Not to labor the point, but we all know the internet is drowning in a sea of forgettable AI writing.
It’s everywhere.
Vanilla-flavored, overly polite, AI slop.
Sure, it’s grammatically perfect, logically structured, but utterly soul-crushing to read.
It’s the literary equivalent of a beige room.
If you’re blindly using AI to “write content,” you’re participating in a race to the bottom.
In a world where everyone can generate a 1,000-word blog post in 30 seconds for $0.00, the market value of that post is exactly $0.00.
But there’s a new savvy breed of creator emerging.
I call them the High-Performance Writer (HPW).
The HPW doesn’t just “use” AI.
They dominate it.
They exploit it.
They direct it (intelligently).
And, the payoff?
They produce 10x the volume of a traditional writer with 10x the soul of any AI bot.
They’re not just writers; they’re architects of ideas using technology, yes, but delivering real human value.
Today, I’m giving you the blueprint for the HPW workflow.
This is how you stop being a random AI prompter and become a high-value writer.
Most people make the mistake of asking AI for a Final Draft.
They type: “Write a newsletter about productivity,” and then they hit publish.
That is a recipe for mediocrity and simply adding to the AI slop.
A High-Performance Writer uses AI to create Draft Zero.
Draft Zero is the inhuman, structural foundation that AI spits out in seconds.
It’s the research, the outline, and the logical flow.
It’s the part of writing that usually takes 4 hours of staring at a blank cursor!
Think about that for a moment…
The HPW Rule: Let AI build the skeleton; You (the human) provide the heartbeat.
The Actionable Shift: Stop expecting finished articles. Start expecting outlines you can polish.
Prompt: “Analyze these 3 sources [Link 1, 2, 3] and provide a 7-point structural outline for an essay that argues against [Topic]. For each point, give me a counter-intuitive angle.”
Thanks for reading so far. I appreciate you! Please help yourself to a FREE copy of my Cheatsheet “How To Unslop Generic AI Writing”.
My cheatsheet will help you turn AI text into compelling, human-centric content that connects closely with the reader. I developed it for writers, content creators, marketers, and anyone looking to up their AI writing game.
AI sounds like a robot because it lacks your specific context, point of view, and human experience.
It doesn’t know your failures, your weird obsessions, or the way you talk to your clients.
To be a High-Performance Writer, you must master Context Override.
Before you let the AI write a single sentence of Draft Zero, you must feed it yourself (don’t worry, it won’t steal your soul).
How to do it: Create a “Voice & Values” document. This should include:
Your “Never” List: Words you hate (e.g., “delve,” “unlock,” “game-changer”).
Your “Hero” Writers: Who do you want to sound like? (e.g., “The punchiness of Hemingway mixed with the technical depth of a McKinsey report”).
I just had a thought on this (sorry to break the flow).
- When we initially set out to become writers (before AI), did we not study the masters?
- Did we not learn from what went before?
- Did we not use Google to hunt down the information we needed to write a piece?
- Did we not rewrite something already written in our own voice?
- Isn’t AI just doing it 10x more efficiently than we ever could?
Back to the story…Your Personal Anecdotes: A list of 5-10 stories from your life that illustrate your expertise or point of view.
Feed this to the AI first.
Tell it: “You are an extension of my brain. Here is how I think and speak. Use this as the filter for everything you produce.”
Once you have your AI-generated Draft Zero, the real work begins.
An HPW spends 80% of their time editing, not writing.
Here’s the 3-check system that turns a robotic draft into a high-converting masterpiece (perform each pass, one at a time, in the order listed below):
Check 1: The Bot-Busting Pass
Scan for “AI-isms.” Cut every “In conclusion,” every “In today’s fast-paced world,” and every sentence that starts with “Imagine a...” Replace them with direct, blunt statements.
Check 2: The Texture Pass
Here’s where you add the Human Layer.
Add a Specificity: Instead of “it saved a lot of time,” write “it saved me 14 hours every Tuesday.”
Add an Opinion: AI is programmed to be neutral. You aren’t. Take a stand. Be polarizing. Tell the reader why common thought and wisdom are stupid.
Check 3: The Rhythm Pass
Read it out loud. If you run out of breath, the sentence is too long. If every sentence is the same length, the reader will fall asleep. Mix short sentences. Medium ones. And then, occasionally, a long, flowing thought that carries them down the page.
A High-Performance Writer doesn’t just write a Substack post. They build an Asset Ecosystem.
If you spend 2 hours crafting a deep-dive newsletter, it’s a crime to post it only once.
The HPW uses AI to spread the content across their main resources. In my case, I use three.
Substack (The Hub): The deep-dive, the “How-To,” the transformation. (What you’re reading now).
LinkedIn (The Authority): Use AI to take your Substack post and extract 3 “Controversial Opinions.” Post these as short, punchy updates to drive traffic back to the hub.
YouTube (The Process): Record a video showing the “Behind the Scenes” of how you researched the post. MySubstack is the result; my YouTube video is the proof.
Staunch anti-AI writers may not like this, but writing is no longer about the ability to put words on a page.
Debate me in the comments if you feel strongly about this, or anything else I’ve said in this newsletter.
That skill has been commoditized.
Writing is now about Curation, Strategy, and Voice.
More than that, it’s about humanization.
The High-Performance Writer is the one who’s firmly in control of AI and knows how to exploit it to produce outstanding content that connects and delivers value.
They use the speed of the machine to buy back their time so they can focus on the one thing AI can’t do: Create a genuine human connection.
I want you to look at your last piece of content. Ask yourself: Did I act as the Director, or was I just the assistant hitting the ‘Generate’ button?
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