What a room full of people taught their AI on Thursday
Hi there. On Thursday I ran an AI Over 50 live session, Personalize Your AI So It Finally Gets You. I had a lot of fun. Everyone built their own About Me file and pasted it into their AI's settings, so every future chat starts already knowing them.
Here's the recap I wrote up, in case you missed it live
Recap of my live lightning lesson
A few things that stood out to me:
The before and after really shows the difference. I asked the same question, "How can I use AI to save time this week?", first cold, then with a little personal context added. The generic answer turned into a specific one.
I walked everyone through building their file live and pasting it into ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. People liked that the file was theirs to download and reuse in any tool.
A standout moment was Suzy's, right after she pasted her file in and asked a question: "And it came back and said, you have all these different things you're trying to do. You should start making individual chats…one for my charity work, one for my job search, one for my fractional role and then build up context within those." It was a clear example of the shift from one off chats to a setup that remembers you.
Questions from the room
"Can I use my file in other tools, like Perplexity?"
Yes, that's the whole point of a portable foundation. Download your file and it's yours to reuse. In Perplexity it goes under Settings > Personalization > Custom instructions, or attach it to a single chat for a one off. The same file works across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, and whatever comes next.
"As a senior leader, how do I show my AI skills in an interview, not just talk about them?"
The strongest answer is something you built. Stop talking strategy and become a builder. Pick one real project, even a personal one, and make something. Then you can say, "Here's what I built, here's what's working, here's what I'd improve." It's low risk and mostly free. A $20 plan goes a long way. Getting your hands dirty is the proof.
"Is it safe to tell AI that much about me?"
You're in control. Skip anything truly confidential (no SSNs, financials or sensitive personal details), and know you can view, edit or delete what it stores anytime and start a fresh chat whenever you like. Within those limits, the more context it has, the more useful it gets. Be the skeptic and still use it.
Free Lesson: How to Talk to AI
Join me in my next free, hands on session to learn how to effectively “talk” to AI. You’ll lead AI through a conversation, not a one line query. You’ll see how using voice with AI can speed up and add details to your work. You’ll learn how to effectively challenge answers you get, to improve your results.
Sign up even if you can’t make the day & time, and you’ll automatically get the recording emailed to you to watch anytime. July 23 at 12 noon EDT.
My TikTok on how AI will never say “I don’t know”
@aiover50 #creatorsearchinsights AI sounds just as sure when it's guessing as when it's right. Here's the one habit I never skip. #over50 #learnai ... See more
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