Custom GPTs 101: How AI Assistants Can Save You Hours Every Week

Episode #120: Custom GPTs 101: How AI Assistants Can Save You Hours Every Week

What if you could create your own AI assistant, designed specifically for your business? 

A Custom GPT is like having a virtual team member that understands your brand voice, automates repetitive tasks, and helps you scale without burnout.

In this episode of Tech Savvy 101, we’re diving into Custom GPTs: what they are, how they work, and how you can create one (even if you’re not tech-savvy). 

I’ll break down real-world examples of entrepreneurs using them to automate content creation, streamline workflows, and save hours every week.

By the end of this episode, you’ll know exactly how to build, train, and use a Custom GPT to make your business run smoother—without spending all your time stuck in the weeds.

IN THIS EPISODE, I DISCUSS:

➔ What a Custom GPT is and how it works.
➔ How AI assistants can automate content creation, emails, customer support, and more.
➔ A step-by-step guide to building your own Custom GPT (no coding required!).
➔ Real-world examples of entrepreneurs using AI to save time and streamline their businesses.
➔ The future of AI-powered automation—and how to stay ahead.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

📌 Want me to Build You a Custom GPT? Sign Up Here

📌 AI Evergreen Content Machine Course: Learn How to Scale Your Content Creation with AI

📌 Explore Custom GPTs in GPT Store

🎧 Listen to my Private Podcast – AI Content Lab: Evergreen Strategies That Scale

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:

02:35 – What Are Custom GPTs?
04:12 – Key Features of Custom GPTs
05:47 – Real-World Applications of Custom GPTs
11:36 – Building Your Own Custom GPT
13:42 – The Future of AI Assistants
19:42 – Action Steps and Conclusion

LET'S CONNECT

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📱 Instagram
💡 LinkedIn
🖥️ Website
💻 Facebook Group

