“You’re my ChatGPT!”.
A client said this to me once.
And for about two seconds, I didn’t quite know how to take it.
Compliment? Backhanded compliment? Should I be mildly concerned that I’m being compared to something that costs twenty quid a month, never needs a cup of tea and definitely won’t judge you for sending a voice note at midnight?
Then she explained herself, and it turned out to be one of the nicest things anyone’s said about how I work in a good while.
What she meant was this…she can send me a half-formed idea at 9pm, three rambling voice notes recorded in a car park, or a message that says “Help, I don’t know what I’m trying to say”.
And I’ll sense-check it, ask the right questions, chip in with my own suggestions and help shape it into something that sounds like her.
No judgement for the mess. No “that’s not really my job.” Just a proper back and forth until it clicks.
Which, if you think about it, isn’t really an AI job at all BUT a human one.
So let’s talk about this properly, because I reckon this says much, much more about good collaboration than it does about me personally.
What AI can do and crucially, what it can’t
I’m not here to slag off AI. That would be a bit rich coming from someone who uses Claude and Otter most days. AI tools do come in handy for initial research, analysing a transcript, untangling my scattered thoughts, and the odd draft outline when the page is being stubborn.
It can be genuinely useful for stuff like:
- Getting a rough first draft down when the page is blank and staring back at you.
- Summarising a long document or a pile of research in thirty seconds flat.
- Brainstorming a huge scattergun list of ideas to pick through later.
- Checking your grammar (although I’m not precious about this) or rewording a clunky sentence.
Yeah, it’s fast and tireless. And it can be brilliant for getting something (anything) down when your brain’s gone quiet.
But here’s where it falls down!
AI doesn’t know your business. Not really. It doesn’t remember the client from three years ago who nearly put you off the whole industry. It doesn’t know you always reach for a pun when you’re excited about something, or that you’d rather eat your own laptop than ever sound “corporate”.
It can hear the difference between good grammar and not-so-good grammar. But it can’t hear the difference between “this sounds like me” and “this sounds like a very polite stranger wearing my clothes”.
It won’t tell you (kindly but honestly), that an idea isn’t landing. It won’t push back on a crap first instinct. And it definitely won’t throw in the one unexpected suggestion that flips a piece of content from “fine, I suppose” to “ooooh, that’s it!”.
That takes actually knowing someone. Their voice, their values, their strengths, their odd little quirks and the way they talk when nobody’s editing them. That, funnily enough, is the one bit no chatbot has managed to replicate yet, no matter how many shiny new versions get rolled out.
What working with me actually looks like
So if it’s not “brief in, content out”, what actually happens? Here’s the process, roughly, minus the bit where I stop to make tea halfway through.
- The messy brain dump stage. You send me the chaos exactly as it lands: voice notes recorded on the school run, a stream-of-consciousness paragraph with three typos and no full stops, a screenshot captioned “??? something like this maybe???”. I promise you, I’ve seen messier.
- The sense-check conversation. This is where the questions start. What are you actually trying to say here? Who’s this actually for? Is this the bit you’re proud of or the bit you feel like you “should” include? Honestly, half the value is in the questions, not the answers.
- The “here’s what I’d suggest” bit. I’m not just tidying up your version. I’ll chip in ideas, angles, structure, the odd “have you thought about flipping this round entirely” moment. You hired a collaborator, not a typist.
- The back-and-forth refine. This is where it actually starts to sound like you rather than a template with your name bolted on top. A tweak here, a “no, not quite that” there, until it clicks into place.
It’s not a drop box. You don’t post a brief into the void and get a finished product back three days later with zero conversation in between. It’s a proper two-way thing, the sort where the end result is better because two brains were on it instead of one.
A jam session, not a vending machine
If I had to sum up the difference in one line, it’s this: using an AI tool is a vending machine. You put in a prompt, coins clatter about somewhere in the algorithm and out pops a snack. Convenient, sure.
But it’s the same snack for everyone who presses the same button and it doesn’t know or care whether you actually wanted crisps or chocolate.
Working with me is more like a jam session. You bring the raw material in whatever state it’s in: a half-hummed tune, some mumbled lyrics, an idea with no bridge and definitely no ending.
Instead of handing you back a finished track from a machine, we work it out together. I chip in a bassline you hadn’t thought of. You correct me when I’ve got the melody wrong. Somewhere in the middle of all that, the actual song shows up.
That’s the difference between output and collaboration. One’s instant. The other’s better.
Why this matters more than people think
Here’s the bit that gets missed in most “should I use AI or hire someone?” chat.
Content and strategy usually fail for one very unglamorous reason: nobody sense-checked it against the actual person or business behind it. It gets generated, skim-read, approved on autopilot and pushed out the door without anyone stopping to ask: “does this genuinely sound like me?”
That’s how you end up with content that’s technically fine and completely forgettable. Correct grammar, reasonable structure, absolutely nothing in it that makes anyone stop scrolling.
The one suggestion that changes everything. The gentle “I don’t think that’s quite right, try this instead”. The second brain that already knows your business well enough to spot when something’s off before you’ve even finished explaining it. That’s the actual value in this work. Not the typing. The thinking.
As a VA and copywriter, that’s genuinely the job. Not just executing tasks off a list but being a proper thinking partner in your business. Someone who is in your corner and not just on your payroll.
Is this how you want to work?
Have a quick, honest word with yourself. This is probably for you if:
- You’ve got loads of ideas but zero time or headspace to actually shape them into something usable.
- You’ve tried the AI tools and the output still needs so much editing it barely saves you any time at all.
- You want someone who’ll tell you the truth kindly, not just say “yes, lovely, sounds great” to everything you send.
- You’re sick of your content sounding like everyone else’s in your industry.
- You’d rather have a proper conversation about your business than fill in yet another brief template.
If any of that struck a chord (can’t resist a musical metaphor!), keep reading.
So No, I’m not offended!
Being compared to ChatGPT could have gone either way, if I’m honest. But once my client explained what she actually meant, it landed as one of the loveliest compliments I’ve had in ages.
Because what she was really saying is that she trusts me enough to hand over the mess and know I’ll do something good with it. That’s not a robot’s job or something you can prompt your way into. That’s built conversation by conversation, brain dump by brain dump.
If you fancy your own “you’re my ChatGPT” moment (minus the mild identity crisis on my end), that’s exactly what my Content Power-Up!™ is for.
One hour, just us, digging into your voice, your dream client and what actually makes you different. You’ll walk away with your tone of voice guide, a detailed dream client profile and a 6-month content plan packed with ideas, examples and awareness days, so your content finally sounds unmistakably and undeniably like you.
No AI. No generic template. Just a proper sense-checking sidekick who’s got your back (and possibly your voice notes) from now on.
👉 Book your Content Power-Up!™ here and let’s turn your scattered ideas into something actually worth publishing.