Read time: 4 min, 13 secs

Hey there - it's Brian 👋

Don’t copy from ChatGPT.

It’s painfully obvious.

And it’s a fast way to get branded as someone who can’t think.

So today’s issue will teach you how not to get caught.

Read this if you or your team are using AI (but you still want to look professional).

Let’s make your business an outlier: 👇

For my friends: What’s going on with Brian?

I spent last weekend in Uruguay.

I’m obsessed with world heritage sites. Turns out this one was only a 1 hour boat ride from Buenos Aires.

I sat reading in the shade and still got a sunburn. Geez I need some color.

On the business side:
We hired two setters this week to handle our outbound.

We had 1,200 applicants. Boiled down to the top 5.

I loved all of them.

We picked the two for a cultural fit. The other 3 were awesome.

Want to talk to these setters for your own business? Reply “setter.”

ChatGPT makes bland tips

So today a client asked my team for negotiation tips.

We just helped them hire an internal team to build out their AI agents.

(Just an in-house team that gets AI to do specific tasks for them)

Someone on my team responded with negotiation tips:

That is obviously from ChatGPT.

If you can’t tell, I’ll give you tips in the next section on how to catch it.

If you can tell, you’ll get tips to improve your output to hide it.

AI helps us work 100x faster and deliver more clients.

So let’s get into it: 👇

How can you tell something is from AI?

Do not let AI do the thinking for you.

The result is a first pass. Then you think critically, and build the final pass.

P.S. here’s a deep dive into critical thinking 101.

Let’s use the negotiation example from my team sent this morning:

➟ Highlight strengths
➟ Frame the offer positively
➟ Be open to questions

Run these points through this lens:

1) Is the opposite stupid?

If yes, it’s too general.

Let’s use an example:

"Frame the offer positively"

What’s the opposite: Frame the offer negatively?

That makes no sense.

Which means there’s no other possibility. You can only frame the offer positively.

So there’s nothing insightful about that idea.

What would I change to make it interesting?

I’m stealing this from Chris Voss’ negotiation book, Never Split the Difference.

(SUCH a good book btw. Chris was a hostage negotiator and tells you how he negotiates for people’s lives.)

Chris Voss says: Frame your question so you get a “no” from people.

People feel safer when they say “no.” They’re more open to a conversation.

“Would you be opposed to moving forward?”

Is the opposite stupid?

The opposite of “look for a “no” is to look for a yes.

That’s not stupid at all.

I mean there’s legit a book called “Getting to Yes”

✅ Frame your question to get a “no” from people
🚫 Frame the offer positively

See the difference?

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:

Okay I’ll admit…

If my team replied: “frame your question to get a “no” from people” as a tip, I’d still be upset.

Because the response isn’t customized to the reader.

It’s still a generic tip meant for anyone.

But we cover this later on so no worries.

At least the opposite isn’t stupid.

Personalized example:
On the last interview the candidate didn’t talk much after you made the offer. This time when you make your offer try framing the question as a “no” instead of a “yes.”

That’s better.

2) Is it obvious?

How many people can you imagine would be surprised by this idea?

Let’s take another example from this morning’s ChatGPT email:

“In negotiation, you need to be open to questions.”

Can you imagine anyone would be surprised by this idea?

I can’t.

So it’s a throwaway statement.

Delete it.

Instead, here’s how you transform your generic AI ideas into something real: 👇

🚨 Do not directly copy / paste from AI and hit send! Do this instead:

AI is an amazing first draft. It’s incredible at brainstorming.

But then you need to adjust it.

Here’s how: 👇

1) Ask AI for more ideas than you need.

Want 3 ideas? Ask for 10.

Assume most points are not good.

AI brainstorms. YOU think critically.

Decide which ideas to keep vs kill (by using this next tip).

2) Kill useless points

Is the opposite stupid? Can you think of anyone surprised by the idea?

Kill all throwaway ideas.

Unless… 👇

3) Connect the useless idea to make it interesting

There’s two ways to make a useless idea, interesting.

1) Go deeper: Get more specific. Ask “why” until you find something surprising
2) Go broader: Connect it to another idea, situation, person etc

(but connect it to something that usually doesn’t go together)

ChatGPT is really good at helping you go deeper and make these connections.

Ask it to help you.

4) Add your experience

Can you add an opinion from your lived experience?

AI will never be able to replace lived experiences.

5) Customize it to the reader

Use examples relevant to the reader.

People take examples literally. If your example is from a different industry, people assume it’s not for them (so they stop paying attention).

So if your reader is in SaaS, tie your idea to a SaaS examples.

Or even better, if it’s an email or client deliverable to one person, use examples directly from their life or business.

6) So what?

You need to persuade your reader to care about your idea.

Every idea you share has a hidden “so what.”

You need to say the “so what” directly, or two things could happen:

1) People are lazy.
Most people will not assume a “so what.”

They’ll read what you say. Think it’s bland and uninteresting.

And move on without doing (or believing) what you need.

Or

2) IF they do assume a “so what…”
There could be 10+ possible “so what’s” - the reader will assume just one of them.

Most likely the “so what” your reader comes up with is boring.

Not powerful at all. Not useful.

So take control of your persuasion.

Guide your reader to the most powerful “so what.”

Don’t let people assume you can’t think

Copy / paste directly from ChatGPT and people will assume you can’t think.

Customers. Peers. Teammates. etc.

Take a second to think critically about your output.

Use those 6 tips to adjust it until it’s actually useful.

You’ll 100x your output and people will trust you.

See you next week 👋

Brian
[email protected]
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