AI for Branding: Using ChatGPT to Build Your Personal Brand

Welcome back to Branded: your comprehensive guide to creative branding.

In this episode, we dive into the world of AI tools and how they can be leveraged to build and enhance your personal brand.

We start off by discussing the intimidating nature of AI and how it’s only been about a year since the AI revolution started impacting us all. Larry, having spent a lot of time understanding these tools, shares insights about ChatGPT, focusing on its utility and the recent additions of custom instructions and plug-ins. Sara humorously recounts her own journey and challenges with using these features, which many of you might relate to.

Throughout the episode, Larry goes into detail about how you can use ChatGPT to create personalized branding tools, like persona modeling, and even touches on the broader implications of AI advancements. Meanwhile, Sara adds a lighter touch by sharing her experiences and lightly ribbing Larry about his age and early tech experiences.

Key takeaways:

1. Effective Use of ChatGPT for Branding: We dive into how ChatGPT’s custom instructions can help you define your brand’s voice and ensure your content resonates well with your audience. These instructions can personalize your interactions with the AI, making it a more powerful tool for developing consistent and branded content.

2. Custom Plug-ins in ChatGPT: Larry explains the importance of using plug-ins with ChatGPT to expand its capabilities, such as reading long documents like PDFs. He also walks us through the basic steps of enabling these plug-ins, emphasizing that this function can extend the productivity of your AI interactions.

3. Persona Modeling for AI-Based Branding: Larry talks about persona modeling using ChatGPT’s custom instructions. This entails defining who you are, your goals, experiences, and how you want ChatGPT to respond, enabling you to maintain brand clarity and consistency in communications.

4. The Role of AI in Enhancing Your Brand: We discuss how ChatGPT and other AI tools can be used for tasks like writing blog posts, social media content, or even entire books, thus reinforcing your brand propositions. Larry also touches on the potential future of AI, its impact, and how it integrates into personal and business branding strategies.

5. Starting with the Basics: Sara shares a practical tip for beginners – copying a piece of existing written content into ChatGPT and asking it to mimic that style. While this is a great temporary solution for fitting ChatGPT responses into your brand’s voice, Larry emphasizes the importance of properly setting up custom instructions for long-term use.

We wrap up the conversation by encouraging you to explore ChatGPT and its evolving features. Educate yourself to fully leverage these tools for your brand’s benefit, and don’t shy away from making these advanced technologies work for you.

We hope you find these insights valuable and that they inspire you to dig deeper into how AI can be a part of your branding strategy.

Until next week, stay creative!

Dad jokes:

Q: Why don’t scientists trust atoms?

A: They make up everything.

 

Q: Why was the math book sad?

A: Because it had too many problems.

 

Q: Why did the tomato blush?

A: Because it saw the salad dressing.

 

Q: Why don’t oysters give to charity?

A: Because they’re too shellfish.

 

Q: Why did the banana go to the doctor?

A: Because it wasn’t peeling well.

Transcript

Larry Roberts [00:00:09]:

Hey. What's happening, everybody? I'm Larry Roberts.

Sara Lohse [00:00:12]:

And I'm Sara Lohse, and this is Branded, your comprehensive guide to creative branding.

Larry Roberts [00:00:17]:

And on this episode of the podcast, we're gonna be talking about a variety of tools with an puts this on one that you can use to build your personal brand.

Sara Lohse [00:00:28]:

And by we, we mostly mean Larry because he is super smart about this, And I have no idea what I'm doing.

Larry Roberts [00:00:38]:

I really don't even know how to respond to that, but in all honesty, We're gonna be talking about AI tools today, and, you know, AI can be very, very intimidating. We're only about a year into this AI revolution that we're experiencing. And we've been inundated with all of these different tools that a lot of us don't know how to use. So one of the things that I've done to kind of circumvent all of these different tools that are coming onto the scene is really focus on 1, and In all honesty, it's ChatGPT. It it has definitely been the go to for me. And, Sarah, I mean, I I know you know how to use ChatGPT as well.

Sara Lohse [00:01:15]:

I know how to use it, but there are many, many features that I know that I am not using. And I just you walked me through the whole you can add plug ins thing, so now I can add plug ins. Did I? No.

