How professional copywriters can harness AI with Human Edge founder Leanne Shelton

Has AI made the copywriter redundant? It's a topic that causes a lot of anxiety in the content marketing industry. Why pay for a professional when ChatGPT can churn out hundreds of articles in minutes?

Leanne Shelton had the same anxiety. As a professional writer and content marketer she quickly saw the threat and the opportunity from AI, so she made it her mission to become an expert in AI, and then turned her knowledge into training businesses to harness AI, while keeping the human. And yes, she still writes.

In this episode, Leanne talks through:

• How she pivoted from copywriting to AI coaching.
• Why creative expertise is worth more when AI is involved in the production process.
• Demonstrating the value of copy and content experience to clients.
• How to partner with AI to enhance copy rather than churn out slop.

Leanne's interview is an in-depth analysis that's a must for anybody working in copywriting or for non-writers trying to use AI for content.

• Soc•AI•l Skylines is a Social Hills production.
• Hosts: Christina Vetta and Gary Andrews.
• Producer: Peter Northcote.
• Videographer: Imogen Mabin.
• Guest: Leanne Shelton, founder of Human Edge.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Hi and welcome to this edition of Social Skylines, a production by Social Hills. I'm Christina Vedder.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

And I'm Gary Andrews, and each episode we'll be speaking to the people who are using AI tools day in, day out, to cut through the noise and the confusion people have around AI. This is an episode that I think is a really essential topic for all marketers and creatives. Content and copywriting. It's one that is increasingly being handled by AI, but let's just say the quality is really variable. So we're delighted to welcome Leanne Shelton, founder of AI training company HumanEdge. Welcome to Social Skylines. Thanks for joining us. Thanks, Gary. Good to be here. Your story is really fascinating because you actually used to run a copywriting agency. Still, I imagine do a lot of writing as well in copywriting. You've now pivoted into AI training. Why is that?

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Yeah, well, going back to early 2023, um, I kind of had this moment where I realized conversions were dropping and I could have blamed the economic climate, which I guess was a factor, but it was also because this shiny new and free tool, uh, ChatGPT, had entered the scene a few months before. And people were starting to choose, oh well, why invest in getting website content and articles written when I can do it myself with a free tool? And I saw the writing on the wall, I realized it's not going away. This is the reality. I could be over here and, you know, rock in that corner and pull my hair out, bury my head in the sand and think my life is over, and you know, they'll still choose human copywriters, or accept this as a new reality and basically use my skills as a writer, which I have been my whole life, to help people write quality content with AI. And look, I'm not a techie person whatsoever, but I figured that's probably a benefit here because if I can understand this technology and teach other non-techie people at their level without the jargon, then it'll be beneficial for everyone. And I basically gave myself a month to prepare a webinar, how to use ChatGPT and still sound human. You know, 150 people signed up, 70 tuned in live, which is pretty good for a free webinar. And I realized people do want to move away from this robotic, lifeless content. And me as a writer my whole life, I have the skills to know what is good content, what quality looks like, and then work backwards with prompt engineering. And it that's where it started. And then I realised I kind of have a passion for this. I've always loved futuristic stuff, but felt like I had to be reserved for the techie engineering coding people. And I thought, oh, here's my opportunity to experiment. And that's that's pretty much where I've been ever since.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

So should copywriters give up uh the march against the rise of the robot, or what do you think that copywriters should be doing now to keep up?

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Well, I tell everyone, uh, whatever industry, you should use AI to expand, like amplify your existing experience and expertise. Don't replace it. And that's kind of the messaging we're getting from everywhere. Like, oh, just save time, cut corners, just get ChatGPT to do it. And I'm I'm trying to say, no, no, no, especially if you've been doing your role for many years, like in my case, like you know, two decades of writing and and marketing, I know what it looks like. So for anyone who is a writer, find ways to use the tools in a way that amplifies your skills. So I'm not saying replace them because you want to maintain those skills, but things like you know how to how a good structure looks like. So you ask for an outline and then you can then assess it and say, yes, I like that, don't like that. You can then obviously I say to train it up on your brand voice, which is a really big thing, but most people don't do. So if you're doing writing for your clients, you make sure that the brand voice is trained up, it's trained up on the business and the customer as well to create that quality, but you then know how to critique the output. And most people don't. But as a writer, you know how to critique output and go, I'll keep that, don't like that, I know where you're going there, I'm gonna change that, manually change it, or know how to have that conversation with AI tool to get where you want to go. And this is the reason why I went into copywriting because I realize I find this easy and natural. Majority of the population don't, and that's why they come to us. And I think everyone just feels like because they can access AI means they're instantly a writer. And they're not, simply not.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Absolutely not. I think that there's a lot of value that can be added for clients as well, because you can achieve greater volume. Like you the the level of output is so much greater than what you it would have been like three years ago, you know, they could be paying the same, but for more.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

