AI-generated content is everywhere. How do you stand out as an actual human thought leader? Answer: Use what you alone have — your voice, your story, your insights. I’ve got a framework that’ll help you do just that.
If you’re doing the thought leadership thing, I bet you’re as worried as I am about the onslaught of AI-generated content. Suddenly it’s effortless for anyone to create a blog post, a social post, even a video. All it takes is a keyword and a keystroke.
It doesn’t require genius to predict what’ll happen… what’s already happening. A tidal wave of bland blogs. A tsunami of stale social. Drowning your content out. A deluge that’s diluting the value of content marketing as a whole.
The battle is on. I heard that Google is aggressively de-indexing sites that are AI-generated. I heard Carmen Krupar at Cybervise say that some people are even sitting it out — not even working on their blogs — until they see how all this shakes out.
This sucks. It was already sooo hard to stand apart. How are you going to do it now?
Enter The PED Content Framework™.
I love AI. I use it all day, every day. In fact, I used it to generate the bullet points of tips in this piece, as well as to suggest some other enhancements. So I’m not saying avoid it. That would be dumb, not to mention hypocritical. You should 100% use it. Use it to brainstorm, research, role-play, edit. But we all know there’s a difference between AI-assisted content and AI-generated content.
We all know there’s a difference between AI-assisted content and AI-generated content.
And yes, prompting and iteration make all the difference. You can send AI down a path nobody else has ever thought of. That’s you, and that’s valuable.
But today, I’m writing about how you as a thought leader can make your human-generated content work better when your new rivals are the robots. Lord knows we’ve all gotta step up our game.
If you’ve heard any sports news over the last, well, forever, you’ve probably heard of PEDs — Performance Enhancing Drugs. Steroids, human growth hormone, other therapies. These started out as help for ordinary folks with certain medical conditions. But when athletes started using them, many viewed that as an unfair advantage. As a result, PEDs have been banned by most major sports leagues.
Well, there are three things I think will performance-enhance your thought leadership content — especially when competing against AI-generated content. And it so happens that these three things form the acronym PED.
PED stands for:
Of course, AI can provide these things. But potentially not as well — and certainly not as uniquely — as you can. Remember: Genuine over generated. This is your thought leadership opportunity.
I once tried listening to a sports podcast for one of my favorite teams. But I couldn’t stand the host. He was so negative! A year later, I decided to give it another shot. That’s when I heard him confess to being “the negative guy.” He was even self-effacing about it. From that point on, I loved him. He knew who he was, and he owned it.
You want unique content? Unique starts with U. You are a differentiator. In industries where trust and expertise drive buying decisions — like healthcare or enterprise tech — you being you is your “unfair” advantage.
Personality isn’t just playfulness. It’s consistency of tone, clarity of values, and confidence in your voice. That’s what builds trust over time.
Be yourself: One of the most important maxims in life, and we learned it from Sesame Street. (Is this what inspired me to be a bass player, too? Killer riff in that song.)
Of course, to be yourself, you’ve got to “know thyself” first. Do you? If not, here are some tips to help you find your voice:
Oh, and I’ll add this: You know that customer or coworker you have that you can totally be yourself around? Don’t you wish all your relationships could be like that? Well, take the lead and start acting as if it were so. Trust that you’ll attract the kind of people that want to work with you because you’re you. You’ll be a lot happier. And maybe more successful, too.
Back in the 1900s, I was working on a direct mail piece. I was supposed to write the envelope teaser — you know, like “Open immediately! Great offer inside!” But young me pushed back. “Do we really have to have a teaser? Doesn’t that just give it away that this is junk mail? Why not leave the envelope blank and rely on natural curiosity?” Welp, I was resoundingly dismissed. What did this inexperienced copywriter know? A year passed. One day our veteran direct mail guru burst into the room. “Guys, you won’t believe it. This is the latest thing: NO teaser on the envelope!” You can imagine my silent indignation, even as I felt some delicious validation. Heck, it still stings a little bit. But it served to make me more confident. The takeaway? Conventions should be questioned, and I’m a guy who’ll do it.
Just as that experience helped shape me, your experiences did the same for you. Some might say that your experiences define you.
You are an incomparable cocktail of work and life… bitter and sweet… triumphs earned and lessons learned. There are stories — oh so many stories — that only you can tell. Because you were there. And AI wasn’t.
I’m not talking about writing your memoirs. I’m talking about the basis of thought leadership — not showing off, but showing up with real-world perspective. By sharing bits of your journey, you’ll help others in theirs. That’s the point.
Here are some prompts to help you zero in on your most helpful anecdotes.
When clients praise Counterpart, we capture their quotations and share them in companywide emails. Which I save. I’ve got praise emails going to back to 2003. Literally hundreds of them. And we’ve converted these into a spreadsheet. So when I need testimony about our work, I’ve got a rich database to consult.
Does that actually count as data? Hell yeah it does. Data does not have to be numerical. Client quotations are proof of the quality of our work. Shoot, I might even argue that anecdotal is empirical… but I’m afraid the epistemology police would hurl me into the hoosegow.
Your data is your edge. If it’s internal, hard-won, or uniquely observed — it’s intellectual property. That’s not just a content asset. That’s authority.
What data do you have that’s not already out there? That nobody else has? This is your advantage.
Primary research is ideal, and a staple of thought leadership. It’s an investment worth making. I highly recommend doing a study related to your organization and the problems you solve. Like I did. You’ll get years of ROI out of it.
Of course, statistical reliability can be pricey. Like, five figures. But research doesn’t have to be expensive. Heck man, throw a LinkedIn poll out there. That counts, too. Or look into tools like AYTM.
You probably have plenty of data right under your nose. Here’s where to look:
You can also use your data in conjunction with AI… creating a custom GPT that’s trained on concepts and intel that your customers can’t get anywhere else.
Personality, Experience, and Data are your built-in advantages in an AI-saturated world.
It’s your content on steroids!
It’s growth hormone for human-generated content!
You knew those lines were coming, didn’t you? I couldn’t hold ‘em back any longer.
OK, I feel better now. And I hope you do, too.
In sports, PEDs ride the line between innovation and cheating. In thought leadership, PED is definitely your cheat code.
Try this PED framework and see if it doesn’t help your messaging compete better, stronger, faster — positioning you for greater expertise and trust, even in the age of AI.
And if you need a training partner, recruit Counterpart. Our team is ready and eager to help you bring home the gold.
