Ft. Nicole Leffer, Thinkific course creator and founding father of A. Catalyst.
There’s little doubt that since its explosive rise in late 2022, ChatGPT has shaken up the digital training house; As of early 2025, ChatGPT reached roughly 400 million weekly lively customers, with round 122 million utilizing it every day. Since February, this quantity has elevated by 25%, exceeding weekly customers to 500 million.
For a lot of on-line specialists, rising know-how is each a robust ally and a possible menace. We sat down with Nicole Leffer—Thinkific course creator, founding father of A. Catalyst, and an professional on this house (she added an additional six-figures a 12 months to her revenue via her Thinkific course on generative AI)—to get her tackle the right way to maintain course creation human in an more and more automated world.
Inside moments of talking with Leffer, it turned clear that storytelling is crucial to constructing connection. She believes that by strategically utilizing AI instruments like ChatGPT, on-line course creators could make higher, sooner, and extra impactful programs. However to make use of it successfully and stand out within the often-crowded on-line world, she recommends that specialists use their life experiences, keep genuine, categorical their character, and deal with the device as a collaborative associate—not a rival.
“ChatGPT is a superb useful resource,” shares Leffer. “As specialists, we are able to take a look at it with worry, stress, and anxiousness, or we are able to take a look at it as one thing that helps us higher convey ourselves to our content material in a greater, sooner means—serving to us serve extra folks.”
On this weblog, we’re sharing Leffer’s prime 5 tricks to keep human within the age of AI:
Skip forward:
- Leverage your life expertise
- Infuse your genuine character
- Encourage emotional buy-in
- See ChatGPT as a collaborator, not a competitor
- Keep in mind your price
1. Leverage your life expertise
In line with Leffer, the primary factor AI can’t replicate is somebody’s actual life expertise.
“AI won’t ever reside a life, it’s solely consumed coaching knowledge on the idea of residing a life.” she says. “After I discuss life expertise, I imply one thing you have got lived in your human type.”
On this means, somebody’s distinctive perspective and expertise is what stands out.
“The storytelling of your personal expertise—and why it issues—is a big differentiator between human-generated and AI content material,” continues Leffer.
She strongly believes that AI can’t compete along with your humanity. “Don’t simply give folks data,” she says. “Give them a relationship to the knowledge.”
Even if you happen to don’t resonate with being a ‘storyteller,’ Leffer says that, whereas it might appear paradoxical, ChatGPT might help you discover your voice. By utilizing AI to brainstorm, discover completely different tones, or refine your message, specialists can uncover what feels most genuine to them—and construct confidence of their distinctive perspective. “Don’t take a look at AI because the enemy; take a look at it because the assistant,” she encourages.
2. Infuse your genuine character
Together with bringing your life expertise to your work, there’s energy in infusing your distinctive, genuine character into your content material.
“It’s important to convey one thing to your programs that AI by no means may, like your character,” she says. “It’s simply as necessary to concentrate on why someone’s consuming your content material because the precise content material you create.”
To face out? Mix each life expertise and character. This differs from AI’s mode of operandi; in keeping with Leffer, AI creates a collective perspective based mostly on completely different content material on the Web. To distinguish your self, concentrate on the distinctive means you convey your voice to your experience. “Sure, AI is beginning to get increasingly character, but it surely’s nonetheless not an precise human character,” she provides.
Whereas it might really feel weak or uncomfortable leaning into your genuine self, Leffer assures that that is the largest distinction between human-created and AI-created content material. She believes that authenticity is very necessary in terms of advertising and marketing your course; For Leffer, this appears like resisting utterly filtering her ideas in her advertising and marketing materials, selecting to as an alternative share what naturally involves thoughts.
“In fact, I’m not going on the market and saying inappropriate issues, however I’m telling folks the reality and I’m not making an attempt to pretend being one thing I’m not,” she says.
In her case, her viewers appreciates the way in which that she exhibits up on LinkedIn. “Typically I make movies on LinkedIn when one thing fascinating and related to my viewers pops into my head,” she shares. “I am going on video in no matter I occur to be sporting round my home and I discuss to folks. My viewers loves that I’m not so buttoned-up and polished.”
“Your viewers is human, too—they’ll like that you simply’re not making an attempt to be one thing that you simply’re not,” she emphasizes. “Be who you might be. You don’t must be a unique model of your self for folks to purchase from you.”
3. Encourage emotional buy-in
In line with Leffer, the human aspect of content material is what causes folks to emotionally purchase into what you’re educating. The important thing? Keep in mind the issue that your distinctive content material solves.
“The rationale you buy a course is since you’re making an attempt to fill a necessity,” she says. “Perhaps you’re shopping for a course that can assist you be higher at your job—which offers a sense of stability. No matter it’s, you’re making an attempt to fill a psychological want.”
