Why Copy-Pasting From ChatGPT Is Not a Content Strategy

A lot of professional content on LinkedIn starts the same way now. Someone opens ChatGPT, types a prompt, and posts whatever comes back a few seconds later. That is not something I see as a problem to fix. Posting something is often better than posting nothing, and for many people, AI is the reason they show up on social media with any regularity at all.

What gets skipped in that process is the step before the prompt: the point a person is actually trying to make, the outcome they want a specific post to create, and how that post connects to everything else they have already published. AI can accelerate language. The reasoning behind it belongs to the person publishing, rather than to the tool being used.

In my experience, the sequence that holds up over time follows a consistent order. A strategy gets worked out. A personality gets connected to that strategy. Only after that does AI enter the process, shaping material that already has direction rather than generating a post out of nothing.

Skip that sequence, and the output can still look complete, with the right structure, the right length, and paragraphs that land where they should, while missing a reason for the post to exist beyond the post itself. Readers pick up on this pattern faster than most people expect, even when they cannot name what feels off about it. A feed built from generic AI paragraphs reads more like noise than a voice, and over time, the account blends into every other account doing the same thing.

The process we use with clients at Heitland Media Group starts before any content gets written. A strategy comes first, a personality connects to that strategy, and only after that do we build what we call the origin: a recorded video conversation that becomes the source material for everything else. Articles, LinkedIn posts, and short clips all get built from that conversation rather than the other way around.

Video tends to carry more weight than a standalone written post. Being seen and heard with some consistency builds a kind of authority that text alone rarely creates, regardless of how well the text is written. AI still has a role in that process. Its role has simply moved further down the sequence than most people currently place it.

Highlights:

00:00 AI Content Creation Basics

00:03 Beyond Copy Paste Posts

00:19 Strategy Before AI

01:07 Client Workflow Framework

01:23 Video Builds Authority

Links:

https://www.jensheitland.com/links

Why Board Members Are Never Chosen Through Applications

A few months ago, I was on a podcast talking about what people are really looking for when they choose where to work. The conversation drifted into a distinction I keep noticing across levels of seniority, and it has stayed relevant every time I look at how careers actually move inside organizations.

Someone trying to find a job quickly is operating in one environment. There is a lot of noise, many open roles, and a volume of applicants large enough that individual attention becomes scarce. In that environment, applying to many companies at once is a rational response. The noise around each individual opening protects almost no one, so the strategy shifts toward reach over precision.

Senior and board-level positioning happens inside a completely different environment. There, the number of open seats is small, the number of people already inside the room is limited, and almost none of the movement happens through a visible process.

Take a board seat, for example. There is no application for it, and nobody submits a form to be considered for a board role. Instead, a committee makes the selection, and that committee sits inside a wider management ecosystem built on existing relationships. People within that ecosystem recommend others they already know. The candidates being discussed are rarely strangers to the room; they are already somewhere near it.

Positioning for consideration is built on proximity, which means being inside the relevant circles long before any seat opens, a different kind of work than writing a strong CV or tailoring a cover letter. The relationship has to exist first, and only afterward does anything resembling an application take shape, if it takes shape at all.

The two systems require two different kinds of effort, and confusing them tends to cost people time. Someone applying at volume to entry- or mid-level roles is playing a numbers game inside a system designed for that kind of engagement. Someone trying to reach a senior or board-level position through the same volume approach is playing a different game, because the system they are trying to enter does not select through applications in the first place.

More recently, the sheer amount of AI-generated material arriving in company inboxes has added another layer to this. Application volume was already high, and it has grown further, making it harder than before to stand out through a form at every level, not only the senior ones. That shift is pushing a reconsideration of how individuals present themselves to the market at large.

Underneath both systems sits the same factor, an individual's actual strategic advantage, and where it creates leverage. For someone sending out applications at volume, the advantage is often speed and range. For someone aiming at a board seat, the advantage is usually the relationships already built and the visibility already earned inside a specific circle.

Either way, the sequence tends to hold. The relationship comes before the formal step, when there is one at all. What gets called an application at that level is often just a record of a decision made elsewhere.

Highlights:

00:00 How People Choose Employers

00:09 Spray and Pray Job Search

00:22 Senior Roles Need Positioning

00:32 Board Seats Are Selected

00:51 Get Into the Right Circles

01:12 Strategy Leverage and Relationships

01:38 AI Slop Changes the Game

Links:

https://www.jensheitland.com/links

Why do so many executives who build a following on LinkedIn end up hurting the exact business they're supposed to represent? In this episode, Jens Heitland breaks down a pattern he keeps seeing among senior leaders: copying the tone, structure, and topics of well-known influencers until an audience starts crediting them as the originator of ideas that were never theirs.

He gets into why that's not really the problem. The problem is what gets lost in the process: the connection between the content and the business the executive leads, and the connection between the content and who that person actually is outside the platform. He talks about why authenticity for a senior leader isn't a soft skill but a functional requirement, why every public post from a CEO reads as one signal with the company rather than two separate things, and a simple two-question test to run before anything goes out under your name.

There's also a case for why the goal was never to become an influencer in the first place, and what it actually means to build a social media presence that moves the business forward rather than just boosting engagement numbers.

If you're an executive trying to figure out what you should actually be posting, this one will feel familiar.

Highlights:

00:00 Copying Influencers Trap

00:08 LinkedIn Copycat Example

00:46 When Content Hurts Business

01:07 Build Authentic Presence

01:30 Executive Goals Not Fame

Links:

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