AI Isn't Making the Internet Generic. It's Making It Weird Again. (Thank God.)

"Check your inbox" is the "live, laugh, love" of email marketing.

Its shiplap-loving cousin is:

"You're almost there!"
"Check your spam folder."
"Whiteeeelisttttttt ussssssssssssssss."
"Great news, you're in!"
"We're so excited to have you."
"Drag to primary!"

It's the Who's Who of email marketing clichés. And, we've all done it. We've all used the standard, default copy before. We've all used the generic confirmation page. Because sometimes life feels like pouring a gallon of turpentine straight into your eye sockets. And, done IS better than perfect, right?

YES, OKAY, TRUE.

But, also——————————

Now, more than ever?

Generic is going to cost you.

Everyone thinks AI is going to make everything more generic. But, no. Actually, quite the opposite is true:

AI will help creative people become rapidly, patently, exponentially more creative.

And expose lazy marketing more than ever. Because now, if the marketing is generic, bland, tired and trite? It's not because of AI.

It's because, well, they are.

The point that's being missed is that AI only produces generic output when the input is generic. However, when you get a person behind the wheel who can direct it? With a vision? And a concept? And a creative idea?

AI takes the creative kid and makes them nuclear.

In the past, creatives couldn't execute on their ideas without spending $30,000 on a developer. In a digital-first world, developers were ALWAYS the ones who held the keys to the castle. If you wanted to do something interesting, outside the box, you had to have the resources to do it. Things for the past twenty internet years have actually been more generic, because the creatives had to rely on things like ye ol' standard Wordpress template (which everyone knows looks like a cow took a bite out of an asshole), or ye ol' Shopify template, or ye ol' Etsy store layout, or—more presently—ye ol' Substack grid.

But, just like we were talking about on Tuesday?

Ideas are the future of human careers.

And, AI just handed the idea people a digital flamethrower.

The creative's entire job, for their entire life, has been coming up with interesting ideas. Ideas are not the problem for the creative person. Taking a vision and having the resources to bring it to life is.

But now, the keys to the castle have been handed to everyone. Anyone can take their vision and bring the whole thing to life on a Saturday morning.

The people who will benefit most are the creatives with the ideas. The people who will benefit least are the ones who were executing the ideas for them.

AI just gave every creative in the world the ability to execute.

By themselves. On their own. In their slippers. With a candle. At one o'clock in the afternoon. Making something weird and wonderful.

Do you know how much more creative the world is about to get?

Case in point: For 1,011 years now, I have wanted to do something more memorable with my new subscriber opt-in flow. You know, because getting people to confirm their email on a double opt-in is like getting me to church.

So yesterday morning, I sat down, I came up with a few concepts, I thought about what would create delight for me if I were to see it somewhere, and finally? I came up with something I thought would be A TRIP.

In the past, I wouldn't have been able to execute this to save my life.

Behold, here are my new confirmation pages when you subscribe to my email list. It's certainly not your average "check your inbox" screen.

After you enter your email, you get taken to this page.

After you confirm your email, you get taken to this page.

(You REALLY gotta click on those to get the full experience. 🤣 Especially the phone ringing. 📞)

Here's what the flow looks like in GIFs, haha:

And bonus? I also made alt variations for a tiny village in the English countryside 🐑, and one in a pub on the coast of Ireland 🇮🇪. Couldn't pick!

Was this fun to build?

Hell yes.

Could Claude Code have come up with these concepts on its own if I just said "build me an email opt-in flow?"

Not a chance.

Thoughtful work requires thoughtful human direction.

And, this is where I see the future going. Not "AI is taking over," but rather, "AI needs us to lead."

P.S. My new October online course, Claude for Business Owners, will teach you exactly how to do this—and so much more. Enroll now before September 15th to put your business in the pool to be selected as a live example in class, and get the super early bird price. 🐣