How I Use Leonardo AI for My Business

This month marked three years since I first started using Leonardo AI, which feels like the perfect time to talk about how I actually use it to create images and videos for my business.

Though I’ve been using it since the early days, I still learn new tricks, tools and creative workflows all the time. That’s one reason I keep coming back to it. Leo keeps evolving, the models keep changing, and I continually find new ways to use it for marketing, content, product visuals, client ideas and creative experiments.

There are a lot of places to create imagery and content these days. If you are anything like me, you probably juggle a few different tools depending on the job, the deadline, the mood and whether your creative brain has decided to cooperate.

What I love about Leonardo AI is that I can access so many of my favourite image models in one place. I can use Leonardo’s own models, adjust or leave settings on auto, and try the latest models like Nano Banana, GPT Image, Seedream and Ideogram, to name just a few.

For me, that is where the fun starts.

Why I Use Leonardo AI for Business Content

I don’t just use Leonardo AI to make pretty pictures, although it is very good at that. I use it because it helps me turn half-formed ideas into something visual, useful and easier to build on.

Sometimes the image is good enough to use almost as it is. Sometimes it becomes a starting point for a graphic, a blog image, a social post, a video, a product promo or a client concept. Often it simply helps me understand what I’m trying to say.

That is the part I find most useful. Leo helps me get ideas out of my head and into a format I can actually work with.

Testing Different Leonardo AI Models

One of my favourite ways to use Leonardo AI is to give the same prompt to a few different models and compare the results.

One model might understand the layout better. Another can create a stronger mood. Some completely ignore the brief, but still produce something interesting enough to make me pause. That is why I like testing. I am not always looking for the first result. I am looking for the strongest direction.

When I’m creating business content, the best result may not be the prettiest one. I need the image to support the message, suit the brand, leave space for text and be useful for the platform where I’m going to share it.

Creating Personal Brand Images With Leonardo AI

One of the most fun things I have created with Leonardo AI is a personal style image. It’s a self-portrait in a way but instead of using another standard headshot or a generic business graphic, I made something that felt like me. We’re talkin’ sunglasses, a portable CD player, headphones, Converse, a leather jacket, tea, MiniDiscs, physical media and a bit of retro charm.

That kind of image works because it tells a story quickly. Someone can glance at it and get a feel for my personality, my work and my interests before they have read a single paragraph. It is not just a graphic. It is personal brand shorthand.

Using Leonardo AI to Promote Digital Products

I have also used Leonardo AI to create product visuals for my Etsy products, including a retro music games printable.

Digital products need strong visuals because people cannot pick them up, flick through them or feel the paper. The cover image has to do a lot of work. It needs to explain the idea, catch attention and make the product feel worth clicking on.

For my Gen X 4th of July music games, I wanted a red, white and blue design with a fun summer feel, retro music details and enough visual energy to make the printable feel like a party, not just a PDF. Leonardo helped me create a look with boomboxes, cassettes, sunglasses, music notes and retro poster energy. It made the product feel more alive.

Using AI as a creative partner allowed me to execute a highly specific retro aesthetic much faster than starting from scratch.

Promoting a New Photo Scanning and Media Transfer Service

Another recent example is my photo scanning and media transfer service.

This service is about helping people preserve old photos, tapes and memories before the original media becomes damaged, lost or unplayable. So I did not want the visuals to feel cold, clinical or overly techy.

I wanted warmth. Old photos. Family archive energy. Boxes of memories. Screens showing digitised images. Something that felt trustworthy and human.

Leonardo helped me create visuals that showed the service in a way stock imagery would not have done as well. It gave me a starting point that felt much closer to the emotion behind the offer.

You can see the image I finally posted, after a few Canva tweaks of course, right here on Instagram.

Turning Glasgow Photos Into Artwork

Leonardo AI is also brilliant when I want to create something more artistic from a real place or idea.

One of my favourite experiments was creating a painterly Glasgow image featuring the Finnieston Crane. I wanted it to feel artistic, local and on brand, with the crane in that bold People Make Glasgow hot pink.

This kind of use is less about direct selling and more about visual storytelling. It lets me take something familiar and give it a new treatment.

For local content, neighborhood brands, blogs or social media, that can be really powerful. You are not just showing a location. You are giving it a mood.

Using Humour to Explain What I Do

One of my favourite Leonardo AI experiments was creating myself as a firewoman.

Why? Because sometimes, when I am teaching or explaining creative tools, I am guilty of firehosing people with information. I know a lot, I get excited, and suddenly I am spraying tips, shortcuts and ideas everywhere.

Turning that into an image made the point in a way that felt funny, honest and memorable.