As AI turns into extra built-in into the whole lot we do, Leffer believes that we’re more and more craving connection. “By way of your course, you may tie your content material to the emotional want that somebody’s filling by studying out of your content material,” she says.
Her advice? Keep away from making your content material dry and boring, as a result of, she says, “ChatGPT can do that every one day.”
“AI instruments are going to get higher and higher at having the ability to current data and info,” she explains. “You’ll want to transcend factual presentation to get that psychological buy-in to no matter you’ve created.”
Her means to try this is by demonstrating why your course matter issues—via examples, storytelling, and being actual. “AI can exhibit it hypothetically or via the tales of different folks, however you may exhibit it via your personal life expertise,” she shares.
4. See ChatGPT as a collaborator, not a competitor
Leffer feels that it’s changing into stylish to identify AI and bash it.
“Don’t stigmatize AI,” she warns. “The fact is that the overwhelming majority of what we’re going to eat goes to be impacted by AI—and AI is an unimaginable device to make use of as a course creator and in advertising and marketing your course.”
She encourages of us to see the instruments as one thing that may make their programs higher.
“There’s nothing that’s extra highly effective than a human that understands the right way to leverage AI,” she says. “You’re going to have much better content material and advertising and marketing materials than a human alone or AI alone; combining the 2 is the place the magic is.”
To remain human within the age of know-how, Leffer emphasizes that your core concepts want to come back from you, the professional. In truth, she strongly advises in opposition to having ChatGPT create a curriculum for you. “The second your course isn’t you and your concepts is the second you start to compete with AI,” she shares.
“ChatGPT might help you suppose via your curriculum, however your course must be your concepts and your considering. Have a collaborative dialog with it to flush out your ideas and enable you to construction them, however permit the creativity to come back from you.”
Studying the right way to talk with the instruments is important. With ChatGPT, for instance, she recommends studying the right way to have an efficient dialog and get it to do what you need. On this means, you may give it your distinctive concepts, considering, and construction, after which the device might help you to enhance and refine it. “It’s simple to have a really primary dialog with ChatGPT,” she warns. “It’s not simple to intuitively know the right way to get nice outcomes out of it; these are two very various things.”
In Leffer’s case, she teaches folks the right way to use AI—in a “deeply human means.” She didn’t depend on ChatGPT to construct her curriculum; As an alternative, she recorded her course movies herself, then used AI-integrated instruments like Descript to edit and transcribe them. From there, she used AI to generate course notes, write lesson descriptions, craft studying goals, and format the whole lot into HTML.
The best way she makes use of AI has saved her “limitless hours.” The factor is, the course content material was completely hers; AI was merely her collaborative assistant. On this means, it didn’t exchange her humanness; it optimized it. “My course is my considering, concepts, and language—and AI helped me manage it and switch it into a very useful useful resource,” she shares. “AI made my course the next high quality course—not simply from a time-saving standpoint, but additionally by way of the standard of fabric.”
5. Keep in mind your price
For individuals who are involved that AI is making them much less related, Leffer has some recommendation.
“Take a deep breath,” she reassures. “Really feel that feeling and acknowledge that there’s some fact to it. However if you happen to’re an professional, your goal market isn’t the particular person self-educating on ChatGPT—and in actuality, the overwhelming majority of individuals aren’t self-educating via ChatGPT.”
“Don’t gaslight your self into believing that [AI] isn’t dramatically affecting you, as a result of it’s affecting each considered one of us,” she empathizes. “However for many individuals, ChatGPT isn’t an interesting method to be taught. Acknowledge that the particular person you’re promoting to is somebody who desires a course—and desires to be taught from you.”
If you bear in mind your price and what you convey to the desk, you may create content material in an more and more human means. Leffer recommends that specialists consistently push themselves to distinguish. This implies changing into extra authentically human.
“Each single time you create content material—even when AI helps you—take into consideration how one can make it as human as doable.”
For instance, creating interactive experiences for folks might help humanize your content material. Internet hosting Zoom workplace hours, the place college students and instructors can meet face-to-face, is a method to take action. Reside teaching can be a method to convey that extra human aspect into your educating.
Lastly, she acknowledges that as an professional, the one limits in your success are made by you—in your thoughts.
“You have got the flexibility to insulate your self sooner or later in a means that only a few can as a result of programs are so scalable; you might promote one or you might promote a million, relying on the way you promote it. The boundaries you have got are in your thoughts; don’t imagine them.”
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To learn Half 2 of this weblog sequence, bounce to the submit right here.
The submit Preserving it Human: Standing Out within the Age of AI (Pt. 1) appeared first on Thinkific.