Why AI Fails You…And the 3 Prompts That Fix It

What if your best business consultant, therapist, and strategic board of advisors were all in one room… and free? 

Joe Downs and Peter Swain introduce the powerful Three Prompt System, a practical framework for thinking with AI, not just talking to it. Forget theory…this is real-world strategy, applied live to a tough self-storage business decision. 

They dive into how to use AI as a thinking partner to guide you through complex decisions, not with cookie-cutter answers, but by co-creating plans tailored to your life, your goals, and your business. 

Whether you're deciding to expand, invest, pivot, or prioritize, this episode will teach you how to brain dump, strategically filter, and build actionable next steps with AI as your thought partner. 

Get ready to never make decisions the same way again.

Listen For

:18 What is the Three Prompt System and how can it help any business decision?

2:18 What are the steps in the Three Prompt System?

5:00 How do you do an effective brain dump into AI?

10:52 What questions should you prompt AI to ask YOU?

28:10 How do you turn insights into an actionable plan?

Joe Downs

Website | Email | LinkedIn | YouTube

Peter Swain

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Chapters

• 0:18 What is the Three Prompt System and how can it help any business decision?
• 2:18 What are the steps in the Three Prompt System?
• 5:00 How do you do an effective brain dump into AI?
• 10:52 What questions should you prompt AI to ask YOU?
• 28:10 How do you turn insights into an actionable plan?

Transcript

Peter Swain (00:00):

AI is never going to interrupt you and tell you that you're wrong. It's going to reaffirm what you think is right. So if we ask a limiting AB question, it will limit itself to an AB answer.

Joe Downs (00:18):

For the past two weeks, we've been giving you AI hacks, both individual and for business. And today we're going to show you the system that kind of connects them all. It's the three prompt system, and essentially it's going to show you how to think with AI, not just ask questions. Again, this is not theory, this is real life application. So I've got a business and I've got a real business decision in my self-storage company. And I'm going to have Peter walk me through solving some of it using this framework, and we're going to do it right now. So by the end of this episode, you're going to have a framework you can use for any decision in any business that you have. And you're going to watch it happen and unfold in real time right now. So I'm Joe Downs. With me is Peter Swain, and we are just a couple of successful idiots.

(01:11):

One of us is an American, which means I talk louder. The other is British, which means he thinks he's smarter than maybe his accent allows for. Jerry's still out on both. Our job is simple here, show you how to think about AI and how to use some AI tools to put more horsepower behind your small business or help you start one. So Peter, let's step inside the Hustle Lab again and get rolling. Peter, last two weeks, AI hacks, personal first, then some business. This week feels a little different. Why are we shifting gears? What's going on here?

Peter Swain (01:48):

Well, we're looking to move from tactics to strategy, right? So individual hacks are insane, but if that's all you start and that's where you end with this, you're just trading time for AI tasks. Today is about thinking with AI a bit more strategically, using it as a thought partner instead of a task machine. That is the shift that separates people who dabble from people who dominate.

Joe Downs (02:10):

All right. So in my intro, I introduce this as a three prompt system. So walk us through what that looks like.

Peter Swain (02:18):

So first it's brain dump. Second is strategic filter. And then third is action builder. It's going to take you from I'm stuck to I know exactly what to do and it's the best way to learn, but it's also the best way is to see it in action. So that's why I thought we'd do it this way this time. If like instead of just like talking, we'd actually walk through something and you said you've got a real world one to go with.

Joe Downs (02:39):

All right. I do. And so let's get to it. So here's a decision or situation that we're facing at one of our self-storage facilities. So background is my company, the Belrose Group. We buy value add self-storage facilities. We are developing a new brand called StorePro, which is pro storage for businesses. It's the B2B version of self-storage. And we also, we educate, teach and educate people how to buy self-storage through the self-storage academy. But the decision that I'm going to ... I haven't made a decision. I guess the situation that we're struggling with in our company has to do with a very specific situation at a self-storage facility. So the question is, we're a non-climate self-storage facility, right? So they have climate control, self-storage facilities, and non-climate control. And really, we should say temperature control because the legal minds will tell you that we can't control the climate, only God can.

