ChatGPT will change your life (with copy paste examples)

You've heard of it, you've been tempted to try it, but something's stopping you. Maybe you've asked it a question or two, maybe you're even using it on a regular basis. But you have not yet integrated it into your daily personal life and career. That, my friend, is a mistake. Let me explain.

tl;dr If you want to skip to the juicy copy paste examples, they start about mid-way down the page.

What in the Sam Hill is ChatGPT?

Imagine I wanted to teach a calculator to talk. I give it a complex decision making tree to follow to build sentences, and then I feed it existing sentences to munch on and regurgitate (yes, this analogy will only get juicier).

My favourite example if you want to see the raw power of AI... is training a computer to speak like Homer Simpson (click here for the full story).

Let's try to recreate a super simple example to show how it works. Here are the sentences we're going to use to train our own pretend AI to answer questions about cheese (I really like cheese):

"Cheese is absolutely delicious, melted or chilled, summer or winter, it's just the best."

"One should always think about eating cheese with an accompaniment like wine, jam or in some cases even honey."

"You can melt cheese into a sauce and have it with pasta for a stringy, cheesy delight."

Yes, these are all my own hand written examples and 100% true, don't judge me...

Now we've fed our AI some sentences (yes this is a ridiculously simple example, don't give me any grief AI nerds) let's ask it a question.

"Hey, CheeseGPT, I'm looking for a summertime dish. Should I melt cheese into my pasta sauce with some wine?" (White wine obviously, I'm not a madman)

The AI's job is to break up your sentence into 'tokens' and look around in its database of sentences for matching chunks, then predict the best combination of follow-up chunks from the X possible next things that could theoretically come after what you said.

So CheeseGPT is going to recognise summer, melt, sauce and wine and pump out its best guess at what comes next:

"You can melt cheese into a sauce, with an accompaniment like wine, absolutely delicious, summer or winter."

You might be left thinking OOOH snap the human race is doomed, the machines have gained consciousness. But it's just a straight mashup of existing language the machine has been fed and barfed up again.

Phew, so it's just a glorified calculator, not Skynet with the nuclear launch codes.

Sort of... hard to say. My dumber than dumbed down example above is literally billions of times simpler than what a hardcore AI like ChatGPT can do (we're on GPT4 at the time of writing, which contains 140 billion lines of language data). So what can a machine achieve with that much data?

At the level of GPT4, you start to get answers that will never resemble one another, and are pretty much indistinguishable from human speech. If the machine is working on 'the probability of what will come next', at 140 billion lines of data it's working at a 99.9999999% (ref: figure pulled from my #%$) probability that what it says is as good as what a real human would say.

It begs the question, is the language processing part of our brains similarly just calculating what the next thing we say or think should be? Food for thought (excuse the paradoxical irony... and the wordplay if you're still thinking about cheese).

This has been one heck of a long intro, get to the good stuff

Ok, ok, you win. Excuse me for thinking you might like to be educated about this life-changing technology. I'm only a teacher for goodness' sake.

How ChatGPT will practically change your life

There's no easy way to get started and I'm not quite sure how to even go about writing this. ChatGPT is akin to the invention of the internet itself. The questions "What can you do with it?" and "What can it do for me?" give way to an unknowable forest full of possible paths to follow, each with their own sort of collection of answers.

The only way I can think of doing it, is to give you some examples based on my own usage of ChatGPT as a language teacher. I hope one or more of these inspire you to start using ChatGPT to improve your life.

First, no matter who you are, you need prompting

Prompting is a way to structure your commands and questions given to ChatGPT to make sure it gives you the best result possible. Remember, it's only a calculator. It is absolutely capable of lying or completely making up an answer, if it's not given the right parameters to work with. Consider the following prompt:

"Hey ChatGPT, can you tell me how to make loads of money?"

All you're going to get is a stock answer about the top 5 ways you can make money in the world in general, and ChatGPT telling you that it's only an AI and it's not capable of helping you make money. You're going to leave thinking: "This AI nonsense certainly doesn't live up to the hype." Oh woe is you dear reader, it's entirely your fault that you feel this way! Consider my prompt in comparison:

"Hey ChatGPT. I'm an experienced language teacher. In my career I've taught professional English classes to business people in France who want to speak better English in their jobs. I can design training programmes and I'm capable of making my own flyers. I charge 45 euros per hour per person of teaching I give. I do mostly individual classes because most clients don't want to be in a group, even though being in a group of 3 to 6 learners is actually beneficial to the learning process. My unique selling point is that my classes integrate professional training techniques with holistic coaching techniques to provide fast, long-term learning thanks to a perfect balance of emotional and technical teaching. I can teach 5 hours a day maximum, Monday to Friday, with a possibility of one evening class a week. My target is to consistently earn at least 3600 euros a month. Please provide ten brief suggestions on the best ways to achieve this, given the information I have provided you. If you have not understood something, or you feel like you need more information to provide an accurate response, please ask me follow up questions before providing your final response."

