Making AI content sound like you starts with picturing a pretty great Tuesday night.
In this one, you sit down to write tomorrow’s post.
First, AI hands you a list of ideas in seconds.
Then you pick the best one, and it sketches out the bones.
After that, you drop in the story about the customer who came in this week, read it out loud once, and hit schedule.
Twenty minutes.
And it sounds exactly like you.
Ahhh. Nice, right?
Now picture the usual Tuesday night.
It’s late.
You’ve got a post due tomorrow and nothing in the tank.
So you open up your AI tool, type “write me a post about my holiday sale,” and hit enter.
Bam.
Three seconds later, there it is.
Polished.
Tidy.
Perfectly punctuated.
Aaaand it sounds absolutely nothing like you.
It says things like “leverage” and “elevate your experience.”
On top of that, it’s got a little rocket emoji in it, all fueled up and ready to launch your holiday sale into a galaxy your customers have never once seen you visit.
You read it and think, well, it’s not wrong.
But your customers would never guess you wrote it.
So you post it anyway and feel a little awkward about it.
Or you delete the whole thing and start from scratch, which is exactly what you were trying to avoid in the first place.
Good news, though.
There’s a middle ground.
AI can save you a lot of time on content, and at the same time, your voice can stay right where it belongs, in every post.
By the end of this post, you’ll know exactly which parts to hand off and which parts to keep. (The rocket can stay home.)
Rather listen than read? This week’s episode of The Content Brew walks through all four levels, plus the one line from my fiancé that I think about every time I see an AI draft. So pop in your earbuds while you prep the shop for tomorrow or wait out the school pickup line. I’ll keep you company.
Why Does AI Content Sound So Generic?
AI learned to write by reading a whole lot of the internet.
So, when you ask it for a post, it hands you something that sounds like the average of everything it’s read.
Smooth.
Safe.
And a whole lot like everybody else.
Think about what that means for your small business.
AI doesn’t know your customers.
It doesn’t know your regulars, or the stories that happen in your shop every week.
Most of all, it doesn’t know you.
That part is your job.
And once you split the work that way, AI gets a whole lot more useful.
The Day My Own Writing Stopped Sounding Like Me
Back in Episode 6 of The Content Brew, How to Find Your Brand Voice, I told you about the day my fiancé read my blog posts, looked up, and said:
“This doesn’t sound like you…at all.”
Ouch.
Also? He was right.
I’d gotten so wrapped up in sounding professional that my coffee-drinking, straight-talking self had gone missing.
Packed a bag and everything.
And that’s why I think about that line every time I see an AI draft.
Because that polished, sounds-like-everybody voice is exactly what AI hands you by default.
Post what it gives you as-is, and you end up right back where I was before he said it.
Trust me, it’s not a fun place to hang out.
So let’s keep you out of there.
How to Make AI Content Sound Like You: The 4-Level System
Let AI do the grunt work. You do the YOU part.
This is how the work splits up at each level:
- Ideas: AI brainstorms, then you keep only the ones that fit your customers.
- Outline: AI builds the bones, then you put them in the order you’d explain it out loud.
- First draft: AI writes the in-between parts, while you write the stories and opinions.
- Polish: AI tightens it up, and finally, you give it the final read out loud.
Let’s break ’em down.
Level 1: Let AI Brainstorm, Then Keep Only the Ideas That Fit
This is the easiest place to start.
When your brain’s fried and you can’t think of a single thing to post, ask AI to brainstorm with you.
The trick, of course, is being specific.
“Give me post ideas” gets you a list so generic it could belong to a dentist, a dog groomer, and a dentist who grooms dogs.
(If that last one is you, please call me. I have so many questions.)
Instead, tell it what kind of small business you run, who your customers are, and what season you’re heading into.
So for example, let’s say you run a bakery, so you tell your AI tool something like this:
“I run a small neighborhood bakery. Most of my customers are local families and folks grabbing coffee on the way to work. It’s late October and I’m heading into the holiday rush. Give me 15 post ideas based on questions my customers ask this time of year.”
Then do the you part.
Read through the list and keep only the ideas that match what your customers really ask you about.
And ditch anything that doesn’t sound like your small business.
Most of the list is probably going to go.
That’s fine, because you only need a couple of good ones.
Give the rest a little wave on their way out the door.
Level 2: Let AI Build the Outline, Then Make It Yours
Once you’ve picked an idea, ask AI for a rough outline.
For a blog, an email, or even a carousel.
Tweaking an outline is a lot easier than staring down a blank page. (The blank page always wins those staring contests. It doesn’t even blink. Rude.)
So let AI hand you the bones.
After that, make it yours:
- Move the sections around so they’re in the order you’d explain it out loud to a customer.
- Cut the filler sections AI always wants to add things like “The Importance of Content in Today’s Business Landscape.” Gone. Buh-bye.
- Add the angle only you can bring. Your opinion. Your way of doing it. The thing you’ve learned from your own customers.
