You finally tried it.
You opened ChatGPT or Claude, typed a question, and what came back felt generic. Bland. A fancy search bar with extra steps. If that was the moment you decided AI was overhyped, hold on. The tool wasn’t the problem. The instructions were.
Here’s what usually happens.
You type something short. “Write a marketing email.” “Give me ideas for my business.” “Help me with a proposal.” Then you get back something that could have been written for anyone. Because it was.
AI Only Knows What You Tell It
Think about a good new hire on day one. Before they touch anything, they ask questions. What are we doing here? Who is this for? What matters most? What should I stay away from? AI doesn’t ask. It runs with whatever you hand it. Give it three words and it fills the blanks with the most average answer possible. Give it the full picture and it has something real to work with. The fix isn’t a better tool. It’s a better first message.
A Quick Before and After
Say you own a landscaping company here in Arvada and you want to email past customers about spring cleanups. The vague version: “Write an email about spring cleanup services.” You’ll get filler. A forgettable subject line. Nothing anyone reads. Now watch what happens when you talk to it the way you’d brief a new employee: “I own a landscaping company in Arvada. I want to email past customers about spring cleanup before the season fills up. They’re homeowners who used us last year and liked the work. Keep it friendly, short, and not pushy. The point is to book early, because my calendar fills by mid-April.” Same tool. Completely different result.
The Four Things Every Good Ask Includes
Look at what that second version did. It gave the AI four things:
- Who you are (a landscaper in Arvada)
- Who it’s for (past customers who liked your work)
- What you want (spring cleanups booked early)
- What to avoid (pushy, long, generic)
That’s the whole trick. Before you hit enter, give it those four things. Copy that list, keep it by your desk, and run every request through it.
You Don’t Have to Get It Right the First Time
You might be thinking that’s a lot of setup for one email. It isn’t. Write those four things once and reuse them. And you don’t need the perfect message up front anyway. Start rough. Read what comes back. Then steer. “Make it shorter.” “Too formal, loosen it up.” “Add a line about our referral discount.” That back and forth is where the good stuff shows up. You’re not writing a search query. You’re talking to something that remembers what you just said.
Try One Thing
Pick something you already need to write this week. An email, a post, a note to a client. Don’t ask for it in five words. Give it the four things: who you are, who it’s for, what you want, what to avoid. Then talk to it like a person and refine from there. The people getting real value out of AI aren’t typing better keywords. They’re giving better context.
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