82: I Know AI Wrote Your Instagram Caption (Here’s How to Fix It)

If your Instagram captions or newsletters sound like a bad Hallmark card… I hate to break it to you, but I know AI wrote them.

And so does your audience. 👀

Here’s the deal: AI isn’t the problem. It’s actually a powerful tool — but if you’re handing it the mic and posting whatever it spits out, your content is going to sound robotic, generic, and totally forgettable. And luxury clients? They don’t hire forgettable.

In this episode of The McClain Method, I’m giving you the tough love (and the strategy) on:

✨ Why AI-written captions often sound fake (and how your audience can spot it instantly).
 ✨ The difference between free vs. paid ChatGPT — and why it matters for your brand voice.
 ✨ How to train AI to sound more like YOU, not a corporate brochure.
 ✨ My “Cocktail Rule” test to make sure your captions actually connect with luxury clients.
 ✨ A fast action step you can do today to make your content sound authentic, magnetic, and luxury-ready.

AI should be your assistant, not your replacement. This episode will show you how to stop sounding like everyone else online — and start showing up with the presence, personality, and polish that attracts the clients you actually want.

💡 DOWNLOAD MY FREE GUIDE: BRAND VOICE CHATGPT PROMPT 

https://mcclainmethod.com/chatgpt-kickstart-prompt

👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review The McClain Method — because when your brand speaks clearly, the world pays attention.

82: I Know AI Wrote Your Instagram Caption (Here’s How to Fix It)

Transcript

The McClain Method Podcast Episode 82  

I Know AI Wrote Your Instagram Caption (Here’s How to Fix It) 

[00:00:00] I give you the challenge to understand who you are as a person, as a designer, as a creative, as a photographer, as a wedding planner, as whatever creative business that you are running. You truly need to know who you are now more than ever, who you are, what you believe in, what you feel, what you emote, what you say in daily conversation has never, ever, ever been more important.

Than it is right now, because right now is when you need to stand out in the sea of sameness and you need to literally stop the scroll with your words, and I challenge you to understand yourself better and to do that today. Hey y'all, you're listening to the McLean Method Podcast, episode number 82.

Welcome to the McLean Method, the podcast for interior designers who are ready to stop hiding and start shining. I'm your host, John McLean designer, business mentor, author, and your branding bestie. This is not about paint [00:01:00] colors or pendant lighting. It's about building a business that's both visible and profit.

Inside and out. From marketing and messaging to mindset systems and visibility, we cover the front stage and the backstage of your design business because your brilliance deserves the spotlight, and your business deserves to run like a dream behind the scenes. So if you're ready to be seen, get recognized, and get booked, it's time to let it shine.

Welcome to the McLean Method. Okay. Friends, I have to say it. I know AI is writing your Instagram captions and your newsletters because why? They sound fake. They really do. It's giving me like Hallmark card. It's giving me, I copied and pasted this from chat GPT at midnight and hit post kind of feels like a corporate brochure, if you will.

And listen, I'm not here to shame you. AI is everywhere. It really is. It is convenient. It [00:02:00] is fast, but let me tell you, if your captions sound robotic, your audience can smell it a mile away, and that's why they're scrolling right past you instead of engaging in your content, because it sounds like everybody else.

So today we are going to talk about a lot of things around ai. First of all, why AI captions often miss the mark and how to actually use AI so that it sounds like you, right? And the difference between free and paid versions of chat GPT, because yes, there is a big difference plus how to train AI to actually get closer to your voice.

By the end of this, you're going to know how to make AI your marketing assistant instead of your pr. Nightmare. So let's get started. Why do your captions sound so fake when you copy and paste it straight from ai? Because AI on its own is designed to give you the safest, most common denominator responses, which means you're going to sound like everybody else on the planet.

[00:03:00] That's why you see captions like in today's fast-paced world, it's important to embrace self-care or emails that start with. We are so excited to share our latest offer. You know why that's there? Because AI has used that before and it's pulling from these other resources. It's not that AI is bad, it's that it's basic unless you make it otherwise.

