I Asked an AI to Write This Blog Post. Here's Why the First Version Was Terrible.

Let me be upfront: I use AI to help me write. I use it for client content, for my own blog, for first drafts of strategy documents. It saves me time and it makes my work better. When I use it well.

That last bit matters more than it might seem.

Because the gap between a bad AI prompt and a good one isn't small. It's the difference between content that sounds like it came from a content farm and content that actually sounds like you: specific, credible, and worth reading.

I have spent 20 years helping businesses figure out how to talk about what they do. In that time, the single biggest obstacle I run into is almost never the quality of the work. It is almost always the ability to explain it. To show you what I mean, I am going to use this very post as the example. The topic: the problem with marketing your expertise. Something I think about constantly in my work with founders and consultants who are genuinely brilliant at what they do but struggle to explain it in a way that resonates with the people they most want to reach.

Here's what happened when I asked an AI to write about it three different ways.

First, the problem worth writing about

Most expert-led businesses (consultants, advisors, specialist firms) have a marketing problem that is hiding in plain sight. The people who know them love them. The results speak for themselves. But the website reads like a capabilities deck, the pitch is full of jargon, and the first-time visitor has no idea what problem you actually solve for them.

I have seen this pattern over and over. A two-person consulting firm with a loyal client base and strong word-of-mouth referrals, whose website described their work in language so abstract that even their existing clients could not explain what they did to someone else. When I interviewed those clients, which is always the first thing I do, they were enthusiastic, articulate, and full of specific stories about the value they had gotten. Almost none of that language was anywhere on the website. Once we built their new positioning and messaging directly from those conversations, the whole picture changed. Their services became clear. Their clients finally had the words to refer them. And the revenue they had been missing was hiding in relationships they already had.

That's the gap. And it's almost always fixable. But first you have to see it.

Now let's look at what happens when you try to write about this with AI.

The bad version: a vague prompt

This is where most people start. You open a chat window, type something quick, and hope for the best.

The prompt:

Write me a blog post about the problem with marketing your expertise.

What came back:

Marketing Your Expertise: Why It's Harder Than You Think

In today's competitive landscape, professionals and businesses face a unique challenge when it comes to marketing their expertise. While you may be highly skilled in your field, translating that knowledge into compelling marketing messages can be difficult.

The first challenge is the curse of knowledge. When you know a subject deeply, it becomes hard to remember what it was like not to know it. This can lead to overly technical or jargon-filled communications that fail to resonate with your target audience.

The second challenge is differentiation. In a crowded marketplace, it can be difficult to stand out from competitors who offer similar services. Without a clear unique value proposition, potential clients may struggle to understand why they should choose you over others.

To overcome these challenges, consider focusing on the outcomes you deliver rather than the processes you use. Tell stories about how you've helped clients achieve their goals. And always keep your audience's needs at the center of your messaging.

By taking these steps, you can more effectively communicate your expertise and attract the clients you want to work with.

Technically correct. Completely forgettable. This could have been written by anyone about anything. There's no specific insight, no real experience, no point of view. It reads like a summary of a marketing textbook: the kind of content that gets scrolled past in seconds. The irony is painful: a blog post about the problem with generic marketing, written generically.

The better version: a more intentional prompt

Now let's give the AI something to work with. A clearer target audience, a specific angle, and a sense of what we're trying to achieve.

The prompt:

Write a blog post about the problem with marketing your expertise, aimed at founders and consultants who are great at their work but struggle to explain it clearly to potential clients. The tone should be direct and conversational, not corporate. The key message is that most expert-led businesses describe what they do from their own perspective instead of their customers' perspective: and that's why their marketing doesn't land. Include a practical takeaway.

What came back:

You're Great at What You Do. So Why Is Your Marketing So Hard to Explain?

If you've ever struggled to write your own website copy, you're not alone. For experts: consultants, advisors, specialists: marketing is often the hardest thing about running a business. Not because you don't know your stuff. But because knowing your stuff too well can actually get in the way.

Here's the real problem: most expert-led businesses describe their work from the inside out. You lead with your methodology, your credentials, your process. What you do and how you do it. But your potential clients don't start there. They start with a problem they're trying to solve. And if your marketing doesn't speak directly to that problem in language they'd use themselves, you've already lost them.

