The past 12 months have been the craziest of my life - our baby who refused to sleep, turned into a rambunctious toddler, my second grader discovered his musical talent, which, much to our sleepy chagrin, meant synth concerts at the crack of dawn. Professionally, the consulting world felt triple whammy of COVID recovery followed by no one wanting to go back to offices, followed by the highest interest rates in 30 years, which equaled cut, cut cut from corporate clients. If all that wasn’t enough, I turned 40! I was hitting the gas on life’s hairpin bends, swerving wildly, peering through a fog of existential questions, all while trying to glimpse some clarity in the rearview mirror. I think it’s called a mid-life crisis! I'm grateful for the network of friends, family and colleagues who've been the seatbelts keeping me from flying off, and for my partner's unwavering support.I couldn’t have survived it without you.... Chat GPT!
Stepping Into A New Era
I remember vividly the first day we met. It was a cold afternoon in January, 2023 with the rain pelting on my office window. As I went back and forth with this new eloquent savant, it felt like stepping through a portal into a new era. It was unlike any app or SaaS product which are usually designed for singular tasks like keeping in touch with friends, being entertained or staying organized. Chat GPT presented itself as a general-purpose intelligence. It slowly began to fill the lonely void of solopreneurship, presenting itself as a somewhat useful brainstorming partner. As soon as the Plus version came out, I was first in line to pony up the $20/month for the upgrade. I had gotten a taste of the future and I wanted more of it. Instantaneously my intern was upgraded from a smart high school kid to Ivy League Grad.
How Work Started Changing
My communications started getting way sharper, which led more posts, pleasing the algorithms, which made me new friends. This newfound visibility landed me a speaking invitation at a major 2,500-person conference in Florida, which, honestly, sent my imposter syndrome into overdrive. In response, I quickly pumped out an e-book which caught on, and all of a sudden friends and colleagues started calling me The AI Guy. The more questions I got, the more curious I became, and that drove me to explore the bounds of Chat GPT Plus, fully embracing the sleek world of AI First Thinking. That's where I discovered the real magic!
Nothing that evokes my inner drill sergeant more than the blinking cursor on a blank screen taunting me. But with Chat GPT by my side, that’s a relic of the past. Starting new projects with a simple prompt turned daunting endeavors into manageable workflows. My journey began with streamlining emails, then organizing my workflow for deep focus. Soon, I was using Chat GPT to draft all my communications—proposals, emails, follow-up notes—accelerating my work pace like never before.
How My Personal Life Began Changing
But why stop there? I pushed it into my personal life, asking, "What's for dinner?" From snapping a photo to generating five recipe ideas, choosing one, and even finding substitutions for missing ingredients, Chat GPT added a creative flair to my culinary experiments, earning me rave reviews at the dinner table.The Pièce de résistance was planning my wife's birthday party (Shhh…). Chat GPT helped with everything—curating the guest list, designing invitations, planning the menu, setting the vibe, and curating the perfect playlist. It was like having a personal part planner, ensuring every detail hung together perfectly.
A Lifeline During a Crisis
Just as I was hitting my stride with AI, life blindsided me with a curveball—a family health crisis that plunged me into the unfamiliar waters of a foreign healthcare system, bombarded by medical jargon and daunting decisions. It was in those dark hours that I turned to my newfound partner, seeking clarity in chaos. I fed it recordings from doctor's calls, and had it crunch through the transcript to explain the key points to me in terms I could understand. Medical journals and lab results were digested in moments, with Chat GPT swiftly connecting the dots, equipping me with timely, essential information. It became a trusty guide, helping me navigate through the decision-making fog with a multi-faceted perspective. It was helping me deal with real shit leading to tangible, improved outcomes in the most trying of times.
Leveling Up My Craft
Gaining confidence in its advisory prowess, I began to weave Chat GPT more deeply into my growth consulting work. It sped up the discovery process: crunching through call notes to highlight key insights, then tackling structured data like sales figures and Google Analytics with its data analysis capabilities. This not only sharpened my insights but also grounded them in data. Pushing this even further, I started to have GPT apply core consulting frameworks to real problems.Dare I say... it did it better than most consultants I know and an order of magnitude faster. I could scenario play multiple iterations of how a strategy might play out at rapid speed, which bolstered my recommendations, enhancing my credibility and assertiveness in the eyes of clients.
