Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: AI writes with a voice of its own, and your clients have already learned how to recognize it. The recycled phrases, the same three sentence patterns in every post, or the polish with nothing underneath. So today we're covering how to keep your voice when AI writes the first draft and how to separate your content from the flood of AI slot.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: This is part three of our AI for Agents series, and this one protects the trust that you've been building with your audience. I'm Jo Barker.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: And I'm David Belleville.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: And this is the Amerilife Marketing Mentors podcast. Foreign.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: Jo. When you scroll past an Agent's content on LinkedIn or Facebook and you can tell that it's clearly coming straight from an AI chatbot, what goes through your mind and what's your impression of that agent?
[00:00:46] Speaker B: I think that's exactly what goes through my mind, is that this is an AI chatbot that's talking to me. So we've said it numerous times. If you're gonna create content, you're gonna. Or you're gonna put content out there. If you want someone to take the time to read it, at least take the time to write it. So even if you use AI as inspiration, you should still put your personal touch on there. It is a tell sign. And it's so easy to recognize, especially the people who don't edit it at all, and they just pull it right out of the AI. They post it right on there, and they're like, oh, that sounds great. Well, yeah, it might sound great for AI, but it does not sound great for you because it doesn't sound like you. So the authenticity and the trust factor come into play there, and you lose trust immediately to the point where I will not, like, respond to it, I won't interact with it. As soon as I recognize it, I keep scrolling. I'm like, nope, I'm done.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: And we'll get into some of those words and phrases that you should avoid. But as time goes on and we continue to learn more and more about AI, it just becomes easier and easier to recognize. And that holds true for your consumers, too. So just keep that in mind.
That's going to be the common theme as we have this discussion today. And, Jo, get this. A recent study by KPMG found that 66% of people do rely on that first AI output without editing it at all. And then on top of that, the same survey found that over half of consumers do not trust AI yet. Only 54% of consumers do not trust AI yet. So that's a problem if most people are just trusting that first response. But most consumers don't trust AI at all.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: I feel like it's got to be kind of like a learning curve. It's kind of like the first time that we started using social media.
You know, you see people who come over on LinkedIn for the very first time, and they've never really been on that channel before. And you can kind of tell because some of the things that they post don't really go with that channel and the, you know, typically what you see over there. So it's the same thing. I think as people are starting to utilize AI, they're forgetting that it's still. They still have to make it their own. And I think they see the ease of it, and they're like, oh, this is just so easy. It just wrote all of this for me. And then it has words in it they can't even pronounce. Like, it's. It's tough. And I believe that trust factor more than ever. I know you didn't mention it in that report, but I have to imagine that there are many reports out there right now that are showing that the trust factor and people losing trust is higher than it's ever been because of AI and the way that it's scripting information.
[00:03:03] Speaker A: And when we're talking about trust, it's even more important. In our industries, health and wealth are built on trust. And so if your audience can tell that the knowledge you're sharing isn't coming from you, then you're perhaps giving them a. Giving them an opportunity to question your knowledge to begin with. And, Jo, you and I are in this space every day. We use AI every day, and we're on social media every day. So we have developed an eye for this and an ear for this.
What is the first thing you notice when you can tell something is written by AI?
[00:03:34] Speaker B: The first thing I look for, or not even that I look for, that I recognize, is the EM dash. The EM dash is like the very first thing as soon as I see it. And what's sad is there's some people that actually have good grammar and know how to use it the right way, but not as many people as what is out there right now. So if you go to pre AI, it would actually be really cool to see that if you go pre AI and they were to do a survey of how many LinkedIn posts had the em dash, and then you go now and you look at it, I have to imagine it's like the Reddit usage where it's a straight Chart up because of how many people now use the EM dash. And what's really funny is if you ask the people who posted it and then you say, hey, do you know what an EM dash is? They have no idea. They're like, what's the EM dash? And we're like, you know, it's that dash that's the size of an M that's sitting in your content right now. And they're like, I have no idea. I didn't know that's what it was called. Kind of by example, like what it's called. And just for those who are wondering, the M dash is that dash that's in your content that you might be pulling out of AI that is the size of a capital M. That's why it's called the EM dash. It's basically like a dramatic comma. And so a cheat if you do pull AI is to go ahead and remove that and put a comma or a period and restart a sentence. It's that easy.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: Yeah. The frustrating part about this, though, is that AI is writing based off of writing best practices. So the EM dash is an example. It is, but AI typically overuses all of that. So whatever you would consider as a writing best practice, AI doubles and triples down on it, sometimes in the same paragraph. So that's where it becomes super noticeable was when there's eight em dashes in a single LinkedIn post, nobody pauses that many times.
