Quick reminder - if you live in the US and need better + cheaper health insurance (among other benefits), join us tomorrow (Sept 10 at 9am PT) for our free seminar with EssentL.

They're the first company offering corporate quality, group-rate (i.e. better priced) health insurance for Creators. They’re founded by Creators too, and I'm proud to be helping them get the word out as an advisor. See you tomorrow!

P.S. I'm going to start doing one of these live seminars weekly, so if there are specific companies or Creators you want to hear from, hit reply and let me know.

I had a really petty moment last week.

I wrote a LinkedIn post I thought was brilliant, without AI, and then watched as it got all of 15 engagements.

Then scrolling through my feed, I saw a colleague with a much smaller audience post something that was so obviously written by AI. It made me physically shake my head…until I saw that it had over 100 engagements.

I literally deleted the LinkedIn app (petty, I know…I redownloaded it a few hours later).

But I've been thinking about it since then, and I've come to a conclusion:

This is fine.

AI is concentrating wealth and displacing jobs globally, but it's also creating opportunity for people using it strategically.

Stanley, built by the Stan team, has become the go-to for LinkedIn thought leaders. I subscribe, and I've used it - it's great to help me brainstorm post ideas and get a first draft. The “problem” is, it writes everything in the broetry that everyone hates about LinkedIn.

So, I take its output, strip the AI tells (em-dashes, “Not X but Y”, “in the ever-evolving landscape”, etc.) and make it good…IMHO.

And then those posts “fail” - at least by standard engagement metrics, when compared to my peers.

See, meanwhile, my colleague getting over 100 engagements is obviously using Stanley without even editing. Generate and post, must be nice.

I know it’s petty, but I hate it.

And yet…I shouldn’t. They're playing smarter than I am.

My colleague isn't monetizing their content; they're selling a service, and the content is just marketing for that service.

Also, LinkedIn itself is just a machine governed by an algorithm - so why would it like content produced by a human better than content produced by another machine?

It wouldn’t. And I’m guessing Instagram, YouTube, X, TikTok, and other social platforms are moving in the same direction..

The rules of the game have changed. Playing by the old rules is a sure way to lose.

If you, like me, are building a business, then it's time to consider playing by the new rules.

Here's the conclusion I've come to: social platforms are governed by AI algorithms. Machines decide what gets seen, where, and by whom - so who better to appease machines than other machines?

AI tools create in ways AI algorithms respond to. Thus, using AI makes sense - especially if you’re building a business and balancing income against creative.

Community, email, podcasts, and other non-algorithmic direct-to-audience platforms operate differently.

There it's more about the human connection. Maybe using AI is less necessary.

But there's a confounding variable:

What are you selling? Is it your content? Or yourself?

Because if you or your content is your product (e.g. if you’re an entertainer, influencer, tastemaker, expert, etc.) and you’re selling against your creative (e.g. brand deals), taste (e.g. affiliates), or knowledge (e.g. coaching) then generically-used AI could really devalue your brand.

After all, we all know that AI creates towards the median. It makes you better if you're bad, but conversely it makes you worse if you're good - unless you’re really aggressively curating and editing, in which case it’s less a co-pilot and more a production tool.

That's not how the vast majority of people are using it, though (it should be, but that’s for a different post).

If your business is selling some other product or service - e.g. digital products, merchandise, professional services, etc. - and you're using content to build awareness and drive sales, then it makes more sense to use AI. You're reducing creative quality but gaining speed and algorithmic-compatibility i.e. reach.

That’s is how we arrive at my Platform-Product AI Content Framework for how to think about using AI in your content:

Content (or yourself) as product on algorithmic (social) platforms: This is the hardest position to be in, frankly. You probably really care about your creative quality, vision, and taste…but the reality is, the algorithm probably doesn't. I would tell you to let AI take the lead, but you probably won't listen, and I respect that. Maybe try for balance, and use AI to increase your reach with the goal of moving your audience to an owned platform where you can make what you want without worrying about the machine.

Content as product on non-algorithmic (owned) platforms: Unless your creative category is AI-driven - e.g. AI animation - you don't need to rely on AI. The audience you have on your “owned” platforms likes your content, so put your creative energy into the content and only use AI to the extent that you think it makes your content better.

Content as marketing on algorithmic (social) platforms: Use AI shamelessly. Machines talking to machines will help you get the distribution you want to the audience that matters so you can sell more. Yes, you should probably have a minimum quality threshold, but ultimately what matters is selling your product or service, so feel free to trade off quality for speed and reach - as long as it converts.

Content as marketing on non-algorithmic (owned) platforms: Test both and optimize for whatever drives the most conversions when constrained by your time available. For some, it means doing it yourself because your audience really trusts you. For others, it means using mostly AI because your product offering speaks for itself. There’s probably a happy medium - play around and see what works.

As with any framework, this is an oversimplification. Though there are four quadrants, each quadrant is really a spectrum.

For example, while I make most of my revenue from selling advising services, I also sell brand sponsorships, which require reach and quality. I additionally feel strongly that a big part of my brand - and thus, the reason companies hire me - is the quality of my writing, thinking, and expertise. Thus, while I do like using AI to help organize information and speed up drafting longer projects, everything I put out is mostly humanmade.

That means that on algorithmic platforms, I will always trade off machine appeal (i.e. algorithmic reach) for human appeal (i.e. higher quality).

Since that’s the choice I’m making, I will ultimately need to get comfortable seeing lower performance metrics compared to machine-aided peers.

I think as long as my bottom line is fine, I can live with that.

What about you?

Reply to let me know what you think.

Do you sell on TikTok Shop, or have you been thinking about it?

Most successful TTS Creators pay $3000 or 20% of their revenue to agencies for access to the ~3000 TikTok-approved products that are favored by the algorithm. I’m building out Creator Logic Shop, a community where I'll be offering this intel - straight from TikTok - for a low monthly fee ($29) and tiny commission on sales (5%) only on the products in the links I provide.

I'll also be pulling in sponsorship and UGC opportunities, so it will be a holistic monetization community that’s ideal if you’re hustling to generate revenue for a growing Creator business.

Events, articles, communities, and products that will help you build your business.

My good friend Justin Moore - the Brand Deal Wizard - is running his incredibly successful $10k Brand Deal Challenge later this week. It's for any creators with over 5,000 followers who aren't happy with their brand deal flow.

In this LIVE 7-day challenge (Sep 11-17), you’ll learn exactly how to position yourself as a valuable marketing partner and land your first PAID sponsorship this fall, and it includes a live pitch audit.

I took his course last fall and have made $50,000+ in brand deals since then. He's the real deal, so if brand deals are something you want to be doing more of, I highly, highly, highly recommend you sign up for this. He gave me a partner link, so if you do join, you’ll also be supporting Creator Logic!

Community events, news, and resource links. You are not alone.

About: Creator Logic was founded by Avi Gandhi - award-winning Creator agent, producer, and executive - with the mission of helping 1 million people find freedom in the Creator Economy