On this episode of The Smart IT Podcast, I welcomed Shawn Rolph, founder of Copycat, to the show to talk about creativity, resilience, and adaptation in the face of technological disruption. How does one bounce back from the AI rush when it disrupts your business model? and then turn around the innovate on other ways to provide value to the market and harness that same tech to support the new approach.
We explored his company's journey from copywriting to strategic narrative.
Shawn shared his journey with music began after a childhood injury that shattered his elbow. Playing guitar became a form of physical therapy that later influenced his creativity and problem-solving as an entrepreneur. Music, he explained, had always been central to how he and his business partner brainstormed ideas and tackled challenges.
He described founding Copycat in 2017 as a small copywriting venture that scaled into a full-service agency supporting large firms with writing talent and creative content. However, the introduction of ChatGPT in late 2022 fundamentally disrupted the business. Within three months of the announcement, Copycat lost half its runway as clients shifted to experimenting with AI-generated content. Shawn reflected that AI’s first major use case was communication, and that businesses quickly began reassessing the value of human-created writing.
Rather than resist the change, Copycat pivoted. Shawn saw that AI would flood every marketing channel with content, amplifying noise and sameness. This insight led to the creation of Copycat’s Strategic Narrative Framework, a storytelling-driven approach that helps brands rediscover authentic voice, alignment, and differentiation. Drawing inspiration from Hollywood writing rooms and world-building, Shawn’s team began facilitating in-person workshops to help companies clarify their villains, heroes, and worldviews.
Our conversation explored the “premium on slow” emerging in an AI-accelerated world, highlighting how genuine creativity, intentional storytelling, and human interaction would soon become more valuable than speed. Shawn emphasized that true innovation required reflection, alignment, and collaboration, not just automation. Copycat eventually used AI not to replace creativity but to amplify decision-making, automate workflows, and create space for deep narrative work, while maintaining a strict boundary against using AI for generative writing.
Shawn concluded that storytelling could be taught through frameworks and that today’s founders must become both builders and storytellers. Copycat now operates both as a narrative agency and as a storytelling-as-a-service platform, helping founders and teams align around a unified message that connects authentically with customers.
We closed the episode by highlighting Shawn’s ability to transform disruption into opportunity, reminding listeners that when challenges strike, creativity, collaboration, and purpose are the keys to building what’s next.
#smartit #story #copy #narrative #ai
Show notes:
🔹Link to this episode: https://youtu.be/QP-7QTlu96Q
🔹Shawn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-rolph/
🔹Copycat: https://www.copycat.ink
🔹The Smart IT Podcast YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thesmartitpodcast
🔹Captivate Website for all episodes: https://the-smart-it-podcast.captivate.fm/
