Shortly after the rollout of ChatGPT, I came across author Jordan B. Peterson on TikTok expressing his admiration for this extraordinary tool.
Peterson, known for his book 12 Rules for Life, mentioned that he prompted ChatGPT with a request to “compose an essay that serves as a 13th rule … mirroring the prose of the King James Bible combined with the Tao Te Ching. … It generated it in approximately three seconds… and it wasn’t clear to me… that I hadn’t penned it myself.”
Such a strong assertion. If he found the capabilities of AI in literature remarkable, maybe I should pay attention too. So, I turned to ChatGPT and entered a query.
“What is the essence of life?”
The response was somewhat nebulous, yet it was well-articulated, flawlessly punctuated, and, importantly, devoid of the usual eccentricity typical of algorithms. Plus, it was impressively swift.
I posed a few additional inquiries, only to receive subpar writing, leading me to dismiss it as a mere novelty and subsequently forget about it for half a year.
Will ChatGPT handle my homework or bring about human extinction?
However, ChatGPT can’t be overlooked, right? OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, announced that they had gained one million users just five days after launch, a milestone that took Instagram 2½ months to achieve. By August 2023, ChatGPT had over 180 million users, racking up more than 1.5 billion visits every month.
Simultaneously, we are inundated with alerts claiming that artificial intelligence (AI) poses risks and should be avoided. Nonetheless, ChatGPT is fundamentally a chatbot, and unless you foresee an army of philosophical Terminators leading us to our doom, I wouldn’t be overly concerned about this AI.
Let’s set aside ethical debates for another day. My goal was to assess whether AI could enhance business operations.
What constitutes a chatbot? I’m not a tech journalist, so here’s the simplified version: It’s a software program equipped with a wealth of information from the internet that allows you to “converse” (by typing) and receive useful replies.
I initially understood ChatGPT could assist with various writing tasks: from college essays to coding or even a thank-you note for your babysitter. However, many late-night TikTok explorations revealed people employing it in increasingly innovative manners. Human creativity is far from obsolete.
For instance, “Devise a 30-day social media plan and captions for five posts daily. Include prompts that I can enter into Midjourney [another AI] to generate images for these posts.”
And, voila! You have 150 Instagram posts that would usually take a human team days to prepare.
I began to ponder—could a non-technical solo entrepreneur like myself leverage AI to expand my business coaching practice? The only way to know was to roll up my sleeves and dive into these tools for 30 days, then share my findings.
A non-tech individual’s exploration of ChatGPT in business
An MIT study indicates that utilizing ChatGPT for work-related tasks might cut processing time by up to 40%. Eager to experience that boost in productivity, I established some objectives. For 30 days, I aimed to employ AI for:
- Developing a new lead magnet for my site
- Crafting 10 Instagram stories
- Writing 10 blog entries
- Designing a full sales funnel for the Costa Rica retreat I’m organizing
My aspiration was that by harnessing ChatGPT as an initial draft creator, I could save countless hours and scale my solo operation without incurring substantial costs on freelancers.
Experiment #1: Hey ChatGPT, create a lead magnet!
A lead magnet refers to something of value that’s exchanged for a potential client’s contact details, enabling you to market to them. It’s typically a checklist, guide, e-book, quiz, or webinar. The lead magnet currently on my site was three years old and showing its age, so I began there. To start, I upgraded to ChatGPT 4, the more advanced $20/month version.
I requested it to generate a one-page checklist and provided extensive details about myself, my business, and my ideal client since I know that the quality of the response hinges on the information provided. After several frustrating tries, I finally obtained the copy I needed. I handed it over to a graphic designer on Fiverr and set it up as a downloadable pop-up on my site.
The outcomes:
How did it fare compared to its carefully crafted, albeit outdated, predecessor? Over the past 30 days, the new pop-up achieved a 0.8% conversion rate, whereas the trusted old version garnered 1.92%. Not particularly encouraging.
In ChatGPT’s defense, my website traffic likely isn’t sufficient for any statistically significant conclusions. Time will determine results.
Experiment #2: Generate 10 Instagram story captions
A tool that could save me hours each week would be invaluable. Yet, was I ready to put AI’s words on my lips? On camera? Online? As someone who values literary quality, I found this disconcerting. Nonetheless, for the sake of the experiment, I was prepared to temporarily suppress my pride.
I requested captions aimed at driving engagement and converting followers into clients. Additionally, I added “please” as a precaution against the Terminator situation. However, what it produced was nowhere near my voice, resembling more of a high-school cheerleader: “Are you ready to make a genuine impact in your field and take great pride in your business? It’s your moment to shine!” It even included a rainbow emoji for effect.
