Hey beautiful human,
"Where are your courses?"
Someone asked me that on Friday, after I posted the best news of my week.
Remember the assessment I told you about last week? 18 minutes. 3 people watching. One of them from OpenAI. 😳💦
I'm officially an OpenAI Academy Certified Facilitator!
I'm hoping it goes a long way toward proving that someone with a decades-long HR career can actually use AI well and teach other people to do the same.
Under my post, one person asked, "How much do you charge?"
Another asked, "Where are your courses?"
I was stunned.
Which is unusual for me. My brain usually speeds ahead. I spent years masking madly, and being a people pleaser means I've made it my mission to have the answer for everything... sometimes before people even finish asking.
Then I frantically searched my memory for anything I've made that could be a course.
I spent the last year building random little apps and tools and different things... and I honest to God don't have set courses anywhere someone could buy. Everything I do is pretty much live.
That's not going to help me in the long run.
The closest thing I've got is a live AI Confidential: Confidence NOW session I uploaded to YouTube and split into 9 mini-sessions. I hesitate to give it to anyone. It's literally a year old, and I cringe. I hope I've gotten better at this.
Now, on top of finishing my rebrand, I need to figure out some actual courses, physical or digital, that I can put out there and hopefully sell.
Meanwhile, Denver.
FPPIRL was freaking amazing.
I'm horrible with names, so before the conference I posted a public service announcement in the FPPIRL Slack channel instituting NAME AMNESTY for Denver.
Here's part of what I posted:
My brain is very good at remembering your face, our conversation, how I felt around you, and some random thing you told me 11 months ago. Your name? <system error>
So if you come running up to me like "DEB!!!" and I enthusiastically respond with "HEY LADY!!"... I probably know exactly who you are. I just cannot locate the noun.
See y'all in Denver. Please supply the noun.
The WHOLE TIME at the conference, everyone who came up to me said, "Hi Deb, I'm ___" and gave me their name. Every single one.
It made the event much less anxiety-driven.
I reconnected with folx I met last year and finally met people I'd only ever seen in Zoom windows. One woman had joined the Fractional People People community literally the week before and came to FPPIRL after only one week in.
Colleen from The Story Shoppe walked us through Ourtypes, her very cool take on archetypes, and I learned something about myself I hadn't really thought about. You can take the quiz yourself at ourtypes.net. Here's mine:
On Thursday, Emily Worden and I went live on LinkedIn to launch Fall Lab. Fun and wild and woolly.
Click for sound.
Then Smidge and I spent a couple of days with my buddy Nicole and her family. We drove up into the mountains to look at the fall leaves.
And we ate way too well. Nicole is a fantastic cook on top of being an organizational psychologist and an extraordinary woman, and every label I try to put on her comes up short.
Saturday we started the drive back.
When I was in England back in 1990, we went on a little road trip to pick my parents up at the airport when they came to visit (the only time my parents traveled abroad together in their nearly 60 years of marriage). My buddy Clive bought a tin of cat food at the gas station.
He doesn't have a cat. I asked.
Turns out he believes you need to make a pointless purchase whenever you go on any kind of road trip.
I've continued the tradition.
This trip's haul: a squishy mushroom (Nicole shared her NeeDohs with me, and now I'm on a mission to get my own) and a little capybara keychain (my great niece had a capybara-themed birthday party this past summer - she calls them crappy barbras).
To amuse myself on the ride, I made a little video of my pointless purchases.
Click to see the 25 second video I made while in the car…
Claude Code & CapCut FTW!
Did you know Kum & Go has been renamed Maverik? I didn't. The highway billboard said Kum & Go, but when we pulled off, all we saw was Maverik. You learn things when you travel and ask gas station attendants whether they've been renamed.
Name Amnesty worked because I asked for exactly what I needed.
I'm asking you, too.
If I built one course, what should it be? What would you actually buy from me?
Hit reply and tell me.
Weekly Ad
This week’s ad partner is The Rundown AI.
Many of you may already receive this newsletter as I used to recommend it when I first started writing Mostly Human. Then I met cool creators and started recommending their newsletters instead. I still get this one and I still think it’s pretty damn good.