But your luxury clients do not want basic, they want magnetic. They want you. Now, let's clear something up because I get this question all the time. Is the paid version of chat, GPT actually better than the free? And the short answer is. Yeah, it really, really is the free version, usually GPT-3 0.5 or a mini model.

It's fine for like quick drafts or brainstorming or just very light lifting, but it's very generic too, and it often misses nuances and it can really flatten your personality. The paid version, which is GPT-4 or GPT five, is where things really start to happen. It is smarter, [00:04:00] it is more nuanced, and it is so much better at capturing your tone and style.

If you're writing marketing content where personality matters paid is worth it, it feels less like a robot and more like a great assistant who actually understands you. But here's the kicker, neither version will stand like you if you don't guide it. If you don't tell it what to do. AI doesn't just magically learn your personality.

Unless you use the memory feature in the paid plan, and even then you have got to teach it how to sound like you and to think like you. Which brings me to my next point. AI is kind of like an intern. It's really smart and really fast. But if you don't train your intern, what do you get? Messy result. Same thing with chat GPT.

If you just take the first thing it spits out and post it, it's going to sound generic every single time. The magic happens when you actually edit and you read it, and you refine it, and you give it feedback on how it performed. You give it things like, make it sassier, use shorter sentences. This doesn't sound luxury [00:05:00] enough.

Elevate the tone, friendlier voice. When you do that, it starts to adjust closer and closer to your voice, and the more feedback you give, the more useful the tool becomes. Every single time it gets better. So the difference isn't just free versus paid. It's things like, are you giving it direction? Because if you don't, it'll never, ever, ever capture the brilliance that is inside of your head and the conversational tone that you have with real people.

Okay, so how do you make AI work for you instead of against you? Here is the method that I use and it's very simple. And I would love for you to implement it as well. Choose adjectives that sound like you. Bold, warm, sassy, polished, witty, approachable. Any adjectives that feel like you, put those in there.

Personal inputs, feed it your stories, give it your twerks, your sayings. If you know that you spill coffee on Zoom calls or that you. Maybe designed a whole living room around Dolly Parton. I don't know. That's your sparkle. That's your thing that sets you apart. Put that into it and let it know your personality and what I call the cocktail test.

Read what AI gives you and [00:06:00] actually say to yourself, would this be something that I would say over cocktails with a friend? If it's no, rewrite it like a human being, AI will draft it, but you need to refine it, and that's how you get captions and the voice to sound like you. Luxury is not a price tag. It is a presence.

When your captions sound fake, you lose presence. You sound like kind of background noise and no one pays a premium. For background noise. But when your captions sound like you, well, they're confident, they are aligned and they are magnetic. That's when clients will stop scrolling and actually lean into what you're saying.

That's when they think, oh, I know her. I trust her. I want to work with her. So don't let AI strip you of that. Use it to enhance your presence, not to erase it. And let me just tell you, I'm not bashing AI at all. I love ai. AI helps me. Every single day. But the difference is I'm using AI as that intern as kind of my assistant.

I'm not using [00:07:00] it as a replacement of me. It is understanding me. And the other key is you really have to give it feedback. You really have to tell it, oh, that sounds dumb, that sounds stupid. I would never say that. And you have to stop and actually ask yourself if you would say those. Things, as I said, because if you don't say those things in person or if you've never had those words come out of your mouth, you're going to sound very fake when it comes to putting those messages out into the world.

I subscribe to a lot of your emails and I'm on your newsletters and I'm reading your post and Instagram, and I can tell that you're trying very hard and I know that you're busy and I know that it is so easy just to go into an ai. Prompt and just ask it to write something for you. However, again, if it does not know you, if it does not understand your funny parts and your serious parts, and your personality and how you feel about maybe bringing up politics or maybe how you feel about bringing up religion or whatever, anything that's sort of off the [00:08:00] limit for you in conversation in real life.

Or anything that's on the table for conversation for you in real life should be in your chat. GPT. You truly have to train it. You truly have to let it understand you. I'm constantly going into my chat GPT and saying, Nope, that is not correct. Or add this to your memory. Remember this, don't forget that I told you this, and it will actually respond and tell you that.