Larry Roberts [00:01:34]:

You know, it it's funny because a lot of people come to me with questions about CHAD GPT, and they're trying to do this task or that task, And, Chad, GPT seems to be a little limited when it comes to, I don't know, accessing the Internet or a variety of other types of tools. Maybe They're trying to read a very long, block of text. There's there's a variety of different things there where chat gbt tends to struggle, And that's where those plug ins come into play. And so walking you through how to use those plug ins, I I would have liked to have thought it was at least a little Helpful.

Sara Lohse [00:02:07]:

Oh, no. This was when I texted you saying, hi. How do I turn plug ins on? And you showed me how to turn on plug ins. We didn't get that far. We're not at the actually using them stage yet. Okay. I you need to teach me like I'm in kindergarten.

Larry Roberts [00:02:22]:

Well, it it's funny you say that because I often look at chat gpt as and I refer to it as a brilliant toddler Because so many times people are trying to use Chad GPT.

Sara Lohse [00:02:32]:

That's what my parents call me.

Larry Roberts [00:02:34]:

Yeah. I don't know about the brilliant part, but the toddler, I can definitely dig. But Chad g Chad GPD is kinda like that brilliant toddler. It has all the answers, but we kinda have to coax it in a way that gives us the responses that we're looking for or that we need. And the plug ins, they help us in that arena. So, I'm I'm curious. What were you trying to do When you reached out to me to learn how to use plug ins?

Sara Lohse [00:02:59]:

I think I wanted it to read a

Larry Roberts [00:03:01]:

PDF. Okay.

Sara Lohse [00:03:03]:

Because I Needed it to, like, read an ebook for the persona modeling. Oh, look at you. I know words.

Larry Roberts [00:03:11]:

Look at

Sara Lohse [00:03:12]:

you. And I know that's, like, a new thing. You can, like, actually upload a PDF, and it'll read the whole thing. So now I know I can add plug ins, and that is about as far as I have

Larry Roberts [00:03:25]:

gotten. Well, that's cool. You know? And a lot of people are trying to use JetGPT to build their brand or establish their brand or grow their brand or leverage Chad GPT to write blog posts or even books that reinforce their brand propositions, and that's something we can totally do. One of the things that you brought up there was persona modeling, And that's a very technical term to talk about a new feature that chat g p t offers, which is called custom instructions. And within those custom instructions, it allows you to not only model who you are and what your goals are and how you'll be using Chad GPT and some other AI tools, but there's an additional text box that you allows you to define How you want Chegg GPT to respond. So you can set parameters like respond professionally, respond, whimsically, Respond in a way that resonates with x type of audience. So that's when we get into these these persona modelings. These custom instructions allow you to do exactly that.

Sara Lohse [00:04:30]:

I am ashamed to admit this, but I have asked Chat GPT to write puns for me.

Larry Roberts [00:04:37]:

Hold on. Hold on. You're you're not ashamed at all.

Sara Lohse [00:04:40]:

No. Oh, no. No. No. No.

Larry Roberts [00:04:41]:

Ashamed at all. Hold the guy. No. You're not. No. You're not.

Sara Lohse [00:04:43]:

Hold on. Oh, you're not. Not the puns I'm ashamed of. It's that I needed help. I take pride in my pun abilities, And I have had to say, like, I need more puns for this newsletter or for this blog. Please add puns. And that is probably my biggest source of shame in my life right now.

Larry Roberts [00:05:05]:

That's pretty funny. But regardless of that fact, Chad GPT can definitely help you write writing your puns. If you think back all the way to January when I did my talk on Chad GPT for podcasters Back at Podfest almost a year ago, I actually included 5 dad jokes up there that Chad GPT wrote. So If you structure it properly, Chatt GPT, it has a personality.

Sara Lohse [00:05:28]:

Hold on. Yep. We we we can't just blow past. What were the dad jokes?

Larry Roberts [00:05:33]:

Oh, well, we did discuss any? We we

Sara Lohse [00:05:39]:

no. Oh.

Larry Roberts [00:05:41]:

If we had talked about this prior to the episode, I would have looked them up because

Sara Lohse [00:05:45]:

We'll include them in the show notes.

