We talk about AI a lot…for good reason.
It’s in your inbox, in your search results, and baked into the tools you use without even realizing it. (And I’ll be honest—it sneaks into more of my workflows than I care to admit.)
And here’s the bigger shift…
It’s not just you using AI.
It’s your competitors. Your investors. Your customers.
So volume and speed stop being the advantage. Everyone has them. What actually matters is whether the words people see from you carry your voice, reflect your priorities, and hold up under scrutiny.
That means everything you put out needs to be:
- Consistent with your positioning and messaging pillars (not a new slogan every week).
- Accurate and defensible (no hallucinated stats or “world-class” fluff)…
- Audience-first (speaks to what they need to hear, not just what you know).
- Repeatable across channels (email, decks, site, socials) without wobbling.
So the question isn’t “Should we use AI?”
It’s: “How do we make sure it tells the right story about us when we do?”
Enter: The Messaging Playbook
I use the term “playbook” very, very intentionally. It’s not a script you memorize or a tagline you repeat—it’s the guardrails that keep every message clear, consistent, and credible.
Inside of a messaging playbook, you’ll find the foundations that don’t change from campaign to campaign or deck to deck:
- The brand promise + one-liner that should echo everywhere.
- Messaging pillars (core themes every story ladders up to).
- Proof points — real data, customer wins, and stories that make claims believable.
- Voice + tone guidelines so the message sounds like you.
- Audience priorities + objections (what they need to hear, not just what you want to say).
- CTA hierarchy: the clear next steps you want people to take.
That’s how you keep your message true to the story you want told.
Naturally, I wanted to see if AI could hold the same line when given those guardrails.
Because whether we like it or not, AI is already shaping what people read every day. Sometimes it has no direction at all. Other times, it’s given the right context and suddenly everything lines up.
So I ran a test. I gave AI the exact same prompt, twice:
- Once with no context at all.
- Once with the Motive3 Actionable Messaging Playbook™ as its reference point. (We create these Playbooks for clients, but this one’s our own.)
(For the purpose of this test, we used a fresh AI account with no prior context or chat history.)
Prompt
“Write a short piece of thought-leadership content about why most brand messaging fails and what makes it effective.”
The Results
Version 1: No Context
Polished but vague corporate speak. Could be pulled from any LinkedIn post in your feed.
There’s no point of view. No proof. No personality. It’s the kind of thing you scroll past because you’ve seen it a hundred times before.
Version 2: With the Playbook
Here’s what stands out:
- It has a POV. (It calls out what not to do, which instantly gives it an edge.)
- It anchors in data. (The 14% stat makes the risk real, not hypothetical.)
- It mirrors our voice. (Direct, no-fluff, a little punchy.)
- It gives a usable framework. (3 parts of what a strong message must deliver.)
The Takeaway
Same tool. Same prompt. The only variable was context. With no playbook, AI produced generic inspiration. With the playbook, it pulled forward real positioning, proof points, and voice (things that are distinct to us).
AI doesn’t “know” your business. It only knows what you feed it. That’s why training matters (I can’t stress this enough)!!!
Even if you don’t have a formal Messaging Playbook yet, you can still shape what AI produces by consistently feeding it:
- Your goals. Tell it the outcome you want (reassure, persuade, excite, clarify). Otherwise, it defaults to generic “thought leadership.”
- Your language. Drop in past emails, decks, or copy that best reflect your voice. AI will start to mirror the patterns.
- Your proof. Give it the stats, stories, or wins that back you up — so it doesn’t invent them.
- Your audience’s priorities. Spell out what your buyers care about most. Otherwise, AI writes for everyone (which means no one). 😒
The Playbook makes this easy, because it gathers all of the above in one place. But even without one, you can start building your own “training set.”
Here’s Your Tiny Challenge:
Start your own “AI training set” this week.
☞ Choose one proof point (a stat, a story, or a customer win).
☞ Choose one line of copy that represents how you actually talk.
☞ Next time you use AI to write copy, include these specimens as examples of your authentic communication style.
See how different the output feels when it has context.
P.S. If you’re reading this and thinking “we could use a Messaging Playbook,” hit reply and I’ll share how we’d approach building one with your team.
