I need you to start thinking about how people choose your services in the same way they choose how they fix their caffeine addiction.

For some people, a cup of coffee in the morning is simply a job to be done. They wake up, need energy, and genuinely don't care where that caffeine comes from as long as it shows up and does its thing.

They could stop at a gas station, Starbucks, Dunkin, or even make a Keurig cup at home - whatever is closest and fastest to meet their caffeine needs.

These people are not thinking about flavor notes or ambiance or whether the barista knows their name.

They just need to get the 'caffeine job' done.

And then there are people like me. 🙃

Yes, I need caffeine to function (like desperately). But I don’t *just* need caffeine.

I will absolutely go out of my way to a specific coffee shop because I know they make their syrups in-house instead of using something from a plastic bottle. And I will spend the extra money to sit in a café where they know my name and it's a chill vibe inside, instead of speeding through a drive-thru where everything feels rushed and transactional.

I would rather delay the caffeine intake a smidge longer if it means the experience feels thoughtful and the drink tastes intentional and delicious.

To me, coffee isn't just about getting caffeine into my body. It's a whole experience, and when the experience is off or the coffee isn't delicious, my whole day feels out of whack.

Now stay with me here because I'm about to bring this right back to your business.

With that same caffeine analogy in mind - think about AI.

The people using AI to draft their own contracts are not the people who are going to buy your contract templates as a lawyer.

The people whipping up a graphic on ChatGPT in 0.4 seconds are not the people who are going to invest in a graphic designer.

The people generating AI headshots are not the ones who are planning to hire you as their brand photographer.

To these people, the tasks at hand are just “jobs to be done” and they are solving for efficiency.

They want it fast, easy, inexpensive, and they are perfectly satisfied if the outcome simply works.

To them, it’s enough.

Because they’re not prioritizing experience, nuance, collaboration, refinement, or depth.

They want the “caffeine” and AI gives it to them.

But your ideal clients are not like that.

They care about the thinking and the intention behind the work you do. They care about the details that most people won’t see, but will feel. They care about an end product that reflects their values, feels intentional, and carries weight, polish, and personality.

They are not buying output; they are buying standards. They are buying the experience of being known, understood, and thoughtfully served.

And here is the part for you to really chew on: You cannot be the handcrafted café and the commercialized drive-through at the same time.

If your brand is built on experience, personalization, depth, and quality, you cannot compete on speed and price without eroding the very thing that makes you valuable.

If you start shaping your messaging around trying to win over people who only care about getting it done quickly and cheaply, you will slowly dilute the experience-driven positioning that attracts the clients who actually value you.

Instead of spending your mental bandwidth wondering why people would choose AI, understand that they simply have a different priority (even if deep down you know it's doing more damage than good).

Yes, you can educate. You can talk about why nuance matters and when AI might not be the right solution. That can be helpful, and sometimes people do realize they want more than convenience after learning a bit more.

But some people will always choose convenience.

And some people will always choose quality and experience.

Your job is not to convert one into the other.

Your job is to be very clear about which one you are building for.

Because the moment you stop trying to convince gas station coffee drinkers to care about homemade syrups in handcrafted lattes, you free up so much mental energy, your positioning gets cleaner, and your messaging becomes simpler.

And ultimately, your content becomes better at serving your people in a greater capacity.

Catch ya next week,

Marissa