Howdy Modern Authors!

I have a confession to make.

After spending the last ten weeks writing an entire series about Modern Author Identity...
​I still hate personal branding.

Maybe even more than when we started.

I hate the idea that the solution to building a meaningful career around your ideas is somehow to turn yourself into a carefully manufactured internet product.

Pick your colors.
Optimize your headshot.
Post three times a week.
Develop your “content pillars.”
Say the same clever thing repeatedly until the algorithm finally decides you're important.

No thanks.

But here's the strange thing.

At exactly the same moment that I think traditional “personal branding” is becoming increasingly ridiculous...

I think your personal identity is becoming more valuable than ever.

And AI is the reason.

Now listen, I don't want to write a big post about AI given it seems like we're bombarded with all the AI talk I can possibly handle right now.

So give me a beat here to get it... because honestly, I think the bigger point I want to make here is now is actually the best time to invest in really owning your identity (not your personal brand).

And trust me, that distinction makes a big big difference.

And so this week, I'm writing something that felt like it's been brewing in me for a few months.

AI Is About to Make “Pretty Good” Almost Worthless

Think about what's happening right now.

Need a competent LinkedIn post?
AI can write it (and no, none of us want to read it).

Need a newsletter?
Done.

Need ten article ideas?
Done.

Need a framework?
Give it thirty seconds.

Need a professional website?
Getting easier every month.

Need a podcast edited?
Done.

Need short-form clips?
Done.

Need a polished presentation?
Done.

Increasingly, you can even create video of yourself without actually recording yourself.

This is amazing.

I use these tools constantly.

But there's an obvious consequence we don't talk about enough.

The internet is about to contain an absolutely staggering amount of pretty good stuff.

Pretty good writing.
Pretty good frameworks.
Pretty good videos.
Pretty good newsletters.
Pretty good websites.
Pretty good advice.
Pretty good everything.

And when something becomes abundant...

its value changes.

For the last decade, simply being able to consistently produce high-quality content was a competitive advantage.

I'm not convinced that's going to remain true.

Because AI is rapidly destroying the scarcity of content.

Which means we need to ask:

What becomes scarce next?

I think one answer is:

Recognizable thinking.

You see, the truth is I'd rather go deep with someone I feel like I know, rather than someone who feels like a character.

I Don't Need More Content. I Need More You.

Here's a weird experience I've been having lately.

I read something online and think:
​That's pretty good.

But I have absolutely no idea who wrote it.

Nothing wrong with it.

Useful.
Well structured.
Professional.
Perfectly reasonable.
And completely forgettable.

Then I read something else and three sentences in I know exactly who wrote it.

I think about people like Mel Robbins, Adam Grant, Simon Sinek, James Clear, David Meltzer, Alex Hormozi, Gary Vee, and a few others just like them.

They have an identity... not a polished, slick brand. But I know their stance, their take, their perspective.

There's a worldview.
A voice.
A story.
A weird phrase they always use.
An opinion I know they're going to defend.

Maybe I disagree with it.

But I recognize the person behind it.

That's increasingly the distinction I care about.

Because AI can reproduce information remarkably well.

It can even reproduce style pretty well.

What it cannot easily reproduce is the accumulation of experiences that caused you to believe what you believe.

Your scar tissue.
Your contradictions.
The thing you learned after screwing something up for five years.
The story you've told 100 times.
The client interaction you can't stop thinking about.
The idea that makes your spouse roll their eyes because you've been talking about it for a decade.
The thing you believe that most of your industry gets wrong.

That's where identity lives.

Not in your Canva template.

And it's the thing I'm convinced matters more than anything right now.

Personal Branding Asks the Wrong Question

This is the distinction I've been trying to make throughout this series.

Personal branding tends to ask:
​How should I present myself?

Modern Author Identity asks:
​What should people recognize me for?

Those sound similar.

They're not.

One encourages performance.

The other requires clarity.

And AI makes that distinction much more important.

Because if your entire public identity is:

Congratulations.

You are now competing with approximately infinity.

AI can create useful leadership content all day.

It doesn't get tired.
It doesn't need coffee.
It doesn't have soccer practice at 6:00.
And it certainly doesn't need to spend Sunday afternoon writing a newsletter.

So “useful content” isn't enough.

Neither is “thought leadership.”

Frankly, I'm not even sure “expertise” by itself is enough.

You need a recognizable way of seeing something.

The Moat Is Moving

For years, experts built moats around information.

I know something you don't.

Then the internet weakened that moat.

So we built moats around access.

Follow me and I'll teach you.

Social media weakened that one too.

Now AI is attacking another moat:
​production.

I can produce more.
I can write better.
I can publish consistently.
I can explain complicated things clearly.

Those are becoming less scarce.