Methinks we have a better response there, does one not?

What's happening there is ChatGPT is trying (possibly struggling) to use all the information I provided as statistics before it chooses its response. Even though my question is crazy specific, probably worded in a way no one has expressed on the internet before, ChatGPT can still break it up into manageable chunks and try to piece together the best combination of chunks that would constitute a response.

Creating a masterful prompt is actually very simple. Forget what you've been used to all these years with Google, asking it questions but only expecting a best guess response. ChatGPT can literally understand every single thing you say as if it were human. So it should be treated as such.

Imagine you won a prize draw with a voucher for one-hour of business consulting with Richard Branson or insert your favourite business idol here. Would you walk in and say 'Hey Ricky, how do I get rich like you?' You're not giving any context or backstory.

Mr. Branson, like ChatGPT, can give you a better answer if you explain who you are, what you're capable of, what your limits are, what you're currently charging, how many hours you can work, what you're good at (and even not good at). The more detail you give, the more the expert in front of you can give you a relevant answer. Even though you know it's just a magic calculator, you must speak to ChatGPT at all times like it's a real person to get the answers you want.

If at first you don't succeed, ask ask again

In almost every case, even with the best prompting in the world, you'll never get the answer you're really looking for on the first go. One thing ChatGPT does very well is consider the entire conversation in its statistical analysis before answering your latest question.

So in my example above, I've spotted a couple of paths I'd really like to follow. Now I'm going to construct a masterful prompt to hone ChatGPT in on those options to squeeze as much as I can out of it. In particular, I'm interested in points 2 and 9 for my own business:

2. Market your services effectively: You mentioned that you can design flyers, but you may also want to explore other marketing strategies such as social media, networking events, and partnerships with local businesses.

9. Develop a referral program: You could incentivize your existing clients to refer new clients to you by offering discounts or other rewards.

Let's construct a prompt for each one. We should work one by one, as one limitation of ChatGPT (especially the 3.5 model which is the free model at the time of writing) is that it has difficulty handling multiple tasks at once. Even if GPT4 can technically handle multiple tasks simultaneously, the best answers are always from specific questions.

"Ok ChatGPT, I want to hone in on points 2 and 9 for my business and forget about the other points for now. Let's start by only speaking about point 2."

Don't be tempted to send yet. Another AI weakness is a ridiculous over-eagerness to provide you with a comprehensive answer. Unless specifically trained to do so, ChatGPT will never just answer "Ok, where would you like to start?" It will automatically try to give you a conversation-ending answer, especially if the prompt is too short and simple like my one above. So let's develop it further.

"Ok ChatGPT, I want to hone in on points 2 and 9 for my business and forget about the other points for now. Let's start by only speaking about point 2. You mentioned three things, social media, partnerships and networking events. Let's number these 2.a 2.b. etc. I'd like you to start by expanding that list of three things to 10 things I can do to market my services more effectively. Make sure the ten suggestions fit the information I gave you in my first prompt with the details about my current business."

The 2.a 2.b thing is a nifty trick that will help later refer back to things. Instead of saying, "Remember what you said about blah blah point..." you can just say, "Remember point 2.b..." I'm trying to get ChatGPT to list me out a bunch of its top suggestions so I can pick the paths I feel are most relevant to me.

I'm also trying to keep ChatGPT on point by guilt tripping it in advance, talking about how it better not forget the details I gave it at the beginning. This is because AI tends to pump out whatever response that will answer the latest question the best, sometimes distancing itself more and more from previous answers the further away it gets chronologically. Just imagine ChatGPT has a human-like limited memory, such that the further we get from the first prompt the fuzzier the details from that prompt become in ChatGPT's calculations.

Now, you have to admit, we've gone from a pathetic copy paste response about the top 5 things any schmuck can do to make more money, to some pretty mind-blowingly good advice. You can argue that you could find a list like this on some teaching blog somewhere, but we've only touched the tip of the iceberg people. We've also reached, you'll admit, a level of coherence and relevancy that would equal if not better a real human confidant... only this is a free online calculator, not a paid consultant. Think about that for a minute (we're all doomed).

Doomed or not, I'm compelled to go further down the rabbit hole.

I'm conscious at this point that some of you might be very interested in potentially any or all of the points in ChatGPT's last answer. I know which ones I want to focus on for me, but let me give you an example of how you could carry on digging with each one, in case you want to try it for yourself!