(03:47):

So we have temperature controlled facilities and non-temperature controlled facilities. Colloquially, that's a tough word. We just call it climate control in the business. But the question before us, Peter, is do we convert existing units that are non-climate into climate control or do we build a new building that's climate control? So we have this kind of make or buy except it's convert or build decision to make, right? Building is expensive, it can take longer, but we get to keep the existing revenue, right? If I take a temperature control, or sorry, a non-temperature, non-climate control building, and I convert it, it's going to cost less theoretically, right? Well, not theoretically, definitely it will. It won't cost nothing, but it'll cost a lot less. But now I have to take existing paying customers out of circulation, out of revenue generating, or take units that are generating revenue out of circulation, and we don't know what to do.

(04:50):

And how do you even go about analyzing this situation? I mean, there is a way to obviously to do it, but it starts to make your head hurt. Awesome.

Peter Swain (05:00):

Yeah. I mean, it's perfect. It's exactly what this system is designed to handle. So let's walk through it step by step. So the first piece is the brain dump. Our goal here is to get everything out of your head into AI without filtering. We're not trying to organize, we're just trying to do that pure stream of consciousness that we've already spoken about a few times now. So Joe, if you were sitting with ChatGPT right now, what would you say?

Joe Downs (05:23):

I should actually probably just turn it on right now. But yeah, okay. So brain dump. So I kind of just started there a second ago, but essentially the hardest part is actually just doing it, right? Just letting go and feeling like you're talking to your therapist. So you have to get your ... I personally have to get my head into the game and I know it shouldn't be this hard, but all right, so I got a role play with you. Yeah.

Peter Swain (05:50):

Well, I'm not here. The listener's

Joe Downs (05:53):

Not here. Nobody's listening to me. Just

Peter Swain (05:56):

Off the cuff, go.

Joe Downs (05:57):

Me and my shower thoughts right now. Okay. So self. I'm trying to decide whether to convert existing units into ... Really, I'd be saying this to chat or whatever call it. But I'm trying to decide whether to convert existing units to climate control or build new climate control units. And then I guess I would probably tell it like everything about the facility. So currently facilities at 85% occupancy. We're all mostly drive up units. Our market research shows growing demand for climate control in the area, but we don't have any. People are storing valuable items, documents, electronics. Converting would mean taking probably 20 to 30 units offline for three to four months maybe. Not 100% sure. I would actually like some help on that. I'd probably lose four grand a month revenue during construction, but that would only cost, I think, roughly 80 grand. That's spitballing, so I'd probably need some help with that.

(06:56):

But then if we do have the area to build a new building, that would cost probably two to 250 grand based on building another, call it 4,000 square feet, probably takes eight to 10 months. Again, I'm spitballing these. I have concerns about competitive advantage and losing customers if I wait too long and falling behind my competitors, but I'm also worried about overleveraging. I'm not sure what the local competition's doing with climate control and if their pricing is right or if it's high, the reviews say they're always full. I've called around, they seem always full. What should I be thinking here? What else would I add to that?

Peter Swain (07:46):

I would say that's about 80% of what I'd want you to do.

Joe Downs (07:49):

Okay.

Peter Swain (07:49):

The next thing I'd want you to do, and I certainly don't want you to do this for the podcast, but I'd want you to tell ChatGPT what is your cash situation? What is your lending situation? I'd want you to say, what are your family implications over that eight, 10 months? Like, do we have a stable marriage? Do we have kids going to college? Because all of those things that are going to affect how present you can be for the next 10 months.

Joe Downs (08:17):

So you're putting the marriage counselor on the board again.

Peter Swain (08:20):

Always. Why would you not? Because if that goes wrong, everything else goes very wrong, very quickly. So to me, I love AI approaching what I refer to as a whole life decision. So I want AI to give me advice for my business that's also going to work for my health. It's going to work for my family. It's going to work for my personal wealth. So I want it to make a whole life decision. So from a business perspective, I think you covered 80, 85% at least. So you did really, really well, but I would add in those other layers because what you don't want is a decision in the absence of the context of you and your life. Because what's right for you now, and honestly, what would be right for you in three years is probably different. So we need to let it know.

Joe Downs (09:03):

Okay. So I'm with you. So add a little bit of the personal angle, not just marriage. I'm focusing on marriage, but what else is going on in your life? Like, "Hey, I drive my kids three days a week to this or that. It's going to take time." I hear you on the podcast.