Larry Roberts [00:05:46]:

Yeah. We'll include them in the show notes. There we go. I love that. But depending on what you're trying to do, Chad GpT can can help you achieve it. We just have to lay that foundation with those custom instructions and with that persona modeling exercise, that we were talking about. And a lot of people Struggle in this arena. I mean, I literally just got back from the Dallas affiliate of ABC this morning.

Larry Roberts [00:06:11]:

I I was on ABC talking about, what's the difference between AI and AGI, where AI is artificial intelligence and that's some of the tools that we're using and that they perform 1 singular Task based on 1 dataset, and they have to have humans interacting. And we were talking about what's the difference there with AGI, where AGI can perform a multitude of tasks based on a multitude of inputs or databases, and it requires no human interaction. That leads to a lot of confusion. A lot of folks think that AI is what we've seen seen over the last several decades in sci fi movies, but that's not the case. It's not how from what was that? A Space Odyssey 2001. It's it's not the Tornators. It's really a tool that we can use to expand everything that we're doing in regards to our brand and our business.

Sara Lohse [00:07:00]:

So are we, like, on the cusp of having the transformers?

Larry Roberts [00:07:05]:

Opinions vary, but most are saying we're anywhere between 10 and 50, 5 0, years before we start seeing any kinda real AGI in effect.

Sara Lohse [00:07:15]:

Oh, you might not even be alive to see it.

Larry Roberts [00:07:18]:

That's kinda rude. I mean, that no. That's that's just flat.

Sara Lohse [00:07:23]:

It'd be a 101.

Larry Roberts [00:07:26]:

Well, with AI, maybe I'll live that long. I don't know. Ideally, with some AI, I'll I'll live that long, but we will

Sara Lohse [00:07:36]:

c. Specifically for personal branding, are there a few things that someone should put into these custom instructions in order to make it more fitting to their brand so that they have that brand clarity and that consistency in their message?

Larry Roberts [00:07:55]:

Yeah. 100%. They should definitely focus on, identifying exactly who they are, what their background is, and what their goals are. They can include things like their educational background, their experience in their field, whether they've, had an opportunity to speak in their field or whether they've Had the opportunity to gain certifications or degrees in their particular field. These are all things that Chatt GPT needs to know In order to lay that foundation to have an understanding of exactly how, it needs to interpret what they're saying and how they're saying it. So the more information we give to Chad GpT and when it comes down to these custom instructions, we actually have a total of 3,000 characters that we can use. But that 3,000 characters is split up into 1500 a piece. That first 1500 is all about the user.

Larry Roberts [00:08:44]:

It's all about you. How do you wanna use chat g p t, and what are you trying to convey? What is your message? What is your brand? What are your values? What is the ethical proposition of what you're doing and what your business is doing? What's your mission? What's your vision? That's what those first 1500 characters are for. Then that second 1500 characters is very specific on how ChatGPT needs to structure those responses. Do again, you want it to sound professional? Do you want it to sound whimsical? Do you want it to cite any sources that it reaches out to online? Because right now, Chad GpT once again has access to the Internet so we can get live information that's current. You know, previously, Chad GPT only had information up to 2021, but now it can use Bing and go right out there and get current information for any of the queries that you present to chat g p t. So it needs to understand exactly what you're trying to go with there and whether or not it needs to reinforce The messages that it gives you with citations so that you can actually reference those in maybe your marketing materials or maybe your books or maybe even your social media posts.

Sara Lohse [00:09:55]:

How did they land on using Bing?

Larry Roberts [00:09:58]:

Yeah. That's a good question. Well, I think they landed on on Bing Because, well, Google

Sara Lohse [00:10:02]:

isn't else is using it. Nobody else is using it. Might as well.

Larry Roberts [00:10:06]:

It it's so funny, dude. I used to be the, I used to watch Hawaii Five O.

Sara Lohse [00:10:10]:

Was Ask Jeeves taken?

Larry Roberts [00:10:13]:

Probably. Yes. Or duck, duck, go if we if you know that one. But I used to watch Hawaii five o. It was So funny because they'd be trying to find a criminal or whatever, and they'd be like, let's Bing it. And it would take me completely out of the show because we all know Nobody bings anything. No. But the bottom line is, you know, Bill Gates got a ton of money, got a ton of influence, and he invested significantly in OpenAI, who are the creators of Chad GBT.

