Happy "I Need Caffeine IV" Monday,
"HOW DO WE USE AI without sounding fake or damaging trust?" asked you.
Earlier this month I started a series called "Colorado EDs' Most Asked AI Questions," where I answer a top question each week. Last week was "What AI policy do we need before staff start using AI?" Please check that out if you missed it. I was mind-blown by how many of you downloaded the completed AI Policy. It was my honor to be of service.🙏🏾
This week: How do you use AI without sounding fake or losing trust?
Let's build a foundation first. Most people define trust as believing someone is honest. I think that's backwards. Trust isn't something people give you. It's something they stop having to think about. Trust is when your donor reads your email and never once wonders if a robot wrote it.
Because here's what's happening in inboxes right now. Your donors are getting so much polished AI email content that they can't tell facts from fertilizer anymore (Yessss! I've been trying to use this metaphor for a while now, how did I do?😅).
And the moment they suspect a machine wrote your thank-you letter, the gift stops feeling like a relationship and starts feeling like a subscription.
So let's get introspective. Believe it or not, you have a fingerprint. It's where you drop your commas. It's the emoji you or I overuse 😬😣. It's the cheesy metaphor you can't help yourself from writing, like "that board meeting stayed more off topic than a speech by our current president." 🤦🏾♂️😬
That fingerprint is the whole game.
The boring answer to not sounding fake is that AI is always your first draft and you should ALWAYS edit it to sound like you. True.... but you're here to do things the cool AI way.
So let's teach AI your fingerprint once, permanently, instead of fixing it every single time.
Let's build your own "/my writing skills" Skill.
A Skill is a way to teach AI a repeatable process so you never re-explain yourself. Fun fact, ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini just implemented this "Skills feature"
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Actionable Task:
Build your own writing Skill.
Step 1: Open your AI tool and paste this prompt to a new chat; use latest AI model:
"I want you to build a reusable writing Skill called 'my writing skills.' If you have a Skill Creator or custom instruction feature, use it. If you don't, create this as a saved instruction set I can paste at the start of future chats.
To learn how I write, first use what you have access to: my past conversations on this platform, my connected email, or both. Use whatever you can.
If you can access my past conversations or email, study how I write. Not just what I say, but how I edit your drafts, how I tighten things, how I phrase things, how I punch things up.
If you can't access those, ask me to paste in 3 to 5 things I've actually written, like emails, a newsletter, or a grant paragraph, and study those instead.
Either way, document my writing fingerprint, including:
Sentence length: how long I usually go, how I break things up
Reading level: how simple, how direct, how complex
Tone: casual, friendly, punchy, practical
Humor style: where I add it, how I use it
Punctuation habits: commas, periods, parentheses, ellipses
Favorite phrases: the stuff I say all the time
How I open: how I start messages
How I close: how I wrap things up
What I never say: words, tones, or structures I avoid
[YOUR RULES GO HERE. Before you send this, add any personal non-negotiables, like: never use em dashes, never use "It's not X, it's Y" sentences, always keep my exclamation marks. These are yours, so make them count.]
After you've studied everything, write all of this as a clear instruction set (Skill) you will follow every time I say 'use my writing skills.' Then show me the finished Skill and test it by rewriting one short paragraph in my voice so I can confirm it sounds like me."
Step 1.5: If it asks for writing samples, paste in 3 to 5 real things you wrote. Pick ones that sound the most like you on a good day. (Honestly, hand-picked samples work even better than chat history, so don't feel like you got the lesser version)
Step 2: Save it as a Skill, named "my writing skills" (You can continue this conversation on your desktop if it tells you it can only save on your desktop)
Step 3: From now on, write any draft and say "edit this in /my writing skills." (Use the forward slash) Watch the magic happen.
Example use cases:
Turning a stiff AI grant draft into your actual voice
Rewriting a donor thank-you so it sounds handwritten
Cleaning up a board update without losing your personality
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Remember:
Authenticity was never about avoiding AI. It's about refusing to disappear inside it. Your fingerprint is the one asset no tool can generate and no funder can replace. Teach the machine your voice once, then go spend that saved hour being the human only you can be. 🙏🏾
#ExistToServe
P.S. Drowning in tasks AI could handle? Don't know where to start? Need to save time and money? Sincerely, let's talk.
Let's hop on a 30-minute call. I'll show you how you can clock out on time, get home to your family, and still serve more community members:
Regis Arzu (he/him/his)
[email protected]
ETS AI Consulting | CEO
347.748.5078
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Mondays are rough. It's scary times for Nonprofits. Your time is scarce. That’s why I created the Monday Motivational Minute. Each week, I’ll send you one high-impact, actionable idea to help you leverage AI and save time. It will always be a 1-minute read or less. If it adds value, great. If not, unsubscribe, but I’m betting you’ll want to stay. (Challenge Accepted ☺️)