Peter Swain (09:23):

If you go with the ... Just my thoughts, not even AI right now. If you go with the convert, not the build, then what you haven't factored in already is the time to ramp back up the customers on the other side because you're not just going to lose the customers, you're going to have to go and reacquire the customers because whoever was a customer is going to go and find somebody else. So if we get to the end of this four months and you've got one kid that's now going to college and God forbid you have a family member that's sick, are you going to be as present as you need to be in order to help ramp back up? Whereas the new build, there's more upfront risk, but there's less risk. But AI won't be able to make any of those judgment calls if it doesn't know your life situation.

Joe Downs (10:06):

Sure. And do I have a team that will run this for me and how involved will I be? And on the financial end, obviously I'm not going to speak to numbers on a podcast, but what you're essentially saying, and I would do this, is upload the financials of the facility, the P&L, the management reports, everything we know about the market from any of the services we're using, all of the information we can possibly give it so that it can help guide me, which is guide me to do what? After I've loaded it, I've just thrown up from my brain all the information that I could possibly get out of it, I've uploaded all of the information I could possibly give it, what is my prompt next?

Peter Swain (10:52):

Yeah. So once you've done that, you're then going to say, and we're going to give a secret little addition right at the end, an ethical bribe to stick around, right? But the next thing I would do is say, "Before you give me any recommendations, first make sure you understand my situations. Ask me any questions you have, seek any additional information that's going to help us be clearer on this. " So what you do not do is say, "Give me your answer." What you say now is ask me questions. So you did the brain dump- So like what? Say, ask me questions.

Joe Downs (11:26):

Help me understand. So I've brain dumped, I've document dumped, and now I want to ask the AI tool- To ask you. ... to ask me if the information I've given is complete enough? Is that what-

Peter Swain (11:41):

No. So if you say, "Hey, I've just given you this brain dump and I gave you all these things, ask me any additional follow up questions that you need in order to fully understand the situation." It's going to then start asking you questions like, "What's your current debt to income ratio? What percentage of existing customers have inquired about climate control? What's the typical rent premium for climate control versus non-climate control? How long is your average customer tenure? What's your timeline for the decision? What other capital needs might you have in the next 12 to 24 months?"

Joe Downs (12:08):

So I'm with you. So in the think about your thinking or retrain your brain mantras that I and Dance Sullivan like to say, I'm asking AI to ask me what it needs to learn about my business and this situation and me personally and about my company. So ask me what you need to know about me in this situation so that you can properly advise me. Is that the right way to

Peter Swain (12:39):

Look? 100% because humans are the best context machines on the planet. So if you were to sit with a consultant to help you make this decision, I don't know what a self-storage consultant would be, probably you. But if you were to sit with another consultant, these are the types of questions they would naturally ask you. The reason we employ people to help us is because they see the gaps in our information and pull them out of us because I think you probably know 80% of the answers to those questions I just asked. 20% of them, you might say, "That's not relevant." Because it will ask questions that you go, "No, that's not part of this decision." I go, "Okay, fine." So you get this very honest, ego-less process of going, "Actually, that's a really good point. I haven't actually done that. " Because for example, if you haven't had anyone ask you about climate control facilities, well, maybe you should stop this entire thing and go and ask them if they actually want the thing before you spend the money.That might be a good idea.

(13:37):

Who knows? But you're not going to get there unless you have had that conversation.

Joe Downs (13:43):

Interesting. Okay. So in this, we're talking about three prompts. Is it fair to say this is the ... In my experience, let me say that, this is the prompt, the part of the three prompt process that seems to me to take the most time. Is that fair enough? Or should take the most time? Or you should spend the most time on is a better way to say it.

Peter Swain (14:10):

It absolutely should. If you go through this for as long as you feel you need to until the AI truly understands, and you can tell what that is by how useful the questions are because the questions will start becoming more, that's not relevant, that's not relevant, that's not relevant. Because it's going to keep asking you questions until you tell it to stop. So at some point it's going to ask you something like, "Do you like the Great Wall of China?" Because it'll have run out of any relevant question, but you told it to keep asking you questions, so it will keep asking you questions until you tell it to stop. This could take five minutes, it could take 20. I mean, I've had sessions of these that have taken a day. When I'm trying to make a huge decision, I've gone back and forward for a day and realized how much information I know that I haven't even thought to communicate.

(14:58):

I would say on average, you're looking for this to probably take somewhere between 10 minutes and 30 minutes.

