Why post at all, when AI makes content cheap?

I imagine many of us are asking ourselves these days:

“Why post at all? More experienced experts in my field are already posting great things. Plus, AI can easily generate expert content at a moment’s whim… so how can I possibly contribute with my own content? It feels a bit hopeless…”

A fair question, and I've been thinking about it too.

Bottom line: I still post, and posting is still worth my time… for reasons that don't depend on how any of my posts “perform.”

Clarity from creation…

My thinking here has shifted over the years. I used to frame social media as “karma points” — deposit goodwill daily, like a social bank account. I used to advise soulpreneurs to focus on quantity and create content daily.

Now, with the abundance of creators, and the ease that AI brings to creating, it’s no longer tenable to focus on quantity, for the sake of reaching one’s audience.

Instead, we must return to our internal locus of motivation…

A post must pay off the day I write it — in clarity. I create because it helps me sort out my thoughts and my framework, which helps me work better with clients.

So when I put in the effort to write, or to record a video, the ones who benefit aren’t only my viewers/watchers, but rather, my clients, and myself.

True clarity comes from creating… not the other way around.

And each post joins a body of work that outlasts any feed.

My least popular posts…

Recently I asked my AI to pull up the five least-viewed posts on my main Substack from the past year. Each one got only half of what a typical post of mine gets.

One of them was my post on Netcaring — how enjoyment and care can grow your business. I wrote that post because I found myself having to explain Netcaring again and again (and again!) to various people in different circumstances. So it has been really helpful to have a post I can send people to from then on.

Most of the other non-popular posts are topics I talk about regularly on my webinars and with clients, so they're resources I would want to send people anyway.

Again, each of these adds to my body of work — my contribution for the long term.

But… why make it public?

“Couldn't you get that same clarity from a private journal? And if a client needs the resource, you could just send them a private doc.”

If I'm going to send it to even two people, then why not have it benefit many more?

A public post is also a continual call to the ether, for whoever my kindred spirits are… wherever (and whenever) they happen to be.

Importantly: posting publicly helps train AI with my ideas. In this way I genuinely believe I can be of positive impact to my future kindred spirits, people who resonate with my values and framework. I've written about this in We Are Not Just Users of AI — We Are Its Mentors, and more recently in my letter to future AI.

So what's worth posting?

In my course Soulful Content, I teach a framework called OGI: Organic Grounded Insight.

OGI is reality as filtered through your experience, values, and perspective. Your post doesn't have to say what only you could say. The test is whether a topic genuinely interests you.

Whatever you find interesting, your kindred spirits will likely find interesting too.

For the soulpreneur who posts and hears nothing back…

Keep creating, to find greater clarity.

Keep posting to add to your body of work.

Keep sharing publicly whatever you’d send clients as a resource, a perspective, an encouragement.

Keep publishing what you'd send to yourself in the future, to remind about important ideas and values and stories, to inspire yourself, to offer helpful perspective and encouragement.

Likes and comments will always come and go. I learned that years ago, and keep learning it today.

What's one idea you keep explaining again and again, that could become a post you send people to? Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments 🙏🏼🧡

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