So where does the moat move?

I think toward things like:

Judgment.
Experience.
Point of view.
Taste.
Trust.
Relationships.
Reputation.
Identity.

In other words:

The stuff that's hardest to manufacture.
It's the stuff that makes Mel... Mel. Simon... Simon. Alex... Alex.

That's incredibly good news for Modern Authors.

But only if we stop trying to sound like everybody else.

Your Weirdness Is Becoming an Asset

For most of our professional lives, we've been trained to sand off the edges.

Sound professional.
Don't be too opinionated.
Use the language everyone in the industry uses.
Create content that “performs.”

But AI is extraordinarily good at creating things with the edges sanded off.

That's practically its default setting.

Which means your edges suddenly matter more.

Your unusual combination of experiences matters.
Your stories matter.
Your vocabulary matters.
Your strong opinions matter.
Your sense of humor matters.
Your frameworks matter.

Even some of your imperfections matter.

Not because everyone needs to become an internet personality.

Please don't.

But because recognition requires distinction.

If I could swap your name onto someone else's LinkedIn post and nobody would notice...
that's increasingly a problem.

If your newsletter could have been written by any reasonably smart person in your industry...
that's a problem.

If I ask what you believe that most people in your field don't and you can't answer...
that's a bigger problem.

AI isn't creating that problem.

It's exposing it.

This Is Why Books Suddenly Become More Interesting

And here's where authors have an enormous advantage.

A real book forces you to go deeper than content usually does.

You can't sustain 50,000 words with:

“Here are five tips for becoming a better leader.”

Well...
You can.

(Please don't.)

A great book forces you to wrestle with bigger questions.

What do I actually believe?
What have I seen that others haven't?
What patterns connect my experiences?
What language do I use to explain them?
What framework organizes them?
Where do I disagree with conventional wisdom?
What is mine?

Writing forces experiences, lessons, stories and frameworks that once seemed disconnected into a coherent point of view.

Honestly, if you spend a year on something... it proves you have a take... and it proves you give a shit.

That's the AI-era value of authorship.

Not simply producing 50,000 words.

AI can help you do that faster than ever.

The value is using the process to discover the thinking underneath those words.

AI Should Make You More You, Not Less

This is where I think we're going to see two very different kinds of creators emerge.

One group will use AI to replace themselves.

They'll ask:

“Write me a LinkedIn post.”
“Give me a newsletter.”
“Create a framework.”
“Tell me what to say.”

And AI will happily oblige.

They'll publish far more content.

And gradually sound like absolutely nobody.

The second group will use AI to amplify themselves.

They'll bring the raw material.

Stories.
Observations.
Transcripts.
Research.
Opinions.
Frameworks.
Half-baked ideas.
Things they disagree with.
Things they can't stop thinking about.

Then they'll use AI to interrogate it.

Organize it.
Challenge it.
Develop it.
Repurpose it.
Help it travel.

That's a very different relationship.

The first approach asks AI:

The second asks:

That's the one I want.

The Goal Is Recognizability

Maybe this is where I've landed after ten weeks of talking about Modern Author Identity.

The goal isn't fame.
It isn't followers.
It isn't even visibility.

It's recognizability.

I want someone to encounter an idea and think:

“That's such an Eric thing to say.”

I want someone facing a problem to think:

“You know who has a really interesting way of thinking about this?”

I want readers to borrow your language.
Use your framework in meetings.
Send your article to a colleague.
Recommend your book.
Invite you into conversations you don't even know are happening.

Recommendations become much easier when people already know the problem and way of thinking they associate with you.

And that's why this isn't really personal branding.

You're not manufacturing an image.

You're creating enough clarity and consistency that other people can recognize something that's genuinely yours.

The Modern Author Test

So here's the test I'd leave you with.

Take the last five things you've published on LinkedIn, on IG, on your newsletter, or in your Substack.

Remove your name.
Remove your photo.
Remove your company logo.

Hand them to someone who knows your work.

And ask:

Would they know they're yours?

Not because you use the same font.

Because of the thinking.
The stories.
The language.
The perspective.
The ideas.

If the answer is yes...
you're building something valuable.

If the answer is no...
I wouldn't respond by publishing more.

I'd go deeper.

What do you believe?
What have you experienced?
What do you disagree with?
What have you learned the hard way?
What do you keep seeing that others seem to miss?
What idea have you earned the right to talk about?

Because we're entering a world with essentially unlimited content.

And in a world of unlimited content...
​the scarce thing isn't information.

It's knowing there's a real person behind it whose thinking is worth following.

Maybe that's the irony of AI.

The more artificial intelligence we surround ourselves with...
​the more valuable genuine human identity becomes.

Happy writing, y'all.

And here's to becoming more recognizably you.

Eric