I stopped "prompting" and started talking
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For the past few months, I've been co-writing Jay Abraham's newsletter alongside Michael Simmons. Jay's one of the most influential business strategists alive. Almost everyday, I've been reading his transcripts, studying his case studies, building systems around his thinking. Somewhere in there, something shifted. The frameworks stopped being content I was editing... They became how I see things. I stopped asking "how do I find more clients?" and started asking "who already has my ideal clients gathered in one place?" Two deals in two weeks from that reframe. A few conversations with coaches in my network turned into 6-12 new clients starting January. They include my service in their coaching packages. They make more money. I deliver. Their clients get more value. Zero cold outreach. Win-Win-Win. Another look at past clients (people who'd paid me but never fully implemented) turned into four immediate yeses for a $500 reactivation sprint (great podcast on this btw from Dan Kennedy). None of this was new information. The coaches were already in my network. The past clients were already in my database and I'd scrolled past both a dozen times and seen nothing. Most people treat AI the same way I was treating my network.
But that first answer? Easy. It's safe. The first answer is AI being careful. Hedging its bets. It assumes you want the obvious thing or "best practice". The interesting part starts when you push back. Here's an actual exchange from last week. I was working on positioning for a new offer: Me: Here's my draft positioning. What's wrong with it? Claude: [Gave feedback] Me: You're being too polite. What would a skeptical buyer say about this? Claude: [Gave harder feedback] Me: If you were building this from scratch knowing what you just told me, what would you do differently? Claude: [Gave a better version] Me: What's the strongest argument against that version? Claude: [Found the flaw] Me: How do we address that flaw without losing what works? Five rounds. Each one sharper. Here's a prompt that builds this in from the start: I'm going to share what I'm working on. I don't want you to just complete the task. I want you to help me think through it. After your first response, I'm going to push back with things like:
Your job is to actually engage with those challenges. Don't be defensive. Don't be polite. Help me find the flaws so we can fix them. Here's what I'm working on: Stop accepting the first answer. The fifth one is usually what you end up using anyway. Tomorrow: The specific question that changed how I use AI. Stay Curious, Check out my SubStack to find the... |
