About this event
Join us for an insightful session with Andrew Ettinger, founder of use your words storytelling studio and co-host of Active Interrupting podcast. Andrew will be demonstrating:
- How to use Fathom for high-quality video recording
- Leveraging Claude AI for chat interactions and writing assistance
- Techniques for crafting compelling company narratives
Learn how to effectively communicate what your company does and why it matters. Andrew's approach combines technical know-how with creative storytelling, helping founders, creators, and inventors tell more coherent and engaging stories about their work.
Sign up below to catch this event. Recordings will be emailed to all those registered.
When
Recording
Resources
00:00 Introduction and Purpose
01:18 About Andrew Ettinger
02:57 Use Your Words: Company Overview
04:34 Understanding Positioning
06:57 AI Tools and Their Uses
10:46 Live Demo: Sourcebook Project
16:57 AI-Assisted Brand Writing
25:27 Final Thoughts and Future Outlook
29:02 Gratitude and Reflections
29:23 Challenges with AI in Creative Work
30:02 The Struggle for Unique Company Values
35:37 The Art of Crafting Taglines
40:57 Balancing Creativity and AI Assistance
41:59 Q&A: Enhancing AI-Generated Copy
53:11 Final Thoughts and Farewell
Andrew Ettinger’s Introduction
- Background:
- Founder of Use Your Words, a storytelling studio.
- Focus on positioning for startups, primarily with a software component.
- Key Experience:
- Co-writes a newsletter “Just a Thought.”
- Created “O Fire,” a Discord for non-algorithmic music discovery.
- Notable achievements: 9 birdies in a golf tournament, attended Ben’s wedding.
- Interests: Reading, movies, thrifting, hates lemongrass and sports betting.
Workshop Structure
- Phases of Positioning Sprint:
- Phase 1: Understanding Vision
- Tools: Perplexity, Gemini, 11 Labs Reader
- Collecting founder interviews and market research.
- Phase 2: Brand Writing
- Tools: Fathom, Claude
- Developing values, vision, and mission statements.
- Phase 3: Copywriting
- Tools: Lex, Notion, Google Docs
- Creating copy for websites and marketing materials.
- Phase 1: Understanding Vision
- Demo Project: Sourcebook
- Described as “Jupyter Notebooks for TypeScript.”
- Used AI tools to transcribe, summarize, and draft brand positioning.
AI Tools and Their Usage
- Fathom:
- AI notetaker for meetings.
- Records, transcribes, and summarizes.
- Claude:
- Content generation and analysis.
- Used for project-specific tasks.
- 11 Labs Reader:
- Text-to-speech tool for efficient document review.
- Lex:
- AI-powered Google Docs alternative for writing.
- Gemini:
- Summarizes YouTube videos.
- Notion AI:
- Used for project management.
- Perplexity:
- Default AI for on-the-go queries.
Challenges and Insights
- Common Issues with AI:
- AI-generated content often feels generic and overworked.
- Repetition of common phrases and values (e.g., “all in one place”).
- Difficulty in translating extensive interviews into concise, impactful taglines.
- Strategies for Improvement:
- Importance of manual editing and client feedback.
- Using AI to get started and then refining outputs.
- Potential for building a knowledge hub with AI to track and differentiate work across projects.
Audience Questions and Discussions
- John’s Question:
- Improvements needed for AI-generated copy.
- Suggested using more examples and taste-specific inputs to refine AI outputs.
- Arthur’s Question:
- Recommendations for reducing generic AI copy.
- Andrew mentioned using Word AI and Power Thesaurus for alternative words and phrases.