Larry Roberts [00:10:41]:

So with him investing in their platform, they attach themselves to Microsoft and, well, Bing. So, that's kind of where we're at with that scenario.

Sara Lohse [00:10:51]:

Does Bing know all this stuff? I feel like it's just kind of that unwanted stepchild of Google.

Larry Roberts [00:10:56]:

Well, it's it has nothing to do with Google. And does it know all the stuff? Sure. Yes. It definitely knows all the stuff. It has access to everything that Google has access to. It just doesn't have and this is really important for our audience.

Sara Lohse [00:11:07]:

It's branding.

Larry Roberts [00:11:08]:

It doesn't have that brand. Nobody says Bing it. Everybody says Google it. That's the power of branding right there.

Sara Lohse [00:11:18]:

I feel like if you think of Bing, you're more likely to think of Chandler a search engine. At least I am. Like, Bing it. Okay. Do I need to, like, throw in a bad joke? Like, what what do I do?

Larry Roberts [00:11:31]:

Well, I think you just did. So I I think you're on brand right there with the whole bing.

Sara Lohse [00:11:35]:

Good at this.

Larry Roberts [00:11:39]:

Chandler Bing. Yeah. I don't know. I I'm I'm actually

Sara Lohse [00:11:42]:

surprised you in a sarcastic

Larry Roberts [00:11:43]:

comment. If if we're gonna hit with the whole age thing, I'm even shocked that you even know who Chandler Bing is.

Sara Lohse [00:11:49]:

Oh, I can recite every episode of Friends. I oh, god. I I win Friends trivia every time I try. Come on now.

Larry Roberts [00:11:57]:

Do you?

Sara Lohse [00:11:59]:

My so my phone, you know how, like, autocorrect will change things based on what you say? Okay. It'll automatically Capitalize the word friends because it knows I'm more likely to be sitting on my couch watching Netflix than actually talking to real life

Larry Roberts [00:12:13]:

friends. Oh, that's hilarious. I I've sat in Rachel's apartment, so it's kinda cool. It was really, really fun when I was out there at Universal to to be able to take that in because, I mean, I was watching Friends, you know, back when it was running for real, and, well, I'm glad that you're consuming it on Netflix. It's awesome. So it's it's good that we have this Generational connect here, so that's a lot of fun. But regardless of that fact,

Sara Lohse [00:12:46]:

we Were they on a break?

Larry Roberts [00:12:49]:

They were definitely on a break, dude. They were definitely on a break. Okay. But does that justify it? I don't know.

Sara Lohse [00:12:55]:

Does it? See, the the last thing, it's like, Technically, yeah, you were on a break, but I also hate Ross. So it's like, I'm gonna be on

Larry Roberts [00:13:02]:

the hills. How do you hate Ross?

Sara Lohse [00:13:03]:

How do you

Larry Roberts [00:13:04]:

not? He's so innocent.

Sara Lohse [00:13:05]:

He's so awful.

Larry Roberts [00:13:07]:

Oh, why is he awful?

Sara Lohse [00:13:09]:

Oh, I could write a whole

Larry Roberts [00:13:11]:

dissertation. Well, we'll hit chat gpt to find out exactly Why Ross is so awful? Check the show notes. They check the show notes. They were definitely on a Break, but I don't know that that justifies anything. So but what you need to do, man, seriously, if if you wanna use some of these AI tools to build your brand, the first thing is is make sure you educate yourself on exactly how these tools work. There's so many of them out there, and they're evolving at such a rapid pace. I mean, even as we sit here right now, ChatGPT is rolling out the functionality to where it can hear, see, and speak. So no longer terrifying.

Larry Roberts [00:13:48]:

It's it's pretty scary, but it's kinda cool at the same time. So if you have Chad GPT on your mobile device, whether it's Ios or it's Android, it doesn't matter. You can actually speak to chat g p t, and it will give you a response in 1 of 5 different voices, whichever one you feel most Most comfortable with, and we can literally just carry on these conversations. It was so cool because I saw a video the other day where they had 2 phones side by side, And it was chat GPT on both phones, and they were carrying on a conversation back and forth. So it was chat GPT talking to chat GPT. So that's it's It's kinda meta.