Joe Downs (15:05):

Okay. And I just thought of this, would my prompt also include, and what I'm about to say would probably be at every phase of the process, I'll let you comment on it. But wouldn't I also want to, in this initial prompt, when asking it to ask me questions, shouldn't I prompt it to say, "You are the most strategic self-storage advisor in the world. What would you need to know? "

Peter Swain (15:35):

100%. So it's what we call topping and tailing, and it's exactly that. If you're going to say something like, "Hey, so for the rest of this exercise, I want you to take the persona of a seasoned investor expert in self-storage units that's going to help guide me through this. " So in order to do that, your next set of conversation with me is to ask me any question you need in order to get the information you need to help me make this decision. As soon as you ask me a question, I answer. If you feel I'm not clear, ask me a follow-up question in order to go deeper and more insightful into the subject we went through. So you're really drilling down.

Joe Downs (16:10):

And I feel like, and tell me if I'm wrong, but I feel like that would also improve the second prompt, right? Which is the strategic filter using a strategic filter. So walk us through what that looks

Peter Swain (16:23):

Like. 100%. So this is where we're going to transition now. And what you're going to do is you're going to ask AI to help think through the decision from multiple angles before jumping into action. So Joe, you've been around this for a bit now. How would you frame that?

Joe Downs (16:36):

Well, I guess I would ask it to, or in my conversation, say, "Look, you understand my situation now, so how do I analyze both options, I guess?" I would probably ask it to give me a, not a champion challenger, but give me an analysis of both converting and building new. What are the financial implications over one, three, and five year time horizons? Gosh, thinking about the last two episodes and everything I'm learning in your mastermind, I would probably add, give me competitive positioning impacts or I would ask it to look at my competitors and find out what their holes are. We just covered this in the last episode.

(17:29):

I mean, it sounds simple to say, well, it's climate versus non-climate, but maybe not. Maybe it's unit sizes, right? Where are the holes in my competitors from a unit size perspective, even within climate or what are my strategic advantages that I might have if others are converting or new climate is being built, is there a strategic advantage in not converting? What are the other risk factors? What are the operational complexities I didn't think of? I think I could just ask it almost like a co-creation scenario is what don't I know that I don't even know what to ask, right?

Peter Swain (18:09):

Great question. One of the best questions is what other questions would people ask in my scenario? It's such a powerful one. And I'd love for, when you're listening to this, if you hear what happened at the beginning, Joe went through the same exercise. The first question actually took him like a good 20 seconds to say the first question, but then the stream of consciousness happened of, because what the problem is as we role play this and we synth this, is Joe's talking to me. And when Joe talks to me, he's trying to line up his thoughts in an order that makes sense to communicate them to me and to you. But when he talks to AI, it feels very, very different. It will feel more like, so hey, so here's what I need to know. I need to know like one year, three year, five years, I want to look at P&L and cashflow.

(18:55):

I want to know what happens if the Republicans stay in power? What happens if Democrats get elected next time? What would happen if there's a hurricane? I don't fucking know there could be a hurricane, right? What are the competition doing around me within a five, 10, and 15 mile? I want to know the operational complexity. What would happen if the price of copper goes up? I mean, I hear that data center is doing something, or is that not something I should think of? So it just becomes this blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, of which some of it will be completely irrelevant, but the human brain doesn't work that way. It can't structure itself very well. So this is, we just want you to word vomit and trust that the AI is going to catch up because if it does, it's going to be eye-opening.

(19:36):

It's going to think you through from angles that you haven't seen and it's going to give you new insights.

Joe Downs (19:40):

And you nailed a couple things. Well, first of all, just this dynamic of you putting me on the spot, which I thought I was ready for, but I'm also talking to you on a podcast that's recorded and you're my AI mentor. So I'm nervous that I'm going to say something stupid, but I have noticed that when I, it's just me and AI, we make mental love. And when no one's around, all the guards are down. It doesn't judge me. I just get to say whatever. And by the way, that you just rambled off a whole list of really good things I didn't even think of, like what happens with the political climate changes, which is a really good question maybe you should always put in there or ask in there. But you could just ask things if you're curious like, "Hey, what happens if Penn State wins the national championship next year?

