Running a marketing agency used to mean juggling a small army of freelancers, risking missed deadlines, and spending more time managing people than creating content and building strategies.
That’s how Barbara Jovanovic of Startup Cookie used to operate.
She’s now built a streamlined operation that generates six figures annually with a tech stack that costs less than one grand a year. There’s no team behind her — just Jovanovic, her AI tools, and a process that turns one hour-long conversation into weeks of high-quality content.
Here’s exactly how she did it — and how you can replicate her success, whether you’re an aspiring solopreneur or just want ideas on streamlining your workflows with AI.
Table of Contents
- 6 Tips for Running a Marketing Agency with AI Tools
- How to Maximize Your Resources with AI
- 8 Top Startup AI Tools for Content Creation
6 Tips for Running a Marketing Agency with AI Tools
1. Never start with a blank page — context is everything.
“We never start with just prompting AI by itself to do anything, even the simplest social media post. We always have something to start with,” says Jovanovic.
In her view, the biggest mistake people make when they use AI for content creation is asking it to write about a topic from scratch.
Jovanovic’s secret weapon? She starts with human interactions.
That might mean feeding the AI transcripts from webinar transcripts or podcast recordings. Her co-founder, Sam Claassen, does hour-long interviews with founders, and those transcripts also get fed to the AI.
In a world where authenticity is paramount in your marketing strategies, giving AI something human to work with can set you up for success.
2. Talk to your AI, don’t type.
I hate talking to AI because I tend to ramble — but Jovanovic says that could actually work to my advantage.
She rarely types prompts into ChatGPT, instead using an AI-powered voice-to-text tool called Super Whisper. Speaking naturally adds context and nuance that short, typed prompts miss. And Jovanovic says that the results are “infinitely better.”
When you’re talking, you naturally provide more background, explain your thinking — or in my case, over explain — and give the AI the rich context it needs to produce high-quality results.
3. Use projects to scale your personal brand voice.
ChatGPT‘s Projects feature isn’t just a neat organization tool — it’s also Jovanovic’s scaling secret. For each client, she creates projects loaded with:
- Writing style samples from their favorite authors
- Company information and product details
- Brand voice guidelines
- Examples of approved content
This means every piece of content has the right tone and context, without having to re-explain the brand with every single prompt.
I tested this myself by asking ChatGPT to write a blog post about marketing campaign strategies using cat puns. Here’s an excerpt:
Then I created an abbreviated version of a custom GPT for an imaginary company owned by my cat, Teddy Crumpets. I used this very article as an example of approved content, gave it some information about this fictional company, and encouraged it to use cat-related puns and wordplay.
Because I only gave it one approved piece of content, it borrowed pretty heavily from it, but it’s still far better than the generic example — it’s more specific, has a better voice, and even the cat puns are better.
It also picked up on the fact that HubSpot style is to put spaces around em-dashes; in the generic example above, there are no spaces around them.
4. Be mean to your AI (it can handle it).
You may have heard exhortations to be polite to AI by always using “please” and “thank you.”
Jovanovic’s advice doesn’t necessarily contradict that, but she cautions against being too polite. Her prompts include “DON’T BE CRINGE” and “DON’T BE CLICHÉ” — and yes, she puts them in all caps — and she gives the AI a running list of banned words (like “ensure,” a word I could also stand to ban from my writing, if we’re being honest).
This bluntness and specificity separates the wheat from the chaff. If you’ve ever used AI for content creation, you may have been frustrated at the amount of generic corporatespeak it spat out.
“Be more specific” is some of the best writing advice I give human writers, and it stands to reason that it would also improve AI writing.
5. Extract first, create second.
Jovanovic’s workflow is methodical: First, she asks AI to extract all insightful topics from a conversation; say, a founder interview.
Then she reviews that list critically — would she actually read this content? Only after identifying insights that make her want to click does she move to creation mode.
“You have to be present and think critically. Does this sound interesting? If not, let’s move on to the next one,” she says.
6. Automate your market intelligence.
Instead of doomscrolling X or LinkedIn for industry news, Jovnanovic set up ChatGPT tasks that deliver morning briefings on fintech and healthtech developments.
These briefings keep her informed without the mental health cost of social media addiction.
That’s great advice in general, whether you’re running a zero-employee marketing agency or just trying to avoid bed rotting.
How to Maximize Your Resources with AI
A $100K+ Startup Team
The list of contractors Jovanovic would need to hire isn’t insignificant for a small startup:
- 5 content writers
- SEO copywriter
- Video editor
- Audio editor
- Marketing designer
- Data analyst
- Project manager (herself)
Total annual cost: Over $100,000, plus time spent on administrative tasks like managing contracts and coordinating deliverables.
The Sub-$1K AI Stack She Uses
Her entire operation now runs on:
- ChatGPT (free, $20, and $200/month options) and Claude (free, $17, and $100/month options) for content creation
- Granola for meeting transcripts and chat (free and $18/month options)
- Riverside for video recording (free, $15, and $24/month options)
- Midjourney for design (plan options range from $10 to $120/month)
- Descript for video editing ($16, $24, or $50/month)
- Super Whisper for voice-to-text (free and $8.49/month options)
- OpenAI API access (varies, using a token-based system)
Total annual cost: Less than $1,000.
The Efficiency Multiplier
The real win isn‘t just cost — it’s speed and iteration. Before AI, testing a new content channel meant a two-month lag between idea and execution. Now Jovanovic can go from inspiration to published content in hours, not weeks.
“You get that energy, you get an idea, and you‘re like, ‘Oh my God, let’s see how that performs.’ And then when you actually delegate, it’s two months after that you’re actually testing it.”
8 Top Startup AI Tools for Content Creation
1. ChatGPT Projects
The foundation of Jovanovic’s scaling strategy. Create separate projects for each client or content type, load them with context documents, and maintain consistent brand voice across all outputs.
2. Super Whisper (voice-to-text)
Jovanovic’s secret for better prompts. Speaking naturally to AI provides richer context than typing, leading to significantly better results.
3. Granola (meeting intelligence)
Records and transcribes meetings, then lets you chat with the transcript. Perfect for extracting insights from client calls or founder interviews without manual note-taking.
4. Claude (AI writing assistant)
Jovanovic cross-references her ChatGPT outputs with Claude for quality control and to get different perspectives on the same content.
5. Riverside (video recording)
High-quality video recording for those crucial founder interviews that become the source material for weeks of content.
6. Midjourney (visual design)
Handles all graphic design needs without hiring designers or learning complex software.
7. Descript (video/audio editing)
Simplifies video and audio editing with AI-powered features, making it accessible for non-technical users.
8. OpenAI API (advanced integration)
For custom workflows and integration with other tools — like the data visualization tool one of Jovanovic’s clients built that lets non-technical users query datasets conversationally.
The Bottom Line
If you’re thinking about starting your own low-cost marketing agency, weigh the need for human contractors against AI’s current capabilities. (And of course, you always want to double-check any AI’s work to prevent errors and hallucinations.)
Or if you’re just new to AI and want to know how it can help streamline your marketing workflows, take a page from Jovanovic’s book — I know that a lot more of my AI prompts are going to include “DON’T BE CRINGE.”
