Your custom AI makes you a better speaker (or consultant)

Your pre-trained AI isn’t just a resource for you: It’s a resource for your clients. Here’s an example of how I use the “Alexerizer,” the custom AI that I talked about recently on HBR’s Women at Work podcast. While the Alexerizer primarily exists to help me brainstorm or edit articles and posts, it can help me as a speaker and consultant, too.

Yesterday I had a prep call for a presentation I’m giving next month, which will be followed by a moderated fireside chat. In the Before A.I. times, I had two options in a situation like this: Spend an hour assembling background links and a list of suggested questions (because they’re different for every audience), or leave it to the even organizer and hope the questions are relevant and answerable.

Instead, I offered to provide the links and questions—and I was transparent that I’d be doing that work with the help of AI trained on my own content. (That’s why it makes sense for me to do that prep work, instead of the client: I’ve already got the AI trained on my material.)

It took all of ten minutes to get something email-ready, working from the Alexerizer in ChatGPT. While I usually use my Claude-based Alexerizer for writing tasks, the ChatGPT version is handy when I need to incorporate web search…as with this example, which needed to be able to search my website.

Here’s the prompt I used:

I’m giving a talk to the XXXXX dept and it will include a “fireside conversation” after I do my talk. I’m talking about Culture & Collaboration in the Hybrid Workplace, covering the themes of how the 40-hour week no longer reflects the way we work, why we need to move to punctuated collaboration and how wellbeing depends on aligning the person, role and working arrangements.

I told xxxxxxxxxx, the facilitator, that I’d send her a list of possible questions she could ask, as well as a list of past newsletters/blog posts that might be useful for her to read as prep/inspiration. Based on my notes on our conversations (below) can you…

1. Provide a reading list of ten relevant newsletters or blog posts from my archives, including the titles and URLs in-line. Use the knowledge files to identify appropriate posts and then search for those exact titles on alexandrasamuel.com to get their URLs. Include each title followed immediately by its URL for easy copy-pasting. Focus on articles that sound relevant to her based on my notes below.

2. Suggest a list of 8-12 questions that focus on what would be relevant to her team/audience. This is a wide audience so ensure questions are relevant to the whole team, not just managers, and draft them in a conversational tone. These should be questions that could be answerable based on my past writing, but not necessarily limited to the ten links I’m sharing.

NB this is a 90 minute virtual event. I’ll present for 40-45, then we have a fireside chat, then open Q&A. Now, here is her original inquiry about booking me, the current event schedule, and my rough notes from our call this AM.

The results weren’t copy-paste perfect: I opened each recommended link in a new tab of my browser to make sure I wanted to send it, and there were a couple of links where GPT claimed it was recommending one thing but actually linked to another, or where it suggested something that was barely a post. But it took about three minutes to get a browser full of open tabs with blog posts that worked perfectly for this purpose, and then clicking my OneTab extension instantly compressed all those tabs to a single shareable set of links.

The questions weren’t perfect, either, but after I proved some candid feedback that included a few examples of what I wanted, I got a largely usable list. I pasted both the original and improved lists into a text file, deleted the questions I didn’t want to use, and got ChatGPT to double-check my revised list for duplication.Then I sent the whole list of questions and links to the event host. Ten minutes of my time saved an hour of hers—and sets us up for an event that will be more focused and useful for everybody. If you’re curious, you can find the final draft email below.

Dear XXX —

1. Tune up your remote work skills
2. The new hybrid work
3. How to foster culture on hybrid teams 
4. Culture in the hybrid workplace
5. How Hybrid Work Solves the Resilience Gap
6. The 3 questions everyone’s asking about hybrid
7. How to solve your work problems with AI
8. The new collegiality
9. The Hybrid Worker’s Guide to Information Overload 
10. How GPT Clears Hybrid Work’s Top 3 Roadblocks

1. Our team often struggles to decide when to use email, Teams, or schedule a meeting. What guidelines can help us choose the most effective communication method for different scenarios?
2. With the rise of practices like ‘mouse shuffling’ to appear active online, how can we build a culture of trust that focuses on output rather than online presence?
3. What strategies can help employees who have adapted to remote work readjust to in-person settings?
4. What are some effective ways to reduce virtual meeting fatigue and keep team members engaged during back-to-back online sessions?
5. What do you do if someone on your team consistently refuses to turn on their camera during meetings? How do you handle the balance between comfort and accountability?
6. If your manager schedules so many meetings that you can’t get your work done until after hours, how should you address it without jeopardizing the relationship?
7. Some teams have set days for working in the office, while others let people choose. How can teams with different approaches collaborate effectively?
8. What are some quick, easy-to-implement ways to help hybrid teams feel more connected, especially when some members are full-time remote?
9. Some employees find group discussions challenging, especially in hybrid settings. How can leaders create space for quieter voices to contribute?
10. How can managers and employees set clear expectations about when they are “off the clock,” especially in hybrid work environments where boundaries blur?
11. How do you onboard new team members effectively when they’ve never met their colleagues in person?
12. When some people are in the office three days a week, while others work entirely remotely, how do you ensure fairness in workload and visibility?
13. What are some creative ways to celebrate team achievements or milestones in a hybrid setting, so that everyone feels included?