The AI Advantage: Smart Prompting Strategies to Power Your Business

AI is everywhere right now. Open your inbox, scroll your social media feed, or glance at the headlines and it seems like artificial intelligence is the only topic anyone is talking about. For some business owners, this creates excitement. For others, it sparks fear. And for many, it leads to confusion about what it actually means for their daily work.

Here’s the truth: AI is not going anywhere. It is accelerating at a rapid pace, and the sooner we learn how to work with it, the more advantage we can create in our businesses. But the advantage does not come from piling on more tools, apps, or shiny tech. The advantage comes from knowing how to use AI with smart prompting strategies that give you practical results without losing the human touch.

This is exactly what I talked about with Patty Dominguez in this episode of The Amanda Kaufman Show. Patty is an expert in helping business owners build leverage, and together we explored how AI can step in to take work off your plate while still keeping your brand authentic and your client relationships strong.

Why Smart Prompts Matter More Than More Tech

It is tempting to think that growing your business means adding another piece of software or finding the perfect automation. But the real power of AI lies in how you interact with it. A poorly written prompt will produce poor results. A well thought out, clear, and specific prompt can produce an output that saves you hours of work and actually sounds like you.

Patty pointed out that most people do not know how to prompt AI tools effectively. They type something vague, get a generic answer back, and walk away frustrated. The good news is that with a little context and a little clarity, AI can become one of the most powerful assistants in your business.

For example, instead of asking ChatGPT to “write a follow up email,” you might tell it:

• The role you want it to play, such as “You are my copywriter who writes in a warm, conversational voice.”
  
  

• The goal of the output, such as “Draft an email to re-engage a prospect who attended my workshop but did not sign up.”
  
  

• The tone and brand personality, such as “Make it encouraging and motivating, not pushy or salesy.”
  
  

That level of prompting gives AI the context it needs to produce something close to 80 or 90 percent ready to send. You still add your personal touch, but the bulk of the work is already done for you.

Where AI Can Save You Time Right Now

One of the most relatable examples we discussed was follow up. Research shows that most people stop following up with prospects after one or two attempts. Even high performing sales teams often stop after three. But the truth is that it can take nine, ten, or even eleven follow ups before someone is ready to buy.

Who has time to do that consistently? Almost nobody. And that is exactly where AI can help. By creating well framed prompts, you can have AI draft those follow up emails or messages for you, making it easy to keep nurturing relationships without burning out.

Another example is handling the mundane, back-burner tasks that we all avoid. Maybe it is scheduling appointments, drafting content, or organizing information. Those tasks pile up because they are boring or repetitive. AI can take care of many of them when you know how to ask the right way. The result is that you reclaim your energy for the work you actually enjoy doing.

Keeping the Human Element

Of course, one of the biggest fears around AI is that it will replace the human element. As a coach, this was something I felt deeply. I love coaching. I love the human connection and the transformation that happens in real conversation. For a moment, I worried that AI might make this irrelevant.

But what I have discovered, and what Patty emphasized, is that the opposite is true. AI cannot replace authentic human connection. If anything, the rise of AI has made human relationships even more valuable. Clients are quick to notice when something feels robotic or generic. Trust is built when your voice and your personality come through.

This is why smart prompting is so important. AI can help you get 80 percent of the way there, but you add the final 20 percent that makes it uniquely you. That combination saves you time and ensures your brand stays authentic.

How to Get Stronger Outputs

Patty shared some powerful strategies for improving your AI results. Never settle for the first output. Instead, rate it, push it to do better, and tell it exactly what you want. For example, you might say, “This is a six out of ten, give me a level ten version.” Or you might challenge it by asking it to play a contrarian role, or to channel someone like Mark Cuban when analyzing an idea.

You can also instruct AI to ask you questions before it produces a final output. That way, instead of filling in the blanks with assumptions, it gathers the context it needs to give you a higher quality result.

The point is not to use AI passively. The point is to engage with it like a collaborator. When you prompt it with clarity and intention, the outputs are dramatically better.