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Radical Remembering
Here's what I keep forgetting: we're allowed to make someone uncomfortable when they hurt us.
How early we learned to quietly move ourselves.
Find another seat. Get away without causing a disruption. Keep whatever happened small enough that nobody else has to deal with it.
And if we do say something, we'd better watch our tone.
God forbid we embarrass someone who's just made us feel unsafe.
Most women I know carry something inside them from years of swallowing what they wanted to say.
“Be a good girl” has had us looking after other people's comfort while we feel sick in our own bodies.
Our discomfort counts, too.
We're allowed to say what happened at full volume.
Give yourself back the words you swallowed.
Last Week’s Shenanigans
Three this week. If you're new here, this is where I share the stuffs I encountered on the interwebs that touch, move, inspire, or simply make me snort-laugh.
Zoe the vet
I feel like this is the reaction I should have opening everything... even bills.
Gift from Sue
My buddy Sue sent this to me while I was in Denver, so I haven't been able to read it fully yet. But I am more than intrigued and intend to review it SOON. Putting it here in case anyone else finds it interesting!
Capture your things
Gah. Another link that isn't a video... But it is SO important that y'all start doing this for yourself. If you haven't already, separate your abilities and talents from the company you work with/for. Especially if you're concerned you might get laid off at some point. I know, this feels like one more thing you have to do... but future you will thank past you vociferously for carving out some time to do this (even if it's a folder somewhere on your C:\ drive).
Prompt O’ the Week
Learn The Thing You’ve Always Wondered About
Ever wanted to learn about something and had absolutely no idea where to start?
Paste this into your chatbot. It'll ask you a few questions, then build a learning plan for the time you actually have. Even 15 minutes.
Learning for fun counts. You don't have to put it on your résumé.
ROLE:
Be a curious, practical learning guide. Help me explore something I've always been curious about, even if I don't know enough yet to ask a good question.
OBJECTIVE:
Interview me, then build a small learning plan with a first session I can start right away.
Learning for fun counts. Nothing has to turn into a qualification, a career or a business.
CONTEXT:
Ask me ONE question at a time. Wait for my answer and let it shape your next question. Ask up to 5 questions total, including follow-ups. Ask fewer if you have enough. I can skip any of them.
Find out:
- What I'm curious about and what caught my attention.
- What I'd like to be able to understand, notice or do.
- What I already know. "Absolutely nothing" is a useful answer.
- How much time I have (even 15 minutes counts) and whether I want a one-time taste or a few sessions.
- What kinds of resources I'll actually use, and any limits on cost, language, device or accessibility.
Default to free resources and no new purchases unless I tell you otherwise.
If my topic is broad or I'm stuck, offer up to 3 concrete starting points and help me pick. If I say "I don't know," ask a smaller, easier question.
Don't flatter me, label my learning style or talk down to me. Explain new terms plainly.
Never invent links, titles, authors or prices. Choose sources with relevant expertise and avoid pages mainly selling something. If you can check links in this chat, open each one before recommending it, link to the specific page, and flag paywalls, sign-ups or equipment. If you can't check links, say so, give me exact search phrases, and also give me a first activity we can do right here so searching doesn't use up my learning time. Tell me when you're guessing.
For health, law, money or physical safety topics, keep it educational and tell me where the limits are.
OUTPUT:
After the interview, state the direction in one sentence and build the plan. If something is still uncertain, name your assumption.
MY STARTING POINT: the specific part of the topic, in my own words.
MY FIRST SESSION, sized to my time (searching and setup included):
- One thing to explore.
- One resource, with a direct link only if you checked it, and why you picked it for me.
- Exactly what to read, watch, listen to or try, and where to stop.
- One small thing to notice or try afterward.
- Use what I already have. Flag anything else required before the activity.
WHAT COMES NEXT: if I want more than a taste, up to 3 more sessions in the same format. Otherwise stop.
No quizzes, streaks or homework unless I ask.
End with this sentence for me to use later:
"I tried the first session. Here's what interested me, what lost me and what I want to know next. Adjust the plan."
