Confessions of a Shamanic Geek: Spiritual Marketing with AI

Lee Aldridge
1 day ago
6 min read

Why I Use AI Like a Divination Tool

How to use artificial intelligence without losing your soul

Red-haired woman focuses on coding at dual monitors in a bright office, with code on screens and a laptop on the desk.

I'm in heaven with AI.

There. I said it.

I'm a brand strategist who talks about soul work and nervous systems and getting to your ROOTS before you touch your marketing. I use words like "truth" and "alignment" and "authentic expression" with complete sincerity and zero irony.

And I am absolutely, unapologetically obsessed with AI. I've become an AI Brand Strategy geek.

Specifically with Claude. Which my clients find either very funny or slightly alarming, depending on their priors.

Here's the thing though: most people are using AI in a way that is actively making their marketing worse. And the people who've written AI off entirely because "it sounds fake" are leaving the most powerful amplification tool of our generation on the table.

Both groups are making the same mistake. Just from opposite directions.

They don't understand what AI actually is.

What AI Really Is.

Woman studies a vision board in a warm room, with notes like My Story, My Approach, and Purpose-led business, Soul-deep impact.

AI is a mirror.

Not a creator. Not a ghostwriter. Not a replacement for the deep work of figuring out who you are and what you stand for.

A mirror.

It reflects back what you put into it. Feed it generic prompts, get generic output. Feed it your truth -- your actual words, your real stories, your hard-won clarity -- and it reflects that truth back to you in a hundred different forms.

Many people who try AI get terrible results, and conclude "AI can't do my kind of work" made one mistake: they asked it to create before they'd given it anything real to work with.

They typed: "Write my website homepage copy for a life coaching business."

And they got: the average of every life coaching website that has ever existed.

Generic. Flat. Forgettable. Converting at 0.5% instead of 5%.

That's not AI failing. That's AI doing exactly what it's designed to do: pattern matching at scale. With nothing distinctive to match, it defaults to average.

The mirror showed them the average of everyone. Because that's all they gave it to reflect.

Spiritual marketing with AI: How I actually use it.

In my recent Chapel Hill Insider interview, I said something that got a lot of response:

"My creativity, my ideas when collaborating with Claude is extraordinary. But my instructions are explicit: Use the copy word for word. I want quotes. I want soul.

No, Claude, this is 'marketing speak'. Do it again."

That "do it again" is doing a lot of work.

Because here's my actual process, the one I use with private clients, and what I teach in the Alchemy Marketing Circle:

Step one: The ROOTS work. No AI involved.

We do the deep dive. The brand story interview. The "who are you, what do you stand for, why should they care" excavation. The uncomfortable honest inventory.

This part is 100% human. It has to be. AI cannot tell you who you are. It can only reflect back what you tell it, and if you haven't done the work of figuring out what's true, it will reflect your confusion right back at you in very polished prose.

Step two: Feed the truth.

Once we have clear ROOTS, and we know the real answer to those three questions, I feed everything into Claude. The brand story interview transcript. Client testimonials. Any existing writing that sounds most like the client's true voice. Notes from our sessions. The specific phrases and images that kept coming up organically.

I don't ask it to create. I introduce it to a person.

Basically saying to Claude, "This is [client name]. Here is how she thinks, how she speaks, what she believes, what she stands for. Learn her."

Step three: Translation.

Then I ask it to translate. Not to write FROM scratch -- to translate what's already there into different formats, different lengths, different applications.

Website homepage. Email sequence. LinkedIn post. Speaking bio. Podcast pitch.

And when it comes back too polished, too generic, too "marketing-y" -- which it often does on the first pass -- I say exactly what I said in that interview:

"Do not copy word for word. I want quotes. I want soul. This is marketing copy. Do it again."

Second draft: ninety percent there.

Final ten percent: I do by hand. Because there's always a word choice, a rhythm, a specific reference that only Lee, or only Barbara, or only Kathy, or only you would actually say.

Why I call myself a shamanic geek.

Women gathered around a fire pit outdoors, one kneeling by flames while others stand holding a drum; grassy yard by brick wall.

I've been on a shamanic path for a while now. I've been through the Medicine Wheel work. I've sat with the questions that don't have easy answers.

And yes, I ventured into the places we avoid at all costs. Those "anywhere but there" places.

I've learned to listen for what's trying to emerge rather than forcing what I think should be there.

In shamanic practice, divination isn't about the tool having power.

Oracle cards don't know your future. The stones don't hold your answers. The power is in the quality of the question and your willingness to see what's actually revealed.

AI works exactly the same way.

The quality of what you get out is entirely determined by the quality of what you put in. Which is entirely determined by the depth of the work you've done before you sit down to type a prompt.

Ask AI a shallow question, get a shallow answer. Ask it from a place of real clarity, giving it your actual truth to work with, and it becomes the most efficient translator you've ever encountered.

It takes what lives in you and puts it into digital language. Quickly. In multiple formats. Without the three-hour writing paralysis that hits every time you open a blank document.

But the living thing has to be in you first.

That's the part that can't be automated. That's the ROOTS work. And that's why I will never, ever skip it.

The Ferrari you're crashing.

Woman driving a red Ferrari convertible at speed, hair blown back, shouting excitedly on an open road at sunset.

AI is like being handed the keys to a Ferrari.

Most people get in, floor it immediately, and drive directly into a ditch.

Not because the car is bad. Because they never learned to drive.

They expected the car to know where to go. To compensate for their lack of direction. To get them somewhere meaningful without them knowing the destination.

It can't do that. No tool can do that.

But if you know where you're going, if you've done the ROOTS work and you're clear on who you are, what you stand for, and what you're trying to say, AI is not just a Ferrari.

It's a Ferrari with a supercharged engine and a GPS that speaks your language.

You'll create in an afternoon what used to take a week. You'll maintain consistency across platforms without the mental overhead of starting from scratch every time. You'll show up in your audience's feed sounding like yourself because you gave the tool YOUR truth to work with, not a generic prompt and a prayer.

What this means for your business right now.

Smiling woman in a turquoise top sits at a desk in a wood-paneled room beside a sign reading today I choose joy.

If you've tried AI and hated the results: you probably skipped the ROOTS work. Do that first, then come back to the tool.

If you've avoided AI because "it sounds fake": it sounds fake when it's been given nothing real. Give it something real and watch what happens.

If you're already using AI but feel like it's not quite capturing your voice: the gap between "almost you" and "unmistakably you" lives in the specificity of what you feed it. More of your actual words. More of your real stories. More of the unpolished truth before you try to make it sound professional.

Spiritual marketing with AI doesn't have to be chaotic and unorganized.

In the Alchemy Marketing Circle, I teach this whole process. The ROOTS work first, then the AI amplification. How to train it on your voice. How to prompt for soul, not just structure.

How to make it undeniably yours, and memorable.

Because AI is not the future of marketing. AI plus truth is the future of marketing.

The shamanic geek in me finds this extraordinarily exciting.

The brand strategist in me finds it extraordinarily practical.

Do the soul work first. Then let the tool amplify it.

That's the whole formula.

Want to learn exactly how I use AI to amplify soul-rooted brand messaging? The Alchemy Marketing Circle meets weekly and covers this process in depth including live implementation support. $147/month at the founding member rate.

Join the Alchemy Marketing Circle here: https://www.soulstorycreative.com/soul-alchemy-marketing-circle

Need to do the ROOTS work first before AI can help you? That's what the Quickstart Brand Story Playbook is for. Done-FOR-you. $4,400.

Learn more about the Quickstart Brand Story Playbook