The Real Advantage

At the end of the day, AI is not about replacing people. It is about creating leverage so you can spend more of your time doing what matters most. Whether you are a solopreneur or running a multi-million dollar company, smart prompting strategies can help you save time, stay consistent, and strengthen your client relationships.

The businesses that thrive in this new season will not be the ones chasing every new app. They will be the ones who know how to use the tools available to them with clarity and purpose. That is the AI advantage.

So my encouragement to you is this: start small. Try using AI for one or two tasks that you normally put off. Give it clear prompts. Add your human touch. And watch how much more space opens up in your business for the work you love most.

AI is not here to replace you. It’s here to support you so you can focus on the work only you can do, the work that truly moves your business forward.

Chapters List

00:00 Introduction to AI in Business

02:16 Understanding AI's Impact on Small Businesses

06:03 Leveraging AI for Follow-Up Strategies

09:46 The Human Element in AI Interactions

13:13 Optimizing AI Outputs with Context

17:22 Enhancing Communication Skills with AI

20:55 Creating Meaningful Experiences with AI

Full Transcript

Patty Dominguez (00:00)

whether you're a solopreneur, a micro business, you have multi-millions, et cetera, The important thing here is to recognize where can I build more leverage in my business by utilizing AI.

Amanda Kaufman (00:32)

Well, hey, hey, Amanda here and welcome to the Amanda Kaufman show. And today we're going to dive into all things AI and operations for service-based businesses with my friend, Dominguez. So Patty is the founder of moreleverage.io and we are friends from a incubator where we have been working on building our businesses even bigger and bigger. And we just hit it off because when we started talking AI, we could not stop.

talking about it. So I thought, how amazing would it be to have Patty here on the show so you can hear some of the things that we've talked about? Well, hello, Patty, and welcome.

Patty Dominguez (01:10)

Hi Amanda, thank you so much for having me. I so appreciate you. I love your enthusiasm. I love how your style is just conversational, casual approach. I really appreciate that. So thank you for having me. It's gonna be a great conversation.

Amanda Kaufman (01:23)

yes, my pleasure. And you know what? My favorite kind of podcasts to listen to are very conversational as well. So I appreciate that. And you know, this whole conversation around AI, like, holy cow, I cannot even open my phone. Like, even before I swipe anywhere, there's something about AI, right? Like, and today in my inbox, you know, it's literally flooded. It is the conversation. So.

What I was hoping we could maybe do today is just have, like you said, a real raw conversation just about AI for maybe the rest of us. You know, like if we're not necessarily living in Silicon Valley or we're not like this big crazy guru from the mountaintop talking about AI, it's affecting everybody. like it's really becoming, it is very disruptive in all senses of that word. But I'm just so curious, like,

What do you think that the average small business owner, especially services business owners, should be keeping in mind in this season of AI?

Patty Dominguez (02:25)

Yeah, it's a really, really good question. And in fact, it's something that I'm talking a lot more about. I'm doing a lot of live speaking lately and it's so fascinating because I'll get into these rooms with small business owners and I will ask the question, how many of you have played with any kind of AI? And so, you know, more and more hands are raising now because people are getting really comfortable with chat, chat, GBT and whatnot. But there's a distinction here because when I get into the space of like,

How many of you are kind of frustrated with AI or are skeptical of, know, what's all this noise about? And inevitably there are going to be some people like I, I'll even see people in the crowd, you know, arms crossed or like it's so annoying. That's all anybody is talking about. But here's the thing. If we dispel the myths, I think that's the thing and put context to the conversation and recognize that first of all, AI isn't going anywhere. It's, it is.

Picking up steam as you know at an accelerated clip and the cool thing about it is that it's very approachable for any small business owner, whether you're a solopreneur, a micro business, you have multi-millions, et cetera, applies to everybody. The important thing here is to recognize where can I build more leverage in my business by utilizing AI.

That's what I like to talk about with small business owners because then I'll give you the perspective.

Anytime you're pushing things on the back burner that you don't want to deal with, understand that you're not doing those things because either it's mundane, it's boring, you avoid it like the plague because you don't want to do it, and the best part about it is that in a lot of cases, AI can help you with that.

