"Yours are the only emails I actually open and read" - a regular reply in my inbox since 2009...and I'll bet in yours, too, once you subscribe and learn by pure, lazy osmosis to become the most compelling writer around. That said, no promises on improving your moral character.
Is this a parody??? Hard to tell these days.
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I talked Wednesday with an online marketing expert who told me the way to make my millions going forward is by selling you AI systems to write your marketing/newsletter emails for you. “That’s what people want,” this person said. “They want to take all the writing off their plate.” Girl. NOT MY PEOPLE. The rise of generative AI has clarified something for me (besides that it can suck a lint-covered lollipop): I’m for people who want to write. Who love to write, or want to love to write. And who take pleasure and pride in becoming better and better at it. As I write this, I’m getting ready for my first NYC writing retreat, Bingeworthy Live, on Sunday and Monday, followed by our annual Shrimp Club retreat on Tuesday. It’s going to be a creative bonanza, and that’s what attendees signed up for. My people want to heap the writing on their proverbial plate, not take it off. My Shrimp Club members must already be pre-feeling the effects of the event, because our hot seat call this week was an absolute inspiration fest. Several shared the most powerful written work I’ve ever seen from them. Steph Oswald shared a beautiful Substack post about her childhood love of horses. (Big up to the Claremont Stables on the UWS.) Alex Darby, who offers body and business mentoring using Human Design, let me review a chills-giving origin story about her mom’s breast cancer diagnosis and then her own. Kathryn Hastings — who’s all about that analog life and is now enjoying steady 100k months from her fine-art wax-seal business — read us Chapter 2 of her book on letter writing and the beauty of old-fashioned things. Her words were gorgeous. Let’s just say, AI could never. At the end of my Zoom with the marketing expert, he played me an AI ad — I suppose to show me what AI can create. Stock video images of a mom with her baby, a man in his corner office, a woman eating out of Tupperware on the bus to work. All with a serious male voiceover about how you need energy and sleep to do that important thing you do. It felt like a pre-filmed SNL parody. Back to the mom, now loading groceries into her hatchback, the man on his morning run, the bus woman training clients in a gym. Then, the product: magnesium pills. The video ended. “So? What do you think?” Pretty sure the guy expected goosebumps. A friend had connected us so he could offer insights on my evergreen webinar, and he’d been very generous with his time. I offered the kindest truth I could come up with: “I think it’s a solid, generic ad for magnesium, and very obviously AI. But those buyers probably aren’t looking for a unique voice or point of view from their supplement brand.” If that’s the pool you’re swimming in and you want AI to do the creative, have at it. Vaya con Dios. If, on the other hand, you care about making your work an outlet of self-expression and puke at the thought of letting AI’s output represent you, stick with me. xoLaura PS - The next round of Shrimp Club opens for applications this summer — but last year, thanks largely to Brenna McGowan’s guidance, I filled 80% of spots before it even officially launched. So if you’re considering it, get ready for surprise early-bird opportunities. Click here to get on the VIP interest list.
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Thank you for reading and sharing, |
Laura Belgray (Talking Shrimp)
"Yours are the only emails I actually open and read" - a regular reply in my inbox since 2009...and I'll bet in yours, too, once you subscribe and learn by pure, lazy osmosis to become the most compelling writer around. That said, no promises on improving your moral character.
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