And of course, there's ways that you can make this easier. You can actually do the voice prompts right into chat, GPT. There are a lot of the other AI models out there, and you can actually speak to it in a conversational voice. You can act as if it's another person. And then when you do that, I think that is also a great way to train it because it is under.

Standing understanding what you are saying. And sometimes I feel that it actually responds to me in the same tone and in the same quirkiness. If I pause in a certain spot or in a certain way, it tends to do the same thing and it almost becomes like a chameleon of of myself and, and I think [00:09:00] that might be an easier way.

For some of you to start out by just dabbling into it, trying to let it understand your personality, speak to it with the voice prompts, and actually let it respond back to you, and then see if those are things that actually do replicate the way that you speak and the way that you think. And the beautiful part is once you do set all this up, and you do train it to sound like you, it typically remembers it every time.

Now, I would never, in a zillion trillion years, just ask a chat, GPT or a Claude or a perplexity or anything. To write something for me and not read it because it will not always sound like you. And sometimes it hits it right on the nose. Sometimes it is like way off base and it's pulling things out of the air that you would never ever say, and that's called hallucination.

When it says that it's actually hallucinating. So does. Speak and it's saying things that are really aren't even true. I was just reading an article this morning about travelers who were traveling to different countries and different places who have never been there, and they used [00:10:00] AI to basically give them directions on where to go, on which mountains to climb on, which tours to take.

And it turns out that some of the places that they were guided to were not even real. They weren't even real places, but they had planned a day of their tour or a day of their trip to take this tour, and none of the places were actually real. Like how crazy is that? But we're so used to believing that what we are given is the truth.

It's kind of that old saying, don't believe everything you hear. And it's true. Don't believe everything that you read. With AI because AI is pulling from other sources, and it could be regurgitated content that someone else has said, or maybe someone was actually just being rude and wanted to see somebody mess up and they started feeding these things out to the world and to chat GPT and maybe on their website to kind of mess things up.

I don't know how these things start, but the point is, read over it. Check for validity, check for the facts. Check to see that it's in your voice. If you're writing something that you're putting out into the world. But don't just copy and paste because it's going to sound exactly like something [00:11:00] else that someone else has said, and no one wants to be that.

The thing that I know is going to set all of us apart in the midst of all the AI that's hitting the world is being yourself. It is truly having a voice. It is sticking to that voice. It is not sounding. So watered down that anyone could say it. It is being a bit bolder. It is being braver. It is saying things that maybe you wouldn't have said years ago, but you need to say now.

And those things are going to be what sticks with people when they think of you. And when potential clients think of you, they're going to want to know that you have a perspective and that you have something different than everyone else as well. And it is your job to put that out there. It's one of the reasons that I changed the name of my podcast and my learning program to the McLean Method.

Years ago, I would've told anyone starting a business, no, no, no, never put your name on it. That's just silly. You maybe want to sell it one day. You need a succession plan, blah, blah, blah. I don't agree with that anymore. I've changed my perspective because now I do feel that if you have your [00:12:00] name on a business or your name on a model or your name.

Thought concept. You are showing everyone who subscribes to that, who listens to that, who becomes a potential client for you, that you are original and that you are not cookie cutter, and that you are standing out in a world of AI responses. And that is what I want for you. I want you to be original, and I want you to bring those original thoughts to the forefront.

Kind of the same way an interior designer might want to copy or replicate a room that they see a very famous interior designer doing because it's. Become all the rage. I don't suggest that you do that because again, no one is going to be able to pull you apart in that sea of sameness as they're scrolling.

And much like the visuals on your Instagram or whatever social media platform that you're on, much like those visuals are going to. Set you apart, your words are going to set you apart too. 'cause people will read the caption, they will read it if it's interesting. Also, the same thing on your newsletters.

If your newsletters that you're sending out to clients are just boring and [00:13:00] no depth and no soul, they're not going to read past the first line. And then when they stopped reading one email newsletter. They're going to probably start to unsubscribe as well eventually, because it doesn't fuel anything that they need.

