ChatGPT For Beginners: A Creators Guide To Getting Started

If you are an entrepreneur or creator and want to learn how to use ChatGPT to grow your business you've come to the right place. In this blog post I will share with you beginner tips for getting started with ChatGPT, helping you create better prompts, and unlock the full potential of ChatGPT in your business.

I've been using ChatGPT every day to build better systems & grow my business, as well as coaching CEO's and their teams on how they can integrate AI into their business as well. So everything I am sharing is coming from over 1000's of hours of hands on experience & knowledge.

If you implement the ChatGPT Tips & Tricks I'm about to share with you, you'll future proof your business by becoming a more powerful creator.

Note: I use the ChatGPT Plus version because paying $20/month is peanuts compared to the massive upside of having a more powerful model to create with. The ability to create images and use audio is a great benefit.

Welcome to the Era of Hyper Productivity

Now is the time for growth-oriented entrepreneurs & leaders to take charge of their businesses and create more with less, faster. By leveraging tools and technology like ChatGPT & artificial intelligence, we can achieve optimal levels of productivity by streamlining processes and maximizing efficiency.

But hyper productivity isn't just about mastering ChatGPT. It's also about developing new ways of thinking and adapting to the ever-changing landscape of business. The old way of getting things done are being disrupted, and we are here to lead the way forward.

The opportunity to dominate your industry has never been greater. By following these keys to getting started with ChatGPT, you can create instant growth that'll save you time, make you money, and do more of what you want better.

Prompt Engineering Framework For Creating Good ChatGPT Prompts

Prompt engineering is just a fancy way of saying "designing the prompts you put into ChatGPT". Most beginners type in a sentence or two and get a generic output and say "ChatGPT doesn't work." The key is understanding how to design good prompts, and once you've built that foundation you are good forever.

I have a simple 4 step framework I use for creating good ChatGPT prompts:

1. Context - "What is it you are talking about"
2. Task Definition - "This is what I want you to do"
3. Specificity - "Being detail oriented and specific"
4. Iteration - "Your first prompt is the start, not the end result"

Let's break down each of these prompt engineering components.

Give Your ChatGPT Prompts Context

Context is king when using ChatGPT, and is the key to getting an accurate response.

I encourage you tell tell ChatGPT who you are, your brand voice, and your ideal client (to name a few). This will give it the comprehensive background information to better understand your world. Without this ChatGPT is likely to give you generic or inconsistent results, because you haven't told it anything about you or the project you are working on.

Here's an example from my ChatGPT Best Practices Document: I am a world class personal growth & high performance coach. I help successful entrepreneurs and business leaders optimize their time, energy & well being to grow their business & life together. From creating better habits, routines, mindsets, ways of being - that way they can be their best, do what they love, and show up powerfully. Essentially helping people succeed in both business & life for the long haul, internally and externally. My brand voice is friendly, engaging, relatable, witty, brand safe, knowledgeable, entertaining, candid, tech savvy, positive vibes, inspiring, always down for a good time.

Starting with this context allows ChatGPT to immediately know who I am, what I do, and who I help, which improves the quality of my outputs.?

Once you have your Best Practices about yourself created, click in the profile settings of your ChatGPT account and select "Customize GPT" and then paste your version in the Custom Instructions window. That way ChatGPT has this context about you forever, which will create more powerful & specific results

Task Definition

Define the task you want ChatGPT to achieve and make it specific and clear. This sounds obvious but so many people get frustrated with poor outputs when the reality is they weren't clear on what they wanted ChatGPT to produce for them.

They either ask ChatGPT to do too many things at once (write me a 200 page book about Marketing) or don't ask it to do anything specifically.

One way you can guarantee success is by explicitly typing [instructions] into your ChatGPT prompt. That way it's easier to read.

Here's an example ChatGPT Prompt:

on my website landing page I want to share some bullet points for the types of Freedom someone can create in their life. For example, here's what I have so far: Freedom of Time Creative Freedom Financial Freedom Freedom FROM things that don't serve you. [instructions] Help me create 20 more freedoms. In bullet points. One supporting sentence after each.

??ChatGPT Tip: To see massive business growth you'll want to focus on solving the diamonds in your business (aka the biggest problems). Write down the 3-5 biggest problems your business currently faces, and then one by one use ChatGPT to see how you can create a solution faster. This guarantees you are creating more output in less time. Many beginners spend too much time in working on things with ChatGPT that don't move the needle.

Be Specific In Your ChatGPT Prompt

The more detail oriented you are in your prompt engineering the better your output. Be clear and precise, and take time to define what you want. This can include giving ChatGPT past writing or resources for context (just copy and paste it in).

Because where most beginners fail is they'll type in a prompt like "write me a marketing strategy." ChatGPT then spits out a generic marketing strategy.

A more specific prompt would be: "I run a coaching business for entrepreneurs and high performers where we help them level up their Self Development and use of AI to create an unfair advantage. Write me a content strategy for how I can create short form video content on Instagram and YouTube. I only want to be publishing three times a week. Use world class best practices, and make it easy to read."

??ChatGPT Tip: As a best practice, if you are typing in only one sentence to start your prompt you likely aren't giving the level of specificity and detail that'll produce the result you want. If you want world class results, you'll give ChatGPT world class specificity.

Iteration Is Your Friend

It is important to understand in prompt engineering that this is a multi-step process. Your first ChatGPT prompt is the start of the conversation, not the end.

When you come from this approach, you can continually build on and refine the outputs to create a better version of what you are looking for. You also get less frustrated because your expectations are in check and you are frequently giving ChatGPT feedback.

A good example of this is when you build out a brand strategy. I would start by asking ChatGPT for "what are the components to writing a world class brand strategy?"

