I used to treat ChatGPT like a tool. I’d pop in for quick brainstorming and forget about it for weeks.
But then something shifted.
I started using AI daily — not just as a tool, but as a teammate. ChatGPT now helps me shape first drafts, streamline workflows, and even critique my proposals. (It recently told me one was too long for the target reader — oof, but accurate.)
So I felt totally seen when I watched Stanford creativity and AI professor Jeremy Utley tell a story about Winston Churchill dictating speeches from the bathtub while his assistant scribbled notes from outside the room. His takeaway from his video about AI-powered creativity? We all need creative support, and AI can be that assistant.
Not a robot intern. Not a glorified search engine. A collaborator that gets your voice, understands your goals, and helps you create your best work (even while you’re soaking in Epsom salts and ignoring email).
Here’s how to make that shift — and start getting mind-blowing results from AI.
1. Let AI Ask the Questions First
ChatGPT can ask surprisingly insightful questions — almost like a trained coach or consultant (and I would know, because I’m both). I’ve used it to untangle my thinking, test assumptions, and clear up brain space for bigger ideas.
Try this prompt from Utley’s talk:
“You’re an AI expert. I’d love your help figuring out where to best use AI in my life. Please ask me one question at a time about my workflows, responsibilities, KPIs, and goals — and once you have enough context, give me two obvious and two non-obvious recommendations.”
💣 Mind. Blown.
2. Coach Your AI Like a Teammate
If a coworker handed you a messy first draft, you wouldn’t roll your eyes and say, “Welp, they suck,” and start over from scratch. You’d give feedback. You’d clarify what wasn’t working. You might even say, “This is close — here’s what I was going for.”
Treat your AI the same way.
Too many people try one prompt, get a “meh” response, and give up. But ChatGPT isn’t a mind reader — it’s a collaborator that improves with direction and context.
Here’s how to coach it like a teammate:
- Tell it what worked. Be specific: “This tone feels on-brand,” or “The structure here is great, but the intro’s too soft.”
- Point out what didn’t. Don’t be afraid to say: “This sounds too generic,” or “This wording feels off. Try something more casual.”
- Ask for new directions. Request: “Give me five tone variations,” or “Rewrite this for a skeptical Gen X audience.”
- Let it analyze your draft. Use prompts like: “What objections didn’t I address?” or “What’s missing from this pitch?”
The more feedback you give, the sharper and more tailored the output becomes. Over time, ChatGPT starts to understand your voice, goals, and creative preferences, just like a trusted collaborator.
It’s not about getting the perfect first draft. It’s about building momentum and making it better, together.
3. Use It Where You Dread the Work
You don’t need to overhaul your entire process and replace it with our robot friends.
Start with the tasks that make you stall, sigh, or scroll Instagram.
Jeremy Utley shared a story about a national park ranger who hated filling out carpet-tile replacement forms. With zero tech skills, he used AI to build a document tool in 45 minutes, saving 7,000 days of human labor across the park system. 😮
For me, it started with YouTube descriptions. Then came content repurposing. Now I ask: “Where can AI give me a head start or clean up the boring parts?”
Using ChatGPT to handle the stuff I dread has freed up so much creative time.
I’ve even built a custom GPT to write reports for my local parkrun. It’s saved me at least an hour every Saturday night.
Here are other things SEO copywriters can do with ChatGPT.
4. Don’t Stop at “Good Enough”
AI makes it dangerously easy to settle for “fine.” You enter a quick prompt, get a decent response, and think, “Cool, done.”
And that’s exactly why most content sounds the same. It’s technically correct. It checks the boxes. But it doesn’t stand out. That’s why AI copy without human editing sucks.
Jeremy Utley told the story of a seventh grader putting a post-it note on the board that said:
“Creativity is doing more than the first thing you think of.”
That’s the bar.
I use AI to push past the easy answers and go deeper — to level up my drafts, explore different directions, and shake loose ideas I wouldn’t have thought of on my own. The first draft is rarely the best, and AI makes it easier to keep going.
Sometimes I’ll ask:
- “Give me 10 more ways to say this.”
- “What would this sound like if Brene Brown wrote it?”
- “Make this sharper, more human, or Gen X-friendly.”
Other times, I’ll feed it a full blog post and say:
- “What’s missing?”
- “Which parts are unclear?”
- “How can I make this more emotionally resonant?”
The point isn’t to let AI write for you. The magic happens when you don’t stop at the first decent result. You push. You play. You refine.
That’s where the creative breakthroughs live.
AI Won’t Replace Your Spark — It’ll Supercharge It 💥
As Utley says:
“Everyone has access to the same ChatGPT. How do I get a different output than you do? It’s because of what I bring to the model. And what do I bring to the model?
Certainly I bring technique, but I also bring my experience. I bring my perspective.
I bring all the inspiration I’ve gleaned from the world.That’s what gets a user a differential output from a model.
It’s not about what AI can do alone. It’s what you and AI can do together.
What do YOU want to create with ChatGPT? Leave a message in the comments.
💬 Want help bringing AI into your writing or marketing workflow — without losing your voice?
I offer 1:1 training sessions to help you integrate AI into your writing or marketing workflow, plus ongoing support inside Writers + Robots. (You can even start with a 7-day free trial.)
