In an Era of A.I., Developing Your Tone of Voice and Personal Style Matter More Than Ever

I have some gentle yet firm words about AI and the people I most want to uplift (actual experts).

I’m in a mastermind of accomplished marketing entrepreneurs. A few of these impressive humans (and I am also there, for some reason) recently voiced their concern that they're not sure how they're different from AI in their content. They were worried because they've each been able to train AI tools to sound like them, and when they realize how closely the tool does indeed mimic them, they question themselves.

As the resident creative and storyteller of the bunch, I had two things to say—which I say to you too.

1) YOU trained it.

YOU helped the tool figure out what to say and how to say it. YOU are the source material. I mean, I'd also be able to mimic you if you invested the time to train me on various prompts and source materials, because I am a good writer. So what? Who cares? You’re still you, and if anything, now you’re you with an intern who can sound like you.

Lord knows you can’t afford me to post to LinkedIn under your name 😝

2) You TRAINED it.

You fed it your content and went, “Sound like me.” You took actual time to try and articulate things about your tone and style, or else you asked the AI tool some questions about what it noticed about those things. But how often did you do that before? How much time have you actually spent to figure out your tone and style? Forget clarifying it to an AI tool. Clarify it to yourself. Make it overtly knowable and usable and improvable. Have you ever considered that maybe more important than learning any technology is learning yourself? To wield what you uniquely offer this world more proactively, consciously, consistently? To PRACTICE it proactively, consciously, consistently?

Because your favorite voices do that.

They understand the insane ROI of doing it, in fact.

They spend hours upon hours learning to sound like themselves in their writing, and then they spend even more time figuring out how to translate their voices through other mediums, like speaking and podcasting and video. And they do this stuff proactively, consciously, consistently.

Sure, maybe they’re not going, “Time to figure out how to sound like me!” But they pay attention. They notice things about their work and learn to replicate that work without too much effort over time. But before all that time, it does take effort.

Your favorite voices actually work on things most people consider “soft skills," because really, they are foundational skills. They are mission-critical skills. URGENT skills. In this era especially. they may be the only skills actually worth investing in mastering. So they work on them. Proactively. Consciously. Consistently.

So go easy on yourself, friend. You’ve been flying by the seat of your pants, gut feeling forward, never stopping to actually consider or practice any of this. Yet you've still made it this far? You friggin’ star, you.

We’re entering an age where basic expertise is ubiquitous. You can find it everywhere, instantly. Competency is a commodity. Buyers don’t pick you for those reasons. They pick you because they feel connected to you. Forget being “the best.” Be their favorite. It is your voice, not your knowledge, which does that. When others feel drawn to you, they are drawn to their only means of accessing you: your voice, written and spoken.

So of COURSE that's worth investing in.

Proactively. Consciously. Constantly.