So yesterday, I teased what separates the folks who cut through the noise from everyone else running on autopilot.
Let me take you back to my first week launching The Stupidpreneur newsletter. AI had already handed me a tidy draft of the welcome sequence.
I almost hit send.
Didn’t.
Instead, I poured myself one more cup of filter coffee and asked, “What the hell do I want people to feel when they get this email?”
Not “what’s easiest.” Not “what’s trendy.” What actually matters to me, and the kind of brand I want to build — even if it meant going against the AI’s suggestions.
That little shift is agency: the drive to act on your own damn terms, not just follow what the algorithms spit out.
Problem is, most creators default to what’s handed to them.
They lose ownership of their message, their business, hell — even their ambition.
So here’s the punch-in-the-face truth: AI can do the heavy lifting, but it’ll never care about what you’re building.
Only you can.
Practical advice for today?
Every time you’re about to ship something, ask: “Is this me, or is this what everyone else would send?”
Revisit your last three newsletters whose fingerprints are on them? Yours, or AI’s?
Start making one tiny decision each day that doesn’t come from a prompt, but your gut.
Tomorrow, we’ll talk about what keeps things from being stale (even when you do take ownership).
It’s not agency alone.
– Shashank
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