️ Document 5: The North Star Brief (Mission/Vision/Values)

• What it is: A one-page doc that captures what you’re building, why you’re building it, and the rules you operate by.

• What’s inside: Your vision (the long-term destination), your mission (the daily work), 3-5 core values (with what each one looks like in action), and 5-12 operating principles (the “how” behind the values — your actual decision-making frameworks).

• Why you need it: This is the doc that keeps the AI aligned with how you think. Without it, the AI defaults to generic business advice. With it, it makes recommendations that match your values and uses your language.

👥 Document 6: The Org Chart Builder

• What it is: A full roster of who’s on your team, what they do, and who they report to.

• What’s inside: Your department structure, then every person listed with their name, role, department, core responsibility, who they report to, and how long they’ve been with you. Plus a visual org chart the AI compiles for you.

• Why you need it: This is the doc that makes delegation and planning actually useful. Instead of “communicate this to your marketing team,” the AI can say “have Colin update the master content table and loop in Vitor for the YouTube cut.” It knows your people by name.

🛠️ Document 7: The Tech Stack Inventory

• What it is: A complete list of every tool your business runs on.

• What’s inside: 40+ business functions (email hosting, CRM, payment processing, scheduling, design, automations, etc.) — for each one, which tool you use and what you use it for.

• Why you need it: When the AI helps you build a workflow or write an SOP, it needs to know what tools you actually use. Without this, it suggests tools you don’t have or writes instructions for software you’ve never touched. With it, every system it builds plugs directly into your existing stack.

📝 Document 8: The “What Good Looks Like” Vault

• What it is: A collection of real examples of your best content, copy, emails, sales materials, and brand voice

• What’s inside: Best-performing short-form posts, long-form content, ad copy, landing page copy, emails, sales scripts, DM outreach, objection handling, client deliverables, testimonials — plus one example that perfectly nails your voice and one example of what your voice is NOT.

• Why you need it: This is the doc that kills the “this sounds like a robot wrote it” problem. Without examples, the AI defaults to generic. With them, it has a concrete reference for what good looks like in YOUR world — your tone, your structure, your style. The floor on every piece of content goes up immediately.

How To Set This Up (LLM Project Architecture Best Practices)

Once you have your 8 context docs built, here’s exactly how to set up your project:

• Step 1: Create one Project. Call it whatever you want — “Biz Operations,” “[Your Company] HQ,” whatever. This is home base.

• Step 2: Load all 8 context docs as files in that Project. Every chat you start inside this project now inherits all of that context automatically.

• Step 3: Create your persistent chats. These are ongoing conversations you come back to again and again:

  • One “CEO Strategy” chat — this is where you think through big decisions, bottleneck analysis, restructuring, prioritization. The AI has your full business context so it can actually be useful here.

  • One chat per department — Sales, Marketing, Product, Success, Ops, etc. Each one becomes a running thread where you make strategic decisions for that area of the business.

• Step 4: Use tactical one-off chats for everything else. Need to write an email? Draft an SOP? Brainstorm ad copy? Open a new chat inside the same project. It still has all the context — you just don’t need to keep the thread going.

I use strategic chats for things I want to come back to over time. I use tactical chats for things I use then move on from. Either way, both inherit the full context from the project.

Bonus Context Documents To Add

The 8 docs above cover the foundation. But the more context you give, the better. Here are a few additional documents & tools you can add to give the LLM even more context.

• Any spreadsheets or dashboards you reference regularly — download them and upload them to the project. Revenue trackers, ad dashboards, conversion trackers, etc. Eventually AI will be able to read these in real time, but for now, a snapshot gives them context on how things are currently going.

• Bank account or financial statements — if you want the AI to help you analyze where your money is going, give it the data. Upload a recent month’s transactions or P&L.

• Your current SOP library — if you have SOPs written for your team, drop them in. Now the AI can reference your actual processes instead of making up generic ones. We currently host everything in Notion so it can easily connect via MCP.

• Meeting notes or strategy docs — anything that captures recent decisions, priorities, or context that wouldn’t be in the 8 core docs.

• Connect Claude to Slack — this one allows you to scan Slack to get real time updates of what you’re building

• Anything else you think would be relevant — the more context you give, the better your results.

IMPORTANT! Remember these are living documents

Don’t treat your context docs like a one-time project. They should be updated in real time as your business changes.

• Hired someone new? Update the Team Structure doc.

• Changed your pricing? Update the Money Model.

• Launched a new funnel? Update the Acquisition Blueprint.

The more current your context is, the more useful every conversation becomes.