(20:32):

How does that impact my ... " It could be completely random. Some might just be for fun. You never know what you might stumble upon. Obviously that was really random, but what you might stumble upon just by asking curious questions or like I tell my kids all the time, stay curious, not judgemental. And I guess it's probably fair to say, Peter, the results I'm going to get are things like how many units you should convert. Well, obviously do it or not do it, convert or not, or maybe some sort of hybrid, I don't know, or even a marketing strategy. But these are all the things I think that can be incorporated into that. So it's so fascinating when you start to, and you just alluded to it a second ago, when you start to just free flow and free form or method act with yourself and AI, it's incredible where you can take this and where it leads you.

Peter Swain (21:35):

It is. And it is, as you said, it's kind of co-creation, but gone then. So you said about 20, 30 units, you talked about that, about should you pre-sell. What else do you think you might be able to get out of it?

Joe Downs (21:47):

Well, I think it comes down to how good your prompts are, right? If I prompt it properly, shouldn't it be leading me down inspirational, thought provoking paths? So I could give examples of what I expected to say, but I feel like my brain is too feeble to ... In other words, I don't want to compare and contrast this podcast to me actually doing it because I'll be embarrassed.

Peter Swain (22:21):

Well, and this is, but it's such a fascinating thing because this is, we talked about a mindset shift in episodes one and two, and this is what we ... It's kind of core of this of you realize when you start using AI properly, you realize you're no longer the smartest person in the operation. It's smarter than you. And a lot of people I find get their ego challenged. They're like, "No, I want to control the process." It's like, why do you want to control the process? Don't you just want to be ridiculously wealthy and spend the time with your wife and your husband and your kids? Surely that's a better option, but your job is to conduct the orchestra. You go from being the person playing the guitar to the manager of the band and the manager of the band cuts 10% checks without doing any work.

(23:06):

The guy that plays the guitar has to go on tour. So it's moving you around and you're going to get strategic insights. That's the hope of this, that shift how you think about the decision. It's not just which is cheaper. It's starting to understand the second and third order implications like what would happen if Penn State win? What happens if the political spectrum changes? And it adds another layer to it. So after the initial analysis, these are some follow up questions because we asked it to adopt the persona of a self-service expert. You could also now say, what would a conservative CFO say about this decision? What would an aggressive growth operator say? What would a risk management expert say? What would Warren Buffett say? I mean, it literally could be, we can bring in our own board of advisors. What would Gandy say about this decision?

(23:55):

We can bring in literally anybody to help us, Joe.

Joe Downs (23:58):

And you nailed it. It's the board of advisors technique we just talked about in episode two, but it's not the personal one where episode two, last week we talked about you had your marriage counselor on your personal board and you asked the question, right? So this is that same board with the marriage counselor that we already introduced, but you've introduced whoever the expert on industrial development is or in self-storage, maybe it's Scott Myers, right? But your board is not only providing you with guidance, it's thought provoking, right? And

(24:44):

It's getting you to think next level really helps you level up. I mean, we keep saying the same thing. I feel like, I hope it doesn't sound like a broken record, but it really just comes down to having a conversation with the board that you design. If you don't design the board, it's just AI, right? And if you design the board, meaning who you're asking this advice from and this thought provoking conversation with, then that's what you get. I guess we say that all the time. It's garbage in, garbage out, except in this case, it's really good information in and really good prompting, really good advice out,

Peter Swain (25:28):

Right? Because it's so powerful, the garbage in, garbage out is just exponentially magnified. It's either going to be really, really bad information out or really, really good information out. Because you might hear with that board something about debt service coverage ratios. Your CFO might say you can handle a 200K build, but only under these criteria. Your growth operator might come back and say, "Do it, do it now, cut the check, let's go, because your competition is already full, so why wouldn't we? " And the risk expert is probably going to say something like, "Your eight to 10 month timeline, well, first of all, there's a 20% variance between eight and 10. So do you really know what the timeline is? Because it sounds to me like you don't, which means it could actually be 14, 16 or 18. Can you afford the capital to be locked up for that long?" So those are the kind of things I think we'll get back.

Joe Downs (26:19):

And I've used it, we're going to use it for this situation, but I've used it even in how to design this podcast and not only the podcast, but what will come down in the future with the community, right? And it advised me, and it seems so simple, but it advised me not to bite off too much, right? First, start talking. First, start providing content and a great, compelling podcast for people that are business owners or stuck in their W2 that are trying to find a side hustle, right? It's provide them with this level of comfort and knowledge and know how that you can use AI to either enhance your business or to start a business, right? So that was literally the advice that that board gave me. Don't do these nine other things, which are great ideas, but you can't do it all at once today.

