Stop Dabbling with AI. Start Dialoguing a Powerful Thought Partner ✨

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AI Creativity Chronicles​
Weekly Insights from
​The AI Over 50 Guy

Don’t just use ChatGPT,
​challenge it 🧠

Most folks poke at ChatGPT and have no idea what it can do. The magic shows up when you demand more. Not louder—smarter. Think of it as an amplifier for the clarity you already have. 🔊

If you’re like most people, you are only skimming the surface of what ChatGPT or other AIs are capable of providing to you… today!

A quick personal story ☕️

Recently, as I explained in this brief rant, I utilized ChatGPT to refine a messy business idea. I told it to think longer, push back on me, and propose simpler options. After several rounds of real dialogue, I had a more finely focused plan I could actually act on. That felt like relief, not hustle. 😌

Try Easy Exercise: The 5‑Minute Depth Drill ⏱️

Talk to ChatGPT like this (in a modified version based on whatever’s up for you), and you’ll feel the shift.

  1. Set the role. “You are my strategic thought partner. Think step‑by‑step.” 🎯
  2. Ask a hard question. “What’s the simplest, sustainable version of my offer?” 🧭
  3. Turn up the depth. “Take a minute to think. Explore 3 angles. Then give your best answer.” 🔍
  4. Invite critique. “What’s weak or risky here? How would you fix it?” 🧪
  5. Make it usable. “Turn this into a 30‑day starter plan with tiny steps.” ✅

Do you see how this opens up a whole new level of possibilities for leveraging the power of AI?

Here’s a copy/paste version that you can personalize:

Act as my strategic thought partner. Before answering, think step‑by‑step. Explore 3 distinct angles for simplifying my offer to be more sustainable. Then give your best recommendation, list key assumptions, and convert it into a 30‑day starter plan with two tiny actions per week. Finally, critique your own plan and suggest one improvement. 🧰

Why this works (in plain English) 💡

  • You’re not asking for trivia—you’re asking for judgment from a very intelligent thought partner. 🎓
  • The follow‑ups force the AI to reason deeper, not just reply faster. 🪜 This gives you access to the expanded capabilities of the latest AI models.
  • You end with a plan with more specificity and depth, one can actually do. 🗺️

You are invited 🤗

Prompted to Create — my self‑guided, hands‑on course — shows you how to work with AI like a collaborator, not a gimmick. Originally built for professional marketers, it’s perfect if you want practical reps you can use immediately. Every module has experiential learning exercises like the one you’ve (hopefully) just done.

Inside, you’ll get:

  • Prompt systems that turn scattered ideas into clear copy and content. 🧩
  • AI image generation exercises to create on‑brand visuals fast. 🖼️
  • A guided tour of the AI video landscape so you know what’s possible now (and what’s hype). 🎬
  • Bite‑sized, do‑it‑now drills that build confidence through small wins. 🏁

Is it time for you to go deeper with AI?​
​Start Prompted to Create → 🚀

Want a sanity check first?​
Reply “DIALOGUE” and tell me your focus. I’ll point you to the exact lessons for your goals—personally. 💬 I also give personal tours of this course via Zoom. Book a 15-minute video chat here.

P.S. If you try the Depth Drill, hit reply and tell me what happened. I’d love to hear. I read every note. 📬

🗞️ How Journalists Can Help Creators in the Age of AI

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AI Creativity Chronicles​
Weekly AI Tips to
Spark Your Marketing Mojo

What happens when journalists start acting like creators — and creators start thinking like journalists? 👀

That’s the juicy question at the heart of this week’s Video Mojo episode with Alexa Phillips, whose viral TikTok about entrepreneurial journalism has drawn nearly a million views.

Alexa’s big idea? The next wave of media belongs to knowledge-based creators — people building trust, authority, and real connection in their own corners of the culture.

video preview​

In our conversation, Alexa and I dive into how journalism, creativity, and entrepreneurship are colliding in fascinating ways. We talk about:

🧠 What creators can learn from journalists — like fact-checking, credibility, and crafting narratives people can trust.
💡 What journalists can learn from creators — authenticity, agility, and building personal brands that resonate.
🤖 How AI tools are accelerating this transformation — making it easier than ever to turn ideas into high-value media.
🔥 And why this new “entrepreneurial journalism” model could define the next era of trust online.

If you care about the future of storytelling, this episode is a must-watch.

🎥 Watch now on YouTube​
or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

And if you haven’t yet — hit reply and tell me:​
What do you think creators and journalists can learn from each other in this age of AI-powered media?

Stay creative, stay curious ✨
— Jon
​Host of Video Mojo & Publisher of AI Creativity Chronicles

🎬 How Sora AI Video Supercharges Creativity

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AI Creativity Chronicles​
Weekly AI Tips to
Spark Your Marketing Mojo

🎙️ “AI isn’t a threat to our creativity,
​it’s a megaphone for it.”
​— Jon Leland

Experimentation is the best way to learn, and the video below was created while experimenting with Sora 2, OpenAI’s latest, controversial text-to-video model and app.

One way that my creativity got amplified by Sora is this 9-second video. I only gave Sora a simple prompt:

“@joncombridges is on a mission to span the Grand Canyon Gap between people and technology.”

Watch this video to see how this AI auto-imagines multiple scenes and writes scripts based on that simple prompt.

As rough as this is, I feel like it gave my mission new life!

​

🎥 What I’m Learning

Exploring Sora 2 hasn’t been some film school-style cinematic lesson — it’s more of an ongoing creative conversation with a sometimes wildly creative thought-partner/collaborator.

And while AI expands creative potential, it’s also generating a lot more media slop: content without clarity or purpose.

That’s why our human-in-the-loop creative discernment matters more than ever. The more powerful the tools, the more each of us needs a strong creative compass.

💭 Closing Question

AI can amplify our creativity — not by doing the work for us, but by giving us new ways to play, experiment, and learn.

So the question becomes:

How can we use AI to create better, not just more? 🤔

👇 Join the Conversation

As I often recommend, I’m focusing more on some social media channels than others. Currently, my focus is on TikTok and YouTube, with an occasional side of LinkedIn, Instagram, and Sora (yes, Sora is a social media app as well as a video generator… and fun, in my opinion.)

If you’d like to continue this conversation, I’d be delighted to hear from you via a reply to this message, a comment, or a share on any of the social channels above.

See you (and/or your avatar) there! 😁

Stay creative,
Jon