And you need to make sure it is actually more and it's more quality. Absolutely. And I think some people get into that trap of, oh, look, I can smash out really quickly and don't have to review it because it sounds amazing. But I do say you have to be wary of if you are feeling overworked, tired, burnt out, whatever, as they say in the road signs, like don't trust your tired self. And so if you do have a tight deadline for a client with your writing, just make sure you do have a clear mind to properly critique the output and really go, does this meet the brief and really assess that?

SPEAKER_02 5:10

I think that this is where having experience in the field is important because it's very easy for someone to just decide, I'm gonna be a copywriter and I'm gonna use Chat GPT to do so. And then you have this army of people that have just emerged that are calling themselves experts because they're using Chat GPT, and this is where it separates the the seasoned copywriters or creatives marketers from the juniors, right? Because you have the foresight, you have the ability to look at a piece of copy and go, this needs to be good, best, better.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Yeah, I totally agree. You know what you know, and it works in any industry as well. I've had people say, Oh, what if someone uh I've been in the events industry for 20 years, what if someone just comes in and I'm like, but as soon as there is actually an event, everyone will see right through them. They have no idea what they're doing. And same with the writing, the the client will receive it and they'll instantly see this misses the mark, this isn't right. And even like I run workshops and I've, you know, the marketing communications workshop is my area where I can succeed because I know this space, and anyone, anytime I'm talking to a marketing audience, I get them. But I've just recently launched a systems and process workshop and I've acknowledged that's not my space of genius because I will come across as being inauthentic or not knowing what I'm talking about. So I'm sticking in my lane. And I think that's what everyone needs to do. Like know where your areas are. Um and if there is anyone new is entering the copywriting space, go get experience with a a real life writer, get feedback, get training from a real life human, and don't just rely on the AI because you won't be able to critique it properly.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

For me, that reminds me of one of the kind of classic quotes, which is behind every good writer is a really great editor. There's a really clear delineation between what humans can do at the moment and what AI can and can't do. So where do you think that kind of human advantage is when it comes to copy over AI?

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Yeah, it's all the insights that you have, and because you need to be able to prompt it in a certain way. And if you know, okay, this is what I want the outcome to be, you work backwards from that. And if you have worked with a similar client before, or um, you know, if you've niched or whatever, or a similar project before, you know instinctively and intuitively what would work and what wouldn't work. So then you go, all right, that's the starting point, that's how you prompt it. But someone who has no idea would not know to prompt it that way. They would just say, write me this website copy, write me this article. But you would know, okay, I know this article needs to start with hypothetical questions because in the past that really draws people in and it needs to be engaging. So it needs to include some statistics and uh and I know the audience really well, and they love personal stories, so I need to add those in. And that's where it really like adds some body to it. It's so easy, like basically AI content is so surface level until the human adds layers to it. And if you don't know to add those layers, you'll just see what it gives you in seconds and go, oh, that's so amazing, and run with it.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

And it loves rule of thirds. Yeah. I'm like, remove all rule of thirds, please, from my coffee because that's like an instant giveaway.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

Yeah, there's so many things or extra long sentences, but I know as a copyright now, the impactful short sentences work so much better, especially if you're writing for online space, you need lots of white space. And you know, I've yes, I've trained my tool to do that because I know how to train it to do that. Uh, and and anyone who just comes in who's an amateur, you're just gonna not create the quality that your client's gonna expect.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

So, how can the three sides of you know the client, the copy and the AI, how do they all coexist together harmoniously?

