Will Greenblatt on AI and keeping creative work human
Will Greenblatt is Director & Co-founder of OutLoud Speakers School, which runs leadership development workshops, coaching and training cohorts for public speaking and storytelling. This conversation is worth reading for a practical view of how one coaching business uses transcription tools but rejects generative AI for creative work.
Use AI selectively for low-risk tasks such as call transcription and meeting records, but keep brainstorming, writing and client-facing creative work human. Follow AI developments to understand client implications, and always verify AI-generated research.
What’s the quick origin story of your business, and what makes what you do genuinely different from the other options your customers are looking at?
I started acting in film and TV at 7 years old, and racked up over 30+ professional credits over a 26 year career. But after my younger brother died in high school, I went down a bad path of drugs and alcohol, and quit show business. I taught English in Spain, and then co-founded an education company in China, before putting it all together to create a public speaking & storytelling coaching business, based on my acting background and now 9+ years as a speaker, consultant and coach.
Where does most of your new business come from today, and where do you wish it came from?
Most of my new business comes from speaking gigs, LinkedIn and referrals. I wish more came in from SEO / website.
What’s one thing you’ve actually handed over to AI in the last year, and one thing you tried it on and went back to doing the human way?
I haven’t necessarily "handed over" note-taking during meetings, as I still use a pen and paper for my own memory and language capture, but I use Fathom AI as a way to transcribe and record my meetings, to send to clients and remind myself of the takeaways from Zoom calls.
I tried, VERY briefly, to use ChatGPT to help with brainstorming, coming up with content ideas, creating an outline for a course I was releasing, and I absolutely hated the results. I hate GenAI in general, but I felt like I "should" be using it, or at least try to, but I have now realized any sort of writing, brainstorming, editing, or communicating I will always do the human way, no matter how easy AI makes it. It’s too important to give up.
Have you noticed a change in how customers find you or what they already know before they reach out? Is anyone arriving through AI assistants like ChatGPT yet?
No, not that I’ve heard.
If you were advising someone in your industry on all of this for the next 12 months, what would you tell them to actually do, and what would you tell them to ignore?
I would tell them to follow the trends in the news on AI developments, so you can understand the implications for your clients, but not use Generative AI tools AT ALL for any sort of creative or thinking work. At most, use it for "research", but verify EVERYTHING. Ignore people who tell you you’ll get "left behind" if you don’t pump out mediocre slop and try to pass it off as valuable work. Use your brain, write, speak, develop your voice, your story, and your perspective, and trust that people are waking up to how stupid rapid AI adoption is.
Thank you to Will Greenblatt and the team at OutLoud Speakers School for sharing what actually worked with Leaders Perception readers.
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