After months of working as a freelance content writer, I didn’t have much to show for myself. No bylines under my own name. No reputation.
For most in the B2B marketing world, Mariya Delano didn’t exist.
But I was too scared to publish anything on my website, because it already got some traffic from posts that I commissioned some other writers to create. Posting on the site felt like a lot of pressure.
(2 / ) So to find my own voice, I chose to start writing under my own name in the least stressful way possible. I quietly launched a newsletter, called it “Attention Deficit Marketing Disorder” (ADMD), drew a logo, and posted a link to my Mastodon account with only 100 followers.
Within a day, my first newsletter essay was shared with over 500,000 people when Rand Fishkin recommended it on his Twitter and Mastodon. Suddenly, I had subscribers and views.
(3 / ) My first try at writing under my own name forced me into the spotlight and straight into the attention that I was so desperately afraid of.
I had no idea what to do next. How could I ever follow up a launch like that? But now people were waiting. And I, who dreamt of having an audience for my writing since I was 8 years old, wanted to embrace this opportunity of a lifetime.
(4/ ) So I kept writing. I wrote whatever came to mind, somehow tying my personal reflections, cultural observations, and musings to marketing. The more praise I got, the more risks I decided to take.
My marketing newsletter ended up covering the most difficult topics on my mind: self-esteem, professionalism, hustle culture, grief, mental illness, trauma, love, joy, connection, fear. #story#marketing#newsletter#career
(9/ ) Newsletter essay 10 - “AI Writing Tools Won't Save You from Creating Content”.
My first ever newsletter, one of my first articles under my own name. And an initial reaction to the rise of #AI and #ChatGPT all the way back from the ancient past of... January 2023.
After seeing all the AI hype play out for a year... I still agree with basically everything I wrote.
(10 / ) Too many businesses hope that generative AI will free them from the inconvenience of actually having to create content.
Look, I get the impulse. When I’ve felt terrible about myself, I’ve wished that I could press a button to magically generate my LinkedIn posts or newsletters for me. And god, why do I have to do all of this THINKING?
(12/ ) “AI’s "parroting" isn't the same as human creativity.
Humans think with intention and can contextualize the information that they are exposed to. These AI models can't do that. As they get better, they might have bigger datasets or gain the ability to "remember" more words, but even taken to an extreme, this technology will never understand meaning.”
(13/ ) “You might ask why these nuances are important for marketers who are just trying to build a meta description or a blog outline. And for some use cases, basic pattern matching is enough.
But what if you want to create something off the beaten path? Perhaps you’d like to write on a new industry development or disagree with typical advice… Yet when you plug those prompts into your favorite AI tool, the quality of its output deteriorates.”
(14/ ) “I used to work as a writing instructor in college. My students, all incredibly smart and talented individuals at a very selective school, were terrible at writing essays! I was constantly asking my students "so what?" and pushing them to actually articulate their opinions.” #AI#ChatGPT#marketing#newsletter#career
(15/ ) “If I learned anything from those 200+ hours of teaching writing it would be this: when you push a human writer to articulate why they think the way they do, that’s when the real magic happens. AI can never capture even a tiny speck of that elusive fairy dust, because AI cannot have a motive behind its writing.” #AI#ChatGPT#marketing#newsletter#career
(16/ ) I thought that publishing this piece was selfish.
I called too much attention to myself, I emailed this piece to people directly. I said “look, I thanked you in my newsletter”. And it physically hurt to request attention from others.
This is essay # 9 from the ADMD archive (for my anniversary post series). Enjoy:
(17/ ) I’m so glad I took the risk. Because this essay was the true start to ADMD: the first time I wrote something deeply personal, confronted my insecurities, and threw any conception of what B2B content should sound like out of the window.
I see this piece as the true start of my career as a content creator. And I am still so proud of it now, months later.
(18/ ) “We need to eradicate the toxic expectations that we have for ourselves. We are human. We are weak. We are afraid. And we have the capacity to love and care so deeply about our work, our interests, and the people around us.”
(19/ ) “I want to hear about people’s anxieties and pain. I want to know when somebody is feeling uncertain or afraid. I want to share when somebody’s made a mark on me or inspired me to do something new. I want to tell people that I love them. I want to ask for help without fearing that my weakness will be perceived as a disappointment.”
(20/ ) "I want to be a human because my humanity is what makes me a good marketer in the first place. And I hope that you want the same for yourself too.
I implore you to break the cycle.
Stop being so afraid of showing your emotions in your work. If you care about something, say it. If you are feeling down, don’t hide it. And if somebody has made you smile or feel better about yourself… tell them.”
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