SPEAKER_01 8:51

You need to be transparent with the client you're using AI. I strongly believe that because already there's this almost assumption that you'll use it and this lack of trust that you're gonna use it. And if you then provide them content with any kind of hint of using AI and you haven't told them, this whole trust is gonna be damaged. So you need to be transparent. Say, look, letting you know we use AI in our process, this is how we use it. And just explain, always have the human involved at all times. We critique it, explain your background, your strategy. As it's an unfortunate truth that we have to do now. If you attempt to just pretend you're not using it. I'm big on ethics and all this kind of stuff and the transparency. Um, you either stand by your, you know, you don't use AI and say, look, I only use AI for the research, but then the human takes over. Great, maybe that's what you do. Or I only do human research and then the AI just helps me pull my notes together, or we have a Zoom meeting and then I'll get a transcript, get AI to translate that, but I then take over. Whatever your process is, I think transparency is absolutely key right now.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

And I guess as well, when you're selling in or talking to a client, there's a risk that they will potentially go, okay, well, you're using AI, so I'll pay a little bit less for you. So yeah, how do you kind of take that and go, no, there is also a value to the fact that I know how to use AI, and that's actually an added value to put on top of that.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Correct. And it's about just um educating, because that's the space of way to our workshops now, educating about AI literacy and going, no, this is a tool. Just like graphic designers use graphic design programs, you know, accountants use their, you know, we use zero and QuickBooks, the accountants use those too. They that is a tool. Um, AI on its own is nothing without the human driver. And unfortunately, I know a lot of clients wouldn't understand that. They'll straight away think, oh, you'll be quicker. Look, I might write an article in an hour because I've got lots of experience, but it would take someone inexperienced five hours. Why would you pay them five times the amount of money when I just know what I'm doing? Can pro it's the same kind of thing. So I know how to use the tool to really get the best output. And and it is, I know it's a hard conversation when just straight away people just go, nah, you take the easy way out, you're gonna give me dodgy content. But if you just say no, it's gonna actually enhance the quality, but there's a lot of thinking that goes into it, like the the prompting process, the critiquing process, and the feedback process. And the feedback, yeah. It actually, when using AI, a lot of people just assume it's a give me something, out it comes, just like Google, right? But what I explain is you need to treat it like a collaboration partner. And then, like, I actually joke, if your brain doesn't hurt a little bit after using AI, you've handed over too much power. So you need to actually be working with it, going, I want this and what that's no, no, I don't like that. Change this, want that.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

You need to be working a collaboration partner. Yeah, don't let it do it, do the work for you. Collaborate with it to get the best output.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Yeah, yeah. And if you treat it like a human, but remember it's not, then that's where you get your best output as well. And that's literally how I do it for my articles. I create, like in LinkedIn, for example. I come with the concept, I give it the materials as well. Never use what's been pre-trained with. So any writers never do that. Always get your clients content or your own research and then feed it in. And then you say using this, help me create an outline and always start with the outline. You assess the outline, and then if it is drafting anything, you get to draft the introduction first. And then you review the introduction, you edit it, take it offline, and put it back in. Here is the revised introduction. Now draft the next section. Revise that, take that off. I'm working with it every step of the way because I'm not and then you can see if there's um duplication or it's mixed metaphors or whatever when you see it piece by piece. So breaking it down like that, the quality really increases. But it's never a write me this article as a client, here's the materials, boom. Never do it that way.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Well, Leanne, thanks so much for all your insight on because content and copy, and I come from a writing background as well. You know, it's one of those most important things to get right within marketing. Everybody thinks they're a writer. There's a skill to it, but there's also a skill to AI. So for me, this I think is probably one of the most essential episodes that we will have done. Lianne, if people want more insight or want to read your book as well, or you've got webinars, where can they find you? What's the best way to kind of connect with you and basically get inside your brain?

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Yeah, uh, so my book is called AI Human Fusion. You can find that on Amazon, Booktopia, Demix, or most bookstores. And if it's not there, go ask for it because that demand helps. And also I'm I hang out on LinkedIn mostly. So just look up Leanne Shulton, you should be able to find me. Um, I'm a yeah, global AI trainer and keynote speaker and available for workshops and keynotes. So that could help.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

Fantastic information. I think it's helpful for any anyone working in the creative, marketing, or advertising space. Copywriting 101 with AI.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

100%. Well, thanks again, Leanne. And you can find more episodes of Social Skylines on where you get your podcast of choice. We're also up on YouTube if you want to watch it. Don't forget to look on the Social Hills website. We'll have a section on there for everything that you need to know about this series. And you can also follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram, which is where you'll get some clips and a bit more of the background. But Lianne, thanks again. Uh, really fascinating interview.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

It was great. Thank you.