A brave new world in marketing your business
Skimming The Surface of Artificial Intelligence
Just what is artificial intelligence? And what is all this talk lately about AI being accessible, right at our fingertips?
Raise your hand if you’ve read or watched a piece of fiction that includes the words ‘AI’. What does it mean to you? What did it mean in that sci-fi movie you thought of? What even is an AI? AI has been the topic of fiction for years, but its implementation in reality is a more recent occurrence and one still very young. There are many questions surrounding this new access to AI technology, ranging from whether those who are not students of computer science can utilize AI as a resource, to fears first seen in fiction about if AI will take jobs. AI doesn’t have to be viewed as something out of a fantasy coming to steal your jobs or lives. As it currently stands, most AI technology is best used as a resource to boost your marketing and act as a second brain to help run your business. Join Jerome LeDuff Jr (MCLC), Anthony Lopez (MCPC), Brooke Adair Walters (ACC), Jen Long (ACC) and Lisa Finck (PCC) in a conversation about navigating AI such as ChatGTP from the perspective of coaches
What Is Artificial Intelligence?
At its simplest form, artificial intelligence is a field, which combines computer science and robust datasets, to enable problem-solving. It also encompasses sub-fields of machine learning and deep learning.
If that doesn’t sound “simple” to you, we aren’t judging. AI as a field is a very complex subject and most of us aren’t tech researchers. However, the IBM’s explanation here does help demystify some of the fears that we might have over AI.
When we discuss OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Bingchat, Google Bard or any of the other options currently available, are we referring to some machine that has achieved sentience like a human’s? Will these chat services transform into beings like Data from Star Trek and form personalities that can long for human experiences? Or instead of being friendly, is AI going to look more like the 2014 film Ex Machina? Will AI instead be cold, calculating dangers as seen in The Matrix or 2001: A Space Odyssey? Is AI going to take our jobs?
Let’s step away from the science fiction of pop culture for a moment.
For decades now, the words ‘artificial intelligence’ have been thrown around with ties to concepts like the Turing Test or job-stealing robots. But in this conversation about AI, the easiest way to think about this field is to consider something similar to a search engine (such as Google), if that service could remember previous information, rationalize, and learn in order to better provide results.
And that’s a tool that is undoubtedly going to become a part of this world.
Let's get Specific
Before looking at the ways that AI could be useful, let’s break it down just a little more and determine what, precisely, is being discussed here. And for that, let’s look at one of the most prominent examples of AI today: ChatGPT.
ChatGPT is one of the models created by the company OpenAI. According to OpenAI, ChatGPT is just one of their many AI models developed, and its draw is in how it is designed to interact with users in “a conversational way.” They say the dialogue format “makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.”
ChatGPT is in continued progress to this day. Currently, its latest update is ChatGPT 4. However, previous versions are free to use. They are capable of replying to prompts that are questions or instructions. The draw to ChatGPT is an ability to reason (mostly—there are still kinks to iron out!), comprehend complex ideas and abstract problems, remember past conversations, and use these abilities to continuously improve its responses.
What Can AI Offer Us As Coaches?
Likely the most direct benefit that services like ChatGPT could offer relates to marketing. Marketing your life coaching business can be challenging and tedious at times.
For example, you might brainstorm who your ideal client is and have ChatGPT open to help along the way. In areas that you might feel stuck in, you can ask questions that can start painting a clearer picture. Then, you might write out your details on an ideal client for ChatGPT, such as how much this client is able and willing to invest in sessions a year or what type of social support they have. After laying these details out, a coach might prompt ChatGPT to start on the social media part of marketing, or use it to start brainstorming a blog idea. You might tell it to make a certain number of Instagram posts that target this ideal client and from there tell it which posts are better than others, continuously narrowing down to better and better advertisements.
ChatGPT can be given word limits or lengthy prompts (even vague prompts such as “briefly explain” or “make a brief caption for this post”). It can also be told to write in different ‘voices’, such as from a coach who is a woman and whose ideal client is also a woman. Its tone can be changed and altered until you have that which you are looking for in your marketing image: something exciting, or something empowering, something transparent or something that shows integrity, etc. A coach can tell ChatGPT to use certain words or phrases in the posts it makes (like “empowered”). All in all, this is a service that can be used to kickstart tough processes like making social media advertisements while also keeping their personal touches.
An example of a prompt and response:
Prompt: make a brief advertisement for a life coaching business which is ICF aligned, aimed at women and run by women. Have an excited tone. Use the word empowering. Make it around three sentences in length.
ChatGTP Response: "EmpowerHer Life Coaching: Elevate Your Life!"
"Discover your true potential with our ICF-aligned coaching, designed exclusively for women and run by women. Let us empower you to achieve your goals and live your best life. Contact us today to start your transformation!"
ChatGPT also offered these ideas when I asked it today, that it can:
Help a coach with faster access to information.
Save coaches time.
Aid with content for websites/social media platforms/email newsletters/etc, marketing automation, and more.
Considering what we have learned about ChatGPT, these aren’t answers that everyone is guaranteed to get after asking the same prompt! ChatGPT learns and corrections to its ‘knowledge’ of topics like life coaching will have it continuously evolving in its responses.
Using AI to Stay Competitive
Here’s the bottom line. AI can absolutely be an intimidating topic. That might be because of dangers presented in sci-fi media, the corporations willing to let AI make human tasks obsolete, or simply just the mystery of coding and all things technology that many of us don’t have enough knowledge about to confidently understand.
But these services already exist. OpenAI’s ChatGPT has changed and advanced incredibly in just months. Alternatives are on their way from big-name companies. These tools are new but they’re not going to leave. As a life coach, do you want to dismiss a new tool? Is it wise to? Most of us are confused and beginners in using AI—so now is the time to learn, early, when everyone else is on the same page. Like cellphones, the internet, and other tools before it, beginning to utilize these types of technology means being ahead of the competitive curve.
AI is a tool and it’s one that could help with marketing at the very least. That’s enough to make it worth looking into.
Interested in seeing all the useful and amazing tools people have already made with AI? Take a look at FUTURPEDIA.IO. It serves as one of the largest AI tool directory where you can browse the most popular free/paid tools.
Thank you,
Jen Long (ACC), Jerome LeDuff (MCPC), Lisa Finck (PCC) Anthony Lopez (MCPC), and Brooke Adair Walters (ACC)!
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