(Looking for AI News You can use? Scroll to the bottom for 5 recent headlines)
Guest: Sierra Langford, VP of Core Product Innovation at BioPulse
Episode Overview
In this episode of Prompt & Practical, we shift the focus from individual contributors to a different kind of AI user: managers. AI clearly helps people get tasks done faster—but how does it help leaders coach more effectively, scale their thinking, and build leverage across a team?
Ryan speaks with Sierra Langford, Vice President at BioPulse, a health and wellness tech company pioneering wearable performance technology. Sierra shares how she uses GPTs not just to automate tasks, but to extend how she thinks, writes, and leads.
Key Takeaways
1. Scale Your Thinking, Not Just Tasks
Sierra has built around 100 GPTs, though only a few dozen are used regularly. Her focus is on building tools that reflect how she evaluates work, writes content, and coaches her team—enabling her team to act more independently while staying aligned.
2. Training GPTs to Mirror Your Judgment
Sierra creates training documents using side-by-side examples of her feedback on slide decks, memos, and strategy docs. She then prompts GPT with:
"Left = bad. Right = good. Based ONLY on these examples, what differences do you notice?"
Follow-up prompts like "Be 100x more specific" or "What specific criteria are being applied in these edits?" help refine the model’s understanding. Once GPT articulates clear criteria, she uses them to create more effective, customized tools.
3. Building Purposeful Custom GPTs
One of Sierra’s most used tools is The Deck Doctor. It scores slides based on headline clarity, message strength, and visual hierarchy. A typical setup prompt might read:
"You are a ruthlessly helpful slide deck evaluator. For each slide in a PDF, rate it 1 to 5 on headline clarity, visual alignment, and message strength. Explain each score and provide one way to improve the slide."
This gives team members clear, actionable feedback—no advanced prompting required.
4. Coaching with AI
Sierra creates custom GPTs that help team members prep for executive meetings. For example:
"Given this PDF slide deck, generate three questions a CFO, COO, and Head of Product might ask. Then suggest how the presenter could prepare for each."
5. Using GPT for Better Writing
Sierra uses GPT to check her own clarity and improve drafts. Her go-to prompts include:
"Can you succinctly restate my main thesis and supporting points?"
"What would make this more compelling to a skeptical executive audience?"
"Rewrite this for clarity, keeping my tone and intent."
She doesn’t always use the output directly, but the feedback improves her own revisions.
Lightning Round
What’s the biggest blind spot in AI adoption?
High-performing women are being left behind. Adoption rates among women lag, despite how impactful these tools can be for strategic communication and creative thinking.
Most underrated use of GPT?
Using voice mode during book club to ask questions about characters or author intent. It makes reading more engaging and insightful.
What do you do when GPT goes off track?
Sierra switches to Claude. As she puts it, “Claude, you won’t believe what ChatGPT just told me.”
Closing Thoughts from Ryan
Sierra shared practical strategies for using AI to scale leadership, improve team communication, and enhance clarity. Her approach is a great example of how managers can use AI to be more proactive and less reactive.
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🗞️ AI News You Can Use!
1. LinkedIn cofounder: AI will reshape jobs, not destroy them
Reid Hoffman pushed back on fears of mass job loss from AI, suggesting job roles will evolve rather than vanish. B2B leaders should focus on designing roles where human creativity and strategy complement AI, rather than compete with it.
2. Salesforce CMO: AI agents are transforming marketing
At Cannes, Salesforce’s Ariel Kelman highlighted how AI agents can automate repetitive marketing tasks and enable highly personalized experiences. Now’s the time to assess your tech stack for AI agent integrations in campaign orchestration, email flow, and dynamic content.
3. Cloudflare CEO warns publishers of AI threat
Cloudflare’s Matthew Prince warned that AI-driven search summaries are slashing publishers' web traffic and he’s building tools to fight content scraping. If your content marketing strategy relies on third-party platforms, you may need to adapt with richer content formats, direct engagement, or proprietary experiences.
4. C.H. Robinson launches AI freight‑classification agent
Logistics provider C.H. Robinson rolled out an AI agent that automates LTL freight classification, speeding up classification from 10 minutes to just 3 seconds—handling 75% of orders. If you're in B2B logistics or supply chain, adopting similar AI agents is no longer optional—it’s table stakes.
5. Sam Altman: “Superintelligence Era Has Begun”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that humanity is entering the “superintelligence era,” signaling systems surpassing human cognitive capabilities. This shift indicates future B2B tools must move beyond automation toward true augmentation and insight generation.Thanks for reading AI For B2B Marketers! This post is public so feel free to share it with the smartest leader you know.
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