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Transcript

Sarah Baker 0:48

All right, real talk. How much time do you waste every week on repetitive, time sucking tasks? We're talking writing emails, drafting social media captions, summarizing meetings, or just staring at a blinking cursor trying to figure out what the heck to write in an email. What if I told you there's an AI assistant that can handle all of that for you and do it in your exact brand Sounds magical, right? And it kind of is. It's called a custom GPT. If you've ever wished you had a personal assistant to take some of the busy work off of your plate, you're in for a real treat because that's exactly what custom GPTs can do. And in this episode, we're breaking down what custom GPTs are, why they matter, and how they can save you hours every single week. I'm going to show you real life examples of how entrepreneurs are using these AI assistants to streamline content creation, automate repetitive tasks, and scale their businesses faster than ever. You're also going to get a step by step guide to building your own custom GPTs. And don't worry, you don't need to be tech savvy to do it. And because people are getting wildly creative with these AI tools. We'll talk about some of the most unexpected and hilarious ways that they're being used. Think writing Pinterest pin descriptions, generating marketing copy, and even coming up with last minute elf on the shelf ideas. By the end of this episode, you'll know exactly how to start using custom GPTs in your own business to save time, money, and mental energy. Let's get started. All right. Let's break this down without the tech jargon overload. A custom GPT stands for a customizable generative pre trained transformer. But don't worry about remembering that mouthful, because you won't ever need it unless you're a trivia buff. Basically, a custom GPT is a personalized AI assistant, a regular version of ChatGPT, that is trained and fine tuned to do exactly what you need, how you need it. Think of it like the difference between buying an off the rack outfit versus getting something tailor made to fit you perfectly. So, how does it work? Instead of using a one size fits all AI, custom GPTs are tweaked and tailored to perform highly specific tasks better than the general chatGPT model. So instead of using a super lengthy prompt, you're basically pre training your custom GPT on the back end. And then you can return to that bot over and over because it remembers everything you've taught it, allowing you to get highly customized and highly specific content without needing to retrain or re prompt it every time. Whether you need help writing, researching, automating customer support, or even generating marketing copy that sounds exactly like you, a custom GPT can learn your brand's voice, style, and workflow preferences, making it a serious, time saving, powerhouse. So what makes custom GPTs so powerful? Unlike the standard chatGPT, which is kind of a"jack of all trades," custom GPTs specialize in a very specific area of your business. They learn from custom instructions. They use specialized data, if you provide it to them, and they can even be integrated into your existing systems and workflows. So let's talk about some of their standout features. First is obviously specialization. They are built for specific industries or tasks like coaching, content creation, email marketing, customer service, legal research, or even medical guidance. Basically, if there's a repetitive task that you do often, there is a GPT that can help you with it. The next standout feature is Enhanced Accuracy. Since they are fine tuned with custom data and instructions, they provide more relevant and high quality responses. Less fluff, more precision. Next is the brand voice matching. Instead of sounding like a generic AI bot, a custom GPT can be trained to sound exactly like you and your business. Whether that's fun and quirky, or professional and polished, or anything in between. Next is scalability and automation. They can be integrated into your existing tools, like email or your CRM and customer support platforms to handle things automatically, saving you a serious amount of time every week. Custom GPTs aren't just a cool concept, they are already game changers across multiple industries. Here's a few examples of how they're already being used. Customer support bots. Businesses are using custom GPTs to answer FAQs, troubleshoot issues, and respond to inquiries from their customers 24/7. This is reducing wait times and helping keep customers happy. They're also being used as content creation and marketing tools. Writers, marketers, and business owners are using them to draft blog posts, newsletters, captions for social media, and even write full fledged website copy in seconds. And yes, it can be trained to sound just like you. They're also being used as education and online learning tools. Schools and course creators are using them to generate lesson plans, quizzes, and study guides that align with specific curriculum requirements. I spoke about this in a previous episode, but I have a friend who teaches PreK and she came to me when we were out to dinner over queso and margaritas and was asking me all about chatGPT. And in a matter of minutes, I had shown her how you could use chatGPT to plan out a month of content about polar bears and antarctica. And it would be very, very simple to write a custom GPT, provide it with the content that she wanted in her lesson plans, and allow that custom GPT to build out nearly all of her lesson plans. I know she spends nearly eight hours on the weekends. working on her lesson plans, and she could claim that time back with just a simple GPT. They're also being used in healthcare and wellness. While AI isn't replacing doctors anytime soon, don't panic, and it also shouldn't be used for medical advice, some medical professionals are using custom GPTs to streamline their patient education materials and also to help with medical documentation. Finally, they're also being used for data and research assistance. Researchers, analysts, and consultants are using them to summarize reports, poll key insights, and even draft presentations, which is saving hours of manual work. So why does this matter to you? Well, let's be real. Your time is your most valuable asset. Whether you're a solopreneur, a course creator, a coach, or a small business owner, you probably wear a hundred hats at once. I get it. I do too. A custom GPT could automate all the repetitive tasks that you do every day, every week within your business. This allows you to focus on growth in your business, let your creativity out, and actually enjoy your business. It also allows you to work less, freeing up your time to spend it with the people in your life who matter the most. So the bottom line here, custom GPTs give you less busy work and allow your time to have the most impact where it matters. And the best part is, you really don't need to be tech savvy to use them. You can create your own custom GPT In seriously minutes with simple step by step instructions. Let's get into how you can start using custom GPTs in your business right now. Here's where AI assistants shine. If you want to generate a months worth of Instagram captions in your brand voice, all with a specific CTA or Manychat keyword pointing to one of your offers? Done. If you need SEO friendly Pinterest pin descriptions? Done. If you are looking to create YouTube video scripts based on your latest blog posts? Done. If you want to write a high converting lead magnet in half the time? Done. And here's my favorite part, custom GPTs are not just for business. I even built a just for fun, buddy the elf AI assistant around the holidays to generate elf on the shelf ideas for my kids. Because listen, AI is here to make life easier, whether that's in your marketing, your daily workflow, or just making sure you don't run out of ideas for hiding that dang elf. There are also a ton of amazing GPTs available in the GPT store on ChatGPT that have nothing to do with business. They don't all have to be business related. There are GPTs that can help you with your creative writing. You can input your writing sample and the Creative writing coach GPT can give you feedback. There are GPTs that can help you with book creation, web research, and idea generation for creating your own book. There are GPTs that can help you with SEO research. There are GPTs that can help you with trending TikTok hashtag tool finder. There are GPTs that can Simpsonize you. Literally that's all that one does, turns you into a Simpsons character. There are GPTs for Gen Z four meme helping you understand the lingo and latest memes of Gen Z. There are GPTs for game time. I can quickly explain board games or card games to players at