Use AI as Your Assistant, Not Your Replacement

Ai can help you move faster , think clearer and create more , but the trick is you have to use it right , and in this episode I'm going to break down how I'm using tools like ChatGPT , cloud Replexity and some other creative assistants Not as full-on creative replacements , but assistants and how you can

too . So by now we're all familiar with AI tools like ChatGPT .

There's also a little bit of like tool fatigue , I think , going around where you know every app seems to be integrating AI and it's kind of overwhelming Not only how to use these tools , but subscription fatigue , like you've got to subscribe to all these different things and do they really help you or are they just trying to take your money ?

And I think a lot of creators just kind of fall back on over relying on these tools because they get comfortable with it and they lose some authenticity . And I dislike that because I think what is going to make creators stand out in the future is not copying and pasting everything .

It's going to have a really unique angle and if you use AI the wrong way , it's going to dilute your unique angle . Ai should make your voice louder , not drown it out . So let me go over , at a high level , some of the AI tools I'm using . It's going to sound like a lot and I'm not making any recommendations here .

I just want to give you an overview of what's out there if you're not already familiar with it . So we have ChatGPT Everyone's familiar with that . That's your reliable all rounder for creative writing , ideation planning . Some people use it as a therapist . People get creative with it .

Then there's Claude , which is somewhat more of a writing tool , very similar to ChatGPT but has somewhat more of a writing tool , very similar to ChachiBT but has somewhat more of a thoughtful tone . A lot of people like to use it for long form writing has more human-like responses . Then there's Perplexity , which is fantastic for research and citations .

It's replaced Googling things . For me , you can change the model within Perplexity . So , say , I search for something , I can use Perplexity's AI model , or I could use Chachabiti's , or I could use DeepSeek's . It's really handy , I love it . And then there's Google Gemini , which , funny enough , like I don't think the strongest of any of these tools .

One thing , though , that's gotten really better , especially in like the last week is its ability to edit photos . For example , I went on Fiverr and I was trying to have someone edit one of my Apple Memojis it's kind of like an emoji of yourself that you make and I paid a couple people to edit the LA Dodgers logo on my Memoji hat and nobody could get it .

I was just like wasting money . But this new latest Google Gemini update first try in 10 seconds added the LA Daughters logo to my Apple Memoji . I'm not a fan of Google Gemini for like research and things like that , but when it comes to image generation or image editing , it's been pretty cool .

Then there's Grok , which is from XAI and it's kind of like a mixture of ChachiBT Claude Perplexity . It does some image generation too , but I've been using Grok more so for social listening because it has access to X .

So if I want kind of to get the pulse on how people are thinking about something , I'll hop on Grok and ask you know , what are X users saying

about blank , and it can get real-time data by looking out on X and see what people are saying , synthesizing that and giving it back to me . So there's five tools right there , left unchecked . You could just like use just one of these tools to outsource all of your creativity and just input it information and do what it tells you .

But there's a huge problem with that because when you write a prompt or if you're , you know , inputting things to the chatbot , it has a specific goal that might differ from your specific goal , meaning like , say , for example , I wanted it to write a podcast episode for this podcast .

The goal of the chatbot , regardless of which one I'm giving here , is going to be to please me . It's going to want to give me an episode that I am happy with , not what you're happy with , not that it will serve you best , which is my goal , is to make an episode that serves you best , and that's a subtle but very , very important

difference to highlight . The goal of the AI chatbot is to please me , not my audience , and it will lie to me , saying , yes , I think this is perfect for what your audience would like .

And if I don't use my human judgment or even know what to judge and be like you know what this isn't right , then I start to lose that touch between me and what I'm doing . I basically become a slave to the AI .

Now , that's not to say it doesn't come up with fantastic ideas because you think about like a writing room , for example , right , or like a really good tv show like Severance . If you've been watching that , having just finished season two , I can't help but just think like what the writing rooms looked like like .

How did they come up with all these unique storylines and things ? And , as creators , we're often by ourselves during the writing process , so it's nice to have something to bounce ideas off of .

But just like as if you were in a writing room , if you just went with like the first idea that popped up , you're probably not going to have the best ideas , because some ideas need to be challenged and not every idea needs to be executed on .

