I’ve been involved with online marketing for quite a while now.
Long enough to have tried different programs, different traffic methods, different tools, and probably more pieces of software than I care to count.
I’ve also seen plenty of promises.
You know the ones.
The latest system that’s going to change everything.
The opportunity you have to get into before midnight.
The secret traffic source nobody wants you to know about.
And, of course, the occasional button you’re apparently supposed to push before going to bed so you can wake up to discover your financial future has magically changed.
If only it were that easy.
Over the years, I’ve learned quite a bit about online marketing.
I’ve also made mistakes.
And lately, something unexpected has been helping me make sense of all of it.
Artificial intelligence.
But probably not in the way you’re thinking.
I Originally Thought AI Was Just Another Tool
When I first started using AI for my online business, I approached it much like most people do.
I would ask it to help me write something.
“Help me create a Facebook post.”
“Give me some ideas for an email.”
“Help me explain this better.”
And AI was pretty good at those things.
But after using it for a while, I started realizing I might be missing the most valuable part.
AI wasn’t just capable of giving me answers.
It could have a conversation with me.
So instead of simply saying:
“Write this for me.”
I started explaining what I was trying to accomplish.
I talked about things I had tried.
I explained what worked and what didn’t.
I talked about what frustrated me about online marketing.
I explained why certain marketing approaches bothered me.
And I started telling AI more about what I actually believed.
That’s when things got interesting.
AI Started Recognizing Patterns
After enough conversations, AI started pointing out patterns in what I kept saying.
One of the biggest was my frustration with hype.
I’ve never liked the idea that you have to pressure somebody into making a decision.
Buy before midnight.
Only three spots left.
This price disappears forever.
Everybody is making money except you.
I understand marketing.
I understand that businesses need to sell things.
But I’ve reached a point where I don’t want to build my business that way.
AI started noticing that this wasn’t just something I complained about occasionally.
It was part of my marketing philosophy.
The same thing happened with several other ideas I kept coming back to.
Help people first.
Give people something useful.
Don’t make ridiculous income promises.
Don’t pretend building an online business doesn’t require work.
Build relationships instead of constantly pitching people.
Stop chasing every new shiny object that appears.
Build something for the long term.
These weren’t rules AI created for me.
They were things I had been saying all along.
AI simply helped me see the pattern.
Then I Realized Something
This is the part that surprised me.
I thought I was teaching AI about me.
Turns out, some of the time it was helping me understand me.
That’s a very different way of looking at artificial intelligence.
We’re hearing constantly about what AI can create.
Images.
Videos.
Articles.
Emails.
Websites.
Software.
And those things are impressive.
But I’m beginning to think one of the most useful things AI can do is much less flashy.
It can help us think.
Not think for us.
Help us think.
There’s a big difference.
Maybe I Was Asking the Wrong Questions
For a long time, I was asking many of the same questions other online marketers ask.
How do I get more traffic?
How do I get more leads?
How do I get more people interested in my business?
What’s the best place to advertise?
What’s the best funnel?
What’s the best opportunity?
Those aren’t bad questions.
But AI started helping me look underneath them.
For example:
Who am I actually trying to reach?
That’s a very different question from:
Where can I get more traffic?
I could send 10,000 visitors to a website, but if they’re the wrong 10,000 people, what have I accomplished?
Then another question came up:
Why should those people pay attention to me?
That’s uncomfortable.
It’s much easier to blame the traffic source.
Or the Facebook algorithm.
Or the funnel.
Or the offer.
Sometimes those things really are the problem.
But sometimes maybe we’re simply talking to people who aren’t interested in what we’re talking about.
What If the Business Isn’t the Problem?
This became particularly interesting to me because I believe I’ve found a solid business to build.
But I wasn’t getting the attention I thought it deserved.
So what’s the natural reaction?
Maybe I need a different business.
That’s exactly how the shiny-object cycle begins.
Something isn’t working, so we go looking for something new.
New opportunity.
New traffic system.
New funnel.
New software.
New AI tool.
And six months later, we’re wondering why we’re still in exactly the same place.
Instead, I started asking a different question:
What if the business isn’t the problem?
What if I’m simply not communicating with the right people in the right way?
That’s a problem worth investigating.
Because changing businesses wouldn’t fix it.
AI Didn’t Make These Decisions for Me
I want to make something very clear.
AI didn’t tell me what I should believe.
It didn’t choose my business for me.
And it certainly doesn’t have decades of my life experience.
I bring that to the conversation.
My experiences.
My successes.
My failures.
My opinions.
My frustrations.
My values.
AI can then help me examine those things from another angle.
Sometimes it agrees with me.
Sometimes it raises a question I hadn’t considered.
Sometimes it helps me realize that two things I’ve been talking about for months are actually connected.
And sometimes I tell it I think it’s completely wrong.
That’s okay too.
I don’t want AI making my decisions.
I want it helping me make better decisions.
Stop Asking AI to Think for You
I think this may be where a lot of people are missing the real potential of AI.
We keep looking for the perfect prompt.
“Give me the prompt that will write the perfect Facebook post.”
“Give me the prompt that will create the perfect sales page.”
“Give me the prompt that will build my business.”
I’m becoming less interested in perfect prompts.
I’m becoming much more interested in better conversations.
Instead of:
“Write me a Facebook post about getting traffic.”
What happens if I explain:
Here’s what I’ve tried.
Here’s what happened.
Here’s who I thought I was reaching.
Here’s what bothers me about the way other people market this.
Here’s what I believe.
Here’s what I’m trying to accomplish.
What am I missing?
Now we’re having a completely different conversation.
And that’s where AI has become much more valuable to me.
AI Is Helping Me Find My Own Voice, Not Replace It
There’s an irony here.
People worry that using AI will make everyone’s content sound the same.
And if we all type the same generic prompts into AI, they’re probably right.
But I’ve discovered the opposite can also happen.
The more context I give AI about who I am, what I believe, what I’ve experienced and what I’m trying to accomplish, the more useful our conversations become.
AI isn’t creating my values.
It’s helping me articulate them.
It’s not replacing my experience.
It’s helping me make better use of it.
And it’s not building my business for me.
It’s helping me think more clearly about the business I want to build.
I’m Still Figuring This Out
I don’t have all the answers.
Actually, that’s becoming part of the point.
Maybe we spend too much time online looking for people who claim they have all the answers.
I don’t.
I’m someone who has been involved in online marketing for a while, has tried a lot of things, made some mistakes, learned some lessons, and is still figuring things out.
AI has simply given me a fascinating new way to examine what I’ve learned.
And I’m going to start sharing more of that journey here.
Some of it will be about online marketing.
Some will be about traffic.
Some will be about hype and why I think it’s hurting our industry.
Some will be about finding the people we’re actually trying to help.
And some won’t have anything to do with business at all.
Because I’m discovering that the real value of AI may extend far beyond writing another Facebook post.
I thought I was teaching AI about me.
Turns out, some of the time it was helping me understand me.
And I’m beginning to think that’s just the start.