Amanda Kaufman (04:06)

You're reminding me of like back in, I don't know, 2007-ish. Must have been like more like leading into 2010. Apple had those commercials that were like, there's an app for that. And now it's like, there's an AI for that, you know? And it really is so amazing. I just got my haircut. And on the weekend, I used an AI agent.

to go through the tedium of finding and booking hair appointments with my salon and my preferred hairdresser at my preferred time and my preferred cadence that I'm booked out through the rest of the end of the year. And it was like something that I knew I wanted to do. But to your point, it was like, it was tedious, it was annoying. I've thought a dozen times about giving it to my assistant, but I'm just like, ugh, you know? And...

Patty Dominguez (04:39)

Yes!

Amanda Kaufman (04:59)

Yeah, mean, AI agent to the rescue got me all booked in and I feel really good and I know when my next appointments are. So yeah, I mean, just find fun ways to test it out and learn the functionality and then you can take it to the more serious places in your business.

Patty Dominguez (05:06)

Yes, that's the way to see it.

Absolutely, and that's the cool thing about it is that once we recognize just how many places It can really help out and even if you think about it like I know you work with a lot of coaches And how many times have you heard Amanda where coaches are like I just want to coach I just want to coach I just want to do my thing like all these other things that I'm doing in my business. It's just so annoying I wish I didn't have to deal with it

Amanda Kaufman (05:30)

my god.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. No, I hear it all the time. And it made me laugh because, yeah, I mean, we would all love to sit on the side of the pool, sipping on a Mai Tai and make millions. Like, that sounds amazing. However, if you are creating something of impact, you're probably going to have to do some work. So I'm curious, like, for a service-based business, especially if it's like expertise.

based service business, know, like consulting, coaching, creation, that sort of thing. What are you seeing as some of the top opportunities that people should waste zero time? Like learn how to do this right now. What should they be focusing on?

Patty Dominguez (06:16)

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I'll say that one of the things I talk about almost ad nauseam people are like, there's that, you you're talking about follow up again, but following up is one of the biggest opportunities in my opinion. Because when you understand what the metrics look like in terms of, let's say you do a presentation or you're doing a webinar or you're doing a local event. When you recognize that only 3 % of the market is actually ready to buy right here and now.

Amanda Kaufman (06:29)

Mm.

Patty Dominguez (06:44)

It really puts into perspective that the 97 % of the people that you were talking to or you had the privilege to be around, they're not ready to buy yet. And so we have to nurture them. We have to build what I know, you know, KLT, know, like, and trust. And so the way to do that is to make sure to do it consistently. And when you have a system in place that's following up for you on your behalf, that is on brand, that is a reflection of your brand personality,

that is moving people through from the point where they're kind of a suspect to the point where they're like, tell me more, to the point where they're like, I'm ready to work with you now. How cool would it be to have AI deal with that or to have AI manage that I should say? Because here's the thing, most people are following up with their prospects maybe once or twice at best and the high performing sales teams are doing it maybe three times. But when you understand that it takes nine, 10, 11 times follow ups,

in order for people to stop and pay enough attention to want to do business with you, you know that I'm telling you, I'll go into these speaking at a hundred percent of the time. I'm like, who has a follow-up strategy, right? Who is following up nine, 10, 11 times or more? Nobody ever raises their hand because nobody has that kind of time to do it, you know?

Amanda Kaufman (07:57)

my God, tell me about it. Yeah,

I mean, just like, I think about things like email marketing, right? Which, especially with AI now, is so screaming easy to like, not just write an email, but actually write a really good one that's compelling in a literal actual fraction of the amount of time and cost that it used to take to do it. And yet people still are not necessarily prioritizing it.

You know, something I was actually really worried when AI came on the scene for a hot minute. I was like, my God, goodbye coaching. And I love coaching. Like I love the human element of it. And you know, like it's my literal actual favorite. Thank goodness, because that's why I my business around. ⁓ But I was like really worried about it because I was like, hey, is this going to be relevant? You know, this whole thing, because I could tell that these tools were getting so good.

Patty Dominguez (08:41)

Yeah.