ALSO IMPORTANT! These prompts are not perfect

Once you start using the prompts to build out your context documents, remember that there may be some errors. I’ve built them to handle most scenarios and output things in a formulaic way, but don’t conclude “these are broken!” if the output is not 100% accurate on the first go.

Use these as a collaborative back & forth exercise to save your hours and hours of time in the future.

Want the Full Context Architecture Starter Kit?

Now, if you want to set these up for yourself, I built something for you.

For each of the 8 docs, you get:

• A fill-in-the blank template if you want to do it manually

• A real example from my business so you can see exactly what “done” looks like

• A copy-paste prompt that interviews you one question at a time and compiles the finished doc for you

Grab it below.

Read more

I’m a huge Brandon Sanderson fan.

A few weeks ago he dropped a video talking about the rise of AI and how to think about using it as a fiction writer.

He does a really good job articulating something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, which is “the point” of continuing to create art even though AI can “do it for us.”

To summarize the video (if you don’t want to watch it):

• AI is efficient, but it deprives you of the real journey—which is learning how to write the stories you want to tell (and believe are worth telling in the first place).

• When you rely too heavily on AI, and “outsource” all your thinking & creativity, yes you create an end-product but the product isn’t the true goal.

• The true goal of being creative is giving yourself the opportunity to grow and express yourself.

• You are the art.

In many ways, I wholeheartedly agree with Sanderson here.

Even just in the past few years, I’ve started to notice how many people don’t want to learn as much. How people just want to skip to the end. “Just give me the prompt,” is something I hear often. And I can see the ways AI has impacted our writing program, Ship 30 for 30, in the sense that a lot of people don’t even want to bother improving their ability to write because “AI can just do it.”

I don’t think we as a society understand the long-term implications of this behavior change.

To be clear:

• I am very pro-AI

• I am pro new technology

• I tend to look at everything through a lens of abundance (not scarcity)

• And I believe there is way, way more opportunity in the world than any one of us can fathom. We aren’t nearly as “in-competition” with each other as we think

…and yet…

I can’t help but wonder what happens to a society that doesn’t want to “think” anymore. We’ve already seen the impact short-form video has had on our attention spans. What is the impact of technology that doesn’t require you to have to think deeply about problems, or sit and stare out a window while your brain reaches for the next word?

I don’t know yet. But if I’ve learned anything in my 35 short years here on planet earth, I know that once a snowball of behavior change starts… there’s no stopping it.

AI is here. And people are already “thinking” less.

Now, I actually believe this presents and interesting opportunity for creative people.

If AI encourages the average person from “thinking,” then one of the most valuable skills of the future is simply… thinking!

Aka: not letting your brain atrophy.

I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to skill acquisition. And so no matter what new technology comes out, I tend to default to finding ways to practice that are intentionally difficult. Because I want to build my skills in harder-than-normal environments (the same way a marathon runner trains with ankle weights), rather than practicing new skills in easier-than-normal environments.

And so the future of creativity, I believe, is going to come down to each individual person’s ability to discipline themselves.

AI is like a digital painkiller.

• Amazing, life-changing technology to solve immediate problems.

• But addictive and dangerous if used all-day, every day.

(I sound like my parents back when I was a teenager playing World of Warcraft for 12 hours per day lol.)

Subscribe now

How To Use AI As A Fiction Writer In 2026 & Beyond

I don’t believe either extreme is true.

I don’t think you should be anti-AI. But I also don’t think you should use it for every single task—especially when it comes to writing.

I believe there is TREMENDOUS benefit in practicing writing the old fashioned way. Because the bottleneck to using AI is not “your knowledge of how to use AI.” Your bottleneck to using AI to its maximum capacity as a writer is to be able to articulate how you do what you do.

If you can articulate it clearly, specifically, and objectively, you can use AI to leverage your existing knowledge.

But if you can’t articulate it clearly, specifically, and objectively, then what you’re actually doing is the opposite of leverage. You are deferring all the thinking and decision-making to a robot.

And that’s where your brain’s atrophy starts to kick in.

So, why am I sharing all of this with you?

Because I have been using AI a lot in my own fiction writing processes, building systems, using it to help me brainstorm and draft V1 chapters, etc.

But I want to be clear:

• I am not saying you should use AI for everything.

• I am not saying you should defer your “thinking” to AI.

• I am not saying that using AI inherently makes you less creative.

• Etc.

I believe these are reductive ways of looking at this new, incredible technology.

Instead, I encourage you to view AI as a tool—just a really-powerful tool, like a lightsaber.