(27:17):

Wait until you get to this point in your podcast, then you could start helping people in these other ways. So I've already seen how that advice, once you properly load it with information and then you ask it in the right way, in the right prompts, and who knows if I even did it the right way, but in the way I did it, it already provided that incredible feedback. But then that, Peter, that leads to the third prompt, which is, "Okay, so I've got this feedback now. Talk to me about the action builder. How do I take the feedback or how do I ... " Sorry, not take the feedback. We could stop there and just take the feedback and decide what to do with it, right? Joe Downs and whatever his IQ is and business level of experience could take that feedback and stop there and say, "All right guys, gather the team and go, this is what we're going to do and not do and this is how we're going to do it.

(28:10):

" Or what could I do? How could I take that feedback and harness it even better?

Peter Swain (28:15):

You can do that final step, which is the action building. So now you're going to move from thinking to doing, right? You've brain dumped everything. You've explored the decision from multiple different angles. Now you've made a decision, so now you need a plan. So if you needed a plan, Joe, drum roll, come on, come on, my number one student. How would you frame the prompt?

Joe Downs (28:35):

Number one student. That is a lie. That is a bold face lie, sir.

Peter Swain (28:41):

I didn't say on what grading scale.

Joe Downs (28:43):

Yeah, right. Your newest best dude. I think I would ask it to ... So I'm taking the feedback it gives me. So I would probably, I don't even know what feedback it gave me yet. Why don't you give me one, the other or hybrid. I'm probably going to ask it to give me a 30 day plan, a 90 day plan. What are the key metrics? What are my obstacles? How do I roll it out step by step? What I would do day one, week one, month one, 90 days, key metrics for sure. What pitfalls, obstacles, what aren't I seeing? Is my team qualified? Do I need to bring in a third party vendor to fill in gaps in my team or someone to lean on? Are there decision checkpoints along the way where I should reevaluate? If this, then should I reevaluate that? I don't know.

(29:45):

What am I missing?

Peter Swain (29:46):

So again, I would give that a pretty good grade. I'd add one thing before that, which would be that topping and tailing of the first thing I would say is, now I want you to take the persona of an experienced project manager Ja. Of course. In the build out step, right? Because we want to move them from the advisor. We now want them to take on a new persona. So apart from that, that was the only thing I'd change because then what you're going to get is this really, really detailed roadmap and a project plan.

Joe Downs (30:14):

I'm going to take partial credit because I said it earlier. I just forgot because I'm on the hot seat.

Peter Swain (30:19):

That's true. Look at you getting all defensive within this humans, not ego.

Joe Downs (30:24):

See? I should do this podcast with your clone and that would probably be a little more

Peter Swain (30:30):

Comfortable. That's true. But I'm saying that for everyone out there because when you start using AI, what you realize is how much freer you become when your ego is satiated. And even the best of us that have subjugated their egos and have done the work and all that stuff, when you're talking to another human, you're still sense checking how they've received it, what they're saying. And AI, it's a robot. It doesn't care. You can talk about your ED halfway through this and it doesn't care. So you can actually explore subjects you actually want to explore. Anyway, let's come back to it. So you tell it, I'm this, do me the project roadmap. Instead of it coming back saying, just do this thing, it's going to give you that plan with checkpoints and metrics. It's going to walk you through what it would actually look like if you actually went ahead with what you're doing.

Joe Downs (31:22):

Yep. And then I'm guarantee from there I could even take it. So go get contractor bids, take the contractor bids, run them through, compare, contrast. Which one fits my plan better based on this relationship, this bid. I mean, it's mind boggling. If you just take time with it, it's incredible how much time, energy, money it can save you, not just as religious.

Peter Swain (31:47):

I'm actually running ... It's rezar. Sorry, John. I'm actually running one of these at the moment, but it's kind of back to personal, but I just want to kind of jump between them to showcase it. I'm taking the family to Disney for Christmas.

Joe Downs (31:59):

Oh, here we go.

Peter Swain (32:00):

Now, anybody that knows about a Disney holiday is you've got to book this ride on that day and book this restaurant on that day. And this opens up with a 15-day window and this one opens up with a 30-day window. And the planning for two weeks at Disney is not easy.