Amanda Kaufman (08:52)

at the conversational, they have access to the literal entire internet to make a custom answer for you. And it was like, whoa, that's really, really powerful. But here's what actually ended up happening that I'm like even more bullish on coaching and services businesses having quite a role is because people still want to engage and connect with people.

Patty Dominguez (09:19)

Of course, of course.

Amanda Kaufman (09:20)

And what's happening

is there's a lot of proliferation of the AI content and you can just tell that people are like glazing over more, you know, and ignoring even more because they're like, it's not real, it's not relatable. So you talk about building trust and I could not agree more. There is a level of complacency, it appears, in terms of people programming.

what they're doing with the AI appropriately. like nailing that brand voice, monitoring the results of the AI and not just letting it become a copy paste hot mess express. I've had some encounters with bots on DMs that I'm like, okay, no one, and I mean no one in real life uses a long dash in their response.

Patty Dominguez (09:58)

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Amanda Kaufman (10:08)

in message, so I'm like realizing that there's people that we're talking to that aren't even really people. what's your take or what's your perspective around the humanity and the human relationships and how augmenting with AI could work?

Patty Dominguez (10:26)

Yeah, I definitely think it's not an all or nothing proposition. In other words, you can't turn it all over to AI and think that it's all going to be fixed with AI. So I just had a really great conversation about this earlier. I was on another podcast actually. And I was talking about the fact that like, what if the AI could get you 80 % there? Meaning, yeah, it's going to give you some frameworks and guidance and whatnot, but it still requires that human touch in order for it to be truly on brand. And you're right.

It's gotten to the point where people are starting to see the patterns and those cliche words or hyperbole or the dashes or it's not just like this, it's like that. I mean, there's just certain patterns that we're starting to pick up with AI.

Amanda Kaufman (11:05)

Let's

be real. That's another one. Or the truth, you know, the truth is, right? Yeah.

Patty Dominguez (11:08)

Yeah, exactly. Yeah,

exactly. And so it's now becoming, I can see why people are becoming so jaded. And so the problem is, is most people don't understand correct prompting. I think that's the first part of it. And if you have, if it's garbage in, you're going to have a garbage out. And a lot of times what happens is that people aren't prompting, say in ChatGBT, they're not putting in the right context.

Right, so when you give a proper context and more about you and your brand personality or for example, I talk about if I'm sure you've heard of, know, Carl Jung's brand archetypes, like what is what would copywriting be a reflection of if it were to say what kind of a brand are you? Right. Are you a jester and a sage or right or like the caregiver?

Right? And so you start to infuse personality in it and Carl Jung's brand archetypes, you typically are a cross section of two, of two brand archetypes. You want to give it a little something, something you want to give it some context. So it's starting to understand you. But regardless of it, I'm still a huge advocate where, you know, an AI output with proper context and the proper role of how that GPT is going to play.

is going to give you a stronger output, but you still, it's only going to get you in my opinion, 80 to 90 % there at best. Meaning you still want to add your flavor. You still want to add your, um, your inputs, your stories. Now the good thing about that is as you, for example, I have my own GPT that is only mine. When you have a paid GPT account, for example, chat GPT account, know, it's $20 a month. You only want to infuse it with your own stories, your own

searches because it aggregates the knowledge base because what I recognize early on, you know, my son was using my chat to BT and then I would use it and I had a VA who was using it. I'm like, it's it's all a garbled mess and it was starting to give me weird output. So again, you want to pick

Amanda Kaufman (13:10)

It had a multiple personality

disorder.

Patty Dominguez (13:13)

It literally had multiple personality disorder. I'm like, I don't care about anime. It was because, you know, my son was playing with it. And so there were just certain things that it was like picking up. like, this isn't me. So I think that's a really good tip in and of itself is have your own GPT. Don't let anybody else use it because the cool thing about it is, you know, when you set it up right, it can really aggregate all of that Intel to make it even stronger. The probability of the content and the outputs being stronger.

But if it doesn't have the right context, you're gonna get garbage out of it. And as with anything, it's an art and a science. And there's dead giveaways when people don't know how to use it right.

