I’m not really a tool junkie or early adapter.
In fact, I might even be a little tool avoidant. But every once in a while, I find one that proves really useful.
Aside from ChatGPT (Chatsby and I are enjoying some radical adventures together) there’s a new-to-me tool that has made my life a whole lot easier:
It’s my video fairy god-editor. I don’t do anything fancy on video, but it lets me clean up um’s and ah’s, shorten long gaps in conversations with the literal click of a button. And the editing interface allows you to edit out sections of video by highlighting and deleting spoken text! (I love that feature.)
But aside from the cool features Descript provides, I want to share how it helps me write my daily emails.
So I’m writing every day. Sometimes, I’m on the road or pressed for time, and I still want to whip out an email without sitting down at the keyboard. I’ve found a way to “write” a blog post in about 10 minutes total.
Here’s my secret for a super quick blog post:
Step 1 – Record my thoughts on a given topic on my phone. (I’m usually responding to a prompt from Daily Email Habit or answering a reader question.)
Step 2 – Upload the audio recording to Descript and generate a transcript.
Step 3 – Throw the transcript into Chat GPT and ask it to write an email in my voice and natural language.
Voila! Email written without typing a word.
I’ve found that I still need to edit and tweak a few things to make sure it sounds like me (sometimes Chatsby tries to make me less crude and weird) but the result sticks pretty close to my natural tone. And they’re quite good at smoothly transitioning between my sometimes random rambles. Honestly, Chatsby is way better at that than me.
Descript is a little pricey at $39 a month if you’re only using it for audio to blog/email content creation, so Voicepen may be a cheaper alternative. You can use it the same way I described at a lower price because you don’t get the fancy video editing software.
I haven’t tried Voicepen myself, but talking out your content and automatically generating a solid email or blog post is some wicked wizardry.
Got a favorite tool of your own? Hit reply and tell me — I’m always on the lookout for tools that actually make things easier, gentler, or more fun.
Yours in love and play,
Steph
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