Level 3: Split Up the First Draft
This is where most small business owners end up with generic posts.
They let AI write the whole thing, top to bottom, and then wonder why it sounds like a stranger.
So split it up instead.
AI can handle the in-between parts like:
- Transitions from one section to the next
- Quick summaries
- The intro line that says what the post is about
Then you write the parts that make it yours:
- The stories
- The examples from your own shop
- Your opinions
- The lessons you learned the hard way (we’ve all got a few)
A good test: if a customer could picture you saying that part to them in person, then you write it.
Not the AI.
Level 4: Polish With AI, Then Give It the Final Read Out Loud
When the draft’s done, AI can help you tighten it up.
So you can ask it to check whether you covered everything.
You can also ask for a few headline or subject line options to pick from.
Then comes the most important step, and it’s all yours.
Read the whole thing out loud.
Yes.
OUT.
LOUD.
Even if you feel a little silly doing it at the kitchen table.
Especially then.
Remember The Coffee Shop Test?
Would you say this to a friend over coffee?
If you stumble over a sentence, your reader will too.
And if you’d feel silly saying it across the table, rewrite it the way you’d say it.
In the end, only you know what sounds like you.
That’s why this last read has to be yours.
The Robot Word Swap
The read-out-loud step is also where you catch the words AI loves that nobody says in real life. These are the swaps I make most when I use AI:
| AI says | You say |
|---|---|
| Leverage | Use |
| Streamline | Simplify |
| Facilitate | Help with |
| Implement | Try |
| Enhance | Make better |
| Utilize | Use (again! AI really loves this one) |
| Optimize | Improve, tune up |
| Seamless | Easy, smooth |
| Robust | Solid, strong |
| Elevate | Make better, step up |
| Empower | Help |
| Unlock | Get, open up |
| Delve into | Dig into |
I mean seriously, when’s the last time you delved into anything?
Other than a bag of holiday cookies, I mean.
So keep this list somewhere handy.
Your notes app, a sticky note on your monitor, the back of a receipt.
Then add to it every time you catch a new one.
If you started that “sounds like me” list after Episode 6, this is its grumpy little sibling: the “never sounds like me” list.
Where Using AI for Content Goes Sideways
A few spots tend to trip up small business owners, and I say this with love:
Posting the first draft as-is. That’s how you end up with content that sounds like everybody else’s, because it basically is everybody else’s.
Asking vague questions. The more you tell AI about your small business, your customers, and how you talk, the better the starting point it gives you. Otherwise, a one-line prompt gets you a one-size-fits-all post.
Letting AI make up your stories. Never, and I do mean never, let it invent a customer, a result, or something that happened. Your real stories are the one thing AI can’t give you, and they’re the part people remember. Besides, a made-up customer is a quick way to lose the trust of your real ones.
Quick Answers About Using AI for Small Business Content
Is it okay to use AI for my small business content? Yep. Use it for the grunt work: ideas, outlines, transitions, and polishing. Keep the stories, opinions, and examples for yourself, and read every post out loud before it goes out.
Will Google penalize AI content? Google has said it focuses on whether content is helpful to the reader, however it was made. So content full of your real experience and your customers’ real questions is exactly the kind that helps. Want more on where AI fits into your workflow? This post walks through the tools.
How do I get AI to write more like me? Give it more to work with. First, tell it about your business and your customers. Then paste in a post or two you wrote yourself that you love. It’ll get closer. Still, you’ll want to do the final read out loud, since you’re the only one who can hear what’s missing.
Which parts should I always write myself? The stories, the examples from your own small business, your opinions, and the lessons you learned the hard way. In short, if a customer could picture you saying it in person, you write it.
What if I’ve already posted a bunch of AI drafts as-is? No big deal. We’ve all hit publish a little too fast. Start by picking your next post and running it through all four levels. Then go back to one older post, read it out loud, and swap out any robot words you trip over.
Read It Out Loud Before It Goes Out
Before you go, I’ll leave you with that line from my fiancé one more time. “This doesn’t sound like you at all.”
He was reading my own writing, back when I was trying too hard to sound professional.
I made that mess all by myself.
Even so, the fix is the same either way.
Read it out loud.
Put YOU back in.
Show up as you, coffee stains and all.
If he’d say it doesn’t sound like you, then it doesn’t go out.
Your homework this week?
Take one AI draft, pour yourself a cup, and read it out loud before it goes anywhere.
You’ll hear right away what needs to change.
Grab your coffee…You’ve got this!
Before your next AI-assisted post goes out, give it a five-minute once-over with my free Fix My Content Checklist. It walks you through five quick checks, including whether your post sounds like a human wrote it, whether there’s something personal and specific in the first two lines, and whether your reader knows exactly what to do next. It’s the perfect last step after Level 4. Plus, it catches the stuff that’s easy to miss when you’ve been staring at the same draft for an hour.
