Can't sit still for long. Fabulous art by @sophillustrates
Happy Halloween week!
Last night, I did an AI TwinWorkshop with Cathi Tarbox | Solo AI X. Four women nerding out over AI on a Friday night 😀
What you get: a digital version of yourself in the form of a document, which you can then use across AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Bard, etc) so they create content in your voice, your style, using words you use, and with your audience in mind. I want ChatGPT to sound like me.
How it works: We had some homework to do before the two-hour class.
Fill in a detailed doc with writing links, business info, target audience, common words and phrases to use and avoid, etc.
Record a voice note of me talking about my biz so it can analyse my words and my voice.
I signed up late so only had an hour to do this, and the voice sample wasn’t detailed enough. I’ll do it again this week. CT said to do a 2/3-min ‘rant’ about your biz, values, goals, passions, challenges, etc, so it gets a sense of your personality and communication style.
She used my doc to feed ChatGPT (AI Twin GPT), so I got a live demo of how it works and things to look out for as you go through it. Some tips: Use Extensity to turn off browser extensions, as AI doesn’t seem to like them. It also has issues with Google Docs and can’t always read them, so try again or C+P your work.
We also had a bit of fun with it. Ask it to tell you jokes. ChatGPT can be lazy and refuse to work when overloaded!, so don’t take no for an answer. “It’s like a two-year-old toddler; you have to rein it in!”
Offer a $200 tip for a longer response or say you’ll fine it $10k if it doesn’t follow your commands – seems to work 😉
I need to watch the replay, refine my doc and voice note, and then I’ll rerun it. Let’s see.
Less time at my desk/on the laptop and phone – hands-free interaction. More travel, nature, in-person meetups, and networking.
More time with my daughter and fam. J will be off to uni soon! My parents are getting older.
Automating repetitive tasks and admin – email, socials, repurposing content.
Pricing comparison: I need help pricing a new service with different tiers so asked it for market rates. Also, brainstorming new products & services.
Substack growth. Data insights from my archive so I can tweak things.
A sparring partner and brainstorming buddy! A biz/financial coach in my pocket.
More solopreneur friends, especially locally. Pier 2 Peer networking in Hastings. I wfh mostly these days, and it’s lonely.
Personal development. I don’t remember books I’ve read unless I write them down. It can pull takeaways from talks, books, and courses and save them digitally.
Health stuff – I want a personalised AI health coach to help with my RA and advice for someone I love who has CLL.
I’ve been using ChatGPT as my main tool for a year or so now. I’ve upgraded so I can use voice chat (see if I can find a sexy male voice), build custom GPTs (btw, these are great lead magnets), and now we can do real-time collaborative editing in Canvas mode. You can see where this is going…
All this for just $20/mo. I’m blown away by what AI makes possible for us soloists—fun, creative, and empowering!
It’s good to see the rates increasing for training multilingual AI systems and LLMs. Earlier this year, I was offered $15-$20/hr for flexible work. This week, I was offered $80/hr from one platform—that’s more like it. Let’s see if it’s legit…
Can't sit still for long. Fabulous art by @sophillustrates
I just read about Dax Shepard’s estimated $80M deal with Amazon Wondery for the ‘Armchair Expert’ interview podcast. It’s been exclusive to Spotify since 2021, so good to see it available on other platforms again.
The deal, valued at an estimated $80 million, also includes plans to develop two new podcasts, a first look deal for future podcast ideas, plans to host livestreams, and rights to develop and sell Armchair Expert merch. The company will also launch video episodes of the podcast. [Hollywood Reporter].
No mention of his co-host Monica Padman in any of the headlines (she’s not on the cover art either), so I wonder what’s going on there. I’d be peed off if I were her unless it’s deliberate and she’s planning on branching out. Read the full post.
This was originally published on The Shift newsletter. For the full experience and to join the community, subscribe here.
AI or DIE was the theme at #FixFest (copywriting festival) in London this week. Just looking at what people have been saying online, how they’re feeling about all things AI, and what side of the fence they’re on.
AI is having a massive impact on the industry. Some clients want you to embrace it, others don’t want you using it at all – it’s hard to know where to position yourself. Leif Kendall at ProCopywriters is working on a ‘Code of Ethics’ for the community.