Speaking of, like these AI tells the merelife marketing mentors has a list of banned AI words or words that we are very, very careful about using. And also there's sentence structures that are dead giveaways that your content is written by AI. So one really helpful tip that if you can. If you can incorporate it into your marketing strategy, is keep your own running list of those easy to tell AI words and phrases so that you're not getting, you know, yourself in muddy waters by accidentally publishing something that you can tell is AI. So, Jo, I'm gonna go through a few of these and let me know if you can recognize.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: I have a few in my head right now.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: Okay, well, why don't you start and I'll see if I have.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: Oh, it's probably not on there. But the number one for me, and this is just a personal thing, is familiarity. And I never say it right, which is I know it's always in there. And every time I see it and say it's in a script that we get and I'm supposed to say it, I'm like, guys, I can't say that word. I have to stop and think about how to say it. But it uses it all the time. And so now in my chatgpt or call, plot or co pilot, whatever, I'm like, never use this word because I can't pronounce it easily.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:09] Speaker B: But anyway, so that's one that I've always noticed that's in there.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: That's a good one. And that's also a good rule of thumb.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: Is it on the list though?
[00:06:14] Speaker A: It's not. So we'll add it that one. But that's a good rule of thumb and that's a tactic we often will share with, with our audience is speak out loud. Whatever AI is generating for you, and if it doesn't sound like something you'd say, then it needs a rewrite. And if familiarity. See, you gotta think about it is a word that you don't typically use, then you probably shouldn't publish it.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: It's the same. Just say that it's the same. It's familiar. That's it.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: Other tells, the word unlock is a big one.
[00:06:43] Speaker B: That one's brutal.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: And in the same family there. Unleash the word delve, harness, underscore, illuminate. This is a big, a big one for me. The word loudest, but not when you're talking about volume, like audio volume. So a lot of times when we're talking about marketing content by publishing a lot on social media, people will say, well, you're the loudest marketer. You know what I mean?
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Really? I hadn't seen that one yet.
[00:07:08] Speaker A: Also like unlock and all those.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: I unleash.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: What about. And honestly. Oh yeah, that's a big one too. So what we're getting at here is that these are just the most overused phrases. And AI tells, hold on, I have another one. Let's do it.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: So on LinkedIn and it's all the time now, so watch, you're going to start noticing it. It's the. Well, it's not this, it's this. It's ridiculous. It's almost like you can find it when you scroll. It's guaranteed. You're going to see that at least once. You don't have a this problem, you have a that problem. It's a telltale side. And I'm like, guys, come on. After 15 times of reading it, this, like today, just know AI is writing that. Yeah.
[00:07:43] Speaker A: And so it's obvious that as your audience continues to learn more about AI, as we all do, those tells get more and more recognizable. Now, Jo, now that we understand that there are tells out there. Let's talk about ways that you can avoid using them. And again, keep yourself safe when you're using AI to help with your writing. One thing that we always preach is speak to your AI, and you do that really well, better than anybody. Why do we want to do that?
[00:08:11] Speaker B: I like to do that, and I like to do the voice recording so it understands the way that I actually speak.
I'm a very direct speaker. I don't use fancy words. I. Some people say I'm a bit casual in the way that I speak, but that's how I speak. So the last thing I want to do is go onto LinkedIn or go onto any platforms and use fancy words that I wouldn't typically use in a conversation. So when I record and I give it to it as reference, it's so it knows, hey, this is how I talk.
And it gets better and better. To the point now with a lot of my AIs, and I've been using them for years now, I don't have to do a ton of editing because it knows me so well and it kind of already knows what it is that I'm looking for too.
[00:08:44] Speaker A: Yeah. When I. When I wanted to test out all the different LLMs as well, and as I do, I want to train them so that they understand my voice. And so most recently, I've been experimenting with Claude, and I've wanted to train Claude, and I've had IT interview me about my writing style. I have fed it content that I have written, and I've just explained how I like to communicate. You know, you and I do communicate differently. You are a little bit more frank, where I can tend to beat around the bush sometimes. Right. But that's just a fact. That's just a difference in communication styles. So I have to stay true to me, and I want my AI to do that as well. So that's another great tip for you, is just have IT interview you, but specifically about how you like to write. And.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: And also give it examples of old LinkedIn posts or Facebook posts that you did personally.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Right.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: Because the style of the way that you write should remain the same too. So if all of a sudden you go from those short, punchy paragraphs into long, descriptive paragraphs, people will notice that because the way that you present now all of a sudden changed in 2023 when everybody started finding ChatGPT. I immediately recognized when certain people found ChatGPT because their. The way that they present it, their. Their feedback changed completely.
And even though they might have even adjusted it a little bit. It was still a tell sign.
[00:10:03] Speaker A: I always want to emphasize that when AI is drafting content for you, the word draft is imperative there.
What recommendations do you have to be able to use AI as a writing assistant, but still just not relying on copying and pasting. What's that editing process like, at least for you?
