What you need to know about AI, plus my biggest takeaways from the Content Entrepreneur Expo in Cleveland last week
I’ll admit I was nervous…
Speaking to a room full of content entrepreneurs, content creators, experts and influencers at the CEX Content Entrepreneur Expo in Cleveland last week.
These were people who made BIG things happen on the regular. Did they really need me to show them how to write and finish their book?
Here’s the thing about writing, though: When it’s just you and the blank page, all those accolades can easily disappear. Only to be replaced by self-doubt, fear and feelings of unworthiness.
See, when you’re confident at what you do, everyone can be in their leadership. It’s easy to stay committed and show up day after day when you feel good about what you’re bringing to the table.
But when you’re trying something new, uncomfortable, scary? Something you’ve never done before? All those good tools and habits and mindsets and confidence disintegrate and that’s why the team ethic is such a cornerstone of the work that I do with my clients.
We all need someone who believes in us more than we do, especially when we’re trying something new or different. We all benefit from guides and mentors, who have been there before us, to show us the best and quickest way forward. We all produce better when we have a team to hold us high, hold us accountable and cheer us along the way.
That’s who I got to be as a speaker at CEX. And that’s who I want to be for you too.
Cat xo
Wanna be a content entrepreneur?
At the CEX Content Entrepreneur Expo last week, I was surrounded by the top experts and personalities in the business, and learned a ton. Here are some of my most memorable takeaways:
-From memberships to teaching platforms to podcasts, social media and books, there are innumerable ways to monetize your knowledge and expertise, and to serve and impact others. Basically, if you can dream it, someone is willing to pay you for it.
-Maybe it’s because I’m overly familiar with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, but I’m wary of AI. Still there were some talks that were definitely compelling as to what the benefits can be, particularly for content entrepreneurs. What I found most fascinating was the case that speaker Andrew Davis built for using AI to augment and enhance what you do. Rather than replacing yourself or your team with AI functionality, ask how can AI make you better or more effective at what you do?
-Speaking of AI, I also had the chance to attend a workshop on the legal and ethical ramifications of the use of AI on IP. As content creators and entrepreneurs, we must be cognizant of the possibility that we can be unintentionally plagiarizing someone’s work or leaving our own work vulnerable. If you’re using AI to improve your productivity—amazing. If you’re using AI as your creative collaborator, tread carefully, especially if you plan to monetize it later.
-Another topic of conversation that I never got tired of was social media algorithms, which seem to have most people scratching their heads, as we try to uncover the magic formula that will attract audiences and keep their attention by leaning into a platform who’s only ultimate goal is to keep our eyeballs on the screen for as long and as often as possible. The question arises: Do we allow those algorithms to define who we are and how we show up, even if that means becoming a caricature of who we really are?
Or do we follow the words of CEX speaker B.J. Novak, who in his keynote insisted that you just gotta do you and if that resonates, fantastic. If it doesn’t, at least you’ve attracted the right people and audience.
-While the workshops, breakout sessions and keynotes were all fantastic, I think the greatest value I got from my three days at CEX were the many new friends and connections that I made. I found it invaluable to meet so many different experts on so many different things from so many different spaces, and to be able to learn from the masters on everything from scaling and building your business to memberships to podcasting to all the ways we can use AI to help us improve what we do and how we run our businesses. Thanks to CEX and Tilt Publishing for an inspired and inspiring time!
PS: If you didn’t have a chance to go to CEX this spring, be sure to add it to your calendar for next year. I promise you won’t regret it!
Would you rather?
Last night at dinner, my daughter was playing her favourite game, “Would you rather?”
On the third round, she asked me, “Would you rather keep writing or be married?”
That was a tough one for me. Truly
I love my husband and…writing to me is like breathing. I’m not sure I could even exist without it?
I was listening to a podcast interview with Steven Pressfield, who asks what I think is a brilliant question that I’ll leave you with this week, to ponder as a barometer of whether something is worth pursuing:
If you couldn’t make any money from [insert thing in question], would you still want to do it?
I know what my answer is. And it’s the same I gave my daughter. What about you?