Recapping CEX 2025: Un-hyping AI, Community Moats, and the Future of Newsletters

Episode notes

The Growth Vault is LIVE: Chenell's brand-new product - The Growth Vault - is here. Filled with newsletter templates, growth strategies, and real examples you can implement at your own pace. - “If content is king, AI is storming the castle. " - Darren Vesterfelt, Mighty Networks Chenell was just in Cleveland for the annual CEX conference. And she wasn't *just* in attendance - she was also a speaker! So we're recapping the biggest lessons and takeaways from Chenell's experience at CEX ( Content Entrepreneur Expo ) - where she basically opened the conference with her keynote, traded notes with some content economy heavy hitters (like Jay Acunzo, Ann Handley, Mark Schaefer, Robert Rose) , and soaked up the big trends. We dig into why slowing down beats AI-first content , the power of community and IRL relationships , how to think about discovery vs. relationship platforms , and why some SEO pros are betting on social over search . KEY TAKEAWAYS The case for “ as slow as possible” content : let ideas marinate; don’t outsource your thinking to AI. How to use AI as an editor rather than a first-draft brain replacement - and why this matters more than ever.

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