All in the name of science, I pasted this text over clips of myself engaging in random activities.
The outcomes:
Two of these Instagram stories became the most successful I’ve had in the past month. Was that due to AI’s compelling copy or the allure of me going shirtless on the beach? I’m biased, so let’s classify this rather unscientific experiment as inconclusive, yet hopeful.
Experiment #3: Craft 10 blog posts
I like to think I have a solid work ethic, but I admit I only produced three posts. Realizing results from blogging can take a while—if it happens at all—and as a perfectionist, I often spend hours refining. I was hesitant to publish work from AI under my name, so I refrained. I did note that ChatGPT assisted with the initial draft.
All these excuses simply mean I procrastinated. Still, managing to release three articles in a month exceeds my usual productivity levels.
The outcomes:
Did these three blog entries draw traffic to my website? Altogether, they accumulated… drumroll… 64 views (sigh). It was a significant setback, but silver linings exist.
Through the journey of learning to utilize ChatGPT for business, I gained a better understanding of search engine optimization (SEO). I discovered a tool called NeuronWriter, which allows you to input your article’s text and obtain an SEO score before publishing—it also provides specific recommendations on how to enhance the article for better visibility on Google Search.
Again, SEO blogging is a long-term strategy, but I can envision the effectiveness of these tools when combined with someone dedicated to consistently producing blog content.
Experiment #4: Construct a complete sales funnel
Midway through my month-long experiment, my wife and I opted to team up for a new venture. We are organizing a transformative seven-day retreat in Costa Rica for January—an endeavor so immense and exciting that I might require medication to manage my excitement. However, enthusiasm can only carry one so far, and soon it was time to draft the sales page, where I enlisted ChatGPT’s assistance.
After the mixed outcomes from my earlier experiments, I recognized that I needed to improve my use of these tools. I enrolled in a four-hour AI webinar hosted by a prominent marketing agency that seemed adept at leveraging AI. They shared targeted prompts for ChatGPT to yield precise results, including:
- How to provide it with my best writing to create a style guide ensuring future output reflects my voice
- Why it’s beneficial to request an overarching marketing strategy before seeking individual components
- How to rephrase inquiries to elicit optimal responses from ChatGPT, such as, “Act as an expert direct response copywriter conducting product and market research…”
I also discovered how to bypass the software’s word count constraints by simply instructing it to pause until I said “next” before it continued with the following segment of the strategy.
I formulated a series of prompts and dedicated an entire day to experiment. In just two hours, I had the copy for a squeeze page, a 12-page sales page, 20 social media entries, 11 marketing emails, and ad copy—all consistent with my voice! If your jaw isn’t dropping yet, consider that accomplishing this work typically requires a marketing team two weeks and a hefty budget. In contrast: two hours and $20.
Do you start to see the possibilities now?
The outcomes:
The sales copy has been forwarded to a freelance web designer, and we will review it cooperatively before launching our sales efforts. Once more, time will provide answers, but I’m thoroughly optimistic and thankful to have discovered a tool that significantly enhances my productivity, akin to that of two or three full-time team members.
Should entrepreneurs consider learning to utilize ChatGPT in business?
The choice of whether AI fits within your business strategy ultimately rests with you. If you’re engaged in manual labor, it may not apply. For programmers, however, adapting to this new skill set is crucial, given that a significant portion of current coding relies on AI assistance.
One important note: If you expect to merely delegate tasks to AI, you may be let down. A simple request such as, “Hey ChatGPT, write me a blog post” could lead to bland content. Understanding how to articulate your request to shape the output into a masterpiece is essential.
Your outcomes will be much better if you incorporate this into your repertoire and invest time in learning to harness ChatGPT effectively for business purposes.
I plan to continue putting my newfound tools to practical use. I view AI as an assistant rather than a substitute for my own contributions. Here’s my intended approach:
- Utilizing it as a rough draft and ideation tool for blog posts, sales pages, and social media content
- Employing it as my video editing assistant for producing short-form content using Vidyo.ai
- Utilizing it as a researcher for new products and business concepts
- Engaging it as my graphic design assistant for creating original images from text through Canva
I’ve also stumbled upon ChatGPT plugins that enhance its capabilities:
- Expedia, for finding optimal flight options
- Bramework, for SEO evaluations of all my webpage copy
- Zapier, for linking ChatGPT with my other applications
- Image Editor, for performing simple image edits without Photoshop
- Meme Generator, for moments when I need a break from real work
Embracing AI in your business may feel daunting, and that’s the beauty of human choice.
However, instead of being the last horse-and-buggy operator in a world dominated by Teslas, why not explore some promising new tools before dismissing them entirely?
