11.8M vs 268k
One of the numbers is Gary Vee. The other is his agency. That gap is why I still write every newsletter myself.
I was at our AI marketing team workshop yesterday.
"I read your newsletters. Not bad..."
"Yeah, I write all of them."
"Ohhh, no wonder..."
When you read a Daily CMO newsletter, you get me. (Hey it's Reuben). If that ever changes, I'll tell you.
Of course, in a room full of people learning AI, everyone assumes I use AI to write this.
But that defeats the whole point.
I write for two reasons:
- I enjoy it, and it forces me to think properly.
- And I want to talk to you eye-to-eye, not broadcast at you.
Can only do that if what comes into your inbox is 100% me.
So what do I use AI for?
A lot. Automation, ideation, summarising... stuff that takes up a lot of time.
This week I did something fun.
I took every Daily CMO post I've ever written, 213 of them, two years of it, and trained my AI assistant with it.
And it worked. Quite scary.
Now my AI can write my openings. It knows how I think. How I would work out marketing campaigns.
I don't do this to replace me. It's more so for my team to think like me (they prompt the AI) when I'm not around.
Then again, I ask... how does this produce actual revenue?
People still buy from people
I mean, my team could just generate content from our trained AI and send newsletters.
But I bet you will smell it.
You'll start to feel the authenticity fading.
People still buy from people. I like buying from people I like. And when I buy from a company, I like to know the people behind the brand.
It's the reason why Gary Vee has 11.8M followers. But his company, VaynerMedia, has 268k followers.
Be human; people want to buy from you (a human).
Claudia of My Franchise Guide and I are running a personal branding workshop again – 25th Aug, 10AM (with added material) to show you our content systems and behind-the-scenes of our process.
Don't sleep on the opportunity to build a personal brand in 2026.
Want to explore Claude AI?
My friend, Jack Newenham, is running a workshop focused on building an AI system on Claude, aimed at managers.
I've not attended the session personally, so I can't say much about it. But Jack is a solid marketer whom I've known for a while, so I'm sure there's value to take back.