The summary isn’t the story
Yesterday, I was listening to a sermon by Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church, and he said something that stuck with me: Don’t get so stuck on the summary – the summary that AI, Google, Meta, or any of these other tech companies serve up to us for the sake of convenience.
It gave me pause. AI is remarkably good at creating summaries, isn't it? Give it a report, meeting transcript, or some data, and it can distill everything into a few key takeaways. And honestly, it's quite impressive in what it can do and the speed at which it can do it.
But what gets left behind when we reduce people and brands to summaries? AI can tell you WHAT happened, but it rarely tells you WHY it mattered.
As an example, AI could summarize my background by telling you I'm an award-winning marketing communicator with more than two decades of experience. It would probably mention I'm the founder of Authentic Impressions, and I help businesses strengthen their messaging. (Really. It should tell you this because I've been working on the backend of my website for several weeks now to feed that information directly to AI.😂)
And you know, all of that is 100% true.
But that summary does not tell you who I am or convey the depth of my complete story. It doesn't tell you about the scrappy military kid who traveled her whole childhood learning to listen before speaking and understanding how to connect with different people from diverse backgrounds. It doesn't tell you about the little girl whose mama shaped her ability to understand others by teaching her to read early and often. It certainly doesn't convey the passion and heart I have for helping others, specifically business owners who are struggling to find clarity in their communication.
Those are the things that create connection, and those are the things I care about. A summary can tell you what a company sells, but it won't be able to get to the heart of the brand. As a professional communicator, that distinction still matters to me.
Anyone can communicate information, but I'm interested in uncovering meaning.
So, in a world filled with finding the faster answer, wouldn't it be nice if we still find value, if even just a little, in slowing down long enough to understand someone's full story? Because, after all, that's where the magic happens. ✨
