How To Beat AI

We content creators live in a miraculous time. We can talk to more people than ever before in history. The power of marketing is astronomically stronger than it's ever been. Our audience knows no geographical limit.

The real foundation for all of this power and reach is the content we produce. We can publish for free anytime we want--and people will listen. We can be our own TV station, our own radio network, our own newspaper.

And now, thanks to Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT, we don't even have to write the material ourselves. There's an army of robots ready and eager to write blog posts, send emails, or even deepfake podcasts and videos. We can publish as often as we want to, for free, with almost no effort.

Here's the really amazing part: more content is still more important than good content. Quantity still beats quality in the online marketing game. Show up more often, and you'll win.

This perfect storm of free attention won't last forever. It probably won't last more than another year or so. Eventually, Google or another search engine will figure out how to filter content that's been written by robots, and find the real stuff. The real tech race is actually between the robots that produce content and the robots that find and filter content. But for now, everyone can--and IS--producing a ton of content that would earn you a B+ grade in most high schools.

It's amazing news for everyone who should be publishing more, but isn't.

It can seem like scary news for content producers who are worried their hard work will be buried by blogging droids.

Here's how to make your content stand out from ChatGPT content and other content-bots.

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2. Niche down. The narrower your expertise, the less a robot will understand it. For example, a blog about the fitness industry can be written by AI, because that's a general topic with statistics everywhere. A blog about personal training studios can probably be done pretty well by AI. A blog about getting and keeping personal training clients in their mid-40s in Ipswich, PA is best done by someone with experience.
3. A robot might be able to write a blog about how a rocket works, but it can't explain how it feels to be strapped into the seat at liftoff. The more specific your experience, and the narrower your audience, the more irreplaceable you become and the more valuable your content.
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9. Be very specific. Your content should be closer to a checklist than an editorial. For example, Jasper (another AI writing tool) could write a broad article about "How to keep your clients longer." The article would give general advice that's directionally correct, but imprecise. For example, when I asked an AI engine how to keep clients at my gym longer, it said "Give your clients a world-class experience". True, but...what does that actually mean? Not much.
10. Real professionals would go much deeper. For example, at Two-Brain, an article on keeping clients longer would include "The 5 Steps To Running A Goal Review". We know that goal reviews keep clients longer, and have the data to prove it, and--because we've done them thousands of times--we can be very specific about how to do it. Like this:
11. Sit down with your client every three months.
12. Measure their progress on your InBody scale.
13. Ask them, "Are you completely satisfied with your progress?"
14. If they say "YES!" then move to the testimonial script.
15. If they say "Not TOTALLY satisfied..." then move to the new prescription script.
16. And then, of course, we have those two scripts ready too.
17. Robots just can't get that deep, because they don't have actual experience.
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22. Use stories. Stories stick. Leveraging your personal experience pays off again here, because you've actually done the thing you're talking about.
23. For example, when I'm talking about turning my gym around, I can share a story about sitting on a park bench in the hot afternoon sun in total despair. I can describe that rock-bottom moment: the readiness to quit, the dejection that I hadn't figured out how to run a business, how I trudged back up the fire escape to the gym to train the next client feeling absolutely defeated. I can tell that story, because it actually happened -- and a similar story is happening to my audience. They get to walk up that clanking fire escape in my shoes. Many repeat these stories back to me at conferences. Robots can't do that.
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29. Be directive. Tell people exactly what to do. While Google Bard could write a 700-word blog post on "5 Daily Habits To Help You Focus," and might even give some useful advice, you can be more specific.
30. Like this: "Every day, do one thing to grow your business before you do anything else."
31. Or, even better: "By 5pm today, produce one blog post and send it to your email list."
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37. Share the steps. For example, using the above directive:
38. 1. Set an alarm for 50 minutes earlier than your normal wake-up time.
39. 2. Place the alarm three steps away from your bed.
40. 3. When the alarm goes off, shut it down before it wakes up your wife.
41. 4. Now that you're standing up, walk to the coffee pot and press the "on" button.
42. 5. Use the bathroom.
43. 6. Wash your hands.
44. 7. Walk back to the coffee pot.
45. 8. Carry your coffee to your office.
46. 9. Open your laptop.
47. 10. Open 750words.com.
48. 11. Close all other tabs.
49. 12. Write one blog post.
50. 13. Copy the blog post onto your website.
51. 14. etc.
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53. That's my morning routine. Many of my clients--entrepreneurs who face a huge mountain of work and decisions every single day--need this kind of detail to get things done. The simpler you can make your content or your courses, the more likely they are to get done. Focus on the outcome and make the steps as small as possible.
54. Your content should be closer to a checklist than an editorial.
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59. Interview other people. Have them tell their story; share specific advice; and all of the other stuff I've already mentioned. Chatbots can talk about people, but can't talk TO them. Get the details a robot wouldn't think to ask about.
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65. Get better. The AI robots are improving their researching and creative skills. They're already producing content at a B+ level. That means your competitors are publishing a lot of pretty-good stuff. If you want to rise above the roar, you must improve your skills at writing, podcasting, and producing video.
66. To start, read "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser.
67. Then find an editor who can turn your good content into great content.
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The more valuable you are to your audience, the more irreplaceable you become.

How to Lose to AI

Be vague.

Be general.

Hold back your best advice.

Talk about trends and industries instead of Jack and Mary.

Share opinions instead of experience.

I see "gym business advice" from robots every day--and I see people reading it and believing it and saying "great article". Most of it is directionally correct, but not directive--like "survey your gym members". No one would argue with that, right?

But what do you ask your gym members? When do you send the survey? How long should it be?

What will you do with the results? How should you interpret the answers?

...should you do it at all? Why or why not?

In time, search engines and media platforms will learn to filter the best content. Someday, schools might even teach students how to be skeptical about what they see online. Entrepreneurs will develop mental filters to help them filter the A+ material from the fluff.

Until then, we have a massive opportunity to stand out: to be better than the robots. To use the AI engines to push us to be more valuable. Start with the tips above.

Connect with Chris Cooper:

Website - https://businessisgood.com/