The Day I Stopped Pretending to Be a Designer

For 20+ years, I’ve been moonlighting as someone I’m not.

Every presentation meant playing graphic designer, PowerPoint wizard, and amateur psychologist. I’d agonize over fonts, tweak alignment for hours, and wrestle with that impossible question: “How much is too much?”

Meanwhile, I actually needed to focus on content, capabilities, value proposition, and ROI.

Then I stopped fighting it.

I recently rebuilt an entire solution offering using AI to amplify my work:

ChatGPT transformed my handwritten notes and Plaud meeting transcriptions into a structured framework. Claude refined my script and made the language feel human. My expertise and strategic thinking drove every decision.

Then Gamma took my script and built four assets: a presentation deck, PDF brochure, landing page, and Instagram carousel. All formatted with my branding. All consistent.

When I realized I’d missed slides on work-life balance and complex statistics, the AI built them in seconds.

Total time: 90 minutes. This would have consumed days before.

My daughter asked if this was “cheating.”

I told her architects design homes, they don’t build them or sell them. They know their strengths and partner with specialists.

The AI didn’t have my ideas or spend weeks understanding the problem. It just dragged my expertise across the finish line.

I’m done pretending to be a designer. I’m too busy being good at what I actually do.