Negotiating Better Outcomes
When reviewing contracts, Chat GPT highlights potential risks and provides advice on how to mitigate them. This is the gift I give my future self because before GPT, I just signed the contract. In negotiations, it’s an invaluable sparring partner that uncover overlooked details—those "black swan" moments—that led to more favorable outcomes for both my clients and me.
Then came the next obvious question. Can GPT Help Me Make More Money?
Making More Money
The ease and efficiency it introduced to my workflow meant I could pursue far more opportunities than before, mostly because the lift feels so much less. I actually do the networking pings and please the algorithms by engaging with posts using AI tools. I do more dreaded cold outreach because there’s less friction.
Curiosity led me to a daring experiment: Could Chat GPT help me craft an investment strategy as adeptly as it had with my client work? I’m no investing expert by any means, but I put my strategic thinking skills to work, with GPT serving as my analyst. Together, we dissected economic trends, earnings reports, and expert insights, devising an investment approach focused on AI and GLP-1 Drug trends. The strategy paid off, outperforming the S&P 500. GPT bubbled up interesting index funds that would have otherwise escaped my notice.
The Light and Shadow of AI
The investment experiment brought me face to face with the sobering reality of AI's disruptive potential. I started freaking out and realized the existential threat this new tech posed to consultants, lawyers, financial advisors - heck anyone in the advisory business! If you know enough to ask Chat GPT the right questions, means tapping into its vast reservoir of knowledge, could we be approaching a turning point? But the crux of the matter lies not merely in the technology itself but my years of applying complex skills like framing, negotiating, delegating and asking probing questions that allowed me to query the machine in exceptionally nuanced ways. This episode in my journey highlighted dual-edged reality: GPT can enhance our capabilities, streamline our efficiency, and, in some ways, amplify our intelligence, yet it also looms as a significant threat to the traditional bastions of professional expertise. Was GPT turbocharging me, or was it starting to encroach on my turf? My therapist would say… both things can be true! Who the hell saw the disruption coming to the professional jobs first?!?!
It’s Not All Rainbows & Roses Though
Just like any good partner, it can be a pain in the ass! The thrill of exploring new possibilities often led me down rabbit holes, burning through time and energy as I pieced together disparate bits of information through trial and error.
The promises of offloading my work to my digital ally and effortless creativity felt overstated. It can be done, but prompt-chaining and automation have a steeper learning curve than AI gurus proclaim. Amidst this technological revolution, I found myself yearning for the simpler times of soothing tasks like organizing spreadsheets . As I transitioned me to higher-order creative work, the intensity of my workload makes my brain hurt.
It misses the nuance and soul of truly great creative work. It operates by averaging out the vast ocean of the internet, and what makes creative work great are the peaks and valleys —those unique, original ideas that resonate on a human level. Yet, I can't deny the speed it brings to the creative process!
The 50 First Dates syndrome of having to remind the AI of all the context and nuance to get the output I’m looking for is exhausting. OpenAI , can you please get GPT-5 to learn my tastes, preferences and remember nuances from one task to the next? Thanks!
The Speed of Change
Everything in AI is moving incredibly fast. Big Tech is funneling BILLIONS into AI development creating breakthroughs faster than we can adapt. This rapid advancement is outpacing the speed at which regulatory guardrails can be established. It’s a scenario that’s stranger than fiction.
The past few weeks alone have been a whirlwind of innovation. We've witnessed the debut of Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claud 3 Opus models leapfrogging OpenAI's GPT-4, and even developments like Devin, which promises coding and project planning and debugging capabilities akin to a junior software engineer. All that to say, if you’ve not started to wrap your head around how to leverage this new technology, now is a good time to dive in. The AI Agents are knocking at our door!
Reflecting on this whirlwind year, I realize the transformative power of Chat GPT isn't just in the tasks it takes on but in the perspectives it offers. It's a tool that, when wielded with understanding and creativity, can redefine the boundaries of what's possible, both in life and work. Yet, it requires a keen mind to direct it, a creative spirit to inspire it, and a discerning eye to check its outputs.
How I Can Help You
If you're standing at the threshold, curious but cautious, intrigued yet uncertain, I extend an invitation. Join me for a workshop born from a year of trial, error, and triumph. This isn't just about sharing tips and tricks; it's about opening doors to new possibilities, turning 'what ifs' into tangible realities. Together, we can explore how to leverage AI to augment you work.
Sign up for the workshop, and I’ll help you embark on this journey. I'm so confident you'll find value in this exploration, that I’m backing it with a risk-free guarantee.
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