The hypothesis was this…. Could generative AI be used to bypass the years it takes for a poet to find their voice and actually go one step further in creating a democratised mass poetic voice from a room of copywriters?
Since 1999, I’ve been writing online and interviewing creative folks I admire about courage and craft. I love learning from others’ journeys & experiences and want to help more ambitious solo entrepreneurs—especially women—impact the world with their personal stories. And make a shit ton of money!
Inspired by the book ‘Bold Types: how Australia’s first women journalists blazed a trail’ in the fight for gender equality, I’ve launched the Bold Types Q&A series.
Christin is editor-in-chief of The Salvation Army in the western US, where she tells stories about people making an impact for good and prompts others to action. She holds a master’s degree in specialized journalism from the University of Southern California, has taught journalism, and helps creatives simplify their content strategies on Substack.
Welcome, Christin! ✨
What problem is ‘The Content Brief’ solving?
I help creatives simplify their content. Anything we create and share is an invitation to connect, and I want people to have a plan and a workflow that is exciting to show up for.
I hold a master’s in specialized journalism, have worked for nearly two decades leading a content marketing team for an international nonprofit, and taught journalism and communications as an adjunct professor. Content is what I eat, sleep and breathe if you will.
After helping friends strategize how they could better connect with the right people online around their makeup artistry, barbershop and even psychology practice, I saw how overwhelming this world of content is to people who aren’t necessarily in it daily. I enjoy helping people break it down into something more tangible, sustainable, and real-life approved, so I’ve taken up doing so here on Substack.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, frazzled, and frustrated with how you show up online… If you want to better connect (and convert) people to your ideas and your work…
The Content Brief is for you. I’ll help you take control of your content so you can stay in your zone of genius.
What’s always on your desk?
At my full-time gig, coffee, water, a Blackwing and my Airpods. At home, I’m often typing straight into my Notes app between baseball practice or bath time.
With three boys under six, I love and live by the Julia Cameron quote:
The ‘if I had time’ lie is a convenient way to ignore the fact that novels require being written and that writing happens a sentence at a time. Sentences can happen in a moment. Enough stolen moments, enough stolen sentences, and a novel is born—without the luxury of time.
I also printed out a screenshot of my first-ever paid subscription and put it in a little frame to remind myself I might be onto something, to keep going, and to keep finding ways to be helpful as I build this community.
What are you struggling with right now?
Time! I have so many ideas, but we all only have so much time, so I’m constantly reminding myself to focus on what moves the needle. This week, I am largely wrestling with delivering a virtual summit I’m hosting: The Content Spark Summit.
This free full-day event on Substack June 27 is meant to help you spark meaningful connection with your content. From understanding the importance of engagement to creating a content strategy you can’t wait to show up for to fostering genuine connection and leveraging your unique expertise and experience, 14 expert speakers will share what they know.
Just this other day, I saw this quote from Seneca: “You must match time’s swiftness with your speed in using it, and you must drink quickly as though from a rapid stream that will not always flow.”
He may have been a Roman philosopher, but the advice holds today:
Keep a bias toward action. It’s easy to hide behind planning, plotting, and perfecting (I know!), but the impact you want to make can never take hold until you actually take action.
Tell me about your newsletter strategy, its value to your business, and how you measure success.
Right now, I’m in an awareness-building phase, focusing on free subscribers, which is part of the strategy behind the summit.
There are three ways to engage with me at The Content Brief:
As a paid member, you get access to my quarterly content planning party, where I’ll help you plot out your next three months of content. The next one happens in August and will help you create a plan to show up consistently, with intention.
And as a paid member of The Briefing Room (the founding member tier), which I’m just about to launch, you get exactly what you need to design or redesign your newsletter content strategy with ease, including my exact simple content system, an all-in-one dashboard workspace, and a monthly brief on one specific thing to reset to keep your strategy fresh. It’s all designed to save you a lot of time and frustration so you can have a bigger impact with your newsletter.
I’m also building in ways to collaborate and share with other creatives. I hope The Content Brief becomes a vibrant community that supports each other in what can sometimes be a lonely endeavor.
What important truth do very few people agree with you on? Or your ‘spiky point of view,’ Wes Kao calls it.
Providing value doesn’t mean having all the answers.