So the same thing comes to when you're working with AI is to not believe the first thing it says back , to push back , and what you'll find if you haven't already is that sometimes , when you push back , the AI chatbot will go actually you're right and it will start to become more clear , because we think we're being clear sometimes in asking for what we want ,

but we're really not . We're leaving out key details , we're letting the AI fill in gaps that we probably shouldn't be and again , next thing you know , your unique angle is vanished from the piece that you're working on and you wonder , hmm , why is this not working out for me ?

So here's a few ways I've been using AI as my creative assistant that I'd like to share with you . So I use AI when coming up with a prompt , just like how I shared a second ago that often we're not that great at asking for what we want .

You can be aware that you're not that great at asking for what you want and still not be that great at asking for what you want . Just because you know you're aware of the problem doesn't mean that you fix the problem . And so , for me , the same thing like I think I'm explaining what I want pretty well until I actually workshop what I want .

To put it simply , before I even get to like the writing part , I work on the prompting part .

I'm using AI to like brainstorm angles , different titles , different ideas , and I'm starting to shape what it is that I want , because I found , through the process of shaping what it is that I want , I started to get clear of what it is that I'm creating , who it's for , and that helps shape the draft in the next part .

So what this looks like in action is like asking AI to help me refine or clean up a prompt that I'm going to ask in the next phase when it comes to structuring things maybe an outline or questions I should be addressing or what order I should place things in and I'm not looking for AI to get it perfect right off the bat .

So what I'll do is like a brain dump and then I'll say , clean this up and turn it into a prompt that I can ask ChatGPT and then it will clean it up and I'll notice sometimes like it gets it wrong . I'm like that's not what I wanted , or I'll delete this , or oh , you know what .

I forgot to include this , but what it gives me is better than what I had . It's my assistant . It didn't replace my thinking

. I didn't just ask it one line and it gave me back a whole bunch of things . I want to give it as much information as I can so that it can be equipped to clean up as much as I can . I can delete some things , maybe add some things . So I'll take that prompt , put it into a new chat and then ask more about what I want .

Right , and give it the context of what it is that I'm creating . After that , what most people do is just copy it and then publish it . But that's a mistake . You have to think about the context . It doesn't matter if it's a text message , an email , a video script , a title for a podcast episode . Whatever it is . You are the owner of that , not the AI .

The AI does not care what happens next After it completes its job . All it's trying to do again is make you happy . But your job , as the owner of the outcome of whatever it is that you're creating , is that it's captured by your audience , that it's understood by your audience . And you can't get lazy here .

You can't just be like well , I don't know if I trust what . I think . I trust more the AI .

If you get in that headspace , you're going to flatten your voice , you're going to lose out on what you could be gaining through all this work you're doing , of whatever it is that you're creating , and a simple routine to get into is , instead of just copying and pasting whatever it gives you is to rewrite it , whether you know just typing it out in like a

notes or whatever it is to let what it gives you and what you put out there filtered through you reading it and like typing it and it's a little bit extra work , yeah , but oftentimes when you're writing you're like I would never say it like that , and those are the little pieces that add up to be big pieces later on .

And what happens is you start to build a feedback loop of you critiquing the AI output .

Then you iterate on it and it becomes a co-creation process versus a I use whatever it gives me process , and not only will your content have more of your voice and be more unique and resonate with more people , you'll have a deeper understanding of what you like and what you dislike .

You'll effectively become a better content manager and curator and know in the future , like how you do things without being so reliant on AI that you feel incapable of even producing anything without it .

Some closing thoughts . I think these tools are absolutely amazing when used correctly , but I just am seeing every week people use them wrong or over relying on them and it's missing their voice , and it's from well-intentioned people that have a lack of trust in what they're saying . It's avoidable .

But at the same time , I do have some empathy , because these tools are brand new . We did not grow up with these things . Nobody has , like , taken the time to be like hey , here's how you use these groundbreaking , technologically advanced tools that can empower you . I'm curious what you think too .

As always , feel free to hop in the creator club and share your experiences , your tricks , your tips that you've found working with these AI tools . I'll catch you in the next one . If you're getting value from the show , if something you've heard here has helped you move forward as a creator , I'd love to ask for just a minute of your time .

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We're all just trying to make an impact . Thanks again for joining me today . Until next time , keep creating .