“The moat of just having a piece of software is not really big anymore. So it's really hard to sell those small tools unless you're in a very niche industry or there's some extra regulations around it like healthcare or law. In the past, I thought if I could just make software and sell it, I would be the king of the world, but the defensibility of it is just eroding very fast.”
Human-curated data remains more valuable than AI generation
“My personal consulting is all now people who went full AI for their newsletters and emails, and they are already coming back to human-edited content. The AI writes stuff okay, but to completely take over an entire newsletter with AI doesn't work as well as you would think. It currently doesn't have the same vibe, and for some things, it's just better to have a human touch.”
“There’s going to be more of a premium to style. Making content for SEO—like a 10,000-word post with all the little keywords—is no longer rewarded because that is a dime a dozen now. Having style and substance and weirdness and entertainment is going to be more valued because it's something AI still struggles to replicate with actual soul.”
Social media platforms have officially replaced traditional blogging
“I think social media is blogging. You have a piece of content, a picture, a text update, and you post it on a network where people read it and comment. I went from making long-form blog posts to just social media content because I get more out of it now. I've stopped posting traditional blog posts because a blog is almost like a dumb social network where you just post and pray people see it.”
AI skills should be lead magnets instead of products
“People tell me I need to make a Claude skill and sell it, but I'm hesitant because each successive model version needs less and less instruction. Right now you can build skills, but I think the better every single LLM gets, you just won't need that prompt engineering. It is too easy for someone to get the free version of what I would try to sell, so I'd rather use it as a lead magnet.”
Hybrid sponsorship models balance creator risk and brand ROI
“The most clever sponsorship model I see is where they pay you a flat monthly fee for a set ramp-up period, like six months. Then, unless you hit certain performance goals by that seventh month, you only make the percentage of that goal you actually hit. It gives me some upside of getting paid no matter what for a while, and gives the sponsor a natural out if the relationship isn't performing.”
AI is cannibalizing traditional copywriting course businesses
“Copywriting course used to be, hey, come to our thing, we'll teach you how to write good copy. Now you can ask ChatGPT or Claude to just write the email for you, write it like Matt McGarry or write it like Neville, and it'll figure it out. The need for that service has gone down and down and down, and we've been niched more into strategy rather than just execution.”
AI is cannibalizing traditional copywriting course businesses
“Copywriting course used to be, hey, come to our thing, we'll teach you how to write good copy. Now you can ask ChatGPT or Claude to just write the email for you, write it like Matt McGarry or write it like Neville, and it'll figure it out. The need for that service has gone down and down and down, and we've been niched more into strategy rather than just execution.”
Hybrid sponsorship models balance creator risk and brand ROI
“The most clever sponsorship model I see is where they pay you a flat monthly fee for a set ramp-up period, like six months. Then, unless you hit certain performance goals by that seventh month, you only make the percentage of that goal you actually hit. It gives me some upside of getting paid no matter what for a while, and gives the sponsor a natural out if the relationship isn't performing.”
Social media platforms have officially replaced traditional blogging
“I think social media is blogging. You have a piece of content, a picture, a text update, and you post it on a network where people read it and comment. I went from making long-form blog posts to just social media content because I get more out of it now. I've stopped posting traditional blog posts because a blog is almost like a dumb social network where you just post and pray people see it.”
Curation sites like Swipefile thrive via AI analysis
“Swipefile has turned more into that where it's all AI analyzed—human picked, AI analyzed. We built a thing where we can now grab Instagram stuff, YouTube stuff, and save all those swipes, and then it gets saved and automatically analyzed. We booked more revenue with SwipeFile this year than all of our copywriting courses combined.”
AI skills should be lead magnets instead of products
“People tell me I need to make a Claude skill and sell it, but I'm hesitant because each successive model version needs less and less instruction. Right now you can build skills, but I think the better every single LLM gets, you just won't need that prompt engineering. It is too easy for someone to get the free version of what I would try to sell, so I'd rather use it as a lead magnet.”
Curation sites like Swipefile thrive via AI analysis
“Swipefile has turned more into that where it's all AI analyzed—human picked, AI analyzed. We built a thing where we can now grab Instagram stuff, YouTube stuff, and save all those swipes, and then it gets saved and automatically analyzed. We booked more revenue with SwipeFile this year than all of our copywriting courses combined.”
Human-curated data remains more valuable than AI generation
“My personal consulting is all now people who went full AI for their newsletters and emails, and they are already coming back to human-edited content. The AI writes stuff okay, but to completely take over an entire newsletter with AI doesn't work as well as you would think. It currently doesn't have the same vibe, and for some things, it's just better to have a human touch.”
“The moat of just having a piece of software is not really big anymore. So it's really hard to sell those small tools unless you're in a very niche industry or there's some extra regulations around it like healthcare or law. In the past, I thought if I could just make software and sell it, I would be the king of the world, but the defensibility of it is just eroding very fast.”
“There’s going to be more of a premium to style. Making content for SEO—like a 10,000-word post with all the little keywords—is no longer rewarded because that is a dime a dozen now. Having style and substance and weirdness and entertainment is going to be more valued because it's something AI still struggles to replicate with actual soul.”