It may respond with something like: 1. Product/service 2. Unique selling proposition 3. Target audience 4. Personality 5. Brand positioning 6. Pain points

Once it gave me that information, I would then go one section at a time, give it more context & thoughts, and build out the strategy for that section. Doing so would effectively generate results that are specific to just that bullet point. Work your way through each one of them and at the end you'll have a world class brand strategy.

??ChatGPT Tip: The analogy I like to give is to "Peel Back The Onion." What this means is your first prompt is just the start of the process for getting the end result you are looking for (not the absolute, end all be all). Once you've created the first output you build on that to get to the next level. You continue iterating, getting more specific by drilling down, until you eventually get what you are looking for. This is the same way that you peel back the layers of an onion. We also call this "Prompt Chaining" (meaning, building off the prompts above it).

3 ChatGPT Mindset Tips For Beginners

Now that we've established your foundation for how you will create good ChatGPT prompts, now it is time to dive into the mindset side of things (aka how you think about using ChatGPT). These are mantras or phrases that will help you unlock the full potential of ChatGPT, while opening up new possibility for you as well.

1. Talk to ChatGPT like it's an employee
2. Take what's in your head and get it out of your head
3. What are you not asking ChatGPT to do?

Lets break these ChatGPT Mindset Tips down.

Talk to ChatGPT like it's an employee

Where most beginners fail at using ChatGPT is in their framing of it. They treat ChatGPT like it is the main creator, when in reality it is best leveraged as a Sidekick or Creative Assistant. That's why I encourage you to "Talk To ChatGPT Like It's An Employee".

Think of it this way, if a new employee was working with you on a project, how would your interaction be?

You would give clear, specific instructions. You would give background and detail on the project. You wouldn't ask them to do too much at once so you don't overwhelm them. If you didn't like their output or response, you wouldn't say "You are stupid" and give up, instead you would iterate and clarify to get aligned.

Following this simple principle immediately elevates you over 99% of people using ChatGPT who are relying on it to do all the work.

You are the driver and creator of this, ChatGPT is secondary. ChatGPT is there to support you based on what you give it, not the other way around.

Take What's In Your Head And Get It Out Of Your Head

One of the biggest areas where beginners struggle with ChatGPT prompt engineering is they say, "I don't know what to write". Whenever you feel this I encourage you to "take what's in your head and write it into ChatGPT."

Since we are viewing ChatGPT as a creative assistant, and it's world class in how it operates, it can take half baked ideas and help you build upon them. This is where the foundational principal above (Iteration + Peel Back The Onion) is key.

Often times when you are stuck what helps is getting some ideas or input from someone else. ChatGPT is that someone else.

Based on how it responds, you may have several lightbulb moments where you say, "I never thought of it this way" or "Wow, this really unlocked the essence of what I was trying to say."

When you follow the ChatGPT best practices I've outline in this post, and you also write out a stream of consciousness into your ChatGPT prompt, now you have something to build with. Game On!

??ChatGPT Tip: I've found that combining many of these best practices is where the real gold is at. For example, I'll have an idea in my head of what I want to create, so I'll just start typing into ChatGPT. I share as much detail and nuanced thought as I can, even if I can't clearly articulate where I want it to go. This might result in several paragraphs that are a stream of consciousness. The good news in this is you are helping ChatGPT understand what you want to create. Once that's in there you can then get more specific on what your Task Definition is. This will help you create immediate clarity.

What Are You Not Asking ChatGPT To Do?

The only limit to what you create using ChatGPT is your own creativity. Because of this there is literally infinite possibilities. Once you understand this, then you begin to ask yourself "How do I tap into the full power of ChatGPT and use it to grow my business?"

The answer is to ask yourself this question: "What am I not asking ChatGPT to do?"

In the beginning of your ChatGPT journey, you don't know what you don't know. It is often through using it, learning, failing, iterating, refining, and shipping the work that you become better. As you start to create new use cases for growing your business or life by leveraging ChatGPT, then you start to open up new doors of possibility.

I want to help accelerate the speed of your growth with ChatGPT by opening your eyes to what you ARE NOT asking it.

For example, did you know you could ask ChatGPT...

• How to cook the perfect grilled cheese
• Create a personal growth coaching program as if you were Jesus
• Write a song based on your love of basketball and being an entrepreneur.
• How to fix the lever of your toilet
• Execute Alex Hormozi's lead generation strategy
• Create you an image of a piece of bacon riding a flying sheep in a tropical scene
• Create a podcast script template you use to write every episode
• Write a Storybrand for your new company based on Donald Miller's book

The possibilities are endless. So by asking yourself "What am I not asking ChatGPT to do?" you start to see where there is more power accessible for you.

ChatGPT For Beginners Wrap Up

Congratulations on taking the first step towards future proofing your business by learning how to create better prompts with ChatGPT.

You now have a prompt engineering framework you can duplicate, the right framing for how to think about ChatGPT, and a vision of what's possible when you open your mind.

It takes only 20 hours to become more proficient at something than 95% of the world. Your competition is going to be making every excuse for why they "don't have enough time" or "I don't know what I am doing" as it relates to integrating ChatGPT and artificial intelligence in their business.

That should have alarm bells going off in your head. This is your opportunity to get ahead, and start creating more with less, faster! Icebergs are slowing moving to turn around so by the time they get around to learning & executing ChatGPT in their business, you'll already be several years ahead.

As you continue on your AI journey, there will be more to learn and new challenges to overcome. As successful entrepreneurs and business owners, we understand the value of investing in ourselves and our education. We know that growth and progress are essential to achieving our dreams & vision.

That's why I invite you to take the next step with us. Join our Creating Unlimited program and work with us to elevate your business to the next level. We will be your partners in growth, providing you with personalized guidance and support every step of the way. Together, we can achieve greatness!