This is an archive episode, first broadcast in 2024 under the show's previous name. It carries a short synthetic announcer introduction; the conversation underneath it is untouched human audio.
Your personal brand is supposed to be the authentic you. So what happens when a machine helps you write it?
Mark Schaefer had a practical version of that question in early 2024. His publisher wanted a third edition of Social Media Explained, and writing a book, by his own account, takes everything out of him - two years of research, and he is physically ill by the end of it. So this time he decided to use every AI tool he could get his hands on.
The result, in his words, was a complete flop.
This conversation is about why. It was recorded in April 2024, when the show carried a different name.
What this episode covers
- Why the AI draft failed. Schaefer's diagnosis: ask a model a question and it behaves like a puppy, scurrying through millions of past data points to return the most probable answer. That gives you the best average of the past. "If you want the best average of the past, just go to Google."
- What thought leadership actually is. He borrows a definition from Walter Isaacson, who told him genius comes down to two things: insatiable curiosity, and the ability to connect the dots in a new way. AI is genuinely useful for the first. It is the second that it cannot do for you.
- Writing as a way of thinking. Schaefer describes writing a book as the equivalent of a master's degree. He was not an expert on brand communities when he started the book about them; two years of writing is what made him one. Skip the writing and you skip the competence.
- Where the line is. He calls it the Milli Vanilli line - the point where an assist becomes an outright fake. Auto-tune is fine. Lip syncing at a festival is mostly fine. Somewhere past that you are not getting help, you are pretending.
- The disclosure problem, which neither of them solves. Amazon's KDP now asks authors whether they used AI assistance, and nobody knows what happens if you tick yes. Alastair raises the copyright question underneath it. The conversation ends up somewhere honest rather than tidy.
- What is actually replaceable. Schaefer's estimate of himself at the time: "I am 80% replaced." The episode is largely about the other twenty percent.
One thing worth flagging
Two years before this feed started using a synthetic voice, Schaefer had already done it. He trained a voice model on himself to narrate Social Media Explained 3.0 - possibly the first business book narrated that way - and then declared it, in the audiobook and in the printed book as well.
His reasoning was not legal. It was that he did not want to do anything that could even look questionable. That instinct, more than any rule, is what this show ended up adopting.
About the guest
Mark Schaefer is a marketing strategist, keynote speaker and educator, and the author of Marketing Rebellion, Known, Cumulative Advantage, The Content Code, Social Media Explained, Belonging to the Brand and several more.
He is easy to find: BusinessesGrow.com - his blog, books, podcast and social links all live there. He says he follows everybody back on LinkedIn.
Resources mentioned
- Walter Isaacson - Schaefer's interview with him is where the two-part definition of genius comes from
- Social Media Explained 3.0 - the book he tried to write with AI
- Belonging to the Brand: Why Community is the Last Great Marketing Strategy
- Leonardo da Vinci and the Vitruvian Man - Schaefer's example that all art is iteration; four people contributed to that one drawing
- Tools he actually uses: Perplexity, Claude 3, Midjourney, BuzzSumo's brief generator
Quotes
"If you want the best average of the past, just go to Google. That's what that is for."
Mark Schaefer
"I still matter. At least right now, even in this AI-drenched world we're in, I still matter."
Mark Schaefer
"When do we claim credit? Because we put our name on the outside."
Alastair McDermott
Books - the Human-First AI Series
- Hello! I'm New Here
- An Absolute Beginner's Guide to AI
- Use AI, Stay Human
- The AI Pilot Handbook
- When AI Becomes Your Responsibility
Connect with Alastair on LinkedIn.