And it’s your job to learn how to wield it.

So, let’s begin the learning process!

Claude Cowork: A No-Code AI Agent

Let’s start at the very beginning.

Claude is an AI model built by Anthropic. Think of it like a nerdier version of ChatGPT.

Each model (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Manus, etc.) tends to be “better” at different types of tasks. And for whatever reason, Claude is the best for writing. I wish I could tell you why, but that’s above my pay grade. All I know is, of all the different models I (and every other writer I know) have experimented with, Claude wins every time.

But Claude can do a lot more than just “write.”

There is also this thing called Claude Code, which is basically an AI Agent that allows you to code (build platforms, connect apps, create automations, literally anything you want) with extreme leverage.

🚨 On Monday, we’re launching a brand new 2-week live bootcamp to show you how to become a top 1% marketer with Claude Code (even if you’re not technical). If you want to learn how to build your marketing assets, we’d love for you to join us.

But Claude also recently launched another component of its platform, called Claude Cowork.

Claude Cowork is basically No-Code Claude Code.

Meaning:

• You aren’t just “prompting” Claude in a chat window. Cowork is an AI Agent.

• But it doesn’t require you to code anything. Nothing. It operates completely in plain English.

• And, being an “Agent,” Claude Cowork can do a lot more than just give you answers (like every other AI model).

Claude Cowork can literally control platforms and documents on your behalf, and work with you.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Claude Cowork .Skills

Since Claude Cowork is an “Agent,” it is significantly more powerful than just a basic AI chat window. (Funny how just in the past ~4 years, the chat function of AI has become “basic.”)

And as an AI Agent, Claude Cowork can actually “understand” task chains.

Meaning: every time you do something—or a series of somethings—Claude Cowork isn’t just aware of the information you’ve shared with them, but is now learning HOW you just instructed it to help you. It remembers the steps. It can synthesize the takeaways. And, it can summarize an entire chat window’s worth of conversation into what’s called a .Skill.

A .Skill is a file.

For example, let’s say you just spent 2 hours chatting back and forth with your bestie Claude about how you construct Sci-Fi/Fantasy Outlines. Not how to create outlines “in general,” but how YOU outline, the decisions YOU make, the structure YOU use, etc.

(Remember: you can’t automate what you can’t articulate!)

Well, at the end of those 2 hours, wouldn’t it be great if Claude could “remember” everything you just talked through and clarified… forever?

Yes. It would. This is called Leverage.

And now, Claude can remember. All you have to do is crystallize all the information and export it as a .Skill file.

How To Build A Claude Cowork .Skill For Your Fiction Writing Voice

I have been using Claude for 2+ years now.

And when I started playing with Claude Cowork a few weeks ago, it felt like my brain was melting. It’s insanely cool.

Now, if you are a fiction writer, then one of the simplest use cases for building a .Skill for yourself is to crystallize your writing voice.

Because once it’s saved as a .Skill, Claude can “reference” and use that .Skill at any point in the future. You don’t even need to prompt it. Claude will use your .Skill based on the context of the conversation, as-needed.

Meaning you can even create different .Skills for different types of writing voices.

• Your Fiction Voice

• Your Non-Fiction Voice

(This is what I did.)

Or, more specifically:

• Your Sci-Fi/Fantasy Voice

• Your Mystery/Thriller Voice

• Your Romance Voice

• Etc.

Pretty cool, right?

So, let me walk you through how I did this for myself—so you can do the same.

Cole-Fiction-Voice.Skill

Again, a .Skill is just “context” saved as a file (that AI can reference at any point in the future).

So if you use AI, or plan on using AI to do a lot of a specific type of writing—whether it’s fiction or non-fiction—then it’s worth investing some time into crystallizing your writing voice into a .Skill.

Now, obviously this is a bit of a rabbit hole (and yes, there are “right” and “wrong” ways of doing this). But for the sake of simplicity, I’m going to give you a high-level crash course on how this works.

Step 1: Download Claude’s Mac App (if you haven’t already).

While Claude (the chat function) works in-browser, Claude Cowork does not.

So you must download the desktop app to use it. (And they just released this for Windows as well!)

Step 2: Ask Claude Cowork to walk you through a .Skill building exercise for your writing voice.

If you’re someone like me—who has spent 10+ years thinking about & refining “the rules” that make my voice, my voice, then you can probably skip straight to instructing AI on what you want.

But if you don’t have clarity around the rules of your voice, then I’d encourage you to tell AI you aren’t sure… and ask for some help! Claude Cowork will very naturally ask you questions and help you make some decisions here.