any skill level. Great. If you don't know how to play a game, go to that GPT and let it explain how to play a game to you. There are tons of GPTs related to cooking. There's a few that give you recipes based on the foods you love and ingredients you have, or create a healthier lifestyle with your personalized meal plan. There's one that helps you decide where to dine. If you and your family can never agree on a restaurant, you can use this GPT to help you decide without a fight. So there are truly GPTs for every purpose, not just business related. Now that you see how powerful these AI assistants are, let's break down how to actually build one for yourself. And before you panic, no, you do not need to know how to code. The whole process is designed to be simple, user friendly, and completely customizable. The first step is to decide what you want your AI assistant to do. First things first, what task do you need help with? Ask yourself these questions. Where do I spend the most time doing repetitive tasks? What content do I create over and over again that could be automated? And where am I wasting time on busy work that an AI assistant could handle it for me? Next, you're going to open the GPT Builder. This is inside of ChatGPT. And if you have a ChatGPT Plus account, which is only$20 a month, you can access OpenAI's GPT Builder. From there, it's going to walk you through naming your AI assistant, describing its purpose, choosing a writing style and tone, and adding the instructions. Step#3 is to train it to sound like you. This is the secret sauce. You can teach your custom GPT to sound exactly like you. You could upload samples of your writing, or tell it to use a casual fun tone, or whatever fits your brand. Also, you need to give it clear instructions, such as write short, engaging Instagram captions in my brand voice. The last step is to start using it daily. The more you use it, the better. Start small. If you want to have it write a caption or summarize a blog post and then build from there, you can always go back in and edit your instructions. These steps are really just skimming the surface of how to build a custom GPT. But if you're interested in learning the true ins and outs and getting step by step guidance, This is something that I do cover inside my AI evergreen content machine course. I also offer custom GPT building as a done for you service. I'll drop the link to both the course and my custom GPT building signup in the show notes. All right. Let's talk about where all of this is headed, because trust me, we are just scratching the surface of what's possible with AI assistance. Right now we're using custom GPTs for things like writing content, automating workflows, and streamlining business tasks. But what happens as AI continues to evolve? The opportunities are freaking mind blowing. AI assistants are about to get smarter and more personalized. Custom GPTs are already incredible, but OpenAI, which is the company that makes chatGPT, is working on making them even more context aware and hyper personalized. Imagine an AI assistant that remembers your brand voice so well that it can draft social media captions exactly as you would say them, that knows your content pillars and suggests topics before you even have to think about them, or that adapts to your audience's preferences, so your messaging gets better and better over time, just like a human assistant would. In the near future, you won't just be using AI to write a blog post, You'll have an AI assistant that understands your entire business strategy and helps execute it automatically. The GPT builder revenue program is also coming up. This is basically how people will make money with AI Assistants. One of the biggest game changers is that open AI is rolling out a revenue sharing program for GPT builders. That means if you create a really valuable custom GPT, you can monetize it by making it publicly available in the GPT store. For example, if you build an SEO optimized blog post generator, business owners could pay to use your custom GPT. If you create a real estate listing description writer, realtors could subscribe to it. If you develop a custom lead magnet creator, digital marketers could rely on it and pay you to use it. Right now, OpenAI hasn't shared the full details on payouts and earnings, but they've confirmed that this program is coming, and let's be real, this could open up an entirely new stream of passive income for people who get in early. We're also already seeing companies use AI to handle customer service, marketing, lead generation, and sales, but in the next few years, custom GPTs will be as common as having a website. Big companies are already jumping on this. Enterprises are building internal custom GPTs to train their employees, automate their HR processes, and even assist in product development. Marketing teams are using AI assistants to generate their sales copy, analyze their customer feedback, and optimize their campaigns. Service based businesses are automating client interactions with personalized AI powered chatbots. And if you're a solopreneur or a small business owner, this is a Game changer! AI assistants let you compete with bigger brands by automating the stuff that would normally take an entire team. AI is going to seamlessly integrate with the tools you already use. Right now, using a custom GPT means going into ChatGPT and giving it instructions. But in the very near future, AI assistants will be built directly into the platforms you use every day, if they're not already. Imagine having a custom GPT inside your project management tool that automatically organizes your tasks and writes out your SOPs. Or an AI assistant inside your email inbox that drafts responses, summarizes long threads, and flags high priority messages. Or a custom GPT connected to your CRM that writes personalized follow ups for leads and customers. This is not just speculation. OpenAI is already working on allowing custom GPTs to connect with third party apps and APIs. This means that your AI assistant won't just generate content, it will take action in your business. With AI evolving this quickly, there's also going to be a major focus on ethics, privacy, and data security. OpenAI has already stated that conversations with custom GPTs are not used to improve models, meaning that your private data stays private. But as AI assistants become more embedded in businesses, we're going to see stronger privacy measures to protect sensitive information. We're going to see more transparency about how AI makes decisions so that businesses can trust the output. And we're also going to see a shift in how businesses use and regulate AI to ensure it's being used ethically. So the bottom line here is that AI isn't going anywhere. It's only going to get smarter, become more powerful, and also become more integrated into our daily lives. The businesses that start using AI now are going to be light years ahead of the competition in the next few years. Let's be real, AI isn't replacing human creativity. It's not here to take away jobs or make businesses feel robotic. It's here to make your life easier. So instead of seeing AI as some futuristic tool that's too advanced for your business, I want you to reframe your mindset. AI is your sidekick, your assistant, and your major time saver. It's what allows you to spend less time stressing over the mundane, repetitive, boring tasks in your business and more time doing what you actually love and spending time with the people you love. So here are your action steps from this episode. One, head over to the chatGPT GPT store, and test out a custom GPT today. If you have GPT plus the paid version, go into the GPT builder and start playing around with it. Think about where you spend the most time on your repetitive tasks. What could you automate? Stay ahead of the game. AI assistants are the future. And the sooner you start using them, the more time and sanity you'll save. And if you want to see a custom GPT in action, check out the link in the show notes to try one today. If this episode helped you, share it with a friend who needs to learn about AI assistants. And that's a wrap. Today we explored everything you need to know about custom GPTs. What they are, how they work, and why they are the ultimate AI assistants that can save you hours of time. The key takeaway from this episode? AI is not here to replace you. It's here to support you. streamline your workflow and help you scale without the burnout. When you start using AI assistance strategically, you'll spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time focusing on what actually moves the needle in your business. And if you're ready to start experimenting with custom GPTs, check out the show notes for links to some of my favorites. I'll see you really soon.