Joe Downs (32:18):

Don't forget your FastPass.

Peter Swain (32:20):

Don't forget it's not even called a FastPass anymore. There you are.

Joe Downs (32:23):

There you

Peter Swain (32:23):

Go.

Joe Downs (32:24):

I just dated my kids.

Peter Swain (32:27):

But last year, so I've literally got a day-by-day plan between now and the day that we leave because I was like, I'm fully booked up. And with the fact that I'm going away for a couple of weeks, I have to get all my work done before I go away. So I've got 15 minutes a day to action the holiday between now and when I leave. I've got an Amazon order for a coffee machine arriving at the hotel on a delayed booking that I've already made. And I've got supplements coming because I don't want to pack them because I don't want to take the extra third case. I have this down to the square footage of the cases of what we're going to be able to fit in the cases. So what we're going to need to order for when we're there.

Joe Downs (33:11):

You are Yoda, sir. And I haven't done

Peter Swain (33:13):

The work. AI's done the work.

Joe Downs (33:15):

I am just a young ... We all are just a young Luke Skywalker.

Peter Swain (33:20):

It's just so much fun to just wake up and say, "Hey, Jett, what is it I'm doing today?" And it just goes, "Here's the three things." I'm like, "Great, thanks very much."

Joe Downs (33:28):

Amazing. We're

Peter Swain (33:28):

Just going to do those three. But it's going to be the same in the business, the same thing.

Joe Downs (33:32):

Real quick, let me recap this. We got the brain dump, get everything out, let AI ask clarifying questions. Strategic filter was your second prompt, analyze from multiple angles before jumping to action. Again, that's all about the prompts. And then the action builder, well, it's always all about the prompts, I guess, but action builder, what's your detailed execution plan? This is with anything. So for me, it was with the self-storage example. It was a make or buy, the quote unquote maker buy, but it was really a converter build decision, right? So what's the detailed execution plan with metrics, checkpoints, et cetera. So three prompts, any decision, any business, and not to leave them with that, Peter, but give me, if you would, for the listener, what are some examples of other businesses? Self-storage, that's my business, great business, boring business, not a lot of people in self-storage.

(34:31):

Our listener is more likely what? What's their business? Real estate agent, whatever. This

Peter Swain (34:36):

Works so powerfully, Joe, because it mirrors the way that humans should make important decisions. So this would work if you wanted to move houses from one place to another, or your kids are just left and you were empty nesting and you're thinking about should you sell the house or put it on Airbnb or go on holiday, or should you take a line of credit and spend money on R&D in your existing business? Should you open up a new line of business? Should you hire the CFO for $250,000 when you've only got $500,000 in the bank in cash reserves? Should you open up a new office? This literally works across any and every way of making a decision that's personal or professional.

Joe Downs (35:20):

So I think you nailed it. It's decision making. It's best. It's your personal therapist, board of advisors. It's everybody you want to include. And it's just all about you as the CEO of your life or your business or your job role or whatever it is, just how to make the best, most informed decision possible.

Peter Swain (35:44):

And the reason all that context is so important, I'll give you an example, again, a real world example. Every time I do this, AI comes back and tells me that I should focus on enterprise application of AI. That's where my money is. And if I've forgotten to tell it, the next sentence is, "I don't want to do that because I want to help solopreneurs and entrepreneurs because I think that's the thing that survives the AI armageddon in two, three years time." I think enterprises will be decimated and I think entrepreneurs will be accelerated. And I'm not very good with enterprise because I happen to curse a lot and they tend to fire me quite quickly. So it doesn't light me up to work with enterprise. It lights me up to work with entrepreneurs. So even though the analysis comes back and says, "My revenue would be 3x, 4X, whatever it might be if I worked with Enterprise," because I've asked it to make a whole life decision.

(36:44):

My whole life decision, my marriage, my kids, my health, my family, my wealth and my business, the right answer is that. So this is literally going to work everywhere. The brain dump is going to get everything out of you. The strategic filter is going to give you different insights and different viewpoints and different ways to make the decision. And that action building process is going to give you a plan that you can actually follow that's generated for you and your situation.

Joe Downs (37:11):

All right. But Peter, none of it matters if you don't use it.

Peter Swain (37:16):

100%.