Creative work that inspires an audience and builds a community (and business) doesn’t require anything stunt-like, viral or wildly innovative.
We don’t have to show up as “experts,” with all the answers ready to guide others to the big transformation. Trying to do so often leads to becoming another faceless creator of tips & tricks and *value* in some Wikipedia-esque, robot-generated “I have it all figured out” status quo.
And the problem is…that says nothing of the journey.
You could have the most well-researched writing in the world, but if it feels like nothing more than a robot production, it won’t get read.
Conversely, you could write about your life as a dog walker, and if you’re asking questions that take us on a journey and leading a conversation from your perspective, every word will get read.
To provide value, you need curiosity, questions, and a yearning to explore. It means being willing to lead the conversation and invite us on the journey of an idea in real time through your content. People don’t want to see processes, deliverables, skills. We want to see perspective, relationship, transformation—and that means your point of view, personality and perspective.
Last week, I wrote about why I hate the word ‘content’. It’s become a catchall term for everything we make—words, video, audio—invading everyday talk and devaluing the creative process. What’s your take on it?
This is SUCH an interesting question and a sentiment I’ve seen pop up recently. I’ve never thought of it negatively. I think of it like the word “box”—a catchall term that encompasses so many different specific things but one word that gives you the gist.
I’m sure some of the negative vibes toward the word come from the push for “top ranking” and “click-worthy” content that doesn’t deliver, but for me, it’s just a succinct way to describe the many ways we invite people to connect with us.
That’s what content is, in my view, whether it’s a newsletter, podcast, social post, and so on.
When you create and share something, you invite others to connect with you about your ideas and work. Of course, if you are specifically a podcaster or a novelist, say that. Lean into concrete specifics over summary words whenever you can.
How have you shifted from ‘creating content’ to ‘building community’ on Substack?
With a relatively new newsletter on Substack, I came in knowing I wanted to build a community. I love to plan parties. I love to build everything around a specific purpose. To carefully word the invite. To think through the menu. To find the right party favor. To design the table. To welcome everyone in. To surprise and delight. To make them feel loved.
I feel the same about crafting my own little club right here on Substack. Building a newsletter and community is the ultimate gathering. And I’m here to party. 🎉
Can you recommend some resources for entrepreneurs?
The Elements of Style by Strunk & White—I love this illustrated version of the classic go-to guide for writers on how to “make every word tell.” (It’s also one of my favorite gifts for the creative types!)
Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller—The best how-to I’ve seen on using words to talk about your product or service. It’ll help you define a clear message on how you can help potential customers. Worth re-reading annually. (Here’s my full list of favorite books to improve your writing for more.)
Hype Yourself, for learning how to generate your own buzz.
Are you using AI tools? If so, how are they helping you work better/save time?
Yes! I call Chat GPT my intern. I love using it to prompt my thinking, research subjects, synthesize interviews, and spot holes in them. It also helps repurpose my hero content into supporting pieces.
My goal is to create one Substack post a week and then repurpose it into snippets and teasers for my supporting platforms. To help save time prepping those shorter pieces, here’s a basic starter prompt I use:
I am a [what do you do], and I need to create a social media post based off a newsletter I previously wrote. The audience is composed of [your audience.]
Use this text to write 3-5 short-form teaser pieces of content for [platform] that highlight the main points, benefits or offers of this newsletter. Ensure the tone is [your tone].
Include a CTA at the end to subscribe to my newsletter, [your newsletter name].
Not bad for a first pass. I always edit the intern’s work for quality and to sound more like me, but the beauty is you’re not starting from scratch.
Best coffee & coworking in your town?
I haven’t done any local coworking, but my favorite coffee shop to work in is The Boy & The Bear in Redondo Beach, California. It has an aesthetically pleasing dark, earthy, “let’s get to work” vibe and good coffee. Win-win.
I’ve been reading the new report on creator remuneration from the Culture Committee—a good summary of the issues and potential solutions, which the NUJ’s Freelance organisers have commented on here.
✅ A Freelance Commissioner to advocate for creative people and the self-employed, for legal protection & rights, and to address outdated copyright and IP regulations. Yep – it’s urgent.
