How to prepare for the AI apocalypse of creative careers
Gen X are more anxious about AI than any other generation, here's how to prepare for the next 10 to 20 years.
This week I was asked to speak at a school. Granted I wasn't their first choice, more of a last minute replacement, but nonetheless I agreed to a Wednesday morning appearance in front of a class of 14 and 15-year-olds aspiring to work in the creative sector. I was joined by theatre-practitioner-cum-entertainment-lawyer Sheila Jeya Balan and we were to outline our unusual career paths then answer questions. In other rooms grownups from tech, finance, healthcare and business were all doing the same thing but in the backs of our minds we were all waiting for the same, inevitable question - what about AI, right? Wrong.
Before I go on, did you read THAT New York Times article, the one that went viral a couple weeks ago? The one titled 'The Gen X Career Breakdown'? I did and it was pretty bleak. A dozen or so testimonials from Gen X creatives who started their careers in magazine publishing, newspaper journalism, photography, graphic design, advertising, music, film, TV who are now staring down the barrel of impending irrelevance. Why? Tech in general, AI specifically.
Gen X-ers grew up as the younger siblings of the baby boomers, but the media landscape of their early adult years closely resembled that of the 1950s: a tactile analog environment of landline telephones, tube TV sets, vinyl records, glossy magazines and newspapers that left ink on your hands.
When digital technology began seeping into their lives, with its AOL email accounts, Myspace pages and Napster downloads, it didn’t seem like a threat. But by the time they entered the primes of their careers, much of their expertise had become all but obsolete.
Steven Kurutz, New York Times
As Gen X-ers, (I just creep in under the cut-off having been born in 1979 but I always identified more with the Gen X sensibility than millennials), AI is just about all Sheila and I can think about! It's what keeps us awake at night and why I write this blog in some futile attempt to outrun it before it devours my entire experience and skillset, leaving me a twitching consumer with nothing more to contribute than my dwindling disposable income. But the kids? They didn't mention it, just the same way that we didn't mention digital cameras or photoshop or spellcheck to the people who came and spoke at our schools in the 90s. Why? Douglas Adams, the iconoclastic author of ‘The Hitchikers’s Guide to The Galaxy’ put it this way:
Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”
Douglas Adam, Author
AI arrived when I was 42 - ironic, non? (IYKYK 🤓)
For teenagers I have to assume that AI is as new and exciting as digital cameras, photoshop and spellcheck were for my generation. I projected my anxieties on to them but they probably have other things to worry about like, I dunno, climate change? So, for my Gen X brethren (or any age creative I suppose), here is how I am preparing for the AI apocalypse of creative careers. I can't guarantee it will work but it gives me a wonderful sense of security that keeps my Zoloft prescription low enough to remain affordable…for now.
1. Build a personal brand.
I know, I know, it gives me the ick too. It's the polar opposite of the Gen X anti-corporate mentality but guess what? Every obscure indie band you ever loved had a brand; a name and a logo they agonised over then printed all over their merch because they weren't just A band, they were THAT band. Similarly, you cannot afford to be just A writer or designer or photographer, you need to be THAT writer; the one who is acerbically witty with a scathing blog about the ad industry or THAT designer who elevates logos to works of art by redesigning the best known brands as if they were drawn during the renaissance, or THAT photographer who loves travel and sells corporate headshots as team building experiences, taking clients on day trips to unusual locations to capture their reactions.
And you need to tell people about it which means, at minimum, a one page website and a LinkedIn profile because, like it or not, that’s where the money is and to catch its attention you need to participate, daily.
2. Don't try to be all things to all people.
This should fit much more comfortably with the Gen X mindset. When we're desperate for work we don't want to miss out on an opportunity so we tend to open ourselves up to anything, but that puts us in competition with everyone, everywhere who sort of does what we do. You need to be brave, lean in to your uniqueness and trust that it will earn you a premium. I know I am not everyone's cup of tea (😂 - the wife!), but those who like me have stuck with me and consistently brought me work over years, allowing me to ride along on their career journey and offering me new challenges and opportunities at each stop.
Just lately, everyone in my LinkedIn network has changed their job title from 'Web 3.0 Ninja' to 'AI Guru' to try and attract new business, but I'm the only one going the other way, advocating for the value of human creativity and culture in an increasingly inhuman world. It's not popular with everyone but there is a hardcore that are 100% behind me.
3. Be good at two things.
I'm stealing this one from
but will illustrate it with a true story, below.I sometimes produce videos for myself or my clients and I am overwhelmed with ho-hum camera operators battling it out for a few hundred bucks a day only to complain about the budget and try to up their value by adding unnecessary line items to their quotes with egregious markups. Then there's one guy I know who is a shooter AND an explorer. When I worked with a tea brand who grew leaves in hard-to-reach locations all over the world he was the ONLY person I could rely on to capture them on film. So now he heads off solo to four locations a year for a week each, followed by a week of editing, and pockets the equivalent of an annual salary for just eight weeks work.
I myself trained as an actor and a journalist, which was unplanned but highly fortuitous as it has led me down an unique and unexpected career path.
