Two years after OpenAI launched ChatGPT, most coaches still haven’t figured how to use it to save time, create flow, and grow their business… yet.
The few exceptions may be those who had a large online following and launched a platform they sold you on. They made some money, not by coaching.
But here’s the truth: AI isn’t a magic wand. It’s a multiplier. It amplifies your strengths—and exposes your weaknesses.
The Reality: AI Won’t Do It All for You
The hype is seductive. You’ve seen the ads: “Click a button, get results.” But when you try, the results often fall flat and the instructions are unclear. The product doesn’t match the marketing.
Like many coaches, you tried an AI platform, got no clients, and moved on. I’ve been there.
AI will waste your time—unless you know how to use it strategically.
Stay tuned—I’ve included a free AI template that will save you hours and enhance your life.
The Turning Point
The good news is, I’m a curious guy. I play for a living.
I signed up for countless services along the way, only to find myself back with ChatGPT. Most of these platforms are built on top of ChatGPT anyway. I saw that whatever it was they were trying to do I could do it better playing with the source.
After months of trial and error, I stopped expecting AI to do it all for me. Instead, I treated it as a collaborator, and everything changed. With better prompts, intentional delegation, and clear goals, I began to see results that felt like cheating—but weren’t.
I realized that as much as I was learning how to us AI, it was learning about me too. The more I used it the better results I got back.
I’ve successfully reduced the energy I dedicate to the mundane… permanently.
The fun is growing. I now have a new playmate.
Unlocking AI’s Potential
Here’s what separates the winners from the wannabes:
- Delegate the mundane. Free your mind for deep, creative work.
- Experiment boldly. AI thrives on iterative, playful use.
- Focus on results. It’s not about doing more—it’s about achieving more.
The world of AI is advancing at a remarkable pace. 80% of my work happens on AI platforms. I also listen to a few hours of podcasts and read several newsletters each week to keep up. As a serial entrepreneur and coach, I’m deeply committed to staying at the cutting edge of both coaching and business innovation.
And no, AI did not write this for me. At least, not completely. It is helping me edit. The tools are impressive. But there is something special about grokking my ideas by writing them out. I’ll keep writing and I encourage you to do the same.
The future is bright. In the next several years, AI marketing will level the marketing field. Clients will select coaches for their results, not for their marketing skills.
My 12 Rules for AI Optimization
Master these rules to transform your workflow.
- Treat AI as your collaborator. It’s here to think with you.
- Don’t think about AI as a technology. It’s a conversation. It’s software that thinks, reasons, and solves problems. This is very different from the software we were using a few years ago.
- Be specific. Vanilla prompts get vanilla results.
- If this is challenging for you, this is happening for you in other areas of your life. Hence, the vanilla results there too.
- Always refine. Iteration is the secret to quality.
- Don’t accept the first result it gives you. Give it feedback. There are many ways to do this. I’m still discovering new ways to do this with greater efficiency.
- Context matters. Set the scene like a pro.
- This is becoming easier to do. Explain what you’re up to like it’s a person. Tell it why you’re prompting it. You will be surprised by how much it picks up. AI platforms are now using memory to track your chats. It’s building context about you and your projects. You still need to be feeding it the context it needs to generate what you desire for each new thread. Also, trim the memory. It’s not smart enough to know what’s important yet.
- Templates are gold. Don’t reinvent the wheel.
- Those with more experience have preprogrammed templates and custom GPTs. They are huge shortcuts to your success. I’ve built several of them for you already. 😉
- Stay curious. AI rewards creativity.
- Remember to be playful. You’re not going to break it. I’ve learned a lot by trying new ideas. Saying “let’s give it a shot” has pleasantly surprised me more and more. Note: some ideas didn’t work the way I imagined, and I scrapped them.
- Learn as you go. ChatGPT is a 155 IQ coach in your pocket.
- That means you have access to someone who is 5 points under Albert Einstein (Mr. 160). It can teach you. And not in the traditional sense. As much as many people desire for the robots to do the work for them, there is no room to be lazy here. Engaging with AI over the past two years has allowed me to engage my intellect at a deeper level.
- Delegation wins. Practice handing off tasks to AI.
- The people who are getting the most use out of AI already have experience delegating to humans. It’s a skill that’s foreign to the majority of the population. Keep this in mind as you work with the tools. You are learning to delegate. If you don’t have experience, give yourself grace along the way.
- Lead with intention. “Garbage in, garbage out” – Granny Jack (my great-grandmother).
- Hold your intention as you get deeper into the conversation. Ask yourself “why am I doing this?”. I used to see coaches waste months going the wrong direction. Now, if you’re aware, you’ll catch misalignment in minutes instead of months.
- Stay skeptical. Spot-check AI’s outputs.
- Like humans, AI tools hallucinate. That means that if the tool doesn’t know the answer, it will make something up. It will get off track. You must spot-check the results and bring it back to your reality as you work together. You might feel tempted to get lazy and let AI do the thinking for you. That’s a trap. Also, consider the platform you’re using. Google search results show you a tiny part of the web. That means they control what you see. That means their hallucinations can become your hallucinations. Same goes for the data sets each platform uses.
- Hallucination Explanation Here
- Think beyond platforms. Don’t lock yourself into one.
- Be platform agnostic. Remember AOL? My grandmother thought AOL was the internet itself her entire life. The same thing will happen for a generation with AI if we’re not careful. It’s early in the game. Learn to use different platforms and stay agile. Engage your mind.
- Use discernment. Know when AI helps and when it hinders.
- It’s easy to get down rabbit holes. If you follow the rules above, that will help. And keep in mind that your discernment is key no matter how good it gets.
Your Free Template
To make it easy, I’m giving you a template (Rule #5) I created with ChatGPT 4.0. It’s tested, streamlined, and ready to accelerate your success. Try it with any platform, from Google’s Gemini to X’s Grok2.
It will work with all of them. Do it with each to observe their different approaches and results.
Download my AI template here and start experimenting today.
A Proven Path to Innovation
In 2008, my partners and I were the first CrossFit gym to use digital marketing strategies. Implementing lead magnets and email sequences. By 2011, we started sharing it. By 2013, we began consulting others using our step-by-step processes.
Over the last 11 years, I’ve worked with over 500 gyms and online coaches. Many are now running 7- and 8-figure coaching businesses.
Early in my consulting career, I encountered resistance. Some worried that email automation tools lacked authenticity. It seems quite silly now. In fact, it never happens anymore. Email automation is now accepted as a necessary tool. And no one sees it as inauthentic anymore.
Fast forward to today. The concerns are the same. The conversation is peppered with fear of being perceived as inauthentic. This is because many uneducated influencers and coaches are copy and pasting AI generated content. It’s obvious and gross.
Soon, that trend will also die. The market is rejecting this unsophisticated use and people will shape up. We are embedding AI into every aspect of our work and our lives. Integration is key.
Why Wait?
Coaches who embrace AI now will dominate tomorrow. The tools are here. The wave is rising. Don’t miss the ride.
When you join the CoachFlow Systems community, you can expect to:
- Learn how to delegate mundane tasks to AI, freeing up your time for growth.
- Access ready-to-use templates that simplify your workflows.
- Stay updated with cutting-edge AI practices and strategies.
- Maintain your authenticity through integration.
- Join weekly discussions to troubleshoot and enhance your use of AI tools.
Let’s make 2025 the year you master AI.
– Mike Bledsoe