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Key Takeaways
- Many entrepreneurs waste time going back and forth with AI because they skip the thinking and preparation that should happen before writing a prompt.
- A simple three-step approach can dramatically improve AI output and eliminate much of the trial-and-error most users experience.
Most entrepreneurs use AI the same way: they type a vague request, get a generic response, then spend 20 minutes going back and forth until something usable emerges.
It’s the equivalent of hiring a contractor and saying, “Build me something nice.”
The problem isn’t the AI. It’s how we’re asking. After watching dozens of businesses implement AI tools, I’ve noticed a pattern: the ones getting real results follow three simple steps.
Step 1: Clarify what you actually want
Before typing anything, answer three questions.
1. What’s the deliverable?
Not “a marketing plan,” but “a 90-day content calendar with weekly themes, platform assignments and posting times.”
2. What does good look like?
If the output were perfect, what would it contain? How long would it be? What format? What sections?
3. What’s already decided?
This is where entrepreneurs lose the most time. They ask AI to make decisions that should already be made, then reject the results because “that’s not what I meant.”
Here’s a real example. A consultant wanted to improve how she appeared in AI search. When people asked tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity about experts in her field, she wasn’t being mentioned.
Her first prompt was vague: “Help me get mentioned by AI assistants.” The result was generic advice about SEO and social media.
After clarifying her goal, she tried again:
“Create a six-month plan to establish my entity presence so AI systems recognize me as an authority in supply chain sustainability. I need to appear when someone asks, ‘Who are the leading consultants in sustainable supply chain?’ Deliverable: month-by-month actions covering my website’s entity home page, third-party mentions to pursue and content that builds topical authority. Format: actionable calendar with specific platforms and content types.”
The second version worked because she did the thinking first.
The principle: AI executes well but decides poorly. Do your deciding before you start typing.
Step 2: Clean your input
Messy input creates messy output. Every time. Cleaning your input means three things.
Structure it
Don’t paste a wall of text. Break information into categories. Your credentials go in one section. Your audience in another. Your positioning somewhere else. AI can’t organize your priorities for you.
Make it specific
“I’m a business consultant” tells AI almost nothing. But this does:
“Supply chain sustainability consultant with 15 years of experience working with Fortune 500 manufacturers. Known for reducing logistics carbon footprint while cutting costs.”
Specificity gives AI something to work with.
Remove contradictions
Your brand can’t be both “an established industry leader” and “a fresh new voice.” You can’t be “exclusive” and “accessible.”
AI takes you literally. Contradictions create confused output. A friend of mine once fed AI a bio describing him as both “a visionary founder disrupting the industry” and “a steady hand with decades of traditional expertise.”
The results were bizarre: an innovative one paragraph, conservative the next. The problem wasn’t the AI. His positioning was unclear.
The principle: spend 10 minutes organizing your input and you’ll save 30 minutes fixing the output.
Step 3: Separate reference material from instructions
This is the step most people miss — and where the biggest improvements happen.
Every AI prompt contains two types of information.
Reference material
Facts the AI needs to know. Your background, credentials, company details and differentiators.
This is the what.
Instructions
The process the AI should follow. The format, structure, tone and logic you want.
This is the how.
Most people mash these together into one giant prompt. It works sometimes — until it doesn’t.
A SaaS founder I worked with learned this the hard way while trying to create content that would help his product appear in AI recommendations.
His messy prompt looked like this:
“Write content for my project management software. We’re called TaskFlow, founded in 2019 in Austin. We focus on creative agencies. Our differentiator is visual workflow management; we integrate with Adobe Creative Cloud and Figma, pricing starts at $29 per user, competitors are Monday.com and Asana, but we’re more visual. Make it about 800 words.”
Instead, we split the prompt into two sections.
Reference material
Company: TaskFlow (project management SaaS)
Founded: 2019, Austin, Texas
Target market: Creative agencies and design teams
Key differentiator: Visual workflow management
Integrations: Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma
Pricing: From $29 per user/month
Competitive context: Alternative to Monday.com and Asana for visual-first teams
Instructions
Goal: Position TaskFlow as the ideal project management tool for creative teams
Format: 800-word article
Tone: Authoritative but not salesy
Must include: Use cases for creative workflowsStructure: Problem, solution approach, concrete examples and clear positioning.
Structure: Problem, solution approach, concrete examples and clear positioning.
Same information. But now, when the output is wrong — which it often is the first time — you know exactly what to fix.
The principle: when you can update one without breaking the other, your prompts become scalable.
Why this matters for entrepreneurs
For a single LinkedIn post, messy prompts are manageable. But when you’re producing dozens of pieces of content across multiple platforms — or trying to shape how search engines and AI assistants understand your brand — consistency matters.
Messy inputs create a messy digital presence. Structured inputs create clear outputs that compound over time.
In my experience:
- Every hour invested in proper setup saves multiple hours in cleanup.
- Every contradiction removed prevents dozens of confused outputs.
- Every clear instruction eliminates another round of “No, that’s not what I meant.”
What to do Monday morning
Pick one AI task you use regularly — content creation, email drafts or strategic planning.
Then audit it with three questions:
- Did I clearly define the output I wanted? (format, length, tone and structure)
- Was the information I gave structured or just a wall of text?
- Did I separate what the AI should know from what it should do?
Then rebuild the prompt properly.
- Write down exactly what the output should look like.
- Structure your information.
- Separate reference material from instructions.
Run it again and compare the results.
In my experience, a well-structured first prompt often produces better results than the tenth revision of a messy one.
Same AI. Just a better request.
Clarify what you want. Clean what you provide. Organize how you ask. Three simple steps that separate AI that works from AI that wastes your time.
Key Takeaways
- Many entrepreneurs waste time going back and forth with AI because they skip the thinking and preparation that should happen before writing a prompt.
- A simple three-step approach can dramatically improve AI output and eliminate much of the trial-and-error most users experience.
Most entrepreneurs use AI the same way: they type a vague request, get a generic response, then spend 20 minutes going back and forth until something usable emerges.
It’s the equivalent of hiring a contractor and saying, “Build me something nice.”