The fix isn't complicated, but it does require getting out of your own head. Talk to your existing clients: the ones who already get it. Ask them how they'd describe the problem they had before working with you, and what changed after. Their words are usually far more compelling than anything you'd come up with yourself. Use them.

Your expertise is real. Make sure your marketing reflects it from the outside in, not the inside out.

Much better. The headline is stronger, the tone is right, and the core insight: inside out vs. outside in: is genuinely useful. But notice what's still missing: any sense of who is writing this. There's no story, no specific moment, no experience that only this author could have had. It's good generic content. The best content isn't generic at all.

The best version: bringing your experience into the room

This is where the real work happens: and it's also where most people stop short. The best prompt doesn't just tell the AI what to write about. It gives the AI something only you could give it: your specific experience, your observations, the moment something became clear to you.

Here's what I added:

The prompt:

Write a blog post about the problem with marketing your expertise, aimed at founders and consultants who are great at their work but struggle to explain it clearly to potential clients. The tone should be direct, warm, and conversational: like someone who's seen this problem many times and wants to help.

Use this real experience as the centerpiece of the post: I work with expert-led businesses on brand positioning and marketing strategy. One of the first things I always do is interview their existing clients: not just review the business, but actually talk to the people who've hired them. In one recent engagement, I was working with a two-person consulting firm that had a strong reputation and great word-of-mouth. When I interviewed their clients, every single one was enthusiastic and specific about the value they'd gotten. But almost none of that language was on the website. And most of the clients had no idea about the full range of services the firm offered: if they'd worked with one consultant, they didn't know what the other did. The firm wasn't hiding anything. They just hadn't thought to say it out loud in a way their clients could hear.

The key insight I want to land: your customers can describe the value of what you do better than you can: and most businesses never ask them. End with a practical question the reader can act on today.

What came back:

Your Customers Know Why You're Good. Do You?

Here's something I've noticed after years of working with expert-led businesses: the people who are best at what they do are often the worst at explaining it.

Not because they're inarticulate. Not because the work isn't valuable. But because when you're deep inside your own expertise, it's almost impossible to see it from the outside: and outside is exactly where your potential clients are standing. I was recently working with a two-person consulting firm. Strong track record, loyal clients, steady referrals. By any measure, they were doing well. But when I looked at their website and marketing materials, something was off. The services were described in abstract terms. The language was consultant-facing, not client-facing. A first-time visitor would have had no idea what problem the firm actually solved.

So I did what I always do first: I called their clients.

Every single conversation was the same. The clients were enthusiastic, specific, full of concrete examples of the value they'd gotten. They talked about feeling less overwhelmed, about finally having language for the impact of their work, about their teams becoming more aligned around shared goals. None of that was on the website. And almost every client told me they had no idea about the full range of services the firm offered: if they'd worked with one consultant on a data project, they didn't even know the other consultant existed. The firm wasn't hiding anything. They'd just never thought to say it out loud in terms their clients could actually hear.

This is the most common marketing problem I see in expert-led businesses, and it has a straightforward fix: ask your customers to describe the value of what you do. Not in a survey. In a real conversation. You'll hear language you've never thought to use, and you'll discover gaps between what you think you're known for and what you're actually valued for.

Here's the question worth sitting with today: if I called three of your best clients right now and asked them to describe the problem you solved for them: would their answer match what's on your website?

This is the version worth publishing. It has a real story. It has a specific moment of discovery. It has a question at the end that makes the reader think about their own situation. The AI didn't invent any of this: it shaped and structured an experience that came from actual work with an actual client. That's the difference between AI-generated content and AI-assisted content. The first replaces your thinking. The second amplifies it. The more context you provide the more authentic, unique and more engaging your content becomes. 

So what does this actually mean for your marketing?

The lesson here isn't really about prompting. It's about what you bring to the table that AI can't.

AI is genuinely useful for structuring ideas, finding the right words, and getting past the blank page. But it can only work with what you give it. Give it a vague brief and you get vague content. Give it your real experience: the specific client, the specific moment, the specific insight: and it can help you turn that into something worth reading. 

The same principle applies to your marketing more broadly. Generic descriptions of what you do produce generic results. The moment you bring in a real story, a real customer's words, a real observation from your work: that's when your marketing starts to sound like you instead of everyone else.

Which, as it turns out, is exactly what makes people stop scrolling.

Photo by Markus Winkler: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-scrabble-board-with-the-letters-a-and-a-18548425/