They're not getting anything out of it. The tips are bland. The tips are the same tip that they can read on any other blog or any other newsletter, and it is not something original to you. So I really give you the challenge to understand who you are as a person, as a designer, as a creative, as a photographer, as a wedding planner, as whatever creative business.

This that you are running, you truly need to know not only who your ideal client is. You hear me preach on that a lot, but you need to know who you are now more than ever, who you are, what you believe in, what you feel, what you emote, what you say in daily conversation has never, ever, ever been more important than it is right now.

Because right now is when you need to stand out in the sea of sameness and you [00:14:00] need to literally stop the stroll. With your words and I challenge you to understand yourself better and to do that today, and here's your homework. Pull up your last three Instagram captions or emails that you may have written.

Highlight the parts that sound generic. You know the stuff that you'd never actually say out loud. Now take one of those captions. Plug it into chat, GPT with this very simple prompt. Rewrite this caption in a voice that, and then you want to give it three adjectives there to describe you make it sound like something I'd say to a client over cocktails, right?

Very easy. Then you're going to read it. Ah, and you're going to edit it. You're going to add your quirks. You're gonna make it sound like you, and then you're going to post it and see. What happens? I promise you it's going to make a huge difference. So here's the bottom line. AI's not going anywhere. It's actually gonna get bigger.

But if you let it run the show, your content will sound like everybody else's, and we don't want that. Luxury. Clients do not hire everyone else. They hire you. They hire your voice, they hire your [00:15:00] presence. They hire your brand. They hire you for being you. So use AI as your intern, not as your replacement.

Train it, guide it, and most importantly, keep your voice at its center. And if you want more tips like this, especially on how to market yourself, get seen, and actually attract those dream luxury clients, grab my free brand voice kickstart prompt. It will give you the exact script that you can drop right in the chat, GPT.

To create your own mini brandand voice guide in just minutes, that is free, and that is anywhere that you're listening because when your brand speaks clearly, the world pays attention. So in wrapping things up, I hope this was very helpful for you. I hope you understand the power of you and the uniqueness and the beauty and the boldness that you do need to bring to everything that you put into the world.

Anything that will have eyeballs on it in the public realm. Needs to be representative of you. And if you're using Chatt PT, and I know you are, or maybe you've even been too scared to do [00:16:00] that, and I could cut you off at the past and maybe teach you something before you start using that, go and get the download right now.

Use that download. Put that prompt into CHATT PT or whatever system you're using, and let it give you a. Response that hopefully feels closer to what you would think, what you would feel, and what you would say. And if it doesn't go back and give it feedback and tell it why that did not sound like you or what you would've said differently, or maybe even a sample writing or something that you've actually said before.

I'm constantly plugging things in that I've written or things that I've said in the past or past captions on Instagram, and it will start to get that voice. And it will start to sound like you, but download the prompt now and use it and start to fix your messaging. Okay my friend, thank you so much for joining me today, and until next time, keep building a bold brand.

Keep being your true, authentic self and keep thriving in your life. And in your business, and if you're new to the podcast or have been listening to it for a while, I would really appreciate a couple of things from you [00:17:00] if you don't mind. If you're loving what you're hearing and you're getting a lot out of this, I would love it if you would hit that subscribe button on the podcast platform that you are, listen.

On and hit that automatic download button as well. It helps us to get the podcast out to more people, and if you are really, really feeling lovely and nice and kind today, I would really appreciate you leaving a review for me on the podcast platform that you listen to as well. Again, it helps the podcast get more discovery and helps me help more people just like you.

So thank you very much for that. I appreciate you being here, and I'll see you soon. Thanks for tuning into this episode of the McClain Method podcast. I'm so grateful you made it all the way to the end because that tells me that you're ready to do the work that truly transforms your brand, your business, and your life.

If you want more tools, trainings, and behind the scenes looks at what I'm building next. Head over to mla method.com and don't forget to follow along on Instagram at the McClain method for even more drops [00:18:00] of brilliance. And remember my friend, your brilliance is your brand. Don't dim it, design it. I'll see you next time.