The 30 Percent Only You Can Write

Last month, I told you that AI does not remember your business.

This month, the harder truth.

Even when AI has the right context, it does not automatically sound like you. And if you let it write the entire piece, it never will.

I use a simple working rule: AI can get me about 70 percent of the way. It can provide structure, first-pass language, and a clean format. That 70 percent is useful.

But the final 30 percent is where the writing becomes mine.

That 30 percent is not extra polish. It is the part that gives the work its judgment, specificity, and point of view.

Most people give it away without realizing it.

Here is what belongs in your 30 percent and how to keep it.

The goal is not to have AI write for you. It is to have AI write with you.

Writing for you produces a clean, competent draft that could have come from almost anyone.

Writing with you starts with your voice, your examples, and your way of seeing the work. AI helps shape the draft, but you supply the judgment that makes it worth reading.

In the 70/30 method, the machine handles speed and structure. That is the administrative work.

You handle the four parts that require a person.

The judgment call.
Is the claim true, fair, and yours to make? AI can state almost anything confidently. You decide what goes out under your name.

The specific example.
AI can write, "I helped a client save time." Only you can supply the real number, the real situation, and the lesson you took from it. The lived detail is the part no model can create for you.

The taste edit.
Sometimes a sentence is technically fine but still feels wrong. Cutting it or rewriting it until it sounds like you is an act of taste. The standard is not correctness. The standard is whether you would actually say it.

The strategic frame.
What is this piece supposed to accomplish? Who is it really for? AI can optimize a draft, but you must decide whether it is the right draft.

I use one rule to keep myself honest:

If you would publish the first output untouched, the machine has become the author while your name remains on the work.

You do not need to write a voice guide from a blank page. Let the tool help you uncover one.

Open your AI tool and enter:

Answer honestly.

What sounds like you? What never sounds like you? How do you open a piece? How do you close one? Which words would you never use?

When the interview is complete, ask the tool to turn your answers into five clear writing rules.

Read the rules carefully. Keep only the ones that are true.

My five rules are:

You can build a useful first version of your voice guide in about 20 minutes.

One of the fastest ways to identify off-voice writing is to keep a list of words you do not use.

Mine includes:

Confidence comes from specificity, not intensifiers.

Build your own list of words that make you wince. Add it to your saved instructions and ask the tool to avoid them.

When AI returns a draft, do not limit your review to grammar and formatting.

Look for the four places that require you.

Add one example that only you could provide.

Make one judgment call about whether a claim is accurate and fair.

Remove one sentence that is acceptable but does not sound like you.

Then step back and ask whether the piece serves the right purpose for the right reader.

That is your 30 percent.

Protect it, and the writing remains yours.

Last month, I asked you to find the standing-context feature in your AI tool.

This month, fill it with your voice.

In Claude, create a Project for your writing and add your voice to its project instructions. In ChatGPT, create a Project and use its instructions the same way. Add your five voice rules, your no-hype list, and three examples of writing that sound unmistakably like you.

These materials give the tool persistent guidance for every conversation inside that Project.

If you want the guidance to apply everywhere, not just inside one Project, both tools have a global setting for it. In ChatGPT it is Custom Instructions. In Claude it is your personal preferences in settings.

Do this once, then improve it as you work.

When a draft comes back slightly wrong, do not simply fix the sentence and move on. Identify the problem. The language may be too promotional, the sentences too long, or the conclusion unnecessary. The draft may also include a claim you would not make.

Turn that correction into a rule and add it to your saved instructions.

Over time, the tool produces stronger first drafts, and you spend less time correcting the same problems.

It will not replace your 30 percent.

It will help you reach it faster.

I built a complete Voice System for Joy of PM AI Solutions. It is the system I use to keep my posts, emails, presentations, and other materials sounding like they came from the same person.

I have placed the reader version in the resource library at joyofpm.com/resources.html.

It will help you capture your voice, apply the 70/30 method, and recognize when AI has taken too much control of the draft.

Use it to build a voice system of your own.

In July, I presented at the EforAll business accelerator showcase, the final step in a cohort I had been part of since the spring.

I had ten minutes to explain my entire business to a room.

That may be the most unforgiving writing assignment there is, even when the words are spoken.

The 70/30 method helped me prepare.

I let the structure remain structure. Then I protected the parts that were mine: the real example, the honest line, and the decision about what to leave out.

Those were the parts that carried the presentation.

Now I am bringing the same approach to other business owners.

On Wednesday, August 12, I am leading a free City of Cambridge workshop called AI for Bid Response and Proposal Writing as part of National Black Business Month.

During the 90-minute session, we will work through how to:

Participants will leave with a working template and the beginning of a past-performance file.

If responding to bids takes too much of your time, this session is for you.

Wednesday, August 12, 2026
7:00 to 8:30 p.m.
First Street Market, Community Room
59 First St., Cambridge, Massachusetts

Registration is required. Register for the workshop here.

Your voice is worth the time it takes to document it.

Mine helped carry me through an important ten minutes of my quarter. On August 12, I will show other business owners how to protect theirs while using AI to move faster.

Chandra Dunn, PMP, PhD
Founder and CEO, Joy of PM AI Solutions
[email protected]

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