How Founders Can Use AI to Reposition Their Work—Without Diluting Their Authority

Companion to “How Joseph Franklyn McElroy and I Repositioned His Work—and How Founders Can Use AI Without Losing the Plot”

Most founders don’t need more visibility.

They already have content. Traffic. Social proof. Case studies. Tools.

What they lack is legibility.

Their work has evolved—but their positioning hasn’t kept up. And in an AI-saturated landscape, that gap becomes more dangerous, not less.

This companion piece breaks down how founders can use AI responsibly and strategically to reposition themselves—not as a content engine, but as a clarity tool.

The Core Mistake: Using AI to Amplify Instead of Diagnose

Most founders approach AI like this:

“Help me say this better.”
“Help me write more.”
“Help me rank higher.”

That’s amplification.

Repositioning requires diagnosis.

When used well, AI doesn’t make you louder—it helps you see where your message is unclear, diluted, or misinterpreted.

The goal isn’t better output.
The goal is better signal.

Step 1: Ask AI the Question You’ve Been Avoiding

Before prompts about content or SEO, start here:

“Based on everything you know about my work, what do you think I actually sell?”

If the answer sounds like:

• a list of services

• a grab-bag of capabilities

• or something that could describe ten other founders

You’ve found the problem.

AI is especially good at surfacing where your positioning collapses into sameness—not because you lack depth, but because you haven’t named it clearly.

Step 2: Separate Execution From Judgment

One of the most common repositioning breakthroughs happens when founders realize this:

Execution is no longer their differentiator. Judgment is.

AI can:

• write

• summarize

• optimize

• generate

• automate

What it cannot do well (yet) is:

• contextualize tradeoffs

• sense timing

• read human risk

• decide what not to do

If your positioning still leads with execution, you’re competing with tools instead of transcending them.

A useful AI prompt here:

“What decisions do clients rely on me for that AI tools cannot responsibly make alone?”

That answer is your advisory core.

Step 3: Use AI to Identify the Trust Break

In many founder brands, the issue isn’t lack of credibility—it’s misread credibility.

AI can help spot where:

• breadth is mistaken for lack of focus

• sophistication reads as complexity

• intelligence reads as abstraction

Ask:

“Where might a skeptical buyer misunderstand my expertise or hesitate to trust me?”

This is where repositioning often shifts from explaining what you do to naming what’s broken for the buyer.

That shift—from descriptive to diagnostic—is where authority emerges.

Step 4: Name One Tension and Refuse to Let Go of It

Strong positioning doesn’t explain everything.
It owns one tension relentlessly.

Examples:

• Visibility vs. Authority

• Speed vs. Meaning

• Growth vs. Integrity

• Optimization vs. Wisdom

AI can help you test which tension:

• consistently appears in your language

• resonates across audiences

• aligns with the work you want to do next

If you try to own five tensions, you own none.

One is enough.

Step 5: Demote the Concepts That Require Explanation

Founders often cling to frameworks they spent years developing.

That’s understandable.

But here’s a hard truth AI will surface quickly:

If a concept requires a paragraph of explanation before it lands, it doesn’t belong in the headline.

AI is excellent at flagging phrases that:

• sound impressive

• confuse first-time readers

• distract from the core promise

This doesn’t mean killing your ideas.
It means moving them backstage—where they support authority instead of obscuring it.

What This Looks Like in Practice

When founders use AI this way, repositioning tends to result in:

• Fewer services, higher trust

• Shorter explanations, stronger resonance

• Better conversations, not just more leads

• A shift from “How does this work?” to “How do we start?”

That’s not coincidence.
That’s clarity.

A Final Word for Founders in the AI Era

AI is not here to replace judgment.

It’s here to expose where judgment is missing—or buried.

If your positioning feels heavy, diluted, or oddly ineffective despite good work, it’s likely not a marketing problem.

It’s a meaning problem.

Used well, AI doesn’t solve that for you.

But it can hold up a mirror long enough for you to see where you’re still flying in formation—when you no longer believe in it.