TL;DR: This Week in The Digital CEO Weeklyπ
β Authenticity Rising - The backlash against AI is accelerating, making raw, human, soul-driven content the most valuable differentiator in the market.
β The Great Median - AI is flattening quality, pushing everyone toward βaverage,β which raises the bar for creators who want to stand out.
β Know Your Audience - Entrepreneurs may love AI, but your audience might not; create what they value, not what the bubble is obsessed with.
From the Desk of James Wedmore:
In my December 2025 episode of The Mind Your Business Podcast, I made several predictions for the market and the industry. One of which is that 2026 will be the first year of the "AI Push-Back" from the collective.
π Click here to listen now.
And now you can see it is happening.
College Commencement Speakers all over the country are being BOOED for even mentioning AI. Brands are having to walk back campaigns for being "exposed" to using AI to sell their product. IG accounts are blowing up for speaking out against insinuations of plagiarism. Then of course, there is the serious environmental concerns.
One video in particular actually made me very emotional. I cried. A little. It was a creator and an artist talking about the experience of creating art and that choosing to use AI to create something is an "insult to God."
Now... I don't actually think God feels insulted. But what had me emotional: when I write, when I create, I DO get into a flow state. There are many, many times that I feel the divine spark of inspiration come through.
I say or write something that didn't seem to be IN my brain before I started. I'm almost startled and surprised by it.
So, I DO feel that our job as CREATORS is to channel some of that Higher Wisdom through us into our work.
So here's what made me emotional: for masses of people to unconsciously choose to cut themselves off to that experience in exchange for convenience feels like a collective misalignment further away from Truth and Awakening.
See, what most people don't get: I don't write this newsletter because I HAVE TO. If I didn't have the time, I wouldn't "AI it!" I looove the experience of it...
- I get into Silence (morning coffee, view of Sedona)
- I connect with YOU (my reader, my audience)
- I ask - what in my LIFE (lessons and experiences) can I pass on to this person that will make a difference for them
- I wait until I get something.
- I just start writing... and I kinda get out of my way.
Wow, that's kinda cool. To me... it's a SUCH joy. That process right there.
But here's the new process: "Hey ChatGPT, write my weekly newsletter in my voice. Pull from my content, make it compelling and scroll stopping."
...I'm starting to think AI is the NEW, "Spiritual Bypassing" if you know what I mean.
Here's where I put my jerky pants on: "if it takes me longer to read it than it took you to "write it", ...then why the fuck am I reading it?"
Now, I also said, "AI will bring out darker sides in humanity." I think we see it. People who are lazy... people who don't actually have an expertise, but now they have an AI Cyrano de Bergerac in their back pocket to feed them what they need.
Most people want the End Result without doing THE WORK. Now people have a "drug" that promises that. And just because it is making that promise, doesn't mean it can fulfill on that.
Even the AI CEOs have begun coming out (in a coordinated attack to reverse the growing AI backlash perhaps?) to walk back their claims that AI is coming for everyone's jobs. Companies are noticing EFFICIENCY is up...
...but QUALITY is down.
So, why do I share all of this? What does this have to do with you?
Number One: The Age of the Authentic Personal Brand
All of these changes are forging one thing for sure: the need, desire and demand for the real, authentic, and genuine! That's the most important thing I would double-down on RIGHT NOW. Put your message, story and experience out there RIGHT NOW in the most real, raw and organic way. DO IT NOW before the others who got distracted by AI slop making catch up.
Number Two: The Bar has been raised, but less are hitting it.
AI as a tool or a service to create content is generating what I call The GREAT MEDIAN. The Eclipse of Average. AI will absolutely make a bad writer GOOD. But it's ALSO making GREAT writers GOOD as well. Most will either rise to this average... or they will fall to it.
So what happens then? The public (your audience) will EXPECT more. Demand more. Business has always been this way. People buy from the BEST, not the average that posts the most.
Number Three: REMEMBER Your Audience
So... I'm a business owner. My audience is business owners. And guess what? Business owners and entrepreneurs love AI. They love the idea of leverage, thinking smarter, and becoming more productive. In this little bubble that we're in, entrepreneurs are gobbling it all up. Every last morsel of it.
The idea of making seven figures without actually having to work, to have a $20/month employee that runs your entire business, sounds incredible.
THAT'S the bubble you and I exist in. And marketers know this. So they are taking FULL advantage of this. You're seeing it! They claim AI makes all their content in a video THEY personally made. "...is that one AI?"
The point being: Know YOUR audience. And if you serve someone who is NOT in this bubble... create what THEY want. NOT what you want. (If you want to be successful, of course!)
What do THEY want?
(For example: We had a student who was in the business of selling coloring books online. They were very successful, close to seven figures a year, and then, all of a sudden, their business tanked, dropped 60% in sales, dropped right off a cliff! They quickly realized that the marketplace had become over-saturated with AI-generated coloring books. This artist proceeded to create content to educate the marketplace on what was occurring and then built a personal brand that told the story and the real organic, creative process behind the coloring books, and their sales went right back up to where they were before AI hit the market.)
But here's the REAL BOTTOM LINE:
Think of a store you've been to where you had to wait in a line down the street just to place your order. For me, it was a cookie shop on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I used to wait an hour and a half just to get a cookie! Totally worth it. (It's been twelve years, so I can't remember the name of this place to save my life, other than it started with an "L")
So people waited in that line because they wanted that cookie. This shop was in the business of making great cookies. If they sold shit cookies, would they have a line down the street? Probably not.
So, the question is...
What business are YOU in?
If they are in the business of baking the best cookies on the planet, what are you in the business of?
Well, I hate to break it to ya: but you're in the business of CONTENT.
Content attracts your people.
Content creates trust, rapport and authority.
Content SELLS your stuff.
Content is what people BUY.
And if you're not in the business of baking the best damn content on the planet... you will lose. And I dare you to prove me wrong on that.
The question you must ask yourself, if AI creates your content for you...
...can it ever be the best?
If you answered "yes," you're admitting that AI is already better than you could ever be. So, why should people follow you at all then? We can just follow AI.
...see where this all leads?
It's simple. NOW is the time to DO THE HARD. While everyone is sold the drug of convenience, lean into the hard. Develop the discipline, improve your skills, become more authentic, be louder, show up more, connect deeper. Be the best damn solution in your industry. And dare I say: care enough about your people that you're willing to give them the BEST you got. Every. Single. Day.
And if you want to use AI to get everything ELSE off your plate so you can focus 95% of your time on creating the best damn cookie (content, brand, community) on the planet, I am sooo here for that.
I've said from day one (10 years ago), get the $10/hour activities off your plate! Having a Virtual Assistant or two... and some AI-Assisted Workflows and Processes is where it is AT!
...SO THAT you can focus on creating the BEST PRODUCT IN TOWN.
Hope that makes some sense?
Ok, I'm gonna have Claude check this for spelling and grammar now. Because Lord knows I make a lot of mistakes!
Last Week on Instagram: 4 Ways to Grow (beyond Revenue)
I made a fun little video talking about the four ways you can grow your business beyond just increasing revenue that add to quality of life. If you haven't watched it, it's worth the three-minute listen.
Watch the 4 Ways to Grow (beyond Revenue) reel here.
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