If I come back with it, adjust the next session. Don't restart the interview.
Start by asking:
"What's something you've always been curious about, even if you have no idea where to start?"Apply it this week
Pick the thing you keep thinking “I'd love to know more about that” and try the first session.
Want to go deeper?
After you’ve tried it, ask:
What's one thing beginners often misunderstand about this topic? Show me an example and help me understand why.
The Scoop, The Skinny, The Lowdown
Three quick hits, every week. The Scoop: one AI word, decoded. The Skinny: one move you can steal today. The Lowdown: one tool, one honest verdict, from my own use. A word, a move, a verdict. In and out.
THE SCOOP
Model
ChatGPT is the app you open. The model is the AI doing the work inside it.
Think car and engine. Different models can power the same app. If you see a model picker, you can leave it on the default while you get your bearings.
For everyday things like drafting an email or explaining a document, the default model is usually a good place to start. More demanding work may benefit from a model that spends longer thinking. Depending on the app and your plan, that can mean waiting longer or reaching your usage limit sooner. You don't need the biggest engine for every trip.
THE SKINNY
You can ask what it meant
The answer arrives. You understand about half of it.
Type this in the same chat: “You lost me at the second paragraph. What does that mean in plain English?”
You can keep asking. It isn't waiting for you to nod politely so it can get to its next meeting.
THE LOWDOWN
This week: ChatGPT
Y'all have heard me call it ChattyG. It's the first AI tool I ever used, and like any first that changes your life and trajectory, it'll always have a special place.
Think Kleenex. They're tissues, but everyone I know in the US calls them by the brand name. A lot of people use “ChatGPT” the same way when they mean AI.
What I like is how much it does. I use it for writing, coding and images. The recent changes to the interface make me feel like OpenAI wants me to enjoy using it. I don't get that same feeling from Claude or Gemini.
Cost: there's a free plan, with limits on some features. Paid plans are optional.
The catch? OpenAI owns the product. It can change the features and terms, just like the companies behind the other tools.
Verdict: ChattyG has a special place. But even though I'm now certified to train others in ChatGPT, my goal is to prompt effectively in whatever AI tool is open in front of me.
I'm Human First. Always and forever. Learn the basics so you can use whichever tool works for you and your budget.
What’s Coming Up
Em & Deb Shoot the Sh!t (LIVE on LinkedIn)
Thursday, October 8 | 11AM CT/12PM ET
Free. No slides. Bring coffee and the job-search to-do list that somehow gets longer every time you open LinkedIn.
Resume. Networking. Applications. Interview prep. AI. Follow-ups. Apparently you're supposed to do all of them before lunch.
Emily and Deb are helping you figure out what deserves your attention right now. We'll take your questions, share a few opinions about the advice you've been getting, and answer the real questions you've sent us about Fall Lab. It starts Tuesday, October 13, and early bird pricing ends Friday, October 9. So this is a good time to ask.
Watch, lurk, or tell us which task has been haunting your to-do list.
Prompt Along: AI Improv
Tuesday, October 20 | 6:30-7:30PM CT
Free, on Zoom
Last month we built a disco toilet finder. It had a toilet paper alert, seat-up shaming and a sad trombone. Then Beth Anne requested a sprinkle detector.
She’s obviously lived with men.
That's Prompt Along, my live AI improv hour. You bring a question or a task you've been avoiding, and we work through it together on my screen. Keep your own chatbot open and prompt along... or lurk and watch what happens.
Cameras optional. PJs welcome. Nobody gets to call themselves stupid.
It's really hard to do that while you're writing requirements for a sprinkle detector.
That’s it for this week.
Before I go... another little thing I built.
This one's about how you approach learning AI. Answer 7 questions and get a result, plus 3 ROCO prompts you can copy into whichever chatbot you use.
Try one. You get to disagree with the quiz, too. I built it. It doesn't get the final say on who you are.
Take the AI learner quiz: https://jpc-ai-learner-quiz.lovable.app
And if an idea for a course comes to you while you're playing, I'm still listening.
💜
Take care of yourself, take care of each other,
Deb