It is a good example of how Leonardo AI can help explain a business idea or personality trait without writing a stiff little paragraph that sounds like it came from the corporate cupboard.

Creating Visual Concepts for Other People

I have not only used Leonardo AI for my own businesses. I have also used it to explore creative ideas for other people.

One of the most enjoyable examples was working with Chris Yeh, a New York Times bestselling author, on visual inspiration for a three book series.

On a Sunday evening, we played with Leonardo to create possible cover directions and concept images. It was not about replacing a professional book cover process. It was about exploring visual ideas quickly, seeing what worked and giving the project a stronger creative starting point.

That is one of the things I value most about Leonardo. It is excellent for early ideas, mood boards, rough concepts and those moments where you need to see something before you know what you think.

Here’s one of the three books in the series on Amazon US.

Using Leonardo AI to Promote My Podcast

I also tested Leonardo AI to create promotional images for my music-lover’s podcast, Totally On Track.

This was a slightly different kind of test because I wanted the images to feel like a retro music magazine cover with a modern podcast twist. The podcast is about celebrating music as milestones and songs that struck a chord, so I wanted the visuals to feel music led, nostalgic and full of personality.

I used the same core prompt across a few different Leonardo models and included my brand colour, #BC1823, along with a clean Poppins inspired typography direction. Where the model allowed it, I also used my own photo as a reference.

This turned into such an interesting test that I decided it deserved its own blog post. Some models followed the prompt beautifully. Others wandered off and did their own thing, which is annoying in the moment but useful when you are comparing how different AI models behave.

What I Have Learned From Using Leonardo AI

After three years of using Leonardo AI, the biggest lesson is that it works best when I treat it as part of my creative process, not the whole process.

I don’t expect every image to be perfect, every model to behave, or every bit of text to come out flawlessly. That’s not how I use it.

I use Leonardo to explore ideas, generate options, test directions and create visual starting points. Then I decide what is worth keeping, editing, rebuilding or turning into something else.

For business content, that is incredibly useful. It helps me move faster without making everything look generic.

Where Leonardo AI Fits Into My Workflow

Leonardo AI usually sits in the messy middle of my creative workflow.

It helps me start faster when I have an idea but no visual direction yet. It helps me test different moods and formats. It helps me create social media graphics, blog images, product promos, service visuals, concept art and short video starting points.

Sometimes I use the image almost exactly as it comes out. Other times, I crop it, resize it, edit it in Canva, or rebuild parts of it in another design tool. That Canva editing stage is key for me because it lets me fix text, tidy the layout, add my brand elements and turn the AI image into something I can actually use. Sometimes, Leonardo simply gives me the idea I needed.

That is the point. Leonardo does not have to do everything. It just has to get the idea moving.

Why I Keep Coming Back to Leonardo AI

I keep coming back to Leonardo AI because it is flexible, fast and genuinely useful.

It gives me access to different models, different styles and different ways of working in one place. I can create something polished, test something weird, compare model outputs, make a video, or simply explore a visual idea before I commit to it.

Even after three years, I still feel like I have only opened one cupboard in a massive creative studio. There are more models, tools and workflows still waiting for me to try.

Final Thoughts on Using Leonardo AI for Business

Leonardo AI has become one of those tools I open when I need an idea, an image, a campaign starter or a visual nudge that makes me think, right, now we have something.

It helps me market my own businesses, support other people’s projects and create images and videos that feel more personal than generic stock content.

And after three years of using it, I am still learning. That might be the best bit.

Have you tried Leonardo AI? Do you want to?

Next up: I’m pitting Leonardo’s internal AI models against each other using the exact same prompt to see who wins. Stay tuned, or bookmark this page!

About Thea Newcomb

I’m Thea, a Scotland based creative trainer, content maker and Canva Verified Expert who helps people make better, braver and more useful content without losing their minds in the process.

I’ve been training people since 2010 and have spent the last decade helping business owners, teams and creative humans get more confident with visual content, AI tools, digital products, social media graphics and online marketing.

Through Totally Content, I also help people preserve and celebrate music, memories and old media, from vinyl and CDs to tapes, photos and family archives.

Need Help Using AI Tools for Your Business?

If you want to use tools like Leonardo AI, Canva, ChatGPT and other creative platforms more confidently, I offer practical, friendly training for individuals, small businesses and teams.

I can help you create better prompts, build visual content ideas, repurpose your existing material, create social posts, develop digital products and make AI feel less overwhelming and more useful.

Want help turning your ideas into images, videos and content you can actually use? Book a training session or get in touch and let’s make your creative workflow a whole lot easier.

Book a free 20 minute clarity call or you can contact me here.