4. Build your network.
People buy from people, it's why you ask people you trust for a recommendation for a plumber or babysitter or a dentist, because you don't want ANY plumber or babysitter or dentist, you want one you can trust based on another person's experience. The more people you know, the more work you’ll generate and the more recommendations you will get. But trying to network with prospective clients online is like trying to catch one particular fish by throwing your line into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Smaller, face-to-face networking always yields better results and stronger connections that can then be nurtured online through email and LinkedIn.
In Singapore I am a member of The Screenwriter’s Association (S$50/year), The Actor’s Society (S$75/year), The Visual, Audio, Creative Content Professionals Association (S$117/year), The British Chamber of Commerce (S$1,100/year), 1880 Member’s Club (S$don’t ask!), and an informal creative agency WhatsApp group. All of these groups have interesting members, business benefits and host in-person meetups where everyone feels awkward so just be the first to admit it and talk to someone - everyone will be relieved that you did!
5. Give to get.
Creative people are always asking for stuff; more work, more time, a bigger budget, a referral, a testimonial. This gets really tiresome for prospects and clients and soon they will start avoiding you. You need to give to get and that DOES NOT mean working for free. What it means is, instead of asking them for work, give them an idea. Instead of asking for a referral, offer them one. Instead of asking for a bigger budget, show them what they could do with less.
I frequently text people in my network with ideas or articles that I think they will find relevant or inspiring. Or recommend someone to them who I think could really help them, even if it’s not me. I am known as a source of solutions not problems, which ensures that when my clients have a creative challenge, even if it’s not technically in my wheelhouse, they come to me first,
6. Invest in yourself.
Oddly, a friend I have known since I was five-years-old also lives in Singapore, we had a car-washing round together when we were eleven. Like me he has no degree. He left school and joined a company setting up private broadband networks as an apprentice. Now he’s Executive Director for APAC Data Centres at Goldman Sachs. I asked him how he did it and a large part of the answer was investing in himself. He didn’t wait for training, he put himself on private courses so that he was always ahead of the competition when it came to bidding for a project or a promotion.
As an adult I put myself through a diploma at the London School of Journalism, an accredited short course in Writing Drama with the University of Oxford online, and I applied for and won a scholarship in screenwriting at La Salle College of The Arts at 40. I pay for my memberships as well as certain conferences and events to put myself in the same rooms as my prospects and customers. I invest my time in this Substack for the same reason, so I appear weekly in people’s inboxes and I am about to hire a social media agency to help me grow it further.
If you are your business then there is no better investment than in yourself; not savings, not stocks, not crypto, not even gold. Every new skill acquired makes you a more unique and valuable proposition and enables you to either up your rates or acquire bigger, better clients.
7. And yes, embrace AI (on your terms).
Repeat after me, ‘AI is just a tool’ - it can accomplish certain tasks with astonishing speed and accuracy but it cannot and will not do anyone’s job because jobs are more than the sum of their tasks. Jobs are not always a clear path from A to B, they require critical thinking, collaboration, negotiation, decision-making and, yes, creativity. You get to choose how you incorporate AI into your process, how you use it to amplify your unique gifts, how you charge for your time, your output or accomplishments and how much margin you get to make by cutting your costs and streamlining your workflows.
I love the conversations I get to have with other humans for my Pro-Human Podcast. I select the guests, hunt them down, decide the topics, write the questions and host the conversations but those conversations are recorded, cut and subtitled by AI and if that wasn’t the case I couldn’t afford to do it. Does that mean that editors have no value? No, but it does mean that they need to pair their editing skills with something else to maintain or increase their value. The hardest part of making a podcast right now? Finding and booking high quality guests. Pair that with an end-to-end podcast production service and you’re solving a real and urgent business problem that’s still worth paying for.
Maybe you think I’m smug or privileged or just plain lucky but doing these things has kept me pretty busy for the last 15 years of building and selling a content agency then starting a content and communications consultancy, whilst also acting and writing professionally. I hope you find it helpful and, please, feel free to add your own advice in the comments so we can all benefit from each other’s experience.
To Do List
My recommendations for new things to read, watch, look at, listen to and do:
This post was partly inspired by my conversation last week with HR executive turned Responsible AI and Data Science Manager Philippa Penfold who talks specifically about the Gen X dilemma in her Pro-Human Podcast.
Rethinking Recruitment: AI, HR, and Human Wellbeing with Philippa Penfold
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Finally I got around to producing another podcast episode and if you’re Gen X, a job-hunter or in HR you’re going to get a lot out of this!
Marina Hyde was on particularly sparkling form in her must-read Guardian column this week entitled: What’s more vacuous than an endless vacuum? It’s Lauren Sánchez and Katy Perry’s party in space 😂
And for GenX-ers in the film biz wondering what the hell happened there, this is an excellent leftfield analysis by Substacker
Finally, Big O Fest at the Blackbird in Gilman Barracks last weekend was incredible, one of the best gigs I have ever attended in Singapore so, if you missed it, here’s the highlights:
Right, that’ll do ya! Cheers, Nx