Professionally, I run in a handful of very separate circles.

And let's just say that conversations about AI are extremely different depending on which circle I'm in.

Circle 1: Artistes & Trad Authors

I'm a life-long writer and lover of words, with a lot of friends who are traditionally published authors. Here, AI is approached with reactions ranging from fear and frustration to outright pitchforks and torches.

And I get that.

It's the plagiarism machine that was trained on our work without our permission. Every time I read a post that's clearly written by AI or illustrated with a clearly AI image, I die a little bit inside.

(And then I normally move on without finishing reading the post.)

Circle 2: Indie author

But I'm also an independently published author, with plenty of friends who are juggling capacity issues. How do we wear all the hats without going insane? How do we find the time to run a business while doing what we love—writing books?

Here, people are generally interested in how AI can help them run their business more effectively. Some are using AI as a brainstorming tool or for research while they're writing. (I do this.) Others are using AI to write for them. (I don't do this.)

But wherever people land in this community, the vibe is much more tolerant when having conversations about AI.

Circle 3: Entrepreneurs

Finally, I'm a business owner who spends a lot of time learning from and networking with other entrepreneurs.

Here, people are pretty excited about AI. It's helping them do more, be more effective, and often with better quality than when they were trying to cobble it all together themselves.

This is where I often find the AI-written newsletters that I unsubscribe from—but it's also where I learn a lot of tips and tricks about how I can manage a business on my own without losing my mind.

Why I'm telling you this.

Odds are, you probably ended up on this list because you fall into one of these three categories. I'm curious to know which one:

And I want to acknowledge that, for writers, using AI can be an extremely touchy subject.

If it's not for you, I want to reassure you that you can tune out this email without worrying that I am going to be suddenly talking about AI writing in every post.

But for anyone who is trying to run a business and create all the associated content, whether that's blog posts, Substack posts, chapters for your book, or personal essays—whatever!—you've probably wished for ways to make that take less time.

Next week, I'll be speaking at the Sustainable CEO Summit, a free virtual event for founders run by my friend Nata Salvatore. She's run this summit before, and the theme this time AI tools.

Nata has curated a bunch of great speakers who will each be demonstrating something extremely specific they do with AI to free up their time.

My session is "How to Use AI Without Losing Your Voice," and it's all about the ways I use AI to speed up my writing process without outsourcing my thinking, voice, and creativity.

​Register here.

A few other sessions that I'm looking forward to, as a writer who would rather spend her time on her art:

• Kylie Kelly—One Transcript, Five Assets: My Weekly AI Publishing Skill
• Holly Ostrout—The First Reader I Built So My Human Edits Could Go Deeper
• Prerna Malik—The Email Vault: Turn every email you've sent into a reusable library that updates itself.

The summit runs from November 3-5, and it's completely free to attend.

I hope you'll join me. I'd especially love to hear your thoughts on my talk.

​Here's that registration link again.

Talk soon,

Jessie

PS: By the way, if you want to learn more about how I use AI—and how I work with clients who may or may not use AI—my AI policy is posted on my website. (Along with a cool photo of my cyborg eye.)