Happy fetching New Years friend! I pray this year was everything you wished it to be.

I have a New Years gift for you if you read to the end that I know you can use to increase your personal power: you ability to turn your thoughts into reality.

Let us begin our adventure!

Over the past 4 weeks I have coached over 30 individuals on how to use AI more effectively.

Many of these sessions have been 1-1 opportunities to test my metal and stress my frameworks. It’s been a LOT of fun. It’s also been stressful for me, but I enjoy that so it’s still been fun.

The second thing I teach people about using AI is a concept called Output Templates.

However, I have noticed that when I say Output Template people do not understand what I mean.

They quickly get confused or don’t know how to put it into action. This is my own fault as the teacher. I am not giving good enough examples.

I would like to rectify this oversight, right here, right now.

Output Templates: The Unsung Hero of My 6 Hour Book-writing Adventure

Last week I walked you through how I was able to write a book in less than 6 hours.

This week I wanted to expand on a piece I passed over too quickly that made that possible: The Output Templates (another word for Template is Format). They are the real hero. They are the cheat codes that turn AI mumbo-jumbo into cool the stuff you’d actually want to read.

Without them, I would not have finished my book, let alone finished it in 6 hours.

Before I worked with AI to refine the template for each of my sections, this was the output that the AI gave me:

As you can see, the title and subtitle of the section were in bullet points.

Trying to turn this section into something I could include in my book would have sucked. 

So I asked the AI to iterate on the formatting 4 times. On the 4th time it gave me something I was satisfied with:

That looks way better. And I can copy and paste it into a google doc! Perfect as a starting point for personal edits.

Once I had this template setup for my first section, ChatGPT followed it for the rest of my sections and chapters.

All I had to do was say “Alright, let’s move on!” and it would write the next section or chapter for me.

Each chapter took a little tweaking (none of them were perfect), but the AI was able to implement my requested changes in real time by sliding them into the template it was following.

Any time it broke away from the template, I reminded it to stick to it so that my entire book would be cohesive.

3 Essential Steps to Creating Your Own Output Templates

Step 1: Learning Markdown

The first thing you need to get familiar with is markdown.

Here’s a quick crash course:

• Headings: Use hashtags (#) for headings. One hashtag for a main heading (# Heading), two for subheadings (## Subheading), and so on.

• Lists: Create bullet lists with dashes (- Item) or numbered lists with numbers (1. Item).

Many modern text editors will handle the markdown for you automatically.

# Header 1 Example
## Header 2 Example
### Header 3 Example
...

- List Item 1
- List Item 2
- List Item 3

1. Swag 1
2. Swag 2
3. Swag 3

That same text, just pasted into this text editor (beehiiv) looks like the following:

Header 1 Example

Header 2 Example

Header 3 Example

…

• List Item 1

• List Item 2

• List Item 3

1. Swag 1

2. Swag 2

3. Swag 3

Markdown is the go to method for having the AI format its output on your behalf.

AI uses it to structure content. When you give the AI a template in the form of markdown, it can give you back titles, subheadings, bolded things, etc. Think of it like giving your AI a cheat sheet. The better you use Markdown, the better your AI understands what you want.

Step 2: Building a Template for AI

The way we create a template with markdown is with curly braces: {}

Anything you wrap with curly braces tells the AI “fill this in for me".

For example:

# {Blog Title}

## {Main Point 1}

{punchy intro to topic with a fun joke}

## {Main Point 2}

{Educational information/value/testimonial}

## {Main Point 3}

{Call to action}

This is your basic framework. It’s like sketching out a map for your AI co-pilot, showing where to go but leaving the details to its imagination or your instructions.

Step 3: Level Up Specificity

The more specific you get with your template, the more accurate and potentially useful your output will be.

Here’s a simple template:

- {List Item 1}
- {List Item 2}
- {List Item 3}

We can level it up by adding sub points:

- {List Item 1}
   - {Subpoint A}
   - {Subpoint B}
- {List Item 2}
   - {Subpoint A}
   - {Subpoint B}
- {List Item 3}
   - {Subpoint A}
   - {Subpoint B}

Or if we take the blog post example from step 2 and increase the specificity of the instructions:

# {Blog Title}

## {Header 1}

{punchy intro to topic with a fun joke, at least 5 sentences}

## {Header 2}

{Educational information/value/testimonial, at least 5 sentences}

## {Header 3}

{Call to action, 3 sentences to wrap up, 2 sentences to make the call to action}

Adding specificity transforms your template from a rough sketch to a detailed blueprint. It guides the AI to create richer, more nuanced content, like giving it a magnifying glass to focus on the finer details.

The more specific you get, the more clearly the AI will execute.

The more clearly it executes, the closer it gets to giving you the vision you had in your mind.

And when the AI gives you back perfectly formatted content that is exactly what you wanted… you can’t help but feel the power of working with AI.

Kick Off The New Year With AI Training

If you’d like to refine your templates and make AI give you output that is a manifestation of your thoughts, then I have the course for you.

Until midnight tonight, grab a special 50% off on "Build With AI: An AI Accelerator for Forward Thinking Professionals." 

My goal with this course is to help you use AI to increase the speed at which you turn your thoughts into reality. This is my definition of power, and this is what AI does for everyone who uses it effectively.

In this course you’ll be learning my frameworks for prompting AI, and immediately putting them into action by building 3 AI assistants using ChatGPT’s new feature: GPTs. These AI assistants are tools that will reshape how you work. From automating routine tasks to sparking new creative ideas, these assistants are designed to be your powerhouse.

Remember, this offer vanishes at midnight. Don't miss this opportunity to join a community of forward-thinking professionals who are all using AI to make a real difference in their work. Enroll in "Build With AI" now and step into a future where your time and creativity are amplified.

Are you ready to build, save time, and turn your thoughts into reality faster than you thought possible with AI?

Click the button below to sign up!

It’s a pleasure writing these emails for you.

If you have any questions, just respond to this email and I’ll get it. =D

Your friend and AI coach,
Sterling Long!