It is critical to create original knowledge and content, more so than ever with the rise of AI.

If all someone does is copy/paste prompts, take AI output, and publish or sell it, they don’t have a sustainable (or valuable) business.

For your business to survive and thrive, you must Be The Expert, and create original knowledge and content.

Many new or early-stage creators and coaches are tempted by “this AI will create your course in an hour” or “this AI will write your book in a day” offers.

Big mistake.

That said, I’m not anti-AI…

I’m probably spending $500/mo on various AI tools, which are becoming a crucial part of my business.

So, I thought it would be helpful to show WHY I’m investing even more time and money in creating original content first.

Here’s the TL;DR

AI produces average content by design
Real experts and guides become MORE valuable in a world of AI information overload
Creating original knowledge and content will separate you from the crowd and from AI
If you create and capture over the long term, you build a highly valuable asset: your knowledge base
You can then make an AI “copy” of your brain and use it to amplify and accelerate your efforts.

This topic is vital to your success, so let’s dig in:

The Curse of Average

ChatGPT and the other generative AI tools are trained on “the whole Internet.” They’re pretty smart. They know a lot.

But if you’ve used them for any amount of time, you’ll see that you get generic, average output.

Suppose 100 fitness people ask it to write an article about the benefits of a plant-based diet. In that case, they’ll get similar, generic output.

If they prompt it to create a course outline or book teaching how to lose weight with a plant-based diet, they’ll get the same thing.

Can you tweak the prompts to get more unique content? Yes.

But at the end of the day, it generates output based on the average of all the knowledge it has derived from “the Internet”.

Is it right? Is it accurate? Is it up to date?

Some of the most popular and widely referenced content is wrong or outdated. That’s what AI is using.

Imagine hundreds of thousands of people generating tons of content from that same body of knowledge.

Search YouTube for “1,000 blog posts in a day,” and you’ll get a good idea of what’s happening and what’s coming.

Enter the Expert…

For these reasons, I’m even more BULLISH on the prospects for Expert Businesses.

What does that mean?

A business built around YOUR knowledge and expertise. Packaged and productized so you generate revenue by helping others achieve a desirable outcome.

In a world where information overload is already a problem, the expert or guide will become even more critical when AI will 1000x the amount of content and information.

That’s why I named this newsletter Be The Expert.

It’s an identity we all need to take on. The success of our businesses depends on it.

It means discovering and creating NEW knowledge. Finding patterns, creating new systems, and new ways of helping people improve their lives.

Importantly, it means becoming a trusted source and leader in your niche, the Expert…

Why I’m Still Creating Original Content

Creating and publishing original, valuable content is one of the primary ways to build expertise and share it so you can attract an audience of your ideal customers.

Real knowledge, stored in content assets like videos, podcasts, blogs, and courses, is valuable.

Especially if that knowledge is new, unique, or derived from real-world experience.

That is what separates it from generic AI knowledge.

Take my recent focus on content creation and re-purposing.

If you ask AI how to do that, you’ll get a nice, 2-year-old strategy and associated tools.

When I write about the same topic, it is real-time information about what’s working now based on actual work with real clients.

It is unique knowledge. No one else, human or AI, has that specific knowledge.

It may not be relevant to millions of people, but it is highly relevant to thousands of people (the “1,000 true fans”)

It is MUCH more relevant to them than generic AI-written content.

Knowledge and Experience Compounded = Expertise

The real benefit of creating original content comes after you’ve done it consistently for a year or more.

You build a body of knowledge.

The raw material that you can turn into hundreds of different assets.

You will likely have identified patterns and systems in your niche that can be turned into products and programs.

One of the best examples of this in online business is Russel Brunson and now also Alex Hormozi.

Over many years, Russell has studied, implemented, and invented tons of sales and marketing techniques.

He then turned those into books, programs, tools, etc.

Are all of the concepts 100% original? No. They are a mix of previous experts AND his own expertise packaged into systems and frameworks to help his audience.

Alex Hormozi is on the same path with his recent massive book launch.

Could AI write the same general ideas as Brunson and Hormozi? Yes! But the reason they are far more valuable is because they have real-world experience and expertise. Real struggles and challenges. Real customers and success stories.

They collected and compounded knowledge over time. This earned them expert status.

Imagine how quickly their brands would crumble if, when asked a question about something they published, they said, “Uh, not sure. To be honest, AI wrote most of the book”

Back to a more approachable example, I’ve spent the last year putting many of my frameworks into content. As I’ve built my own business and my agency has helped dozens of others build theirs, we’ve been developing and documenting everything.

You’ve probably seen our Expert Business System and frameworks like:

Attract, Convert, Ascend
The Expert Business Blueprint and the 9 foundational elements
The 9 systems all online businesses need to scale to 7-figures
Our Expert Business Operating System

Original knowledge is generated, captured, and compounded.

From that body of knowledge, we can create content, courses, coaching programs, done-for-you programs, etc.

So, where does AI fit into the mix?

Use AI to Amplify…

The best use case for AI in expert businesses is to amplify your original content.

What do I mean by that? It means turning YOUR knowledge into more content, assets, and programs.

Instead of asking ChatGPT to write something for you, imagine asking an AI copy of YOUR brain to write something for you… and if needed, augment it with additional knowledge from ChatGPT or the others.

This is different than content re-purposing but complements it. With re-purposing, you’re taking a piece of content and chopping it up or converting it into different formats.

With your own AI, you create new content based on your knowledge and training models.

This is starting to be possible now and is 100% the direction AI is going: creating and training your own AI on your own knowledge.

Big companies and influencers are doing this right now, and you can too.

A simple example of this today is ChatPDF. That is where you can take a PDF, upload it, and a small AI model is trained using that PDF then, you can “ask” it questions and the answers and generate from the knowledge in the PDF.

Now imagine that PDF includes everything you’ve ever said or written…

Yeah, that’s where this is going. Fast…

So imagine I have an AI trained on everything I’ve ever said. Call it ChatDave.

Next week, when I want to write a newsletter, I could ask ChatDave to write an article about the three most important functions an online business needs for success. Write a how-to guide about re-purposing content.

I could ask ChatDave to create a course outline about how to build an expert business. Then, write the modules.

Because I’ve built up a unique body of original knowledge and content over time, ChatDave will create what I would have if I had taken the time to do it myself…

Let that sink in for a bit. An AI “copy” of your own brain.

The only way this is possible is if:

You actually create and capture knowledge.
You DON’T rely on AI for your original content (but you CAN use it to augment your content, ensure you didn’t miss something, etc.).

This is why the people using AI to create all their content will quickly fade to irrelevance. ChatGPT and the like will absorb and arbitrage them out of existence.

This is why the people creating original content, capturing it, and compounding knowledge will have a considerable advantage.

Take Action

This turned into a long issue, but is incredibly important. Let’s take action:

Decide how you will learn and capture NEW knowledge (documenting your experience, your work with clients/customers, experiments you run, etc.)
Commit to documenting while you create (hat tip to Gary V). Turn YOUR knowledge into content. Capture it on video, turn it into audio and text (we can help with that)
Use AI to amplify your content. In addition to re-purposing, which I’ve covered recently, start creating the AI copy of your brain (more on that in future issues)

David Ziembicki

CEO, Expert Business Agency

David Ziembicki is the founder and CEO of the Expert Business Agency, which helps coaches, course, and membership creators build their online businesses. David has been an industry-leading technology and business consultant for over 25 years having worked at Microsoft, Deloitte, SAIC, and Avanade.