Amanda Kaufman (13:50)

Mm. Mm. Yeah, that's so true. are there any practices you've developed or would recommend around building the data, you know, building that database or building that reference material and the reference outputs? And here's why I'm asking the question too, is I've noticed as I use the GPT, it definitely has a appeasement bias.

Like it wants you to be appeased. because it, I think one of the biggest issues with hyperdependence on AI and like taking some of the human out of it is as a human, you have empathy, you have perspective, you know to ask like other questions. And I've noticed that AI can become a bit of an echo chamber.

Right? Because you're infusing it with your own perspective, your own data, the things you like, your preferences, and all of that kind of thing. So then when you make a new request, for example, and especially if you're in a growth orientation with your business or with your life, you ask the question, I'm noticing there's like this bias to saying something I'm likely to like, but not necessarily being like an objectively well-researched answer.

Patty Dominguez (15:07)

Yeah.

Amanda Kaufman (15:07)

So

I guess I kind of muddled the questions a little bit there because yes, it's data and it's like getting that data and that data reinforcement, but how do you counterbalance that or how do you make sure that you're capturing meaningful data and you're not tricking yourself into that, you know what I mean? Kind of that narcissistic ego phase. Yeah, like you're not gonna like stare at yourself and fall in and drown. You know what I mean?

Patty Dominguez (15:26)

Yeah, where it's like, that was so brilliant.

Yeah, yeah. So again, it goes into context because I'll tell you the first output that you get out of a chat GPT thing, right? So, you know, let's say you gave it a really good pre-frame, you fed the knowledge base with your stories. You want to make sure that the context of the role you want the GPT to play is really essential. You know, meaning I want you to be a contrarian in this or I want you to be a thought leader.

with a contrarian perspective to push the envelope and challenge me with this thinking. Again, you wanna have that role pre-framed before the prompting starts, really, right? Before the outputs, excuse me, starts. Because I never accept the first output I get, right? I'm like, I always kind of, like I rate it, I'm like, okay, this answer is a six out of 10, I'm looking for level 10 work, do better, right? And it seems a little terse, because.

Amanda Kaufman (16:25)

great prompt.

Listen, write that one down. That's a really good one. Yeah, that's a really good one.

Patty Dominguez (16:27)

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And challenge it and say, do better. I really want you to make me feel this output. Like how, how does this relate? Or again, just push it, push the envelope with it because you're absolutely right, Amanda. What starts to happen is it becomes almost lazy and it's like, you're the best, you're the greatest. And it's like, come on, this isn't, and I'll, you know, I have colleagues in the mastermind that I'm in, they get really brash.

They like use curse words back there like this is, you know, a boatload of BS, you know, and they'll just say, and they're like, put, and they push the envelope. So I think a really good way to do that is to take or to challenge it with the responses. And then when the context is set up, make sure that the role is really stipulated. I'm not looking for nice, nice responses.

I'm looking at you to be the biggest challenger that you can. Imagine if it was like, you know, Mark Cuban or like embody the elements of Mark Cuban as he's like vetting a deal or something like that. Like really make it so that the GBT has a permission to really challenge the outputs and challenge what it's gonna say to you. And it's gonna give you stronger output for sure.

Amanda Kaufman (17:45)

Absolutely, I love that. And you're reminding me of another, I don't want it a trick, but a technique that's helped me a lot. And it's funny because using AI, I've noticed that my communication skills have improved dramatically with real humans. Yeah, with real people. Because it made me so aware of where I shortcut my own language.

Patty Dominguez (18:00)

How so? How so? I'm curious. Okay. Okay. That's awesome.

Amanda Kaufman (18:09)

and where I use euphemisms instead of what I really mean or vague terms and I'm non-specific. And so I've learned to become way more specific about exactly what I mean in my day-to-day language, which is amazing. It's a totally unintended side effect. But the technique that I was thinking about that has helped me a lot is setting the role, like telling them that, here's the role, here's the goal. But then...

asking questions, sorry, telling it to ask me the questions that it needs to do in order to give me 10 out of 10 work. And that's been a huge, huge benefit to me as a communicator. And I think my team is benefiting from it because I'm better at delegating instruction and I'm better at knowing that I didn't say it clearly enough for somebody to be able to act on it.