Feel free to copy paste my initial prompts yourself to 'prime' your AI conversation. Once primed, you can even copy and paste entire points from below, including the response I've been given and my suggested prompt. ChatGPT will understand just fine.

Copy paste examples

2.a. Create a website: A website can help establish your online presence and provide a platform to showcase your expertise and services. Make sure to include testimonials, photos, and pricing information.

Prompt: "I need help making my own website. I'd like us to go through the steps required to create one. Here are the steps I'd like to work through with you:

1. Help me choose a website building tool. My experience in building websites is zero, and I'm not that good with computers. I want a simple website where I can market my services and have people fill in a contact form if they want to have lessons with me. Give me 5 tools I can research, then I'll ask you to guide me step by step in using that tool to build what I want.
2. Help me find stock images for my website. Recommend a good stock image website that provides images of teaching situations for free. (NB: When GPT4 is fully mature later this year, it will be able to analyse images and give you suggestions on the best ones for your objective)
3. Help me write the website texts. I'll give you a list of text sections of my websites and what I'd like to write, in what tone and with what kind of language. You'll give me attractive texts that will convince clients to fill in my contact form or call me to book a lesson.

Let's start with point 1 above."

2.b. Leverage social media: In addition to creating a website, you could also use social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter to connect with potential clients and share valuable content related to language learning and professional development.

Prompt: "I want to use LinkedIn to create a social media plan to connect with potential clients. I'm not very good at recording videos, but I'm a good writer and I know how to use Microsoft Paint to paste funny text over stock images to use in my posts. I'd like you to help me make a social media plan based on my strengths. Your plan should include:

1. How often should I post, and at what times of the day.
2. Any free tools I can use to programme my posts to go out automatically at the times from point 1.
3. Five different examples of types of post I should make, based on the information I gave you in my first prompt about my teaching strengths and target clients.
4. One example post for each type you mention in point 3.

Before we start, please ask me any questions that will help you get the information you need to provide the most accurate social media plan based on the requirements above."

2.c. Attend networking events: Attend local networking events and business conferences where you can meet potential clients and establish relationships with other professionals in your industry.

Prompt: "I live in Montignac, France. I can easily reach places like Bordeaux, Toulouse, Périgueux, Brive and Limoges. In theory I can also reach Paris, but it's more difficult. Can you help me prepare a few things for these:

1. What networking events and business conferences do you have in your database that are around the areas I mentioned?
2. I need a business card. What websites provide easy business card creation and cheap printing?
3. I need a quick landing page that I can put the web address to on my business card. What website builder will give me the fastest and easiest creation? Consider that I'm an internet beginner with no website building experience.
4. Can you recommend inexpensive but well rated hotels in the area of the events you recommend in point 1?"

2.d. Offer free consultations: Offering free consultations can help potential clients understand your teaching style and approach, and can help you build trust and rapport with them.

Prompt: "This is a great idea, but I need to have a very clear and solid sales funnel to go with it, as many of the free consultations will not lead to paying customers. I need to make a 'free consultation' sales funnel. Can you help me with that? I'd like to discuss the following points one by one:

1. To get started, how should I best advertise these free consultations? I'm worried prospects will be wary of the 'no such thing as a free lunch' effect. I'd like help choosing the best channel to diffuse this message, and help writing the message in a way that reassures prospects that they won't be tricked into paying.
2. Next, what tool can I use to keep track of the different interactions I have with each prospect, that will permit me to evaluate the worth of continuing to prospect each individual based on their reactions to the different steps in my funnel.
3. Finally, what steps would you recommend I plan for each prospect? From the point of first engagement to the point of abandoning the prospect.

Let's start with point 1."

2.e. Develop a referral program: Encourage your existing clients to refer their friends and colleagues to you by offering them incentives such as discounts or free classes.

Prompt: "This is a great idea. I need a bit of help setting this up. Can you give me some advice on the following points, one by one:

1. I want the referrals to be extremely easy to make. I'm worried if the referral method is too complicated, neither the existing client nor the new prospect will bother following it up. Can you recommend a tool and plan that I can use to reduce the friction in the referral process to an absolute minimum?
2. I'm not a very good financial planner. Based on my original answer about working for 45 euros an hour doing a maximum of 25 hours a week with a target of 3600 euros a month revenue, what kind of discounts or amount of free classes would you recommend? How many freebies should I limit myself to?
3. What kind of sales strategies for converting freebies into paying customers are known as the most humane and caring? I don't want to use any strategies that are psychological tricks or traps.

Let's start with point 1."

