I’m going to be totally honest with you.
I wrote this email all by myself.
That wouldn’t be such a notable accomplishment for most of my life, but somehow in 2026 it seems like a big deal.
I don’t know if you have noticed the same trend that I’ve noticed…
How the voices of so many people I have loved learning from now all strangely sound the same?
I have spent enough time using chatGPT to instantly spot the nuances of how AI speaks. So when my favorite teachers show up in my inbox and I start to read their newsletter and hear those AI catch phrases I get a little sad.
Today I scrolled instagram and paused for a reel of someone I intentionally followed, and all I could hear in their perfectly scripted message (most likely being read from a teleprompter on their phone) was chatGPT.
What’s the point of me following them now?
What is most sad to me, is that I deeply love how every human has a unique and different personality. And the reason I signed up for a newsletter or followed someone was not so I could get an AI flavored clone of who they are.
For part of 2025 I used AI to smooth out my email newsletters. While I always write my first drafts myself, I fully confess to falling into the illusion that AI can say it better. That I’m not “good enough” on my own.
There were also a few emails I used in a marketing sequence last year that I didn’t write at all. (Selling is my least favorite content to write). I’ve trained AI on hundreds of examples of my past writing to know my voice well enough to be able to generate some content without writing a first draft. I felt a flood of shame when a friend reached out raving about one of those AI generated emails and I felt compelled to confess AI was the true author (even if it was trained by me on my own content and further tweaked by me afterwards).
I understand how AI can take away the burden of writing so people can focus on what they really want to do. But if writing is the part I personally love and teaching and sharing my perspective is part of my unique gift I can offer the world, why would I outsource it?
Because it’s faster?
Maybe we need a slow writing movement just like the slow food movement. Just because it’s faster doesn’t mean it resonates the same.
Last year I took an online course from Natalie McNeil called AI Dream Team, so I could learn more about how to ethically utilize AI in my business and train my own GPTs to play different roles in my business.
One of the most meaningful questions she posed in her course was something I’m still contemplating.
She said now more than ever we need to ask ourselves,
“What does it mean to be human?”
I could write an entire separate article on that question alone. For now, I feel compelled to share that for me, being human means being imperfect. Having some quirkiness. And perhaps, not sounding like a trained robot or too perfect. It also means working through the burden of writing because it stretches me and the resistance brings growth.
I’ve spent all morning writing this email. AI could have written it in ten seconds.
But…
It wouldn’t have sounded exactly like me and more importantly I wouldn’t have gotten the transformation that sitting with my own thoughts and trying to work through it slowly on my own can bring.
Writing my weekly reflections for my newsletter is a spiritual practice for me. It connects me to something bigger and deeper than a ten second AI “prompt and churn” can replicate.
Authenticity is one of my highest core values. And if I’m repeatedly getting disappointed in my favorite teachers offering me an AI cloned version of their insight, then I need to ponder that deeply.
I do use AI for many things (especially after Natalie’s epic training). I love it for brainstorming ideas, planning, breaking things down into smaller projects, trouble shooting, organization, writing things I dread writing (like sales pages and marketing automations). I use it all the time and have so much gratitude.
And…
I’ve also decided to commit myself to an Authenticity Promise:
When it comes to my newsletter emails, substack articles, podcast/YouTube content, it will be 100% human.
There will most likely be grammar errors in my writing. I’ll probably stumble on my words sometimes or go down rabbit trails with long run on sentences or tangents just like I do when having conversations in real life…
And maybe that is part of the magic.
Especially when those perfectly imperfect conversations are now disappearing. I know it’s what my own soul is longing to hear from others so I’m committed to honoring this standard for myself.
If you too are wondering about the ethics of AI as well as how to utilize it in ways that feel correct and supportive for your unique life, then I highly recommend Natalie’s training. She’s offering a free webinar to dive into these same topics. I love her work so much I asked her if I could be an affiliate and share her work with you. She is my trusted mentor when it comes to all things futurist. I love her heart and values and ability to find the middle way.
In the meantime, I’d love to know your own thoughts. What does being human mean to you?
Comment in this thread HERE and the real me will happily respond.
You are loved.
Especially the most human parts of who you are.