I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
Using AI to write for you? Try this…
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Hey Reader, Happy New Year! I hope your holidays were restful and recharging. AI was a big topic last year, and it will continue to be a big topic in 2025. Especially for creators. One of the most obvious places to use AI is with writing. But as I’m sure you’ve noticed, AI-generated writing typically isn’t ready to use out of the box. That’s because there’s one important piece missing: You need great training materialWith many LLMs, like Google’s NotebookLM, you can upload a reference document. The key is to take a bunch of examples of your writing (articles, previous newsletter issues, guides, etc.) and compile them into a single PDF. Upload the PDF of your writing examples to the AI, and tell it to create a style guide. Tell the AI to reference this style guide whenever you want it to write new things. You can also instruct it to write for a 7th-grade reading level and it will stop using big words to try and sound smart. What you get will still need some tweaks, but it’s going to be a LOT closer to what you need than if you didn't provide any training material. The great news is, you don’t have to create the style guide from scratch yourself. Just ask AI to generate a style guide based on examples of your past writing. You can add or tweak the rules as necessary, but now you have something you can use to generate new writing. Here are a few examples of how I like to use training material with AI: Example #1: Kit messaging guideAt Kit, we have in-depth branding and messaging guides that help us maintain a consistent voice throughout all of our messaging. By uploading this messaging guide to whatever LLM I’m using, I can have it generate relevant messaging on any topic I need. In addition to generating written content, I also like to use this approach to have conversations with data relating to customers: Example #2: Customer personasWe run surveys at Kit to learn more about our customers and use that data to build out detailed personas. In our case, these personas include bloggers, YouTubers, musicians, photographers, artists, coaches, writers, etc. By compiling information about all of these personas into a PDF that’s fed to the AI, I can ask it questions and have conversations with each of the personas similar to how I’d speak with a person. Example #3: Customer storiesIn addition to personas, we also have an incredible library of creator stories. When I’m creating content, or putting together a presentation, I often want to include an example of a real person that illustrates one of my points. In the past, I’d have to ask someone on my team if they knew of any good examples. But now, I can have AI reference the library and quickly find the perfect story by asking, “Who’s a creator who had to stick with something for multiple years before they broke through?” Staying authenticWhen it comes to creating content, I always consider what’s generated to be a starting point rather than something that’s ready to send. (For the record, AI wasn’t used at all for the newsletter issue you’re reading). While AI may not be to the point where you’d want to use its output with zero editing, it can be a great tool for providing a starting point, helping you get unstuck, or improving your writing. It’s also worth keeping in mind that things are only going to improve from here. As they say, “This is the worst it’s going to be.” When it comes to the future of AI for creators, you obviously want to make sure you’re leveraging its abilities to avoid falling behind, but you also want to prevent yourself from being disrupted by it. That’s why I recommend writing stories only you can write. If you want to avoid being replaced by AI, tell stories that AI can’t tell. Go have real world experiences, do interesting things, and tell those stories. Use AI to improve your content rather than write it entirely. PODCASTMy Advice for Creator Businesses in 2025 (Q&A)In this episode, Haley from the Kit team joins me for our new Q&A format to explore building community, creating content, and growing your business in the creator economy. I answer your biggest questions about building creator businesses in 2025, including:
Watch or listen to episode » KIT FEATUREIntroducing Focus ModeEnjoy distraction-free writing with Focus Mode in Kit's editor. Say goodbye to visual clutter and hello to streamlined email creation. Whether you’re drafting a broadcast or sequence, Focus Mode helps you stay focused and productive—without leaving the platform. Try it today in your next broadcast or sequence and experience a cleaner, more modern way to write in Kit. X POSTCreator Economy State of PlayAs we look back on 2024, some trends for the creator economy emerge. I enjoyed this thread by Kevin Espiritu where he shares “what's REALLY happening in the creator space”—including some hot takes on:
Have a great week! —Nathan |
Nathan Barry
I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
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