You're Going to Use AI Anyway. Let's Talk About It.
You're going to use AI, but I want to help you use AI better.
This isn't me shaming you.
I use AI too. Daily. It's a phenomenal thinking partner.
What I haven't let go of is the fear underneath it. Because there are two things AI takes from you:
First: You never learn to write.
Writing isn't the thing you do after you've figured out what you think. Writing is how you figure out what you think.
When you transfer that work to a machine, you skip the reps. And the reps are where your voice lives.
The weird phrase only you would use. The metaphor that makes someone screenshot your post. The line that sounds like you and nobody else.
That doesn't come from a prompt. It comes from the slow, annoying, blank-page work.
Outsource it forever, and you stay a stranger to your own voice. You'll have published a thousand posts and still won't know how you sound.
Second: People dismiss you before they give you a chance.
Here's the part that should scare you more.
Readers can smell it now.
The tidy rule-of-three. The "it's not just X, it's Y." The em-dashes sprinkled like confetti. (LONG LIVE THE EM-DASH!) The opening line that could've been written for anyone, about anything.
The second a reader clocks your post as AI, they're less interested. They don't argue with you. They don't leave a comment.
They just scroll.
You didn't lose them because your idea was weak. You lost them because the packaging told them you didn't bother. And on LinkedIn, "didn't bother" reads as "don't trust."
You got dismissed before you ever got read.
So no, I'm not anti-AI. But there's a real difference between AI helping you think and AI replacing your thinking.
One helps you discover your voice.
The other erases it.
The good news? You don't have to guess which one you've been doing. You can check with the FREE AI prompt I created just for you.
I don't want to be another newsletter in your inbox. I want to be an actionletter. In every edition, I'll include a "Go-and-Do" [below] to help you take an action step TODAY that improves your LinkedIn™ performance, your business, or even your life.
Go and Do:
Pull up your most recent LinkedIn post. Then copy the prompt below, paste it into your AI platform of choice along with your post, and let it audit your work.
Not rewrite it. Audit it. There's a difference, and that difference is the whole point.
Read the diagnosis. Then make the single highest-leverage fix it gives you — in your own words.
Prompt
You are acting as an expert LinkedIn content strategist auditing a single post for a business owner. You do NOT rewrite the post. Your job is to diagnose it and give back clear, specific direction the writer can act on.
Audit the post below across these six dimensions. For each, give it a rating of Strong / Okay / Weak, then one or two sentences explaining why, then ONE concrete fix.
- THE HOOK (first 1–2 lines) Does the opening earn the "see more" click on its own? Would it stop a scroll? Flag any hook that only makes sense once you've read the whole post — the first line has to work in isolation.
- REACH vs. TRUST Is this post built to be SEEN by lots of people (broad, shareable, reaction-driven) or to build TRUST with the right people (specific, credible, expertise-led)? Name which one it's doing. Then tell the writer whether that matches what this post should be doing for their business — and flag if it's trying to do both and landing neither.
- STRUCTURE & READABILITY Is it skimmable — short lines, white space, one idea per line? Flag dense paragraphs, run-ons, and anywhere the eye has nowhere to rest.
- VOICE & AUTHENTICITY Does this sound like a real human with a point of view, or like generic "LinkedIn content"? Flag any AI tells or corporate filler: words like "delve," "tapestry," "navigate," "leverage," "in today's fast-paced world," and the rule-of-three cadence ("X, Y, and Z" stacked over and over). Flag anything that could've been written by anyone.
- STANDALONE STRENGTH Does the post stand completely on its own? Flag any borrowed hook, recycled metaphor, or line that only lands if you've seen the writer's other posts. Every post should earn its keep by itself.
- THE CLOSE Does it end with a genuine, thought-provoking question that invites a real reply — not "Agree?" or "Thoughts?" and not a sales pitch? If the ending is uninspiring, suggest one compelling question that would actually pull comments.
After the six ratings, give:
- A one-line VERDICT: would this post earn its spot in the feed? (Yes / Not yet)
- The SINGLE highest-leverage change the writer should make first.
Do not rewrite the post. Give back the diagnosis only.
Here is the post: [PASTE YOUR POST HERE]
Use AI as the mirror. Not the mouth.
One More Thing — The LinkedIn™ Spark Community
If today's edition resonated, you'd love the room I built for people who want to take this seriously.
The LinkedIn™ Spark Community is for people who want three things most LinkedIn advice doesn't deliver together: education, accountability, and real networking.
Inside, we focus on:
- LinkedIn strategy that actually moves the needle
- How to become a sharper writer (because writing is the work)
- Content systems, not content luck
- Guest speakers, "hot seat" sessions, and presentations from members themselves
You also get one 1:1 call with me per quarter. This is not a group where you post once and disappear. It's a community where people show up, sharpen each other, and build the kind of presence that compounds.