THE MONTH IN REVIEW

September 2026

All 4 lessons from this month, in one place.

Every lesson is a prompt you can copy and use today. No account, nothing to install.

Make it interview you first

Most bad answers come from a good question asked too early. This is the single highest-value habit there is.

Paste this:

Before you answer, ask me five questions that would help you give me a better answer.

It will ask who this is for, what you have already tried, and what “done” looks like. Then the answer is about your business instead of a business in general.

Before you paste: This is sent to a company’s servers. Take other people’s details out first: names, account numbers, ID numbers, medical details, pay figures.

Stop typing. Talk instead.

The thinking was never the hard part. The typing at 9pm is.

Paste this:

Turn this voice note into a message I can send. Under 150 words. Plain words, no corporate filler. Only use facts I actually said — if something is missing, ask me instead of filling it in.

Open the app on your phone, press the microphone, talk for two minutes like a voicemail. Then read it before you send it — it will get details wrong, and it is your name on the message.

Before you paste: A voice note names people without you thinking about it. Listen back and take other people’s details out before you paste it.

Tell it who the answer is for

AI writes for an average person until you tell it your customer is not average. Nine out of ten weak answers are fixed by this one sentence.

Paste this:

Write this for a homeowner who has been quoted by three contractors already and cannot tell them apart. Short sentences. No jargon.

Same tool, same ten seconds of typing, completely different answer. You already know exactly who your customer is — you just have not been saying it out loud.

Before you paste: Describe your reader by what they need and what they already know. Do not aim your writing at people because of their age, their health, or because something bad happened to them before.

Understand it before you answer it

A supplier email three screens long. An invoice with eleven line items and no explanation. You skim it, because reading it properly costs an hour you do not have today.

Paste this:

Read this. In plain English: what is this actually saying, what numbers should I double-check, and what should I ask the sender about? Write it for someone with no background in this.

It is a reading aid, not an advisor. What it does is hand you the three questions worth asking, so you call the sender already knowing what to ask instead of guessing. Anything legal, financial or medical goes to a professional — not to an app, and not to me.

Before you paste: Before you paste: take out the other company’s account numbers and any personal details of third parties.