Testing Google's AI to create content from scratch (and other use cases)

Last night I started playing around with Gemini and wanted to share some details on how I used it and how it went.

For those unaware, Gemini is Google’s AI tool.

Warning: this is a longer email/post than normal, but I share specific AI prompts and strategies you may find useful for your business, marketing, etc.

The backstory.

As most of you know I’m bullish on AI for certain things and I recommend tinkering and testing different tools to find the tools and use-cases that work for you (for some of my favorite, you can always check my Tools page here).

Last week, I upgraded my Google plan for my law firm email because I wanted to use their new e-signature feature (not the main topic of this post, but so far I’m finding it convenient but not as professional as the top tools like Docusign, Hellosign, etc.).

Turns out that by upgrading my plan, I also unlocked a bunch of new features with Gemini, which is their AI that is a standalone tool (like ChatGPT), but also infused into all of the other Google tools (like Docs, Gmail, etc.).

In essence, it’s the Microsoft Co-Pilot of G-suite.

First use case: brainstorming

I started out by using the brainstorming feature, as I’ve been mulling over some different ideas and ways to grow the Solopreneur Grind podcast and this substack.

Again, very similar to something like ChatGPT or Claude, but found it very helpful in terms of the answers it gave and how I was able to have an on-going conversation adding other details, providing more info to get better output, etc.

For example, here’s my initial prompt that you could maybe apply to your business or project:

I have a podcast i've ran for more than 7 years now called Solopreneur Grind, where i interview successful solopreneurs. i also have an email list i've been growing alongside it, with about 820 subscribers. i'm looking to continue hosting the podcast and using it to grow my email list, and to scale up premium service offers to my list. more specifically i'm thinking of things like group masterminds and coaching services. any initial thoughts or more info you might need first?

The cool thing here was that before it answered, it actually asked me 3 follow-up questions to gather more information before providing feedback. I then went back and forth with it to narrow in on what I was interested in.

Second use case: growth marketing

Once I zero’d in on the strategy, I changed gears by asking it this (keep in mind, this was all 1 on-going conversation so it had context the entire time):

i think i know what i need to do there, thanks! now onto growth, i'd love to keep growing the email list. right now i do this by posting on linkedin, twitter, and sharing my podcasts/cutting them into short 50 second clips to share as well. any general tips or ideas on how to grow my email list faster?

It came up with 7 pretty good answers, which again I then continued to discuss and narrow down to what I wanted to focus on, but this is one thing I think AI is amazing at: analyzing a lot of information and providing a broad list of ideas or strategies which you should then narrow down based on what you like.

One of the answers I got was creating or improving an email list lead magnet.

For those unaware, a lead magnet is something you offer as a free resource to people who join your email list (sort of like a “bribe” for signing up). For example, as you might have seen when you subscribed to this list, my current lead magnet is the first 3 chapters of my e-book: “Just Get Started: Key business lessons from 2 businesses, 5 years and 100+ podcast episodes”.

Part of me thinks that lead magnet is good but not great, and another part of me wants to test a different lead magnet to see if it does a better job of attracting subscribers. So what’s when I went to the third action:

Third use case: content creation

With the above in mind, I thought about what some of the core problems or themes that have come up over the years from the podcast and this substack. For solopreneurs specifically, and from my personal experience, one of them is overcoming loneliness.

Because let’s face it, if you’re a solopreneur (or even the founder/CEO of a small company), and especially if you work from home, it can be a lonely job even when things are going well.

Action item: do some thinking and research on the core problems your audience is having and have a lead magnet that targets it directly.

I then asked Gemini:

i think i need to create a new lead magnet, maybe something like 3 ways to overcome loneliness as a solopreneur?

Notice how I use a mix of prompts ranging from very broad (when I’m looking for info/feedback), to very specific (once I’ve narrowed things down and want a very specific output).

I was still a little unsure, so I also asked:

do you think this offers enough of a benefit? or should i focus more on something like making more money/revenue?

Again, it provided really helpful feedback given the entire context of the conversation.

I then shifted to drafting, because who the heck has the time to write anymore (just kidding, as most of you know by now that I write all of these posts myself):

i agree! Do you have any ideas for what the 3 items could be? my first few ideas are 1) try to avoid working from home every day, 2) join a mastermind, and 3) attend networking events. what do you think of those?

Again, great feedback, to which I asked:

wow, these sound great, could you help me come up with a first draft of this, that leaves room for me to add in personal stories too? and could i provide you with previous language of my own so you can use more of my own wording?

I then proceeded to copy/paste a previous substack post of mine, and went back and forth giving it feedback after the first draft until I liked it.

And suffice to say, the end result is pretty good!

Conclusion and final thoughts

I left a lot of the entire conversation out because this is already a longer post than usual, but overall:

• I found Gemini to be really good. Hard to say after just one night whether it’s better than ChatGPT, Claude, etc., but I’m not exactly using it for rocket science so as long as it’s working well and getting me the outputs I need, I’m not going to waste hours comparing. I’d rather spend it working on my businesses.

• I only used the standalone tool, but I’ll start using it more within the Google Workspace tools as well and report back.

• It’s crazy how much AI can help with high level strategy, analysis and basic content creation. I don’t use it for specific legal work yet, but for basic and/or marketing related content, it’s magic.

Anyway, longer post than normal, but hopefully you find my more practical posts like this helpful? Let me know in the comments or with an email reply so I know if I should keep doing them.

Oh and if you want to see the new lead magnet, which after discussing with Gemini, I decided to call “The Solopreneur's Survival Guide: 3 Ways to Overcome Loneliness When Working Alone”, hit “reply” and I’ll send it your way!

Have a great day,

- Josh Schachnow

Canadian lawyer, CEO at Visto.ai