Your AI hasn’t met you yet.
Your AI posts sound like everyone else’s because the AI knows nothing about you, so it fills the gaps with the most average words it can find. Fix it by giving AI your own knowledge: who your customers are, the words they use, your opinions, your real stories and examples of how you write.
Henny Maltby25 years in marketing · Growth Hub Premier Partner · 22 October 2026
!Could your post belong to anyone? That’s what happens when AI has nothing to go on.
Out of the box, AI has nothing to go on. Ask it to “write a post for my business” and it has no idea who you are, who buys from you or why.
So it does the only thing it can: it writes the most likely, most middle of the road version of that post. The result is the same one everybody else gets.
You’ll recognise the signs. “Are you looking for…?” openers. “We pride ourselves on…” Promises of quality and passion that could belong to any business in the country. Nothing wrong with any of it, but nothing that makes a customer stop scrolling either.
This is exactly what worries a lot of business owners. In an IONOS and YouGov survey of 1,001 UK small business decision makers, 56% said losing the human touch was a barrier to using AI. That was the top concern, ahead of data theft. It’s a fair worry, because it’s what happens when you use AI without teaching it first.
AI knows nothing about you out of the box. That’s the whole problem, and it’s completely fixable.
Teach it about you
This is what I call your Brain: a set of notes about your business that your AI reads before it writes anything. Once it’s built, every post, email and blog starts from you rather than from the average. These are the six things that make the biggest difference.
Not “everyone”. The two or three types of people who buy from you most, and what’s going on for them when they do.
How customers describe their problem in their own words. Pull these from reviews, emails and enquiries.
What you believe that others in your trade don’t. Opinions are what make content worth reading.
Jobs you’ve done, questions you get asked, things that went wrong and how you fixed them.
Three to five pieces that sound like you on a good day, so AI can copy your rhythm and tone.
The words and phrases you’d never use. AI will avoid them every time once it knows.
I have my own banned list, and it’s long. There are words I simply never use and punctuation I don’t like, and because it’s in my Brain, I don’t have to keep correcting the same things in every draft.
See the difference
To show you what changes, here’s an invented example. There’s no real bakery behind it, it’s just to illustrate the point.
Same request, same AI. The only difference is what the AI was told first.
Just an example, this bakery’s made up
Example only: a made up bakery
The second post isn’t cleverer writing. It’s better information. That’s the bit most people skip.
Google and AI search
No. Google has said it judges content on its quality, however it was produced. It doesn’t punish AI. It punishes average content: posts that say what a hundred other pages already say, with nothing new, nothing first hand and nothing that shows the writer actually knows the subject.
The same goes for AI search tools like ChatGPT when they decide which businesses to mention. They look for something specific and useful to quote. A generic post gives them nothing. A post with your real prices, your real process and your real opinion gives them plenty.
So the question isn’t “should I use AI?” It’s “what am I giving it to work with?”
Want AI that sounds like you?
In the Pink Elephant AI Marketing Academy you build your own AI Marketing Brain step by step, then use it to create posts, blogs and emails that sound like you. You teach it. Your agents do the work. You stay in control. The full Academy opens on 14 November.
Teach it your voice
Start with a “how I write” note. It takes about twenty minutes and you’ll use it for years. Here’s how to do it.
Try this today
Open ChatGPT or Claude, copy this prompt in and paste three to five pieces of your own writing at the end.
Keep the finished note somewhere safe. It’s the start of your Brain, and every post you ask for after this will sound more like you.
I want you to learn how I write so you can draft posts and emails that sound like me, not like everyone else.
Below are some pieces I’ve written myself. Read them carefully, then write me a “How I write” note that covers:
1. How long my sentences usually are, and how I start and finish a piece
2. Words and phrases I use often
3. My tone (for example: warm, direct, funny, calm)
4. Anything I clearly avoid
Then ask me these questions one at a time and add my answers to the note:
– Who are the two or three types of customer who buy from me most?
– What words do they use to describe their problem?
– What’s one opinion I hold that others in my trade might not?
– What’s a real story from my work I could tell?
– Which words or phrases should you never use for me?
Keep the finished note under 400 words so I can paste it into any future chat.
[Paste your writing here]
Your name is on it
Always. Even with a good Brain, AI sometimes states things that aren’t true, or puts words in your mouth you never said.
I’ll give you my own example. AI wrote first drafts of four of my Academy courses overnight, while I slept. Writing them myself would have taken me about a month. But I checked every page the next morning, and I did find things I had to change. It saved me weeks, and it still needed me.
So the rule is simple: AI drafts, a person decides. Your name is on it, so you read it before it goes out.
Where to go from here
Walks you through building the Brain itself: your customers, your voice, your rules. Everything else is built on it.
Shows you how to turn your Brain into a full month of posts that sound like you.
Does the same for blogs that Google and AI search will want to show.
Not sure your current marketing is even reaching the right people? Try the free marketing review. It takes about 8 minutes, looks your business up and shows you where you’re losing customers.
Your questions answered
The questions I’m asked most when business owners want AI to sound like them.
Often, yes, when the AI has been given nothing to work with. Generic openers, vague promises and the same handful of phrases give it away. When the AI knows your customers, your stories and how you write, the post reads like you because it is built from you.
Google has said it judges content on quality, however it is produced. It doesn’t punish AI. It punishes average content that adds nothing new. Posts built on your own knowledge, examples and opinions are the kind it rewards.
Three to five pieces is plenty to start: a few emails to customers, a post you were pleased with, and something from your website. Pick pieces that sound most like you on a good day.
Yes. AI is brilliant at first drafts, but it sometimes states things that aren’t true or that you never said. Read every draft before it goes out. AI drafts, a person decides.
Where to start
Generic AI posts aren’t a tool problem, they’re an information problem. The more your AI knows about your business, the more every post, blog and email sounds like you.
That’s how I’ve built the Pink Elephant AI Marketing Academy. You start free, build your own AI Marketing Brain, and keep it for good. Then you use it to create the posts, blogs and emails, one job at a time.
A free start, then step by step to an AI that writes like you. The first course, How Marketing Really Works, is free.
Want to talk it through first?
My private 1:1 marketing sessions are worth £150 an hour, and your first hour is free. We’ll look at a few of your posts together and work out what your AI needs to know to sound like you.
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