✅ Tackling stagnant fees—some companies are paying the same rates they did 20 years ago and generally rubbish rates across the sector. I had to chuckle (and cry) at our Swedish colleagues’ cake celebrating ’20 years at the same pay rate.’
✅ A UK private copying scheme to remunerate creators such as the Smart Fund, which safeguards payments from abroad.
✅ AI and creators: “The Government must ensure that creators have proper mechanisms to enforce their consent and receive fair compensation for use of their work by AI developers.” (You can block AI training on Substack, which “may limit your publication’s discoverability in tools and search engines that return AI-generated results.”)
Good stuff. Let’s share it about and fix it for freelancers! We have a manifesto at #FairDeal4freelances, which includes a charter of freelance rights that the self-employed should enjoy. Gov has two months to respond to the report.
Self-employed rockstars make up a significant part of the creative workforce. I read that more than one million over 50s now work for themselves despite the pandemic’s impact on self-employment [IPSE]. Folks who want to start their own biz or have had enough of the 9-5.
Yet we lack a single voice to represent our interests in government. And support and biz training generally, which is why we have such active unions, small biz orgs and freelance communities.
AI and creative work
This week, we had a lively meeting on AI and creative work with speakers Laurence Bouvard from Equity (actress and computer scientist) and John Sailing from the Writers’ Guild. Interesting to hear about Equity’s successful campaign #StopAIStealingtheShow. The NUJ is also developing an AI toolkit for writers; watch this space.
Laurence said part of the problem is that the gov doesn’t understand the tech/AI and that there’s a general malaise: “People just don’t care.”
It’s not that we don’t care, but it feels futile; the horse has already bolted. AI is here to stay; the companies already have our data, and what’s depressing is they’re so hungry for new data (i.e running out) that they’re now developing ‘synthetic’ info—i.e. training AI on text generated by AI (this NYT article went viral).
They hope that bringing different AI models together will solve the data problem and that “it should be alright.”
Where will it end?
I agree with Laurence that it isn’t just about protecting jobs (AI will create new jobs—I’ve had recruiters reach out for help training AI systems for $15 an hour!) but about protecting what it means to be an artist and writer—and keeping the human at the heart of it.
And protecting our planet – can you imagine how much power these machines are using?
Things I enjoyed this week
▶️ Death of the follower & the future of creativity on the web with Jack Conte [SXSW]. Amazing keynote and storytelling. His thoughts on the arc of the internet, how it will continue to evolve, and Patreon’s place in it. A call to make beautiful things that light you up and go deeper with your ‘true fans’ rather than chasing followers/algos/other people’s agendas. Love his passion. Go Jack!
▶️ The #1 Neuroscientist: After listening to this, your brain will not be the same [Mel Robbins]. Practical tips on how to trick your brain into manifesting your goals and desires and using manifesting as a tool for success, happiness, and better health. Dr. Tara has a knack for simplifying science and making it fun.
▶️ I’m analysing 49K Substack newsletters [Newsletter Circle]. Understand the newsletter space and other creators’ behaviours and strategies in this new report. I’m enjoying Ciler’s work and love that she’s dreaming big. Her goal is to create a full-fledged media company for newsletter creators.
▶️ Axios sees AI coming, and shifts its strategy [NYT]. “The premium for people who can tell you things you do not know will only grow in importance, and no machine will do that.” Spot on, Jim. Axios is focusing on live events, a membership program centring on its star journalists and an expansion of its high-end subscription newsletters. Can’t wait to see how this plays out.
▶️ NylonMagis getting back into the print biz and relaunching its physical magazine for the first time since 2017. Back on the newsstand on April 16 with cover star Gwen Stefani to celebrate their 25th birthday.
It may be less frequent (bi-annual) and more of a coffee table magazine, but that’s not a bad thing. Quality over quantity is better for the planet. A keeper!
I’ve been enjoying reading physical magazines lately—I have to give my eyes a break. Seriously, I look up, and I can’t see! 😱 We’re not built to sit and stare at a screen all day.
Have a great week.
Nika 🙂
PS. I’m compiling a list of niche media events – newsletter conferences, creator events etc. If you have any recs, let me know.
Hi, I’m Nika! 👋
I run Firebird, the content consultancy helping entrepreneurs impact the world with their stories. Life is too short to play small.
Nika Talbot 