2.f. Publish a blog or newsletter: You could create a blog or newsletter that provides valuable information about language learning and professional development. This can help establish you as an authority in your field and attract potential clients to your services.

Prompt: "Ok smart guy, let's make some blog articles together that make me sound like an authority. Remember that I'm targetting adult professional clients, possibly high level corporate clients. I'd like us to write several articles together that I can publish to a blog. Let's attack this in several stages:

1. First, I don't know how to make a blog. I've heard of Wordpress, is this the best option? What's the best and cheapest way to host a blog site? I'd like you to guide me step by step through setting up a blog based on your advice.
2. Second, suggest 5 titles of articles that you think would be enough of a foundation to make me sound like an authority in my field.
3. Finally, you'll help me write these 5 articles paragraph by paragraph. I'll give you feedback on each paragraph so you can rewrite it to sound more in line with my beliefs and writing style.

We should do these points one by one. Let's start with point 1."

2.g. Participate in online forums: Participate in online forums or discussion groups related to language learning or professional development, and share your expertise and insights.

Prompt: "Please give me advice on the following points so I can best achieve what you're suggesting:

1. What online forums or discussion groups are you aware of that fit my target market of professionals who in theory want to speak better English?
2. Please give me 10 examples of expertise or insights I can give in the groups you suggested in point 1, with an explanation of why each example is pertinent to my objective of securing more paying clients
3. Please give me a sales plan to convert those who respond to my posts of expertise and insights into paying customers. I need to know what tools are best to keep track of these things, that use integration with social media to track posts and comments as well as sales steps.

Let's start with point 1."

2.h. Create informative videos: You could create informative videos on language learning tips or professional development strategies, and share them on social media platforms or your website.

Prompt: "I really like recording videos and sharing them on social media, so this advice is definitely for me. I need help with a few questions I have to be able to achieve my objective:

1. What's the easiest and cheapest video creation and editing software out there? I'm working on a Macbook running MacOS. I also have an iPhone 11 Pro.
2. Please suggest five things I should say or do in my videos to attract the target audience I told you about, professional adults who want to improve their English.
3. How should I publish these videos in a way that I can convert viewers into paying customers? Please suggest publishing platforms and tools that I can use to track views, comments and convert these into prospects.

Let's work on point 1 to get started and save the other points for later."

If you choose even just one of these points to dive headfirst into the AI wonderland, I'd eat my hat if you were disappointed.

Don't forget, ChatGPT isn't a one-off experience. Your conversation will be saved, and you can come back to it weeks later to update your AI advisor on how your efforts are going.

Yes, I just said that. And this is no joke. ChatGPT may only care as far as a machine can care about your progress, but it is programmed to give you encouragement and compliments. Like that film with Joaquim Pheonix and Scarlett Johansson, you're going to have a hard time not falling in love with this thing.

That's not all. ChatGPT isn't just an advice and planning machine, it's also a master debugger. Computer programmers all over the world are using it right now to locate bugs in their creations. You too can use it to locate the weaknesses in what you're doing by reporting back to ChatGPT on the results of your exploits. I know, the awesomeness is getting to be overwhelming, but hang in there dear reader. Take this example following on from what we've done above:

"Hey ChatGPT. I took your advice on point 2.b. about creating a social media campaign. The posts we made together, about free consultation sessions, are getting a fair number of views, and several people are even commenting, but so far I've had no sales. Below you'll find three examples of comments I've received to help you in your response. Please analyse the language used by these prospects to identify any potential indicators of friction points in my campaign. Can you suggest 5 things that I could be doing better to achieve my objective of converting followers into sales?

- Great post Richard. I'm super busy at the moment but I'm looking forward to trying this out.

- Very interesting, I'll keep this in mind! My English sucks, I hope I'll not be too embarassed ??

- Sounds good! Sign me up."

ChatGPT is a master conversationalist. It can make all sorts of extrapolations from language examples. It's been trained on lots of conversational data from the internet, so social media comments are like its bread and butter.

What I'm showing you is a game-changer. Before, you'd buy the "Social media masterclass" course for 200 euros, deploy what you've learned and watch it drop like a lead balloon, with no one to check on you and help you adapt and tweak your approach to get better engagement.

ChatGPT costs exactly zero euros (at the time of writing) to give you a personalised master class, and it can give you UNLIMITED feedback and tweaking. You can keep feeding it every single comment you get and have it slowly work out exactly what you need to say to convert your LinkedIn posts into sales. You literally cannot fail.

So what are you waiting for?

You've literally just wasted 20 minutes of ChatGPT time reading this article. Get the heck out of here and start your AI adventure!! https://chat.openai.com/

ChatGPT was (surprisingly) not used at all in writing this article! But I maybe bloody well should have...