Joe Downs (37:17):

So next week we're going to talk

Peter Swain (37:19):

About- Wait, wait. I said I give people a bonus. Oh, go for it. Go for it. There was one thing that you did wrong at the

Joe Downs (37:23):

Beginning. What did I do wrong?

Peter Swain (37:25):

You asked it to make an A or B choice. If you'd said- Oh,

Joe Downs (37:29):

Okay.

Peter Swain (37:30):

If you'd said to it, "One option is for me to build a new facility, one option we need to convert, but I'd like you to give me three other ideas that I haven't even considered." So

Joe Downs (37:41):

Co-creation. Yeah.

Peter Swain (37:42):

Co-creation, because is there a partial in there? Could you convert them in like five blocks, then five blocks, then five blocks? Would that be an option? Could you sell the interest in the new business and could you partner on it to lower the cost at the beginning instead of self-financing it all yourself? Could you fifty fifty? Because as you said, your frail, female human mind has perceived that there are two choices, but in reality, there are a hundred plus different choices to be made. And the thing that's dangerous with AI, and the reason I wanted to give it as a little bonus at the end, is AI will take any bias that you give it and it will run with it. So if we go back to the human example, if you were speaking to a human consultant, the human consultant will go, "Joe, you're mental.

(38:34):

You know that there's a small business loan initiative that just got announced six months ago for new self-storage climate controlled things. So actually you can offset the whole of this finance and you go, wow, I hadn't even thought that. Okay, let's do that then." AI is never going to interrupt you and tell you that you're wrong. It's going to reaffirm what you think is right. So if we ask a limiting AB question, it will limit itself to an AB answer instead of giving you the three other ideas. So before you get to us next week, my little fairy dust on the top is try to avoid inherent bias by saying, "Here's the two options." At the very least say, "Here are the two options I see and I want you to give me another

Joe Downs (39:20):

Three." It's brilliant. And personally, what I've started to do is ask it at the end if I did start with the, "This is the decision I'm making," because in that case, that is the decision we're making. But to your point, at the end, I say, "What am I not thinking of? What are other..." I forget exactly how I say it and probably say it different every time, but it's that same co-creation. I think I say, if you were me, what would you look at or what are the other options you would look at? So I allow it for that. I'm still obviously working to polish that as well.

Peter Swain (39:56):

Yeah. By the end, it's going to be a bit too locked into the context.

Joe Downs (39:59):

Oh, is it? Okay.

Peter Swain (40:00):

And it's going to be trying to please you by telling you that you made a brilliant decision.

Joe Downs (40:04):

So I knew this podcast with you was brilliant because I do get free coaching on the side. All right. Next week. I

Peter Swain (40:10):

Thought you said it's value for everybody.

Joe Downs (40:12):

This is for everybody, Peter. These will be released to the public. I love it. So

(40:18):

Next week we're going to talk about the daily integration of this. So the hardest part, it's like for me with Willow, I still catch myself typing and then I have to stop mid-sentence, push the buttons down and continue to talk. Same thing here is how do we make this a daily habit? So we're going to talk about the AI morning routine, just some creative fun habits to make this second nature. It's not another thing in your to- do list. It's just something to start to ingrain the consistent usage of AI into your life, which should bleed into your business. That's next week.

(41:02):

If you found this valuable, please like it. As I said every week, Peter, he fees off of the dopamine. He's Britt. It's the T. It's his tea for him, those like button. It's like a four o'clock tea. Subscribe for yourself. Yeah, cheer. Cheerio. Subscribe for yourself. Just hit the subscribe button just so you know when we get the next episode drops, you don't want to miss it. And then our rule with sharing is, look, just don't just share it for sharing sake. I mean, that's a nice silver lining for us, but try this. Try the three prompt system. Take a decision you have in your life. Run it through the three prompt system that we just covered with you. See, but first of all, you're going to be prepared to be amazed. You're going to be absolutely blown away by the feedback you get, the thought provoking that you get.

(41:53):

And be careful. If Peter gave his warning, I'll give you my warning. Be careful. It can be a little bit of a rabbit hole because it is so freaking interesting and just captivating once you start co-collaborating and co-creating with AI, it's like the greatest employee, board, whatever you've ever had. So try it for yourself first, then share it. Don't just share it right away. It's going to hit different for people, but please do share it at the end of the day. We appreciate it and they will thank you later.