There’s an old saying: “Painters like to paint. But writers like having written.”
Writing, for a lot of people, is a bit of a slog, isn’t it?
It’s not necessarily easy to translate a swirling swarm of ideas or thoughts or feelings into concrete written language.
And, so, it can be exhausting. Like a form of exercise, writing tends to feel good when it’s done, and rarely while it’s happening.
Still, I relish the reality that I get to spend so much of my time writing. Why? Because that means I get to spend so much of my time thinking.
That’s what writing is, really. Not an output but a process. The act of writing is the act of thinking, and, for me, one rarely happens fully without the other.
If I have an idea, I don’t consider it “real” until it’s written. Until I’ve argued my case to the page, until I’ve interrogated it by way of formalizing it.
And it’s why I’d never give up writing, even if I could. The moment I stop writing is the moment I stop thinking.
I say all this because when it comes to our marketing and the ultimate output of our content, we don’t want to skip the intermediary thinking step. We don’t want to go straight to finished product.
We want to spend some time arguing with ourselves about it, proving or disproving it by way of articulating it.
By thinking, “What would someone else think if they read or heard this?” And would they understand or believe it?
When ChatGPT or Claude can take any prompt and turn it into a finished piece in an instant, there’s a strong temptation to let them. But that would be a mistake.
Because an idea isn’t real until we’ve argued it, until we’ve interrogated it. Until we’ve tested and proven it.
And no one can do that for us, but us.
So if you have a marketing idea, don’t ask an AI to generate it for you. Write it down yourself, first.
Make it real.
And then, if you prove its case, make it public.
Kelford Inc. are content marketers for expert advisors. If you’re struggling with what to say and where to say it to attract your ideal clients, we’ll show you the way.