Either way, start a conversation.

If you want to see the level of detail I go into, I’m sharing a PDF of my own “voice guidelines” here to show you. A gift for being a paid subscriber! And yes, I wrote every word of this—because I wanted to crystallize my thinking as much as possible, to then train AI on “me.” Not just let AI figure it out on its own.

Read more

Writer’s block is a choice problem.

When you sit down to write and feel stuck, what’s actually happening?

You’re thinking, “I don’t know what choice to make in this moment. I don’t know if the story I’m telling should go down this tangent or this tangent.”

You have options in front of you—you just don’t want to pick one.

So you sit there waiting for the “right” answer to appear, like there’s some objectively correct choice hiding behind the cursor.

There isn’t.

The irony of writer’s block is it’s the decision to do the only thing that is truly the wrong answer—pick nothing at all.

You would be way better off just picking something.

Because the choice of something is always better than choosing to do nothing.

So, when you feel stuck, stop asking “what should I write?”

And instead ask: “what choice am I avoiding?” — and then make it.

Once you accept that writing is choice-making, the next question is: what makes a good choice?

When I’m writing non-fiction, I’m always cycling through these in my head:

• Should I give a tip?

• Should I share a mistake?

• Should I share a lesson learned?

• Should I share a reason why the reader should do this?

At the end of the day, these are just choices.

But you have to have some baseline level of competence in order to sit there and go, okay, let me come up with a compelling choice and you have to have a reason for making that choice.

Competence is the prerequisite that makes choice meaningful.

If I’m operating from a place of competence, picking mistakes and sharing compelling mistakes is just as high-quality a choice as picking lessons and sharing high-quality lessons.

They’re both right answers.

That’s the whole game. Build competence so your options are good. Then make choices on purpose.

What separates great writers from average ones isn’t that they have better ideas. It’s that they make sharper choices, more often, with more intention.

Subscribe now

Leverage AI to explore options instead of giving the robots free rein over your thinking.

This is also where most writers go wrong with AI writing.

They want Claude or ChatGPT to write for them. This is a mistake.

When you completely defer all of the choices to AI, even if it produces something cool or even if it produces something great. Sure, you skipped to the end, but you literally just removed all of the fun.

It's like buying a brand new video game as a kid and not even giving yourself the opportunity to play the game. You just install the Game Shark and instantly give yourself all the levels and all the items and what's the point?

Why'd you even buy the game?

The point of writing is making and expressing choices.

When you ask AI to “write like you,” you’re asking it to make choices the same way you would, every time—which is impossible.

But that doesn’t make AI useless.

It just means you’ve been pointing it at the wrong job.

Think of AI like a writers’ room. A place to iterate faster. A second brain that helps you see your draft from outside your own head.

• It’s great for brainstorming.

• It’s great for feeding in a draft and getting a first round of feedback before you bother a real human.

• It’s great at presenting you with options you wouldn’t have thought of.

What it’s not good for is making your choices for you. The moment you let it do that, you’ve stopped writing — you’re just publishing.

So, what should you do when you’re stuck?

Use AI to inspect the choices in front of you.

Use it whenever you’re stuck—at any stage:

• You have a topic but no angle.

• You have an angle but no structure.

• You don’t know what to write about.

• You’re mid-draft and stuck on what comes next.

• You have a finished draft and something feels off.

Paste this into Claude or ChatGPT:

Read more

The world’s best conversion copywriters don’t write copy.

They steal it.

Specifically, they steal it from the mouths of their customers.

But most writers and marketers who use AI, when they hear “research,” reach for ChatGPT Deep Research or Claude Research—and get back a polished 12-page report with citations.

It’s actually the OPPOSITE of what you want.

Because AI deep research synthesizes secondary sources. What you actually need is the primary source (the unfiltered voice of the customer themselves).

Here’s how it works:

• You mine language from places where your customers are already talking about their pain like online reviews, forums, and Reddit threads.

• You swipe the stickiest phrases and paste them into your marketing copy.

• Then you sit back and smile when your brand new customers start telling you “I just felt like you were speaking directly to me.”

This is called Voice Of Customer Research (VOC).

And through the magic of Claude, you can find and turn the golden nuggets buried in Reddit threads into mouth-watering copy (without wading through hundreds of posts yourself).

Even better?

You can instantly build and launch a landing page right from Claude, using your customers’ exact language, and start attracting your audience in under 30 minutes.

And today I’m going to show you how to do it 5 steps.👇

Read more