Sara Lohse [00:14:22]:

It just sounds so lonely. It's like, yeah, me and my friends are having a chat. It's Two phones

Larry Roberts [00:14:30]:

that you like. It's it's not that much different than LAN parties from back in the day where everybody bring their their machines to someone's house, and they'd all link their computers together and then play video games together. So I I see your face. You've never heard of a LAN party?

Sara Lohse [00:14:45]:

No. When I was Growing up, we had something called the Internet. Fair. We could do that from the comfort of our own homes.

Larry Roberts [00:14:56]:

Very fair, but at the same time, there were times where people would bring their machines over to someone's house. They would all log on to the Internet, and they would play whatever games it was that they were playing at the time. So anyway, dating ourselves there. I'm so surprised you're not that young that you've never heard of a LAN party. That's kinda crazy.

Sara Lohse [00:15:16]:

I I remember we had, like, field parties, but that was when people would just Blackout in a cornfield.

Larry Roberts [00:15:21]:

That was called a rave, wasn't it? When when that way you

Sara Lohse [00:15:23]:

did it? When you live in a farm

Larry Roberts [00:15:25]:

country. Little glow sticks, and y'all were like, doing all the craziness?

Sara Lohse [00:15:28]:

No. I grew up in, like, the 6. We had

Larry Roberts [00:15:31]:

Oh, alright.

Sara Lohse [00:15:31]:

Didn't have stuff. We I I mean, I was at home knitting. But

Larry Roberts [00:15:36]:

Yeah. I'm sure you were. You're so innocent.

Sara Lohse [00:15:39]:

I never went to I was never invited to a farm party, but they did have farm parties, and people would just black out in a cornfield and

Larry Roberts [00:15:45]:

Yep.

Sara Lohse [00:15:46]:

Call it a day. So those are the parties we had. I still to this day prefer, like, a pizza party than anything else.

Larry Roberts [00:15:51]:

But I would love pizza right now. That'd be amazing. So anyways, bottom line, if you want to leverage some of these tools to grow your brand, Chad GPT is a great starting point. I love the tool myself, and although I speak All over the country about AI, Chad GPT is always my go to. I mean, it's kind of the foundation of all the other tools that are out there. The vast and the vast majority of the tools that are out there are using the chat gbt API or the back end of chat gbt to even power their tools. So Why not go directly to the source? And it's becoming so robust and it's offering so much functionality that it just makes sense that We learn how to use this tool, and we optimize it to fit our brand, to fit our message, and to fit our audience. So I highly recommend you do a little research, do a little digging, figure out exactly how you can persona model yourself within your chat g p t session, And you don't even need the paid version of Chad GPT to do it.

Larry Roberts [00:16:46]:

Custom instructions are available on the free version as well as the paid version. Now while I get nothing from Chad GPT for recommending this, I highly recommend you use the paid version just because That language model that's behind the paid version in GPT four is much more robust. It's designed for collaboration. It's designed for creativity. So you're going to get much more in-depth and accurate answers than you may get from time to time using the free version, which is their 3.5 model. So With that in mind, do a little bit of homework there. Figure out exactly how you can persona model yourself within chat g p t. Use those custom instructions to build out your account so that it reflects your voice, your brand, and your message for your audience.

Sara Lohse [00:17:34]:

I did for the newbies that are that understand Chat GPT about as much as I do. I found a little easy workaround in a pinch, which, I mean, I feel like everyone's probably done this, but I'm a throw it out there anyway. Cool. If you just copy a blog post or something you've already written and start the chat by saying, please adapt to this voice in this writing style and paste that in, it will do it within the chat. It'll answer sounding like you sounded in that blog. That's only going to last the length like, the lifetime of that particular chat, so everything Larry is saying, that's all permanent. It's, like, within your account, But I haven't figured out how to do that yet, so I've been sticking to just the mimic what I said in this, and it has worked pretty well for me.

Larry Roberts [00:18:21]:

That's perfect, Sara. I love the fact that you brought that up and you summarized it that way, so you hit the nail on the head. So with that, hopefully, you guys found some value in this. Hopefully, You're gonna do a little bit of homework and figure out how you can model your persona within your session of JGB team and then leverage that persona to continue to build Your brand, your message, and your audience. So with that, I'm Larry Roberts.

Sara Lohse [00:18:45]:

I'm Sara Lohse. We'll talk to you next week.