Patty Dominguez (18:43)

Exactly. Exactly.

Amanda Kaufman (19:04)

with no question.

Patty Dominguez (19:05)

Yeah, that's super brilliant and I do want to kind of anchor to that sentiment because I really think if you have it or just it's almost like having a conversation, having a strategist with you and saying, what am I not thinking about with this particular approach? Right? You can problem solve with it if you're going into a tough negotiation, conflict resolution or what have you. You can share the approach and what starts to happen, which is really crazy.

is that my particular GPT, again, because I have my own chat GPT, nobody else touches it, it knows that I am an ENTJ, it knows my Enneagram, it knows all of those qualifications, so it would help me with the outputs that I would most probably say, if that makes any sense, right? Because it understands my personality traits and I challenge it. I'm like, you know, what would be my disc?

Amanda Kaufman (19:50)

So good. I love that.

Patty Dominguez (19:59)

Profile I know I'm a 99 D 99 I and then it knows all it knows my enneagram Like I said, it knows all of the things so that it's starting to get a better Involvement protocol of how it's going to engage with me so that the outputs are that much stronger and you know, you could do the same

Amanda Kaufman (20:12)

Mm-hmm.

love that.

It's so good. It's so good. And Patty, I'm loving this conversation. How can we keep learning from you? Or what's a good way to stay connected?

Patty Dominguez (20:28)

Well, my favorite is on LinkedIn. That's really my primary platform. You can look me up on LinkedIn. I'm happy to connect. I have a newsletter that I put out and I'm always chiming on about what is happening in AI in a really easy to understand and conversational way. And then I also have something for your peeps is I have a great Chad GBT bundle. So I've studied copywriting for the past eight years. I'm

super copywriting nerd and I absolutely love it. So I put together a chat GPT that you can like click and it'll help you with your copywriting, right? It's gonna give you really well framed out copywriting. And then there's another GPT that helps you from a marketing strategy standpoint. And then there's a third GPT is most people are really bad at selling and it would be really cool to give you some scripting with. So for example, you give it the context.

who you're speaking to, what it is you're gonna be talking about, and then the output is going to be a sales script that you can use that'll guide the conversation.

Amanda Kaufman (21:28)

Man.

Okay, dear listener, this is so valuable. no kidding. To get this kind of information on tap and to be able to customize it to your preferences inside your own GPT, that is like amazing because each of these subject areas that Patty's listed here, I have personally run events and sold programs on the order of five, 10, even $20,000 that we're teaching people, you know, manually.

how to do some of these things. So this grab it and click it thing, very, very exciting. you've inspired in another episode that I'm gonna do. I'm gonna do a solo episode very soon. And it's gonna be about where coaching is going for AI. Because I've been talking a lot about sort of the trust and the fear in this other episode and thank you for inspiring it.

Patty Dominguez (22:11)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Kaufman (22:18)

Really the punchline is going to be about how do you as a coach or an expert create experiences for people, right? Because that's going to be where I think the money is, honey. It's going to be in the experience, the community, the learning together. Because we don't have to train the same way that we did to get some of the most amazing things done. And that's pretty cool. All right, Patti, thank you so much for joining us today.

Patty Dominguez (22:42)

Amanda, you nailed it.

Yeah, thank you so much for the opportunity. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to talk over you. There's a little lag there. You nailed it. It's about moving people to experiences, the human collaboration, connection, community. That's exactly where it's going. So why not have AI help you with all the other stuff you don't want to do anymore?

Amanda Kaufman (23:00)

I love it.

Yeah, exactly. I love it. I love it so much. OK, so hey, listener, make sure that you hit subscribe before you go and grab the link, share it with three of your friends, especially your friends that have been AI curious. Make sure that they get this short episode so they can get up to speed on how to take some of the sting out of it and just make this tool work for them, just like it's working for millionaires and billionaires around the world. And go ahead and leave a review for the show if you haven't already.

Really appreciate it because when somebody's considering whether to listen to the show meet people like Patty They do look at those reviews. So we always appreciate you taking 30 seconds to do one All right. Thank you so much everybody and we will see you on the next episode and until then do what matters