I recently had the opportunity to give a presentation for CleanStart’s Perspectives podcast series. The topic was “Build Better Content Using AI,” and it was a fantastic discussion with an audience of startups, creatives, marketers, and nonprofit professionals.
During the session, we explored how to use AI to develop content that resonates with your audience and drives real results for your organization. We focused on strategies for amplifying your brand voice in a way that remains authentic and human-centered.
The goal was to provide tools, tips, and AI strategies that can help you:
– Build content that connects with the right people
– Grow your brand or organization with intention
– Save time with AI without losing your authentic voice
– Turn your message into momentum
– In this presentation I shared some of our favorite tools and resources for generating AI content.
Below is the infographic I created and walked through during our talk.
Here is our MKTNG In the Loop, AI-generated podcast.
We use and recommend JellyPod for creating AI podcasting in lieu of NotebookLM.
Podcastle is our preferred platform for long form podcast recording and editing.
Opus Clip is our preferred tool for our short clip editing
It was an inspiring session, and a great chance to connect with the greater Sacramento clean tech community. I’m excited to see how everyone uses these insights to create impactful content that sticks. Connect with CleanStart for more events and information on the clean tech community in the Sacramento Region.
AI for Authentic Content
Strategies for Impactful, Human-Centered Creation
The Core Idea: AI as an Authenticity Amplifier
The goal isn't to replace your unique voice with AI, but to use AI as a powerful assistant. By automating repetitive tasks, you free up valuable time to focus on what truly defines your authentic brand: developing deeper insights, crafting personal stories, and fostering genuine connections with your audience. Think of AI as the tool, but you are always the artist.
🤖 AI is an Assistant, Not a Replacement
It handles the tedious work, freeing you to focus on high-level strategy and creativity.
🗣️ Amplify Your Voice
AI's efficiency allows you to produce more content, giving you increased opportunities to infuse your unique human elements and distinct perspectives.
🎯 Focus on the "Why"
Your core message, values, and purpose remain entirely human-driven and authentic.
Tailored Advice for CleanStart: Command & Control with AI
For CleanTech startups, your unique voice and mission are paramount. Our advice is to leverage AI tools that provide *command and control* over the creative process and the final product, rather than "fix it and forget it" solutions.
🚫 Do Not Outsource Your Voice
Your company's unique identity and expertise are your greatest assets. AI should enhance, not replace, your authentic voice.
✨ No "Auto-Magic" Serendipity
Relying on AI to "auto-magically" create perfect content is a misconception. Intentional guidance and human oversight are essential.
🛠️ Leverage Tools for Command & Control
Choose AI solutions that empower you to direct the creative process, ensuring the final output aligns precisely with your brand and objectives.
How to Fine-Tune Your Voice on AI
To achieve a consistent and persistent brand voice, you must provide your AI with a comprehensive set of instructions. This is the foundation of a "command and control" approach.
1. Company Identity & Strategic Foundation
Provide the AI with your mission, vision, and core values to inform its tone and moral framing. This helps the AI place your brand's voice within the right context.
2. Audience Definition & Buyer Persona
Define your target audience and buyer personas to help the AI speak to the right people, shaping its tone, assumptions, and level of jargon.
3. Voice & Style Characteristics
Give the AI specific linguistic instructions, including your desired emotional tone, personality traits, and grammar preferences. A "Do/Don't Word List" is especially useful here.
4. Contextual Modifiers
Specify the type of content and platform (e.g., product page vs. LinkedIn post) to help the AI adapt tone and format. Mention competitive differentiators to ensure it emphasizes what makes you unique.
5. Reusable Structures & Examples
Provide templates for messages and examples of both good and bad content to help the AI learn by mimicking on-brand samples and avoiding off-brand phrasing.
6. Operationalize Your LLM
Turn this framework into an actionable tool by using a dedicated folder in your LLM. This could be in Claude, ChatGPT Custom GPTs, or NotebookLM by Google. Consolidate your instructions, examples, and brand elements for easy, consistent access.
Foundation: Keystone Content & Audience Research
Build your content strategy on high-value, long-form "keystone pieces." Even these foundational elements can be developed with AI assistance, always grounded in deep audience understanding.
Keystone Content Strategy
- Long-form writing: whitepapers, in-depth blog posts, case studies.
- Podcasts / Webinars: comprehensive audio/video content.
These pieces serve as the rich source material for all your repurposed content.
AI Assistance & Audience Research
- AI for research, outlining, structuring, and initial drafting.
- Always start with audience research: pain points, needs, and how your solution solves them.
This ensures your foundational content is relevant and impactful.
Strategic Human Touchpoints
Authenticity isn't accidental; it's intentional. Using AI effectively means knowing exactly where and when to apply your human touch. This workflow ensures your final product is polished by technology but perfected by you.
Pre-Prompting
AI Generation
Human Polish
Publish
Create Derivative Content
Expanding Reach: Diverse Media Formats
Move beyond simple repurposing and use AI to create entirely new media formats, expanding your content ecosystem without needing a massive production team.
AI for Video Creation from Text
Tools such as Descript or Fliki can transform your written content, like blog posts or detailed scripts, into full-fledged videos. These tools often include AI voices, access to stock footage libraries, and automated captioning, making video production accessible and efficient.
AI Image Generators
Generate unique and on-brand visuals for all your content needs using advanced AI image generators like Grok, Veo by Google, or Midjourney. This capability enhances the visual appeal of your blogs, social media posts, and presentations, ensuring a consistent and professional aesthetic across all platforms.
Case Studies: AI in Action (JellyPod & Opus Clip)
These tools exemplify leveraging AI with *command and control* for effective repurposing, not "auto-magic" solutions. They demonstrate how AI can extend the life and reach of your keystone content.
JellyPod Example
How we use it to convert our [e.g., whitepapers, long-form blog posts] into podcasts.
Process & Authenticity:
[Your specific workflow, e.g., "Starting with my blog posts, I use JellyPod to generate initial audio. I then record my own intros/outros and heavily edit the AI-generated script for my specific tone and anecdotes."]
Opus Clip Example
How we use it to make long video content [e.g., webinars, podcast recordings] short and digestible for social media.
Process & Authenticity:
[Your specific workflow, e.g., "Opus Clip extracts key moments from my webinars. I then curate the best segments, adding my unique context and calls to action."]
Content Marketing 101: The Hub and Spoke Model
To maximize your content's impact, you must distribute it to where your users are, but always point them back to your "home base" – your website, the central hub of your media empire.
Spokes: Distribute Widely
- Podcasts to iHeart, Pandora, iTunes, Spotify, etc.
- Videos to YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, etc.
- Writing to LinkedIn, Medium, industry publications, etc.
The Hub: Your Website is Home Base
Every piece of distributed content should serve as a spoke, driving traffic and attention back to your website. This is where you can deepen relationships, capture leads, and control the narrative.