[00:10:21] Speaker B: I think it's just putting the human touch on it. So anytime that AI comes out, and don't get me wrong, I have copied and pasted AI before because sometimes I'm like, oh yeah, that does sound like me. And I've been using it for so long, I'm like, I don't even think there's that much I have to change now. So transparently. I use AI all the time as my writing assistant. Um, but one thing that I always make a point to is before I hit post, so as I have it in LinkedIn, I read it and I actually read it out loud. And I read it to see one, is that something I would naturally say? And two, does it, you know, how does that feel to me? There's words I'll catch where I thought it looked okay. And then when I said it out loud I'm like, eh, that's not the way I say that. We do that all the time, honestly here. So we use AI to help us with our scripting, we make some edits to it, and then when we do our first take of it, we'll look at it and we'll say it and we'll be like, oh, that sounded off, like it didn't feel natural. And as soon as you get that feeling, just know if it's not natural to you, it's definitely not gonna be natural for, you know, for people hearing it. Just, just strip it out of there and change the words.
[00:11:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Speaking of the way that we come up with our scripts, I. I actually just recently posted this on LinkedIn. But if you're getting into video content and you know you want to publish 10 short form videos or a 10 minute long, long form piece of content, developing, doing the research, developing the outline and developing a script for it and then having to shoot it, that's a time consuming process if you're doing it without any help. So that is why AI is so helpful because that can cut your time in half.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: One thing I like to do is build my outline and then without worrying about how I sound, my pauses, mispronouncing words, I just run through my outline as if I was giving a first pass, go and I ad lib it all and then I'll ask my AI to clean up my speech and put it into a script. And, and more times than not, it really feels like, okay, this is how I would speak it if I actually sat down to write it. So that's just another tip for you, Jo. When it comes to transparency when using AI, should our audience be, you know, letting their audiences know when they're being used or what advice do you have in terms of transparency?
[00:12:24] Speaker B: Well, I think the more transparent you are, the better it is. I mean, for me to sit here and come on here and be like, no, guys, I don't use AI at all on my LinkedIn platform, that would be a lie. People would know it. You know, like, why hide from it? The fact is, is I do utilize it as a tool and I should use it all as a tool just like everybody should. But we always say, especially if you're using like chat messaging or AI messaging or anything like that, just be transparent about it and say like, hey, I am, I am Jo Barker's AI and I, you know, I'm here to assist you. It's that simple of being transparent and saying, you're not talking to Jo right now, you're talking to an AI assistant. But then they know and they can easily say, okay, I want a real human to talk to or whatever it is. So I think being transparent, there's no foul in that and there's nothing that's going to get you in trouble for doing that.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: The reason that you want to train your AI to sound like you is a bit twofold. Not only do you want to keep the trust you build with your audience that we've been talking about, but you want to distance yourself from the competition as well. And if every insurance agent out there is using AI the same exact way, then everybody starts to sound the same. So it's not even just about keeping your audience's trust. It's about making sure that you don't blend in with everybody else that's using AI. And that's where your voice, your experience and your takes on the industry matter. And you layer that into those drafts that your favorite LLM comes to.
[00:13:43] Speaker B: I mentioned it to someone not long ago. You can now it's very easy to recognize a Claude website.
So web Claude has been building websites. You know, it's, it's, it's code is incredible. But now when I see people and they're posting their new website that they just built, they all are starting to look the same. So it's pretty interesting. It all has that same boxy feel to it. It's pretty interesting. And I think you're going to continue to see that trend and then eventually people are going to realize, oh, wow, they all look the same. We should probably put up more of our personal touch on this because that's just going to continue. So it goes both with content and with even layouts or coding or any of that.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm noticing so many AI generated graphics on social media now and it's hard to like, put a word to it, but I feel like they just all have a similarity to them that you just start to tell, okay, AI came up with that and there's nothing wrong, right, with. With. With relying on AI to help with your content. What we're trying to get across, though, is that you do want to deploy tactics to ensure that your voice doesn't get lost and you don't blend in with everybody else. And so, Jo, as we wind down this conversation, what is like the biggest takeaway that you would hope our audience takes from this conversation?
[00:14:50] Speaker B: I hope everyone realizes you should utilize it. You should use it for efficiency, see how it helps you with your workflow, see how you can make yourself more efficient, how to make your systems more efficient. But at the same time, remember, it is a machine working for you and it's not going to be perfect. It's going to hallucinate, it's going to not sound like you just put a human touch on it. Think about all the time that you just saved in not creating the content. You can take 5 minutes to edit the content and make it sound like you. It doesn't take long. And, and when you look at the exchange of the content creation period for the review period, it's a huge savings. But you can't just cut that out and you can't just copy and paste which so many people are doing right now.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: And if you put, if you are the one agent out there that, that is utilizing these best practices, then you're just giving yourself that much of a greater edge on the competition. Listen, guys, our AI for Agent series continues next week, so be sure to join us. And if you need any help with anything that we've discussed today or need help finding your brand voice and how to have AI support it, reach out to the Amerilife marketing mentors. That's why we exist. But until then, I'm David Belleville. And I'm Jo Barker and we'll see you next time.
