AI makes many things easier. It can draft, sort, summarize, and search in seconds. But easier isn’t the same as clearer, and that’s where many small- to mid-sized business owners get stuck.
Over the past few weeks, our co-founder Mickey Mellen has written three short posts that look like they’re about different things: working faster, reviewing your marketing, and showing up in search. Read them together, and a single idea comes through.
AI is a great tool for seeing your business more clearly. It’s a poor tool for telling you what you want to hear. The difference comes down to the questions you ask it.
1. Ask what the speed is for
When a business owner says they want AI to help them “work faster,” they’re pointing in the right direction. But as Mickey explains in Faster work isn’t the goal, speed is rarely the thing you actually want.
It’s the same lesson behind a favorite quote from Theodore Levitt: people don’t want a quarter-inch drill bit; they want a quarter-inch hole. Mickey took that idea even further a few years back in Why do you want more money?, where the hole is really about hanging a shelf, and the shelf is really about a home that works better.
Faster work follows the same pattern. The time you save is only valuable once you decide where it goes. For example, it might mean:
- Lower costs
- More capacity to take on clients
- Better, more responsive service
- A shorter workday (yes, that counts)
If you don’t name the real goal, the saved hours tend to disappear into more busy work. So before you add another AI tool, decide what you’ll do with the time it gives back.
2. Ask where your message contradicts itself
Here’s one of the most useful (and humbling) ways to put AI to work. In Ask AI to find where your marketing disagrees with itself, Mickey suggests gathering your recent emails, slide decks, and promotional pieces, then asking an AI tool one specific question: where do I disagree with myself?
The answers can be eye-opening. Maybe your website promises careful, methodical work, while your social posts brag about speed. Maybe one newsletter celebrates a new trend, and a later one calls it a passing fad.
None of those are big mistakes on their own. But together, they leave prospects unsure of who you are. And when people are unsure, they usually don’t reach out.
Notice the difference in how AI is used here. It isn’t writing your marketing. It’s reviewing what you already wrote, as an honest second reader. That’s where AI can be most helpful, and it keeps your voice and your judgment in charge.
3. Ask how others see you, not how you see yourself
The third post is a good reminder that AI can tell you exactly what you want to hear. In Finding yourself in Search isn’t the same as being discoverable, Mickey shares a story about a business owner who was sure he ranked first in AI search. He proved it by asking ChatGPT on his own phone, and there he was, right at the top.
The catch? AI results are personalized. These tools want to keep you happy, and they learn from what you search. If you look yourself up all the time, you’ll probably show up first for you. The better question is where you show up for everyone else in your area, and that’s much harder to answer.
So what can you actually do? A few practical steps:
- Watch your AI referral traffic. It’s likely small, but it’s a real starting point.
- Check Google Search Console. It shows your average position for search terms, and new tools are starting to show AI visibility too.
- Ask AI about your business, not your rank. In a follow-up post, Ask ChatGPT about your business. You might be surprised., Mickey suggests asking what you do, who you serve, where you work, and why someone would choose you. Anything it gets wrong shows you where to write more (or better) content.
That last step ties all three ideas together. It’s not about stroking your ego. It’s about finding the gaps between what you mean and what the world sees.
The common thread: better questions
Put these three posts side by side, and the pattern is simple. AI is most valuable when you ask it honest questions:
- What is this speed really for?
- Where does my message disagree with itself?
- How do other people actually see my business?
Each question swaps a comfortable answer for a useful one. And useful answers lead to real progress, whether that’s a clearer message, a website that explains what you do, or a few more hours each week to spend on what matters most.
Need a second set of eyes?
This kind of honest review is a big part of what we do for small to mid-sized business owners. Through our experienced consulting, we help you think through big digital decisions, including where AI fits and where it doesn’t.
Our affordable marketing keeps your message clear and consistent across every channel. And our concierge-level website support includes search and visibility data in regular client reports.
Not sure where to start? Send us a quick note with one question you’d like answered about your marketing. You’ll usually hear back within an hour, and always within one business day.
